Exam season is upon us. I loathe exams and fully understand the collywobbles. Here are 8 ideas that work.
The first three ideas tackle breathing. As the panic levels build, we start to over breathe and oxygen levels rise too fast. This is an abysmal state of affairs for good brain function!
- Exhale fully, hold your nose tight, seal your lips and do as many squats as you can with no breath in you. Burns up the excess oxygen like billy-o and also gives the fearful brain a sense of taking physical action to fight the ‘monsters’. Repeat this three times. Trust me, when you’ve recovered, you really will feel much better.
- Gargle with water for up to 5 minutes. Makes you breathe out and stimulates the vagus nerve, which is calming. (Incidentally, you won’t be gargling continuously for 5 minutes! No, no. At first you’ll probably only manage a few seconds, but if you keep at it, the length of each gargle will increase)
- Place a bag over your nose and mouth and breath in and out of it whilst it feels comfortable. Again, it lowers oxygen levels.
- Try rubbing some Tiger balm around your left ear. Stimulates that vagus nerve. Rub it all round the ear.
- Buy some Ubermag from me – or Zen Mag. Promotes restful sleep and is the calming mineral. Ubermag the best form of Magnesium available. Zen Mag is probably even more calming than Ubermag.
- Buy some Serenity from me. Wonderful product – an old Chinese recipe. You take it continuously throughout the day and evening, and it really takes the edge off nerves, promotes good sleep, but in no way makes you sleepy.
- Drink Green Tea – the theanine promotes alpha brain waves – good for concentration.
- Do not get hungry. If you are suffering loss of appetite, do one of the drills above, then eat something easy to digest. To work well, the brain needs fuel and activation. It’s certainly getting activation, but fuel = good breathing and glucose. (( All the food we eat gets converted to glucose. But protein and fats take longer and are harder to digest than carbohydrates; also if super stressed, the digestive system has largely closed down, so it is imperative to eat food that is easy on the digestion. Ice cream is a pretty good bet.))