Children should do this to cope up with Stress during Exams!
Stress is pretty common during exams. There can be many reasons for it
- Subject is unprepared for
- Subject is not of liking
- Lack of clarity where to begin
- shortage of time & too much syllabus
- mind too much occupied in other stuff like TV, video games, gossips about others
- overthinking about answers during exams and after the exam
Taking care of our mind is very important, and children should learn this from an early age, as they will be exposed to many things as they grow and experience new life phases. No only in exams, but regularly as well.
Also, we tend to burden our mind on our own. It can be over thinking, negative thinking or indulging in mind consuming activities which further makes it tired than fresh. We need to be aware what factors are leading to our stress and what should be our approach to eliminate that stress. Stress does not do anything other than damaging our mental and physical health.
Things we should tell children from an early age to cope up with exams related to stress. These are part of soft skills itself which maintains our inner harmony and increases our confidence –
Show Self Love and Care – Self love is very important. Especially in budding age, where children compare, get into complexes very easily, doubt their capabilities and are not confident about their exams. Self love means they accept themselves the way they are, don’t trash talk to themselves, focus on their strengths, study for self development and knowledge rather than for marks. And care is being particular with time, maintaining a healthy mind and body and doing whatever needed to take care of both. Children should be motivated to just close their eyes, meditate or stand in front of a mirror and talk positively to themselves. It will not only eliminate any stress, but also motivate them to put in genuine efforts and increase their confidence also
To be cautious about what they are feeding to their mind – We come across many things in our day to day life. Most of them are merely noise or distractions. Also, a lot of content from TV, internet, gossip etc add a lot to our mind’s wasted energy. During exams, we have to stay away from them as much as we can and preserve our energy for fruitful things i.e studies!
Optimizing break times – Breaks are important. But what’s more important is what we do in those breaks. If we indulge in things which further consume our active mind, then break is of no use. On the contrary, instead of revitalizing the brain, it is making it more tiresome. Some basic things which children can do during breaks is
1) watering plants (green color is also very soothing to eyes, and showing compassion to plants make our mind relaxed and heart happy)
2) Meditate and take a nap – Controlling the quantity and quality of thoughts is important. Meditation help us to get rid of unwanted thoughts and nap gives that due rest from thinking, to get recharged again
3) Feeding a dog or animal – Showing compassion to any animal also helps a lot. We can feed a dog, cat or a bird, or just give them love
4) Helping mom with chores – When we spend time with parents, it refreshes us. And helping mom in chores makes them happy and us happy. But chores should not be tiring
5) Having a walk with oneself – We should avoid too much company during breaks. When we are with other people, we talk, lose focus and dissipate our energy. When we are with ourselves, we stay quiet, feel refreshed and get focused more
6) Listen to calm relaxing music – Calm relaxing music. Not the loud songs. Loud songs will eat up our mind
Laughter/sweet smile therapy – Laughter not by watching any TV comedy show, but jokes that come to mind or just remembering funny incidents that make us laugh.
Stretching a bit – Stretching is a very good stress buster. Light stretching relaxes the muscles and makes our mind also get relaxed a bit. Not to do too much stretching, but light for 5-10 minutes
Lastly, doing what needs to be done! – Above pointers are of no use if we don’t start our study schedule and prepare for the upcoming exam. So, we need to sit down and start the real action which will make us confident and reduce our true reason of stress. Managing our burdensome thoughts, like exams, is difficult, we haven’t prepared for that well before, time is less, etc. It can only be done if we just sit, devote time, focus and study well! The point to take note of is that we should not be studying for exams or marks but putting our genuine effort in learning the thing for our own self development. We should not just push ourselves with a tenuous goal of scoring the most. We all have our intellect levels. So, just to be our best self and put in our genuine effort
Stress should be avoided. Anything that puts a burden on our minds which is deteriorating for us should be addressed. And we can help children address those from an early age, so that they become very efficient stress managers down the line!
Bloom – Soft Skills for Children
