Fear – and how to stop it scuppering exam results

Fear is in the news. There’s a current UK programme on overcoming fear – fear of flying, dogs, spiders…. Fear can turn most of us into shadows of ourselves. It stops us.  It floors us.  Fear is the thing most of fear the most.

We fear it coming up – because we don’t know how to manage it.  And it’s this fear that looms large at exam time for your students.

If we didn’t feel afraid of something, it wouldn’t have any power of us.

Fear can be totally irrational and emotional.  We know that.  We see it and feel it.

But how are we to make it slide away and disappear?

The answer is simple.  We ‘think’ on the problem.

Your students don’t have to live with a fear that overwhelms them. 

• They CAN learn ways to first notice it and then manage it.
• They CAN learn to understand how it comes up for them.
• They CAN figure out how to face it down and win.

It’s all do-able. And YOU can be the one to show them how.

What YOU need is a ‘how-do-I-do-that-for-them’ guide. Because you have to know a couple of things too, as the one who shows them how.

You have to:

• believe you can be the one to knock fear into shape for them
• want to do this (for them, your school and the results it brings)
• have faith in your chosen method and ‘go for it’
• do all you can to give them the time and the opportunity to practise the ideas you share
• call this ‘fear busting’ by any other name you like but add it into your timetable

Once that’s agreed and accepted, just how does a change of thinking work to challenge how  your students currently think about fear?  What has to change?

What has to change is how they see fear and how they respond to it.

For any shift in behaviour you HAVE to look at the thoughts around what triggers it. And for a lot of students (and their teachers) that can be hard work.  None of like looking at things that bother us.  But all psychologists know that it’s in facing down our fears and putting different reactions into play, that we win the battle.

For your students, knowing what THEIR FEAR is, and also knowing that they HAVE A SOLUTION to it can be totally freeing.

Imagine for a moment a common situation :

• a student who often does well in tests freezes and this stops them pushing forward … or
• a student les their worry overwhelm them and take charge of how their mind, body and spirit handles the situation

Can you see them handling everything with calm confidence?  Being able to choose how to consciously respond to their fear? Having practiced techniques to call on to handle their feelings?

For the past few months I’ve been working on a school stress strategy that shows you how to dig into their triggers so they understand how their thoughts get set. I’ve put a plan to show YOU how to help THEM their anxiety.

No one needs more stress when they’re stressed out already. Definitely not students and certainly not teachers!

I’d love to show you how to make this work in your school so Fear no longer scuppers your students’ exam results.

You just have to want it for them. 

I’ll give you the plan, then you make the plan work.

Want me to come and talk to your school about Exam Stress, Teach your Teachers or run some Student Stress Workshops?

My Exam Stress Bundle is the perfect for schools to share resilience and exam panic techniques. 

Contact me at [email protected]