What's your body doing?

Let’s start out with this rule of thumb: 

When you are thinking of of an upcoming test (or anything else in the future), remember to breathe.

Here’s a very common experience for test-takers:  “My test is next Tuesday (or tomorrow). YIKES!” Your heart rate goes up, your blood starts rushing, your stomach wrenches. You know the routine.

I don’t know about you, but often, when I’m thinking about something that I have coming up later today or tomorrow or next week (and it doesn’t have to be as stressful as a test), I find myself getting a little amped up. What do I mean by “amped up”? 

When I check in with my body while I’m thinking about what I have to do, I do notice that maybe my heart has speeded up, maybe a little sweat is breaking on my upper lip or my legs feel a little twitchy. What’s going on here? I think of it as launching myself into the future. As if I were a cannonball on my way to whatever the future event is, I’m speeding through the air, only to explode on the other end.

“Amped up” or “worked up” – whatever you call it –  it’s not a comfortable feeling. Some people think it’s energy that’s preparing you for the event. Yes, that’s true– to a point. But chances are you are simply getting a bit anxious—thinking about something that hasn’t happened yet and imagining all the possible scenarios and outcomes (how come most of those tend to be not-so-positive).  While we can’t control what thoughts come to us—try not thinking about the test you have to take next week—we can, while having the thought about the future, stay calm.

The simplest way?  Just breathe. You notice you’re thinking about the test, you notice your stomach starts to knot up.  Stop. Breathe deeply down to your belly. Ground your feet on the floor. Open up your senses to what is around you right now. The future event (that pesky test) won’t go away, but all those anxious feelings will. And wouldn’t that be a relief?

Remember: it’s a 3 legged stool. Your mind-leg takes over and throws your body-leg and spirit-leg out of balance. Get back in touch with your body. I’ll talk about getting back in touch with your spirit in another post.

Let me know your experiences with getting “amped up”. What happens to do? What do you do for relief?

Value added? Think again

As the Obama administration rolls out the funding for its Race for the Top, a good deal of attention is being paid to value added measures for calculating teachers salaries. Simply put: teachers in many areas will be paid based on their students’ test scores.  Like everything, there are pros and cons. But for a person who’s concerned with the effects of stress on performance, and until certain things about value added measures are rethought,  I’m going to give this two thumbs decidedly down.

A good, brief comprehensive summary on the problems with value added measures is by cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham. Of the

six points he covers for why value added measures aren’t fair, I’m going to highlight one:  that using value added measures focuses only on short term gain. In other words, teaching for the test at the end of the year focuses on test content to the exclusion of the more lasting attributes students need to succeed, in school and in life.

Why are we interested in students being able to “perform” (meaning, give right answers) rather than putting our attention on their growth?  I vote for the latter. And that doesn’t mean we forget about the things kids need to learn. Why can’t we train kids to take tests and at the same time pay attention to the skills they need for life-long success– meaning being calm, confident and focused when they face any test, in school and out?

We need to rethink value added measures. Let’s look at what teachers are really giving their students,and where they’re missing the boat.

See Dr. Willingham’s succinct summary of what’s wrong with value added measures on YouTube.

In a short but impassioned statement Weprin states: “[High stakes tests] are likely to reflect the rampant use of test-preparation drills that keep scores high but rob students of the opportunity for real learning. I am not participating in the hand-wringing over lower percentages of students deemed proficient because I reject the premise that high-stakes standardized tests ever provided

an accurate picture of students’ performance in the first place.”

The Councilman is right: we need to take a good hard look at what tests are actually testing. Many students, who understand the subject matter and are well prepared for tests, crash and burn on the test itself. Why? Because no one teaches them how to deal with the stress of test taking. And the stress compromises their performance. Conversely, some students hardly study at all, understand the material only marginally, and then do well on the test.  Why?  Luck. Intuition. Who knows?

I set out to write The Workbook for Test Success because many people suffer from test taking. And not just  students– but  parents,  teachers and school administrators as well.

Councilman Weprin concludes his post with the following:  “The DOE [Department of Education] should double down on enhancing the education today’s students need to succeed. Regardless of the latest test results, the real news is that schools are testing more but students are learning less.”

Let’s teach students what they really need to succeed in life– not just stuff but real skills that will help them succeed at all the tests they will face, in school and out. Knowing how to be calm, confident and focused will help them with every challenge.  Thank you, Councilman Weprin, for not buying into test mania.

Send us your comments

Today I received an email from Cecilia M, a person who has attempted taking a professional qualifying exam many times. Here is her email:

Hello, Dr B.

I just read your book. Thank you for writing it . I have been taking the National Dental board for years, yes for for years!! I’ve done Part One may be ten times, and the more I tried to passed it the more anxious I became (I identified with each one of the cases you described in the book), so I stopped trying for three years until I decided to take it again. I prepared for at least four months…

I  followed a schedule and I read your book and I used the techniques you thought me. I followed all the steps, and this time at least my mind didn’t become blank when I sat in front of the computer. I did the “Circle of Light” exercise several times before the test and I ended up with tears in my eyes every time because, I think, the power of confidence is so immense that is difficult to absorb it after so long, after so many exams and so many years.

I took the test last week. I don’t know the results yet but I have my Dr. B book with me and I keep reading It. If I passed the board I will be able to apply to the international dental program for foreign dental graduates, and after two years in the program I’ll be able to practice as a dentist. In between I have to pass the NDB Part Two and the Regional Dental Board (and also the entrance practice exam for the program). I really want to practice; I’ve wanted to become a dentist since I was 8 years old, this is very important for me and now I know there is hope because there is someone like you that can help to ease the stress. Today I wake up with the idea that I will master taking tests and I will master being calm and confident. Thank you very much, again and again.

Cecilia M

Thank you, Cecilia, for this description of your experience and for your enthusiasm for the book. (I will be writing back to Cecilia personally). Your comment “…now I know there is hope because there is someone like you that can help to ease the stress” resonated with me deeply. It is the reason I wrote the book.  As a person who had suffered from performance anxiety for many years, the only help I received was not really help at all. It came in the form of comments like these: “It’s all in your head,” “You’ll grow out of it,” and– the least helpful of all — “What’s wrong with you?”  I finally realized nothing was wrong with me! Something was very wrong with the whole test process and the industry built around it, which is solely focused on test content (right answers, strategies for multiple choice, etc. etc.). There wasn’t a single good resource addressed to test-taker and what he or she needs to move through the test process in an empowering way. Part of being empowered is to have hope. I am very gratified that one reader has gotten that from the book.

If you have a story of how the book is helping you please send it on. I will share it and will respond to you personally as well. Maybe we can get a national test-prep support network going!

Thank you again Cecilia!

“I was in my office and an 11th grader came in all distraught worked up.  This is one tough kid– she’s had many troubles in her life, and has gotten into a lot of trouble too. She’s usually closed down and angry.  On the day she came into my office she was very upset — she’d had had a bad fight with a close friend who rejected her. She was angry and ready to strike out. I didn’t know what to do with her. She couldn’t sit still.  When I glimpsed The Workbook for Test Success …

on my desk. I said to the girl, “We’re just going to open this book to any page and start reading.” I had no idea where this was headed or how she’d respond, but it was so out-of-the-box that she went along with it.”

“I happened to open to the chapter on Confidence and I started reading. The girl was listening.  I read all about the negative things we tell ourselves, and how that makes us feel badly, and how we can get out of that terrible state by using three tools. She was listening to every word. When we got to the exercises she wanted to do them. I was amazed. We ended up talking for almost an hour.  The Workbook provided an extremely helpful way of getting the girl to look at herself, to think about her situation, and – most importantly—provide her with a positive, productive way of dealing with her self-esteem and the tests she faces in her life.”

The story makes a point:  the model of the three-legged stool is dynamic. That means that all the legs are important and no matter which one you work on—whether it’s your mind (as it was in this case), your body or your spirit, it’s going to have a positive and strengthening effect on the whole.

Try the “open-the-book-to-any-page” method and let me know what you find out about yourself.

Anxiety: where are you feeling it?

This week I had an experience I’d like to tell you about.

I have a summer engagement working with professional actors who are recording the voices to a well-known video game.

In the middle of one of the recording sessions I found myself starting to worry about something. What I was worrying about isn’t the point here. The point is I was…

in the middle of an important job that required a high degree of focus and suddenly I became distracted.

At that moment, I noticed that my legs were feeling like they wanted to run away!  So I used the calming tools– I took a good deep breath and I grounded my feet on the floor. Instantly, the worrying thoughts went away and I was able to get back on track and give my full attention to my work.

How does this apply to you?  The next time you feel anxious I suggest that you look immediately to your body and ask yourself “Where am I feeling the anxiety, right now?” As soon as you recognize which part of your body is tense or unsettled, breathe deeply and ground that area.  “Grounding” doesn’t mean you have to touch the ground.  It means that you make a conscious intention to release whatever tension or stress you are feeling in that part of your body and you let it go, as it is releasing it down into the ground.  Example: say you’re reading a test prep book and you start thinking, “I’ll never get this, I won’t get a good SAT score,” and you start feeling anxious about your future. Stop!  Notice where you are having an unsettled or tense feeling in your body. You might realize you are clenching your fists,  or tightening your jaw.  Good!  Awareness is always the first step towards change.  Now, apply the tools: breathe (deeply down to your belly), and ground (open up your hands, let your fingers relax; let your jaw go)..

You’ll be amazed at what you discover when you pay attention to what your body is doing when you feel anxious. We confuse the thought we are having with the feeling. Remember: thoughts create feelings. In other words: if you have an “anxious thought” it’s going to make an anxious feeling somewhere in your body. Locate it.  Calm it down.  You’ll see that the anxious thought will just disappear.

Let me know about your discoveries.

One of the least helpful habits is comparing yourself to others – your classmates, your siblings, your parents,  celebrities you idolize (athletes, musicians, actors).  Have you noticed

that when you compare yourself to others you almost always are lacking. You think, “They are smarter,  they are much better looking; they are more popular; they have the nicer clothes” and on and on.  The list is potentially never ending because our culture thrives on comparison. Turn on the TV and most of what you see are commercials, and  commercials are built on the premise you are not enough, just as you are. Hence you need to use this shampoo, or drive that car, or the other telephone service.

The antidote to this is to compare yourself only to yourself.  Are you improving? Have you learned from past mistakes? Are you pushing the envelope of how much or how well you can do?  Is there room for growth?  By asking these questions and reflecting on them for yourself, you stand the chance of really learning something that can help you right now and contribute to your strong foundation for future challenging tasks.

How do you compare yourself to others? Can you helpfully evaluative yourself?

An example of this is when we become distracted by our own old fears. I can’t handle this, I’m not good enough, I can’t keep it together…and other negative thinking. “Negative” here means minus-ing, taking away from.  But taking

away from what? When we’re thinking negatively about ourselves we’re taking away from our whole, positive, highest self.

Most of us are fed terribly negative messages about ourselves through our competitive schooling, though the media, through advertising– you name it. We buy into the message I’m not good enough. And then we start to believe it and, like any self-fulfilling prophecy, it comes true.  But it’s not the truth.

Here’s the truth:  you are already your best, positive, highest self.  You have all the potential in the universe. You actually don’t have to do anything at all except support it rather than take away from it.

When you start thinking negatively about yourself don’t get distracted and pulled into that undertow. As soon as you realize you’re thinking that way, stop, plant both feet firmly on the ground, breathe out, and remind yourself of who you really are: your bright, shining, best self,  the one who can make a positive contribution to society.    

The best kept secret is this: you are already that great being.  Put your focus on that.

You owe it to yourself and to everyone– your family, friends and community — to be the great being you already are. Get the negative thinking out of your way.

Are you tense?

At a recent lecture I gave at the University of California San Francisco medical school, I was teaching the first year students how to use the calming tools:  breathing, grounding and sensing.

Breathing is by far the most important of all 9 tools in the performance model. So much has been said and written about breathing, and no wonder!  When we don’t breathe regularly it causes all sorts of mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual problems.

After we worked on grounding, one of the students had a brilliant observation.  First, to remind you:

grounding means two things:  (1) feeling your feet on the floor and, if you are sitting, your body supported by the chair; and (2) releasing physical tension.

After practicing these two parts of grounding with the medical students one of them asked:  “Is the point of this that you don’t introduce tension into your system?”

This was a great realization: that we actually introduce tension into our systems by not grounding– by tightening up our shoulders, or our legs, or our hands, or our feet, or any part of ourselves.

When you are holding your breath or making your body tense you are actually trying to escape. It’s like you’re saying on the inside “Let me out of here!”  (the “flight” of “fight or flight”) .  When you breathe and ground you are keeping your system free of tension. You are, in the language I like to use, connected. You are not trying to escape. You are present to do what has to be done. This is essential for taking tests.

Observe yourself:  whenever you have an anxious thought about anything just notice what’s going on in your body. You are certainly holding your breath and/or you are making some part of your body tense. You are introducing tension into your own system.  The medicine:  breathe and release the tension. Repeat the process as often as necessary.  Doctor’s orders!

Keep observing,  keep using the tools.   Let me know what you find out and how it helps you.

Use a timer: you'll stay focused

Often people ask me “What’s the best way to stay focused?”

Here’s what I recommend:  use a timer. Whether it’s on your digital watch, your i-pad, your cell phone, or one that you set up on your computer, I’ve found the timer to be my biggest aide to staying focused.

The procedure goes like this:

Say you are studying for a test and you’ve devoted 2 hours for your study time.  The worst thing you can do is to study for the two hours without a stop.  Why?  Research shows that optimal concentration time on any one thing is between 20-40 minutes.

First: decide on your goal for the whole study period. Say it’s to cover a chapter for an upcoming test. Make sure that the goal is realistic for the time allotted. Next, break the task up into small manageable chunks. Set the timer for 25 minutes.  Start working.

When the timer goes off take a 5 minute break:  have a glass of water, do a stretch, take a breath of fresh air. Do not get on your email or cell phone or have a big meal.  Just a 5 minute break!  Then, back to the desk, set the timer again for 25 minutes.  Accomplish the next task to reach your goal.  After the 25 minutes take another 5 minute break.  Repeat this for the second hour.

You will be amazed at how much you accomplish. The timer is a tool: a friendly reminder to stick with what you are doing, with the gentleness of knowing you’ll have a short break in a little while.  Try it. It works!