Relieve Exam Anxiety & Cultivate A Positive Mindset

This audio is intended for anyone who has a forthcoming test or exam. Listen daily up until your exam to cultivate a positive mindset. Benefits may include better sleep, improved memory and motivation, increased concentration & confidence. This track includes positive suggestions and mental imagery along with a technique to assist with the memory of learnt material.

Transcript

Just make yourself comfortable.

Close your eyes now and settle into a comfortable position.

Just take a deep breath in,

Hold it for a moment,

Before breathing out slowly and just allowing your whole body to relax as you do so.

And I would like you to keep your eyes closed now and just keep listening to the sound of my voice.

Focus your attention on your breathing.

Notice the rising and falling of your chest as you breathe deeply and rhythmically and know that with each breath out you are letting go of tension and with each breath in you are soothing your nerves,

Calming your mind and increasing your focus.

Focus your attention on the air as you breathe in,

Perhaps noticing the warmth or the coolness of the air as it flows over the back of your throat and down into the lungs.

With each breath in you relax more,

With each breath out you let go of tension.

Just give yourself permission now to relax more and more deeply as you go on listening to the sound of my voice.

Think about relaxing every muscle in your body from the top of your head to the tips of your toes.

Just begin to relax and begin to notice how very comfortable your body is beginning to feel.

Move your attention now to your body and you can begin to notice the feelings and sensations in your body as you lie there.

Perhaps noticing the sensations in your hands or in your feet or noticing the feelings of your shoulders as they touch the surface beneath you.

And you can become aware of any other parts of your body that are more relaxed than others.

Perhaps your right leg is more relaxed than your left leg or your left leg is more relaxed than your right leg or perhaps they're both the same and that's okay.

All that really matters is that you are noticing how your body feels.

Now turn your attention to the soles of your feet by scrunching them and letting go.

Notice the feelings in your feet and know that from this moment on all tension is beginning to drain down away from you,

Draining down into the surface below.

Tension you don't need or want and the muscles in your toes and feet beginning to soften and loosen,

Just relaxing and letting go.

And slowly moving upwards now to your calves and knees.

A gentle warmth beginning to soften and to loosen the muscles of your calves and knees and tension just draining away letting go.

Relaxation spreading upwards now to the larger muscles of the thighs.

A gentle warmth beginning to soften and loosen the muscles of your thighs and tension just draining away,

Just letting go.

And allow that comfort to spread upwards into the pelvis and lower back.

A gentle warmth moving into the lower back at the base of the spine and gently moving upwards,

The warmth spreading upwards through the back into the front of the body.

Relaxation spreading into the muscles of the stomach and all the muscles just beginning to soften and loosen as those muscles let go of tension,

Tension just draining away,

Just letting go.

The relaxation continuing to spread upwards at its own pace up through the chest,

Up through into the back,

Across the shoulder blades and then to the shoulders.

A gentle warmth softening and loosening the muscles of the shoulders and tension just draining down,

Draining away,

Just letting go.

And that relaxation spreading into the shoulders now and down your arms to your elbows,

Into your forearms,

Your wrists,

Your hands and fingers and perhaps noticing a comfortable heaviness or lightness as you sink down into further comfort and become more and more relaxed.

Just allow that comfort now to continue flowing upwards into your neck and throat,

A gentle warmth moving through the neck and the relaxation sinking deeply into this area and moving and flowing upwards,

Upwards into the back of the head,

Over the top of the head and through the hair,

Every tiny hair follicle just soaking up the deep comfort that's spreading through the scalp,

Easing away any tension in the head.

And that comfort and relaxation it moves into the forehead and it spreads down across the face,

Into your eyes,

Your cheeks,

Your mouth,

Your jaw,

Just parting the teeth slightly if you haven't already,

Just letting go of any tension that resides in the face,

The mouth,

The jaw,

Tension draining down,

Draining away,

Just letting go.

And there is nothing that the face needs to communicate right now,

All the muscles of the face can rest and relax,

Just rest and relax.

Imagine a mask slipping down off your face,

All the expressions you've been wearing dropping away,

Just letting go of any frowns,

Any smiles,

All the muscles just behind the face are relaxing and the muscles behind the muscles of the face are relaxing,

Just letting go.

And it's very positive and comforting to know that you can just leave your body resting from the top of your head to the tips of your toes and as you leave your body resting you are going deeper and deeper into relaxation and it doesn't matter whether you're resting deeply or lightly because either way you are benefiting.

So many things are happening automatically without even thinking about it your body and mind automatically just letting go,

Letting go of all the tension,

Tension melting away,

Draining away,

Just letting go.

In a moment or two I'm going to ask you to use your imagination in a positive way which will benefit you greatly.

These visualisations will begin to exercise the greater influence over the way you think,

Over the way you feel and over the way you behave and because of this they will become more and more a part of your inner realities.

As you begin to feel more confident and more in control when faced with an exam.

Think of your mind as a library,

An extensive library where there are lots of papers,

Files and books that are familiar to you.

The walls are lined with bookshelves and you know that what you have been focusing on lately is here in this room.

The library has within it everything you have learnt,

Everything you have revised and is accessible to you at any time.

So just take a moment now to recognise some of the materials you've been reading lately by taking them off the shelf.

Leaf through them and see how familiar you are with the contents.

Perhaps you see writing,

Diagrams or colours,

Maybe mind maps that assist you in remembering the material.

The mind certainly likes visual reminders and you are getting better and better at annotating your notes in creative ways.

Know that every time you revisit this information between now and the day of your test you are increasing your chances of success and you will succeed because everything you need is right here in the library of your mind.

And on the day of your test you will wake and you will experience a feeling that in the past you may have attributed to nerves but now you are aware that the feeling of excitement is the same.

In fact you are now aware that if you had no anxiety at all life would be boring,

There would be no challenge.

Perhaps you can remember when you learned to ride a bike it was exciting but it was also fearful.

You overcame that fear because the excitement was greater and you can do the same here now.

What you once interpreted as fear,

You can interpret as excitement because you are excited to finally take this exam.

All your hard work and consistency is soon going to be rewarded and you are so very close now to your goal.

Every day you are one step closer,

Every day your fear is lessening.

In fact you realise you are beginning to look forward to taking the exam.

You can see it now as an opportunity to grow in confidence,

Excel and to demonstrate to yourself and others your ability.

You may recall a time in the past when you were nervous prior to a test and you can recall those bodily sensations.

Perhaps a tightness in the throat,

Butterflies in the stomach or another unpleasant feeling.

You are learning that these feelings are a natural reaction to both excitement and fear.

You have the power to choose how you wish to interpret them.

They are harmless and they will dissipate when you pay attention to your breathing.

From now on you take three deep breaths to soothe and calm you.

I'd like you now to practice this.

Take a deep breath in counting in your mind from one to five then holding the breath for two before breathing out slowly for a count of seven.

Repeat this a few times.

Breathing in for five,

Holding for two before breathing out for seven.

Adapt it if you need to making sure that you are breathing out longer than you breathe in and begin to experience an increasing sense of calmness as you do so.

This calmness and relaxation will stay with you long after this audio has finished and you will discover many benefits.

Your mind is clearer,

Your memory and motivation improves and you are getting more done.

Now imagine yourself before the exam.

You have revised,

You are prepared and you are now ready to take the test.

See yourself in your mind's eye calm and relaxed.

See yourself take three deep breaths.

Three deep breaths soothe your body and mind and sends a wave of additional calm and confidence through you.

You can succeed and you will succeed.

Throughout the test you remain perfectly relaxed and calm as you find that all information you require flows smoothly into your awareness and there may be times when you feel nervous because the retrieval of information is slower than you would like.

All you have to do is picture the library and begin to search for the required information.

What you have learnt is in there.

Be patient,

Stay calm and take three deep breaths that signal to your mind that you are safe and it's okay to keep calm.

Just like bubbles in lemonade,

The bubbles will rise to the surface when they are ready.

The information you require will surface into your awareness by being patient,

Calm and breathing deeply.

Now fast forward to the end of your test.

In your mind see yourself smiling,

Relieved,

Looking forward to the reward you have promised yourself.

You will experience feelings of achievement,

Accomplishment and pride for applying yourself so well and for cultivating a positive mindset.

You have invested time in learning how to control your emotions,

Calm your mind and achieve your goal.

You have a winners mindset of which you can be proud.

So just be aware of the calmness and relaxation which you feel right now as you relax there and listen to me.

You can take this calmness and relaxation with you into your daily life.

Anytime you want to feel more relaxed just take three deep breaths.

Breathing in deeply for the count of five,

Holding for two and then breathing out slowly for the count of seven.

This will be a signal to your mind and body to instigate the relaxation response,

The one that keeps you calm and in control.

So just continue to relax and enjoy the benefits that these positive suggestions and positive mental imagery have made upon your mind never to be removed.

And when you feel ready just open your eyes and come back to your surroundings feeling relaxed and calm.

Reviews

Feeling centered for my Chem and bio exam today. Thank you

Amazing , I believe it will help me with my skills exam tomorrow x