![\"Widdle](\"https:\/\/gozen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/ch3_widdlebody2-1024x916.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Take this quick test:<\/p>\n
You\u2019re about to give the biggest speech of your life. One thousand\u00a0pairs of eyes are glaring at you\u2014you\u2019re nervous. In fact, your heart is racing, your palms are clammy, your breath is shallow, and your tummy is in knots. To perform at your potential, you should:<\/p>\n
(a)\u00a0Try to calm down
\n(b) Try to feel excited<\/p>\n
If you answered A, congrats! According to Harvard Business School professor, Alison Wood Brooks, you chose the same answer as 91% of other adults.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, if you want to deliver a good speech, the better strategy is to try to feel excited. Let me explain.<\/p>\n
Brooks studies pre-performance anxiety in a variety of domains including singing karaoke, speaking in public, and math performance. Her\u00a0research<\/a> shows time and time again that when you feel anxious prior to a performance (including test taking), instead of adopting the conventional wisdom of \u201ccalming down,\u201d it\u2019s better to embrace stress.<\/p>\n What does \u201cembracing stress\u201d mean exactly?<\/p>\n In one study, Brooks divided participants into groups. One group was instructed to say \u201cI am calm\u201d aloud. The other group was directed to embrace their stress by saying, \u201cI am excited.\u201d<\/p>\n Neither statement made the anxiety disappear, but the \u201cI am excited\u201d participants were more confident in their ability to give a good speech. What\u2019s more is that this group was rated more persuasive, confident, and competent by those watching the speeches than the group who tried to calm down<\/a>.<\/p>\n In a different experiment<\/a>, University of Rochester professor of psychology, Jeremy Jameison, worked with students taking the GRE (an entrance exam for graduate school). Prior to taking a practice test, he took the students saliva samples letting them know he was measuring how stress affects performance.<\/p>\n The professor split the group in two and gave half the test takers a \u201cstress is good for you\u201d pep talk. \u00a0This group was told recent research shows that stress can improve performance on a test. He then suggested that if you feel anxious, just remind yourself your stress is helping you. The other group received no instruction.<\/p>\n Students who received the stress is good for you pep talk scored higher on the practice exam. And one to three months later without any other interventions, they scored higher on the real exam.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the real kicker\u2026 Jameison was afraid that his pep talk may have calmed the first group down. However, when he tested their saliva, it turned out the pep talk group actually had higher levels of stress hormones!<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what we can take away: The way we think<\/em>\u00a0about stress, they way we perceive<\/em> it\u00a0is a mindset. And this mindset can affect the way stress reacts in our body.<\/p>\n Some types of stress responses are resources to be corralled and used to our advantage.<\/p>\n Next time your student or your child is facing anxiety due to a speech or upcoming test, in addition to all of the conventional wisdom (prepare, organize, practice), let them know that their anxiety can be their ally.<\/p>\n If your child feels anxious before a test,\u00a0have them say some of these statements out loud:<\/p>\n \u201cI feel my body preparing me for this challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI have butterflies in my stomach, my body is determined to do well on this test.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA little stress can actually help me do good on this test.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy palms are sweating–I\u2019m starting to get energy to do well on this test.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m getting excited to rise to the challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n More References: Take this quick test: You\u2019re about to give the biggest speech of your life. One thousand\u00a0pairs of eyes are glaring at you\u2014you\u2019re nervous. In fact, your heart is racing, your palms are clammy, your breath is shallow, and your tummy is in knots. To perform at your potential, you should: (a)\u00a0Try to calm down (b) … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[135,531],"tags":[74],"class_list":["post-24320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gozen-anxiety-relief","category-parents","tag-test-anxiety","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gozen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gozen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gozen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gozen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gozen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24320"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gozen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2376015,"href":"https:\/\/gozen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24320\/revisions\/2376015"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gozen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gozen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gozen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gozen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nMcGonigal, Kelly. The Upside of Stress: Why Stress Is Good for You, and How to Get Good at It.\u00a0<\/i>Print.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"