I'm going talk a bit about minimizing stress because I'm always getting a lot of questions about this.
Stress, nerves, and anxiety - a lot of this comes down to our brain's natural fight-or-flight response.
And there's a number of ways that we can deal with this:
Stress, nerves, and anxiety - a lot of this comes down to our brain's natural fight-or-flight response.
And there's a number of ways that we can deal with this:
Meditation
One of them, and my favorite, is meditation. Specifically, mindfulness meditation, where you focus on one particular thing: your thoughts. As they arise, and as they pass.
One of them, and my favorite, is meditation. Specifically, mindfulness meditation, where you focus on one particular thing: your thoughts. As they arise, and as they pass.
Just noticing them, acknowledging that, and moving on. Even just five minutes a day of this, even just over the next three days or so, would have an enormous impact. And if you're going for a test date in several months, then it could have an even bigger impact because you'd have a longer period of time to execute it. I actually have found meditation enormously helpful personally, as well as in my LSAT career.
I even have a little Buddha statute to remind me to meditate:
You might consider the same, but of course you don't have to associate anything in particular with meditation. It does not have to be spiritual in nature, and there are other kinds of meditation as well. You could do meditation where you just focus on your breath.
Again, notice a theme there. Focus. You could also practice loving-kindness meditation where you simply wish well for other people. And you might think, “Why is that useful? Because I'm the one who wants to do well on the LSAT.” Well, part of why you're anxious is that you're focused so much on your own outcomes and the importance that this is for you.
And if you take a moment and you think to yourself, “Well, there's a lot of other people out there who need help too, and maybe it's worth focusing on that. And you realize that everyone taking the LSAT around the world, all of the tens of thousands of people, they're all stressing equally and my stress is just one little bit of that. And if I could raise all of them up, then maybe I've raised myself up too. If for no other reason than by reducing my own stress.”
So, that's another thing you could be thinking about. Practices like yoga, practices like just getting outside and taking a walk every once in a while. That could actually be enormously helpful as well to minimize your stress.
Relaxing
Now, if you don't feel you have the time to do any of this, that probably means that you need it more than anyone else because you're stressing so much. So take the time. You might even just want to take a hot bath, a hot shower, spend some time you're watching TV the day before. Relaxing the day before is crucial.
So if you're stressing right now, just take a moment to plan out what the day before the LSAT is going to look like for you. If it involves taking a hot bubble bath, go buy some bubbles. Go on Amazon and order them so that they'll be here in the next couple of days and you could actually put that little tip into practice.
You could go in and get a massage. You can schedule that now, have something fun to look forward to. And you could also do the same for after the LSAT.
For more, I've got an entire playlist focused on LSAT Test Day prep here -----> and several articles on LSAT Test Day prep here ----->
Again, notice a theme there. Focus. You could also practice loving-kindness meditation where you simply wish well for other people. And you might think, “Why is that useful? Because I'm the one who wants to do well on the LSAT.” Well, part of why you're anxious is that you're focused so much on your own outcomes and the importance that this is for you.
And if you take a moment and you think to yourself, “Well, there's a lot of other people out there who need help too, and maybe it's worth focusing on that. And you realize that everyone taking the LSAT around the world, all of the tens of thousands of people, they're all stressing equally and my stress is just one little bit of that. And if I could raise all of them up, then maybe I've raised myself up too. If for no other reason than by reducing my own stress.”
So, that's another thing you could be thinking about. Practices like yoga, practices like just getting outside and taking a walk every once in a while. That could actually be enormously helpful as well to minimize your stress.
Relaxing
Now, if you don't feel you have the time to do any of this, that probably means that you need it more than anyone else because you're stressing so much. So take the time. You might even just want to take a hot bath, a hot shower, spend some time you're watching TV the day before. Relaxing the day before is crucial.
So if you're stressing right now, just take a moment to plan out what the day before the LSAT is going to look like for you. If it involves taking a hot bubble bath, go buy some bubbles. Go on Amazon and order them so that they'll be here in the next couple of days and you could actually put that little tip into practice.
You could go in and get a massage. You can schedule that now, have something fun to look forward to. And you could also do the same for after the LSAT.
For more, I've got an entire playlist focused on LSAT Test Day prep here -----> and several articles on LSAT Test Day prep here ----->
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