Studying can be stressful. There’s often a big build up before midterms, exams, or tests that can leave you feeling a sense of panic within yourself. But the emotional state when cramming as much information into your brain doesn’t help you retain the information well enough to ensure you succeed.
Your emotional state when studying versus when you’re actually writing a test are often different. Your palms become sweaty when studying and your heart rate is often elevated just before the big moment of writing an exam. However, when you’re in the state of writing an exam, you’re often in a state of focus. It’s go time. There’s no room for panicking during a test, this is the moment to show what you’re made of.
A guided meditation for studying helps you get in that focus zone while you’re studying so that you can not only retain more information but also enjoy the process of learning while preparing for midterms, finals, tests, or exams. After all, shouldn’t learning and studying be kind of fun instead of something you dread?
What Is Meditation for Studying?
Meditation for studying is a healthy way to calm your mind to help you focus on the act of learning. It’s about counteracting the elevated heart rate, caffeine energy, and sleeplessness with guided breathing techniques so you can perform at your best.
It’s about allowing you to consume textbooks, study guides, or reading materials with a sense of clarity and inner peace so you actually absorb the information you read and study. It’s about shutting down those “I’m going to fail,” “I don’t have enough time,” and “I can’t do this” thoughts that are blocking you from retaining information in the first place.
With a guided meditation for studying, you learn to watch those thoughts pass you by rather than going down a negativity vortex and obsessing on the thoughts when you really should be studying the information you already know.
Guided Meditations for Studying
Meditation for studying focus
This 10 minute guided meditation practice will help you achieve more focus when you’re studying.
Find more practices like this one in our free guided meditation app Declutter The Mind.
How Meditation Improves Studying
Meditation improves studying in several ways. One of the ways in which meditation helps you study better is by increasing blood flow in your brain, which in turn helps improve your ability to store information in your memory. A study done on 52 to 77 year olds who all suffered with memory loss showed an increase in memory performance after eight weeks of practicing meditation at home. If your memory loss during tests comes from anxiety or stress, you can practice meditation daily to help you better retain the information you learn in class or while studying after school.
Meditation improves studying in other ways as well. For instance, meditation channels the subconscious mind. If you notice you have a ton of mental chatter, that’s your left brain calling the shots. Meditation activates the silent, subconscious right brain. Those practicing meditation regularly will notice that eventually the left brain becomes quieter over time because you’re in better control of your brain. By activating your right brain with meditation, you’re able to make more connections since that side of the brain is better connected to different parts of the brain. So, you’ll see a spike in creativity which will help you study better too.
By following along to guided meditations for studying, you’ll also be able to better concentrate. With a daily meditation practice, you’ll be able to concentrate for longer periods of time. However, it’s important to realize that you should practice meditation even during periods where you’re learning and there aren’t any upcoming tests so that you better develop the ability to absorb what you learn. The more frequently you practice meditation, the more you’ll be able to concentrate on assignments, projects, and finals.
Frequently practicing guided meditations for studying can also help you pay more attention. Often, when following virtual or in-person lessons taught by others, our mind wanders. This tends to happen because people’s brains can absorb a lot of information and they can do it much faster than someone else talking. Often, people use their thoughts to come up with what to say next when someone communicates with them. Yet, in virtual or in-person classrooms, your side of the discussion happens less frequently. By practicing meditation for studying, you’ll train your mind to pay attention to what other people are saying instead of getting lost in your thoughts. The more you practice meditation for studying, the better you become at doing this even when you aren’t following a guided meditation.
Ultimately, just like your arms and legs, your brain is a muscle that needs to be developed, trained, and transformed. And with the science of neuroplasticity, you’re able to improve any aspect of your brain with the right training. So, let’s take a look at a guided meditation for studying so you can make your brain more focused, more connected, and smarter.
How to Meditate for Studying
To meditate for studying, you’ll need to find a quiet place to meditate. A loud library or dorm room, may not be the best place to improve your ability to study. Once you’ve found a quiet place for yourself, take an upright, seated position, cross legged. Laying down may cause some drowsiness. And since you’ve got some studying to do, it’s best for you to be sitting in an alert position.
Place your hands, on top of one another in between your crossed legs. Take a few deep breaths with your eyes open. After a minute, gently close your eyes and continue focusing on your breath.
If you’re feeling anxious, you may notice that the breathing pattern hurts your chest because you’re breathing too deeply. If you’re following along with a guided meditation for studying, don’t be afraid to have shallow breathing. Shallow breathing normal and extremely common in helping you calm your mind down.Some beginners take really deep breaths, but most meditators don’t breathe that deeply unless they’re running up stairs or around their neighbourhood. If your breathing pattern isn’t aligning to a guided meditation for studying, follow your own rhythm, you can also follow along with a meditation timer without instruction to practice breathing at your own pace.
Pay close attention to your breath, noticing it become more shallow as you practice. You can practice a guided meditation for studying for 10 minutes, 15 minutes, or 20 minutes. If you notice that you don’t feel a sense fo calm during a short meditation, you can always add on an additional meditation practice to help you study better. You can find meditation practices on the Declutter The Mind app for 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, and even 60 minutes.
If you hear your thoughts telling you, you need to get back to studying, this is normal. That’s the studying anxiety setting in. Notice those thoughts. You can practice a 10 minute meditation for studying every hour or so to help give yourself a break while recharging your brain to better retain the information you learn.
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