We’ve all felt stress or anxiety when we’ve had to take a test. Maybe it was that spelling test in third grade, the SAT’s in high school or college finals, test anxiety is not uncommon and we’ve all felt it at some point in our lives. Even the class brain who is always calm, and maybe even smug, when test time rolls around has felt stress at test taking time. How we deal with test taking stress is what can bring success or sabotage our best efforts and thorough preparation for the test. Hypnosis has been found to aid in relieving test taking anxiety.
Test taking anxiety can be the result of one or many different things from fear of failure, thinking you haven’t studied enough, or exaggerating the importance of the test. Not to say that some tests are not extremely important, but not all of them are of the same importance.
A nurse had to take a test to re-certify for her position at a hospital that she’d held for 20 years. This was an important test and due to her test taking anxiety she failed to pass it the first time she took it. She knew that test taking anxiety had been the cause, so before taking the test again she sought the help of a hypnotherapist. Together the nurse and hypnotherapist found that her test taking anxiety was caused from her fear of losing her job and thus letting down her family.
During the hypnosis session the hypnotherapist took the nurse into her subconscious and helped her to change the unconscious doubt and fear of losing her job into confidence and a positive outlook. While doing this, and with the consent of the nurse at the beginning of the hypnosis session, the hypnotherapist imbedded a relaxation trigger for the nurse to call on if she felt the test taking anxiety returning during the test. So if the nurse felt herself getting anxious and blanking out on the answers to questions she could call upon the trigger, pressing the tips of her thumb and middle finger together, and feel calm and relaxed and confident that she knew the answers and would pass the test. And with the help of hypnosis she passed the test with a very high score and kept her job.
People feel stress about taking tests for any number of reasons from lack of confidence to pressure due to time constraints to fear of disappointing someone important in their lives. Understanding these stressors and seeking the help of a hypnotist or hypnotherapist to change the impact they have on the subconscious and conscious mind can be invaluable. The suggestions, triggers and techniques implanted and taught by hypnotists and hypnotherapists for test taking anxiety can also be used for any number of anxiety causing situations from job interviews to public speaking. So the next time you’re stressing out about that upcoming test, job interview or speech, try hypnotherapy and see what it can do for you.
If you are in need of help with test anxiety and would like to learn more about how hypnosis can specifically help you – see our GET Hypnosis in Portland page.
