The Key to Success

Begin every class, every study session and every test by psyching yourself Down! Before the instructor begins to lecture in your class, get your paper and pens out, ready to take notes. Then take a couple of minutes to relax. Do that before every class. Also, do the same thing each time you sit down to study — get your books and paper out, sit back, and practice relaxing for 2 to 5 minutes. Briefly tense your entire body by tensing and holding your muscles. Raise your toes and hold while tensing your legs, your buttocks, and clenching your fists. Take a deep breath and hold it while clenching your teeth and closing your eyes tight. Hold them all tense for a few seconds. Then, let go all at once and enjoy that letting go feeling. When you first do this, you’ll notice that the old habits take over just as soon as the instructor begins lecturing—you grip your pen a little more tightly than necessary, shoulders tense up a little, etc. Practice seeing how long you can make the more relaxed state last. A few seconds at first is typical. Over days you will begin to make it last a minute, then several minutes. With your eyes closed, shift your attention to the tip of your nose. As you breathe in become aware of the air coming into your nostrils. As you breathe out, be aware of the sensations of the air passing back out. Notice that the air coming in tends to be cooler, and the air breathed out is warmer. Cool air in, warm air out. Focusing on a physiological process (air in and out) can help calm our mental activity—it helps you let go of thoughts that stress you. While seated, raise your shoulders up, roll them back, and then down. Repeat this series of movements. Roll your shoulders this way three or four times. Then, slowly twist in your seat. Look over your right shoulder and twist your body so you feel some stretch in the lower back. Do your twisting as you exhale. Breathe in. Then twist to your left and feel the good stretch in your lower back as you exhale. We tend to get tense in our upper and lower back when we sit for a long time, usually bent over a desk. Rolling shoulders and twisting relieve that extra tension. The quickest way to learn any new skill is to practice it over and over. And learning to be more relaxed while studying and taking tests is learning a new skill. So get in the habit of beginning anything academic by psyching yourself down. Take a deep breath. As you slowly let it out, let your jaw and shoulders relax, and relax the grip on your pen. Also getting stressed during tests frequently results from not having learned material well enough to recall it rapidly under the stress of tests. That is, when you review for a test, you understand everything. Yet you still do poorly on the test. You need to learn the material well enough to recall it rapidly under the stress of the test. And just understanding it isn’t enough.

Please Note: When you sit for long periods of time, gravity tends to draw your blood into the lower parts of your body so less oxygen is fed to your brain. To get the blood carrying more oxygen to your brain, get up and walk around for 30 seconds or so. The calves of your legs act as pumps and get the blood flowing again. While walking, roll your shoulders and stretch other parts of your body.

Don't I Need to Get Myself Psyched Up to Do Well?
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