Guided meditation to help with test anxiety

Welcome to this meditation. I'll assume that if you are listening, that you have some type of major test or exam coming up, because that's what the title of this meditation is about. Now, the word meditation can conjure up different ideas to different folks, but all it is is a way for us to observe our thoughts and maybe quiet our thoughts down, especially in a way that makes us feel just a little bit lighter, a little bit more peaceful, a little bit happier, and less stressed or anxious.

Oftentimes, by doing that, it helps us do better on the thing that we were stressed about in the first place. So let's get started. The first thing that I always emphasize—this is true whenever I meditate—is posture and breathing, and environment can matter a lot. So find someplace nice that you can sit down, ideally a little bit quiet or at least where the sound doesn't bother you. Sit upright as well as you can, and if there is a little bit of ambient sound, don't let it bother you or irritate you. Just accept that's the universe making its noises—just something to observe. It's almost a little bit funny.

As you accept your environment, whether it's your external environment or even sensations that you have from your body, start to breathe a little bit deeper and a little bit slower than you were before this meditation began. Breathe in, pause, and breathe out. You can set your own pace for breathing in and breathing out, but just try to go a little bit deeper and a little bit slower. Now when I do this, I like to sit upright, usually on a chair, and keep my hands on my laps, face up. But you could do whatever feels comfortable for yourself.

Now, the other thing that I'll ask you to do—it might feel a little unnatural—is force a smile. Try to make it as real as possible, but if you have to force it. What I find is, obviously, when we're happy, we tend to smile. But you can actually make the wiring go the other way: that by forcing a smile, it can actually make you feel a little bit better, a little bit more positive. And try to keep that smile on your face throughout the meditation, and ideally well beyond the meditation. It doesn't have to be a fake smile; it could just be a very slight, gentle smirk if you like. But something that makes you feel a little bit better.

So with that, continue to breathe in, breathe out. If you haven't closed your eyes already, you can gently close your eyes. Before I give you a chance to just be with yourself quietly and observe and maybe still your thoughts, I'll give you some ideas to think about. A lot of the stress of an exam comes from identifying with the outcome. We get caught up with "What if I don't do well?" or "I need to do well," or "I'm going to do so awesome that when I do awesome, all these amazing things are going to happen in my life."

The problem with getting attached to the outcome is the outcome may or may not happen. All those fears that you have may or may not happen. All those hopes you have may or may not happen. So when you identify with those, and if they don't happen, well, that might create a little bit of a disconnect between yourself and reality. That's one of the number one reasons why people get unhappy: reality isn't working out the way they want it to.

Instead, you could identify a bit more with the process, the adventure, saying, "Look, I have this thing coming up, and I'm going to put my best foot forward. I am going to put in the work to prepare, and I'm going to enjoy that work. I'm the sentient being on this planet in this mystery that we call life, and I get to engage in this challenge called this test." Let me enjoy these moments. Before you know it, you're going to be a lot older, and you're going to reminisce about this moment in your life right now, and you're going to laugh at yourself: "Why didn't I enjoy it more?"

Now, that notion of focusing on the adventure of preparation. I'll give you another visualization that I find really useful. Imagine that your subconscious is a massive ocean, and your consciousness—the part that thinks to itself, "Here I am. I'm some type of pure awareness trying to observe and make sense of the universe"—that's a sky that's clear and full of sunlight. Most of us are operating on the surface of that ocean most of the time. There are all these random thoughts that are just bubbling up from that ocean, waves that are crashing into our consciousness.

For many of you, it might be thoughts, ruminations about how you're doing on that test or thinking about consequences of doing well or not well. It could be other things; it could be things going on in your social life, assignments that you have due, things in the broader world that are troubling you. But one of the ideas behind meditation is to realize that those thoughts that are surfacing from your subconscious—they aren't you. You can actually rise above those thoughts, rise above the surface of that ocean.

So imagine yourself as just pure awareness, rising above that surface. You realize that all of those thoughts that were thrashing around, that were splashing against your pure awareness, your consciousness—they don't have to. Now you're above them, and there's just a few drops that you can giggle and wipe off a bit every now and then. You can look down on the surface of that ocean, and from a distance, those thoughts really don't seem like that big of a deal.

As you look down on those thoughts, you begin to appreciate that they're starting to slow down. The ocean is starting to become a little more still. As you continue to breathe in and breathe out, there you are, just in that sun-drenched sky above the ocean. You are that sun-drenched sky above that ocean that is your subconsciousness. You are that pure sunlight.

With that idea in mind, I'll give you a minute of silence where you can just breathe in, breathe out, and experience joy in that sunlight that you are in. Experience joy in not getting caught up in those thoughts. If your brain wanders off, if your consciousness goes back to the surface of that ocean and that starts to get a little bit choppier, no reason to worry about that. Just remind yourself, giggle a little bit, and say, "Oh, I got lost in the ocean again, on the surface with those waves. Let me just rise up again."

So, I'll be back in about a minute. Alright, so we are back. Continue to breathe in, breathe out. Hopefully, you experience just a little bit of stillness, even if it was for five or ten seconds. The experience of knowing that you aren't your thoughts, knowing that you can observe your thoughts, knowing that there can be moments in your life where you are free of your thoughts.

Now, as we're winding down this meditation, keep a couple of big ideas in your head. Remind yourself not to focus on the outcome, but to focus on the process and to enjoy it. That smile that hopefully you still have on your face, have that smile the whole time that you're preparing. Have that smile as you go into whatever type of test or exam you're about to take on.

If you can, try to take a little bit of time out every day, even if you could do it for a minute, two minutes, or three minutes, where you can sit silently, with good posture, breathe slowly and deeply, put a smile on your face, and rise above your thoughts. I feel confident that not only are you going to enjoy this experience, but you're going to put your best foot forward on that test. You're also going to realize over time that this test isn't that big of a deal.

Many things in our life that in the moment seem like a big deal, with a little bit of distance of time and space, aren't that big of a deal. So if you haven't already, I encourage you, at your own time and pace, while you continue to smile and continue to breathe in and breathe out deeply, gently open up your eyes and take joy in this adventure, this mystery that we call life.