Welcome back to the Mindful Bell Tests series of meditations.
I suggest that you do this meditation seated the same way that you'll be seated during the exam.
Let's start with a deep breath in.
Now let it go.
I have to start by saying that if stress is getting in the way of living your life,
You might want to see a doctor.
And if you're already seeing a health professional,
You might want to let him or her know about these meditations.
This time I want you to carefully wash the breath as it's coming in and going out.
Deep breath in.
Now let it go.
I'm making a series of these meditations.
So you have many tools in your toolkit ready to go no matter what gets thrown at you during the exam.
On the next deep breath,
I want you to notice where you feel the breath the most.
At your nose,
Your chest,
As your belly expands,
Deep breath in and let it go.
I suggest that you practice this meditation as many times as possible before the exam,
Set during the exam.
It's second nature and you're ready to go.
Now let's practice getting over the distraction during a test.
So picture yourself sitting in the exam room,
You're working on the questions,
You're focused,
You're doing well.
And someone comes in and talks to the teacher for a second and you lose your focus.
You try getting back to the exam and just isn't working.
You can't focus again.
Your focus is totally messed up.
And deep breath in.
Let it go.
And you're focusing on your breath instead of on your thoughts.
Deep breath in and let it go.
Let's try that again.
Picture yourself sitting in the exam room.
Look down at your desk and you see the test booklet,
The answer pages,
Your pens,
Your pencils.
You look around and everyone else is working on the exam,
Heads down.
And then all of a sudden someone sneezes the biggest sneeze you've ever heard.
Everyone jumps out of their seat for a second.
Everyone giggles for a moment.
And now you have to get back to work.
You can't focus again.
And you're so upset.
You were doing so well.
And now these thoughts about not being able to focus again and how dare he sneeze and how could this happen to me?
I'm going to stop those thoughts and instead think about your breath.
Deep breath in and let it go.
Instead of thinking about being distracted five minutes ago,
You're going to focus on exactly where you feel the breath the most while you're breathing it in.
And where you feel it the most as you're exhaling.
Now you look back down at your exam.
You're going to get back to work,
Focused and you're going to do well.
And now give yourself a little hug and say,
I love me.
I so appreciate how hard I worked getting ready for this exam.
I'm so impressed with myself.
I have both the knowledge to do well in this exam and the mindset to do well in this exam.
And now good luck on your exam.
