Wassup man? Woah, you look horrible! Did you get no sleep last night? Sh*t, you’re looking terrible! Your hair’s kinda messed up did you know?
Yeh, yeh, you ever heard those? Maybe not in so many words, but directly or indirectly, they all mean…”heck you look terrible, you’re way over stressed”
Stress used to feature in my dictionary, some time ago, until the Doctors told me that if I put on too much stress, my skin allergy will emerge…and I don’t want that happening again, too much pain, especially now that my HSC is coming up!
So, basically, I don’t care anymore…which is bad…
So, what should we do? Because if put on too much stress, there goes our social life, we can become irritable, loose weight, get white hair quicker(hell no!), become easy targets for health problems and other dangerous diseases and so on.
If we care too little, our desired goals may remain desired…we can become totally useless, in other words, slackers…and maybe dole bludgers! And man, being a dole bludger really sucks, I mean people say it’s easy money, but wouldn’t you feel so totally useless?!
Is there a cure?
Not in the medical terms, well unless you count pills…(sleeping pills I mean…=P, no, don’t get mistaken, this is NOT a cure!), but you can follow some nice steps to handle stress. Mind you, they’re worth a try even if you don’t believe in them.
By the way, I haven’t exactly followed this, this is a lot of the advice everyone keeps hammering into my head…=)
Motion= Emotion
The way you move, your body will determine the way you feel
The Four Areas of Balance
There are four areas that are necessary to be balanced, muck up one and there goes all your careful planning and management!
They are
Study and School or Work, Social Life, Extra Curricular, Exercise
Now, I’d be lying if I told you guys that I follow the whole balancing thing, but no one can disagree that to have these things balanced is NOT a terrible mistake. Confused? Yeh, so am I!=P
I mean, school work is fine, devote time to it, but if it’s at the cost of other areas, then that’s quite poor because as it has been said, “A student who is educated only at school remains Uneducated”
For if, you don’t get out into the real world, what use is there? You will feel lost when you finally enter it and you may not even know how to handle certain situations because books can only teach so much.
If your life is balanced, your mind is balanced!
But yeh, DO remember that
Change your balance as the need arises
Day before and Day of the exam…
What do you do?! Where do you go?! What if you hid far far away!? Would they ever find you?! What if…what if…oh no, It’s TIME!
The Exam Devil gets a lot of us, more than we’d actually like to admit.
Many people have interesting good luck tokens to help them either relieve stress or become calm…
My friend Neeru always has to go to her “good luck toilet”(dun ask me), Katie has her good luck sox, Jane has her Relieve Stress Photo(of Einstein…as in, an Asian Popstar and NOT Albert Einstein, lol) and Anjana prays…=)
But here are seven cures which usually work for everyone!
*Seven Cures of Exam Stress
Light Revision*
Yeh, apparently this helps, but since I am never prepared and make my notes on the morning(For my yearlies, I woke up at 1 am and actually made my notes till 6 am, then looked over them 7-8am and then sat the exam), but I dream of doing light revision before exam!
See, if you do light revision, you manage to ease off the pressure; you manage to keep your wits within you, you would feel extremely confident. Besides, because you’re already enough nervous about the exam next day, nothing else besides for light revision is gonna go through your head!
Good Sleep
This is so you don’t fall asleep during the examination! Lol, don’t laugh, it’s actually happened! Shahreen fell asleep during our Legal Studies paper!
But getting a good night’s sleep also helps you in your concentration during the examination, you also are less tired and thus, would feel fresh and confident on the day. It’s nice to start getting a good night’s sleep at least three days before, mind you, if you get too much you’ll also feel tired, so try no more than 8 hours!
Light Breakfast
I’m not sure of the medical reason, but if you eat a light breakfast on the day of your examination, you’ll feel a LOT better. I’ll just tell you what I experience since I do not know the ‘expertise medical theory’. Like for example, when I eat Mum’s Parathas before the exam=P, first of all, I can’t finish it proper due to my nerves being on edge and so, trying to eat heavy food makes you wanna gag, so you wouldn’t be able to eat much anyways. Moreover, they make you drowsy. A Light Breakfast like Juice and Cereal is ideal because you’re able to swallow it and so, have something in your stomach for the exam. Oranges work best!
No Caffeine
Or any other caffeine. This rules out chocolate=(, Coke=( and any other forms of junk. They may make you feel awake for some time, but then, gradually you will start to slow down, feel drowsy and nothing’s worse than losing your speed in the middle or right at the end!
Avoid Negatve Session
Stop, before the exam, talking about how you’ll fail the exam, and how your parents will roast/skin you alive(courtesy Shahreen=P). And either stay away from others exuding negative energy, or tell them to stop. Thinking negative thoughts aint gonna help at all! It’ll instead make you even more self conscious and nervous about sitting the exam. I mean, thinking negatively isn’t going to give you the solutions, so it’s better to think positive and so, at least you’ll be confident in attempting the paper and sometimes confidence can win you!
Water
This is something which I advise as the NUMERO UNO! You should always drink excess water when studying, before exam and during exam. Why? Your brain needs Oxygen doofus! Trust me, if you’re feeling stressed, gulp down lots water without taking a breath and trust me, you’ll feel a LOT better. During the exam it’s nice to keep on refreshing yourself, give yourself more oxygen, which can clear your thoughts and make you less nervous!
Breathe
Lol, the simplest aiye? Just take in a few deep breaths before beginning the exam, and also when you just can’t get a solution, just breath deeply…you’ll get more oxygen and can think clearly!
Just Remember
It’s just an exam…it’s just life, if you choose to stress over it, you won’t have much opportunity to enjoy it, and we only get one shot at life, so, why not make it count? Let’s enjoy what we do, and learnt to accept things and not stress too much over areas that we cannot control!
Relax!
Ciao
Ena!
