How To Beat Exam Stress With Clare Josa podcast

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In this week’s Beat Exam Stress podcast we’re looking at why we struggle to get our teens to revise – and why there’s no point in your child revising when they’re stressed. We’re going to talk about: what happens in your child’s brain when they’re stressed why this means revising will be a waste of time 3 ways you can press ‘pause’ on this process and shift their state, so they can get the most from their revision time why this can be a brilliant strategy to improve their exam performance Podcast Episode 7: Why There’s No Point In Your Teen Revising When They’re Stressed Catch Each Episode! Resources: 7 1/2 Quick Fixes For Exam Stress – get started here May 3rd live online training – get your ticket here Video: 3 Early warning signs that your child is struggling with exam stress Podcast episode: How to keep your cool when your kid is kicking off Technique: Exam stress mind hack: slowing down your breathing with mindfulness Why there's no point in your teen revising when they're stressed. Click To Tweet Over To You: Was your child trying to fight their way through the stress in their revision time? Which of these techniques have you been playing with? What did they shift? How could you help you child get in the right mood for revising? Got questions? Insights? I’d love to hear from you, via the comments . And if you found this podcast useful, please share it far and wide with others who might find it helpful. x Clare Liked This? Want More? Here Are All Of The How To Beat Exam Stress Podcast Episodes:…

How To Beat Exam Stress With Clare Josa

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Are YOUR Exam Fears Getting In The Way Of Your Child’s Success? [Podcast 005] 13:10

7 years ago13:10

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In this week’s Beat Exam Stress podcast I’m talking about something we all like to pretend doesn’t happen – how we as parents, teachers or tutors can accidentally make exam stress worse for our kids. Plus, of course, I’m sharing what you can do about it. I’m taking you through the subtle ways our own worries, limiting beliefs and exam stress fears can affect the subtle signals (and less subtle ones!) that we give to our kids, which they take as pointers on how they should feel and behave. We’re going to talk about: how your brain means you see what you expect – and how this can lead to a negative spiral with your child’s exam stress how to spot when our own hidden baggage might be getting in the way of us supporting our kids the three vital roles your child needs you to be playing, right now, and how our ‘stuff’ can get in the way simple techniques for letting this go, so you can feel more grounded and confident and get your own ‘stuff’ out your child’s way Podcast Episode 5: Are YOUR Exam Fears Getting In The Way Of Your Child’s Success? Catch Each Episode! Resources: 7 1/2 Quick Fixes For Exam Stress – get started here May 3rd live online training – get your ticket here Podcast episode: How to keep your cool when your kid is kicking off Technique: Exam stress mind hack: slowing down your breathing with mindfulness Are YOUR secret exam fears getting in the way of your child's success? Here's how our #examstress triggers theirs - and what you can do about it. Click To Tweet One of the most powerful ways to help you to let go of your fears and worries around your child’s exams is a grounding breath, which you can find in technique #1 of the 7 1/2 Quick Fixes For Exam Stress course. All of the techniques in the course work as soon as your child is calm enough to try them. Over To You: How might you be adding to the stress your child is feeling? Did you resonate with the concept of ‘projection vs perception’? How might you manage your own emotions differently, so you can be your child’s rock, cheerleader and advocate? Got questions? Insights? I’d love to hear from you, via the comments . And if you found this podcast useful, please share it far and wide with others who might find it helpful. x Clare Liked This? Want More? Here Are All Of The How To Beat Exam Stress Podcast Episodes:…

How To Beat Exam Stress With Clare Josa

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The Neuroscience Of Exam Stress – Why It’s Not All In Your Child’s Head [Podcast 004] 9:56

7 years ago9:56

9:56

Today I’m taking you on a whistle-stop tour of the neuroscience of exam stress – demystified – so you can see how it’s not all in your child’s head. Plus, of course, I’ll be sharing what you can do about it. We’re going to talk about: the neural pathways that set tiny exam triggers off on the motorways in your child’s brain to become unconquerable mountains the bit of their brain that filters out encouragement and positive feedback to back up the negative self-talk they’re running how stress affects their ability to think straight why you can’t think your way out of exam stress and the power of the mind-body link. Podcast Episode 4: The Neuroscience Of Exam Stress – Demystified Catch Each Episode! Resources: 7 1/2 Quick Fixes For Exam Stress – get started here Next live online training – get your ticket here The power of self-talk to affect your child's exam performance is immense. Take a quick tour of the neuroscience of exam stress - demystified - and learn how to help them. Click To Tweet One of the most powerful ways to help them to clear the stress hormones that flood their body when they’re angry is a grounding breath, which you can find in technique #1 of the 7 1/2 Quick Fixes For Exam Stress course. All of the techniques in the course work as soon as your child is calm enough to try them. Over To You: How can you see that neuroscience might be keeping your child stuck in exam stress? How could you use what you learned in this episode to help them? Got questions? Insights? I’d love to hear from you, via the comments . And if you found this podcast useful, please share it far and wide with others who might find it helpful. x Clare Liked This? Want More? Here Are All Of The How To Beat Exam Stress Podcast Episodes:…

How To Beat Exam Stress With Clare Josa

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Exam Stress: How To Keep Your Cool When Your Kid Is Kicking Off [Podcast 003] 10:35

7 years ago10:35

10:35

So your kid is kicking off with exam stress, slamming doors, yelling, sulking, refusing to do their revision. Nicely-nicely hasn’t worked and you’re ready to yell. What can you do? We all know how easy it is to lose our rag when our kids kick off. But when exam stress is involved, the stakes are raised. We start telling ourselves stories about how, if they fail the exams, they’ll miss out on opportunities, they’ll drown in self-loathing and the world will fall apart. Podcast Episode 3: How To Keep Your Cool When Your Kid Is Kicking Off Our extra few decades on the planet mean we can see the mountain they are carefully constructing from the molehill, but they’re blind to it. And here’s the thing: once a child (or adult!) is stuck in stress, there’s no reasoning with them – literally. Their body has kicked off its stress responses, flooding their system with cortisol and adrenalin, redirecting blood from the problem-solving pre-frontal cortex in the brain to the primal part that is trying to decide whether you are more or slightly less dangerous than a sabre toothed tiger. Logic and reasoning won’t cut it. They’re stuck in the emotions. And there’s no point in forcing them to revise in this state – even if you could – it would be a waste of time. And biting your tongue – metaphorically, I hope – will trigger even more of your stress response, as you force down the emotions you are feeling, too, making a mutual volcanic eruption much more likely. There are plenty of things you can do to help your child, once they have calmed down enough to accept that help (e.g. 7 1/2 Quick Fixes For Exam Stress ). But how can you keep your cool, while the storm passes? We all know that yelling back will only make it worse. How To Keep Your Cool When Your Kid Is Kicking Off With Exam Stress Here’s a technique I used to teach my researchers when I was head of market research – and I later discovered it’s a classic mindfulness technique, too. When my team was interviewing people, we realised how our own inner dialogue would get in the way of really listening – hearing what the interviewees were saying. Our desire to build rapport or to get more details or just nervousness would cause researchers to interrupt interviewees or to quick-fire another question, the moment the interviewee paused. But the gems came just after the silence. So I taught my team this: Breathe in and breathe out, before you respond. (Silently! No teenage sighs allowed!) In market research, it created space for the subconscious motivators to bubble up and that was where the gold dust lay. With an exam-stressed child, it gives them the space to feel heard. It helps them to feel safe. You are being present, instead of launching the attack they are fearing. Even more importantly, it takes us out of our inner six-year-old’s coping strategies. As young children, we learn how to handle anger and stress in the best way we can, but these strategies often get stuck and we’re still using them in our forties and beyond. The deep breath in and out does the following for you: It gets you more grounded – out of your stress-head and into your body If you can manage a few of these, it starts to calm your nervous system, reducing your own stress hormone levels It gives you that moment of thinking space, so you can respond, rather than reacting or retaliating It creates a pause that means you’re less likely to defend your need to be right, being able to be present for your child, to give them what they need, in this moment You can start to listen to hear, rather than listening to respond This isn’t about you. Your child is feeling stressed, scared, overwhelmed or angry (or all of these) and they don’t know how to handle that emotion. The last thing they need is to feel rejected or criticised. That will just lead to them bottling this up next time and hiding it from you. As the Native Americans say: All criticism is borne of someone else’s pain. If your child is stuck in exam stress and is lashing out, there’s no point in taking it personally. It’s just that they don’t currently have any other way of dealing with the pain and other powerful emotions they’re currently feeling. What they need most in the world right now is to know that you care, unconditionally. With you, they’re safe to process this outburst, to let these emotions out. If they’re a teen, the emotions will be mixed with masses of hormones as their body changes at the fastest rate since they were a toddler. It doesn’t make their projection of their anger at you ok. But it does mean they need our compassion, not our criticism. When we let go of our need to be right and we show compassion, not criticism, it opens up a new world of possibilities to help our kids solve their exam stress. Click To Tweet And once their stress levels have reduced (it can take as little as a minute), they will be more open to the solutions and suggestions you have to offer. One of the most powerful ways to help them to clear the stress hormones that flood their body when they’re angry is a grounding breath, which you can find in technique #1 of the 7 1/2 Quick Fixes For Exam Stress course. All of the techniques in the course work as soon as your child is calm enough to try them. Over To You: How did you get on with this technique, once you have tried it? What else has worked for you, to help you keep your cool when your kid is kicking off with exam stress? Got questions? Insights? I’d love to hear from you, via the comments . And if you found this article useful, please share it far and wide with others who might find it helpful. x Clare Liked This? Want More? Here’s The How To Beat Exam Stress Podcast:…

How To Beat Exam Stress With Clare Josa

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Exam Stress: Why The Difference Between Exam Fear & Confidence Is About 2 Inches [Podcast 002] 10:06

7 years ago10:06

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Some days can flow with revision going well, as your child feels excited (ish!) by what they’re learning and can feel the breakthroughs they’re making. Others, they’re drowning in self-doubt and hidden fears, lashing out and about as cuddly as a Texan cactus. But what if the difference between fear and excitement – or exam stress and exam confidence – were something your child could learn to control? Back in 2003, when I was studying to become an NLP Trainer, I discovered a little-known secret about my fears. I still remember how I reacted to first hearing it, too. So I invite you to bear with me on this one, before you pick up those rotten tomatoes to lob my way The difference between fear and excitement is about 2 inches. OK, for some people it can be 5 inches, but the idea is the same. What on earth am I talking about? Podcast Episode 2: Why The Difference Between Fear & Excitement Is About 2 Inches When we’re stuck in our mind-stories, diving into the drama of our fear of failure or worries about being overwhelmed by our ‘to do’ list, it’s easy to get stuck on that thought-train and fear we’ll never escape. But your body holds the answers. Your body feels every thought you think. And if you can’t think you way out of a problem, it offers solutions. We feel every emotion at a point in our body. For most of us, we experience the physical sensation of fear and nervousness in the stomach area. Our language describes it as the ‘pit of my stomach’ or having a ‘gut instinct’ about something. And for most of us, excitement is pretty close by. We describe it as butterflies in our stomach. Many of us experience fear – and excitement – as affecting our digestive system. Since emotions are chemical reactions in our body, they are inextricably linked with our physical experience. From a physical location perspective, the difference between fear and the location of excitement is about 2-5 inches. Often (but not for everyone), fear is about 2 inches lower than excitement. Please bear in mind that I’m talking about the kind of mind-story fear we feel when we have a big project or challenge or change to work on – the type that stops us from doing what we really want to do or say – rather than the ‘Watch out – there’s a sabre-toothed tiger over there and he’s looking hungry’ variety. The great news is: While your Monkey Mind is telling stories of ‘scared’ and ‘anxious’, you can shift the emotion to ‘anticipation’ and even ‘excitement’ by working with the body. How Can This Help Your Child To Feel More Confident In Their Exam? Teaching your child that they can use their body – the physical location of the emotion and their posture – to release fear and move into feeling confident can make a huge difference. When we’re stuck in fear, your brain isn’t interested in historical dates or proving mathematical formulae; it wants to decide whether to run, fight or find the nearest tall tree. So if your child is stressed and scared about their exams, they’re going to struggle with revising. If you teach them to shift – easily – from fear to feeling confident (excitement probably isn’t the ideal or realistic emotion to aim for just now!) they will be able to think more clearly, retain information more easily and get better results. Before you teach your child this, let’s find out how it works for you: What’s The Difference Between Fear And Confidence For You? If there’s something you want to achieve, or a dream you want to turn into reality, there’s no need to fight your Monkey Mind. Instead you can play with this technique: How to use the power of your intention to move that feeling of ‘scared’ or ‘nervous’ physically into excitement and confidence. Think about something you feel really confident about. Allow yourself to totally dive into that feeling, holding your body the way you were; imagining the things you were thinking. If you were to point a finger to where in your body that feeling is, where would you point? Think about something who’s want to do that you feel nervous or apprehensive about – we’re looking for a 3 out of 10 – no biggies here , and certainly no anxiety attack-scale fears! We’re just playing with the technique for now, while you get to learn it. Notice where in your stomach area (most likely) you feel that emotion. Take a moment to connect with the physical sensation. Then imagine you are moving it to the point in your body where you felt confidence. It might help to use your finger for this. Notice what happens. What happens to the emotions that you feel? What happens to the thoughts you are thinking? Here’s An MP3 To Guide You Through This Process: You can listen to it online or right click this link to choose your preferred download option. https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/passionateworldchangerclub/excerpt+2+difference+between+fear+and+excitement.mp3 For most of us, this simple technique is enough to turn apprehension and worry into ‘ok’. And from anticipation, it’s a much smaller step to a sense of confidence. What's the difference between fear and confidence? An #examstress guide plus life-changing 2-minute technique. Click To Tweet Moving from fear to confidence doesn’t just make you feel better – it shifts your focus away from problems and towards potential solutions. And it improves your performance at whatever that task is. If you want to find out the neuroscience behind why it works this way, there’s more information in the Exam Stress Quick Fix Course , along with 7 1/2 exam-stress-relief techniques, which gives you a whistle-stop tour of how our fears affect our business performance – from your brain’s point of view. The more you play with this, the easier it becomes, until you find it’s an instinctive reaction and life becomes much less serious. It becomes more exciting, fun and playful. So: Over To Your Exam Stressed Child How might you teach this technique to them? How could you help them to connect with those really positive memories? How might you encourage them to use their more confident posture whilst revising and in their exam? How might you remind them to play with this, if they’re feeling scared about their exams? I’d love to hear how you get on with this. Let me know, via the comments! x Clare Loved This? Want More Podcast Episodes?…

How To Beat Exam Stress With Clare Josa

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Welcome To The How To Beat Exam Stress Podcast – Why It’s Here For You [Podcast 001] 14:12

7 years ago14:12