Meditation to improve concentration at exam time and ward off anxiety

Giving yourself a moment to empty your mind during exam time through anapana meditation can be a great ally to maintain a state of clarity and concentration from which to integrate knowledge more effectively. In addition, research published in The Lancet found that practicing meditation reduces stress or anxiety in front of exams. This guided meditation for exam times helps you in these two aspects:

Reduce the stress caused by facing the exam. Exam time is normally a time of great tension and anxiety. We have a lot of pressure and our nervous system is altered. We want to perform to the maximum and for this, many times we do not rest enough, devoting all our time to reading and memorizing to accumulate the maximum possible content that we can later deliver in the exam.Improve concentration and make it easier for knowledge to be fixed. Many times this way of studying does not mean having integrated the knowledge to be able to put it into practice, and therefore in the long term it is not very useful for us. And in most cases we end up exhausted, so our body and mind do not work ideally to support our study process.

Resting 15 minutes to meditate helps to pass the exam

Although sometimes we believe that we do not have time for rest and self-care, having these spaces for rest are essential, since our brain needs rest to perform. Our mind wanders after study time and isn’t as efficient if we keep forcing it to focus, so planning 10-15 minute breaks every hour can really have a noticeable effect on the flow of your study day and your results.

Once we empty our mind, we have space and serenity for new knowledge to flow into us, and our mind can then focus again for a while, making the best use of it.

The guided meditation that I have prepared is designed to help you empty your mind and exercise your concentration during one of your study breaks. It has two parts: I dedicate the first 6 minutes to emptying my mind, and the rest of the meditation is dedicated to the practice of anapana, which I will explain to you now.

Anapana to improve concentration before an evaluation

Anapana means “mindfulness of breathing.” It is a Buddhist meditation technique based on concentration on an object and widely known to observe the physical phenomena that occur in our body. In addition, it is used very often in mindfulness practices for its profound benefits in training our mindfulness and presence.

Anapana It is a very simple way of meditating that is based on feeling the sensations that the breath causes in the body. One of the broad benefits of this meditation is that your concentration sharpens and your mind becomes more precise and subtle. In addition, its effect has been scientifically proven to increase connectivity in the brain.

Anapana meditation to facilitate concentration and remove anxiety before an exam

I hope that This guided meditation will help you disconnect during your study days and have a positive effect on you.

Look through the window, look at the horizon and let your eyes rest and rest. Meanwhile, take a deep breath letting the air reach your belly and feeling how you let go of your mind and your tensions on the exhale.find a stance sit comfortably and close your eyes. Feel your inner world and what is present in it: stress, anxiety, pressure, fears, ideas about the future after the exam, ideas about you passing or not passing it. Visualize all that outside of you like clouds moving in a distant sky and observe how they pass pleasantly through that sky.Little by little, focus your attention on your breath as it is right now, in its natural flow. Feel how the air from your breath caresses the uncomfortable sensations in your body.

We begin with the practice of Anapana:

You can focus your attention on the in-breath. Feel how the air enters you and accompanies its entire journey during inhalation, feeling the sensations it produces. Meanwhile, you count your inhalations one by one in cycles of five. If you feel that at any point in the practice you have gone with any of the clouds of thoughts and have lost count, simply turn your attention away from that sky of clouds again. to bring it closer to the feeling of the in-breath and rest in it while you resume counting. Do the same with the out-breath. Focus your attention on it and follow the path of the air while counting each one in cycles of 5. Now you can feel the entire cycle of the breath as a whole, including the in-breath and the out-breath. Just watch.Now find a point on your upper lip to extend your attention to it, as if you were looking at it through a microscope. Feel the subtle, almost imperceptible sensations that occur at that point, such as vibration, tickling, or the brushing of air from your breath as it passes. When you feel it, open your eyes, bringing this state of inner calm and mindfulness to your outer world.