Exam Stress?

Exam Stress?

May, June and July is that dreaded period of study and exams for both school and university students. This high stress period tends to impact on the whole family, so what practical steps can you take to manage stress?

Revision: The brain stops absorbing information after about 45 minutes, so it is important to take regular breaks, where you switch from a mental activity to a physical one. Take 15 minutes out to go for a walk, kick a ball around and get some exercise. Physical movement helps the body to relax, dispel worry and remove stress chemicals from the blood stream. You will remember much more when you come back. In Trager we value the importance of taking PAUSES to feel the body and reconnect.

Rarely do people sit down and regurgitate information for 3 hours at a time and all hand written. Cramp, headaches, neck and shoulder pain are common in exams. Try these simple 30 second exercises:

1. Lean out from you chair and let you writing arm dangle and gently circle it to stretch out the muscles.

2. Imagine you are frothing up bubbles in a bucket of warm water at your feet and loosely shake out the hand.

3. Shift weight on your sit bones and extend your head towards the ceiling to stretch out the spine.

The movements take seconds, but can help prevent headaches and cramp in the exam. Afterwards again do something physical and fun before heading back to the revision.

Remember that you are a wonderful person, not an exam grade and life is full of interesting opportunities.

Focus on the Trager Approach

What could be easier? What could be lighter? What could be softer? How does it feel?

The Trager practitioner asks themselves and their clients these questions, in a quest to restore the body to soft, fluid and rhythmic movement. Each small wave like intervention, gentle sculpt, or extension, reminds the body of how it felt before it met the stresses and strains of life and helps the client to recall what relaxed feels like. .

The Trager Approach is a method of mind body education designed to reintegrate the body into the awareness of the mind. So often people ignore aches and pains until the body really has to produce pain to get noticed. Trager helps to unlock old patterns of tension and structural misalignment and bring about a deep feeling of ease and peace.

The reconnection to the feeling body and recall techniques enable the client to replace feelings of stress with those of pleasure. The whole body is addressed as an integrated unit and self care exercise called Mentastics enable the client to recreate the feelings at home. Julie Kingston and Harry Dalford practice from their studio in Bramley, read more on: www.trager.co.uk

Finally a few words from 2 clients:

"I continue to be amazed by the benefits of Trager. I can arrive at a session feeling very stressed, tired and unable to wind down by myself. One and a half hours later I leave feeling 'lighter', deeply relaxed and, above all, much more able to cope with the stresses of every day life.

"I love my monthly Trager sessions. For me the benefits have definitely been noticeable, particularly Â? less anxiety, lower blood pressure, better sleep and generally feeling more able to cope with every day life. Most significantly, I find the benefits to be long lasting."

 

About the author:

Julie Kingston and Harry Dalford Licensed Trager Practitioners 01483 894741 Tragerwithharry@gmail.com Tragerwithjulie@gmail.com

Author: Harry Dalford
Website:
Copyright © 2023 Harry Dalford. All rights reserved

Back to articles' list