Your overall health can either support or detract from your ability to focus and effectively learn. Fatigue, anxiety, sleep deprivation, poor nutrition – all of these can interfere with your efforts to learn. The ideal learning conditions are a calm mind and a well body, but this is easier said than done. You must be intentional in your efforts to prioritize your well-being. At some point in your professional journey, this will be easier than it is at this specific moment. There are many approaches to working through and/or managing stress so that you can focus on your learning. IU has a set of guidance and resources to help you identify how to best meet your specific needs. Check out the Stay Healthy page to learn about strategies and support available through the University.

Interupting negative thought spirals

When encountering uncertainty and new challenges, it is easy to get swept up in negative thinking that we are not enough: smart enough, prepared enough, strong enough. The list goes on. Such internal dialog is a common human response to prolonged effort, but unfortunately, it reinforces our fears of inadequacy and further disrupts progress on the task at hand. We don’t want these negative thoughts to derail your progress. With the right tools, you can disrupt negative thought patterns and move forward productively. Psychologist Ethan Kross offers guidance in his book Chatter: The voice in our head, why it matters, and how to harness it. Below are a few strategies you can try on your own.

• Imagine advising a friend – think about the advice you would give a friend in your position, then apply it to yourself
• Reframe the experience as a challenge – when something seems insurmountable, this can trigger feelings of threat, and, thus chatter sets in. Try reinterpreting the situation as a challenge and remind yourself of the times you have been successful in the past. This current situation is a challenge you can handle.
• Engage in mental time travel – how will you feel in a month, a year, longer, about this moment? Remind yourself that future you will look back on what is upsetting you and find it much less upsetting. This helps to demonstrate to yourself that your current emotional state is temporary.

Skip to “The Tools” section in the appendix for the full list of tools to try by yourself and with others.

Preparing for the logistics of your exam

You’ve studied for months but success on exam day also requires some logistical navigation. There are things that you can do in the weeks leading up to the exam to reduce external stressors around exam time. Download the ABS exam prep timeline to make sure you’re setting yourself up for success.

Confidential help is available

If you are experiencing a mental health crisis, dial 988 from any phone.
If you would like to talk with a counselor or access self-care content, IU students have free access to TimelyCare.