Inspiration. Movement. Transformation.

When students are sitting for an exam or preparing for such things, the added stress of the impending results can add extremely to the discomfort sitting causes the body.  First off, recognizing the stress is helpful for being proactive. Planning ahead, taking good care of yourself (not only, but especially during stressful times) is invaluable as you cannot pour from an empty cup - no one can.  When we become too worn out or exhausted we let ourselves and those around us down too, or worse, as this is when we are most prone to making poor decisions and having accidents.

How do we plan and prepare to study?  The task of studying is individual and not obvious to all, young and old, so if you have trouble studying, please ask someone you trust to give you a worthwhile answer: a teacher, coach, accomplished friend for example.  Studying usually implies work for the mind/brain.  The age old saying or action of, “Remembering by heart” reminds us ;) that there is more to learning than the mind/brain which brings me, of course, to nutrition and taking good care of our body vessel.  We each have only one, from birth until death, and like it or not, you are what you eat.  Good fuel in = better returns out.  You’ll have some example of this in life, well it works that way with Your body too.  

Ideas for preparing our bodies for the work of studying, exams, or other stressful times: 

• Having some good protein snacks: sunflower seeds, nuts, hemp hearts, chia seeds soaked 20 minutes or more in your favourite milk or smoothie and many more.  

• Good for you fluids, water is the best (a good goal = 2 litres per day per person), yes coffee is ‘good’ for some people (not in place of food & in moderation!), juices are often nastily high in sugar so watch out there because you sure don’t want a sugar crash to happen during your exam!   

• Healthy fats are important for our brain function too. Note I said Healthy fats so chips & French fries remain on the small portion list, simple carbs don’t supply lasting value.  So, some good sources of good fats are: avocado, hemp hearts, walnuts. Our bodies are physical beings, whether we have disabilities, injuries or pieces missing so it is important to move even when we must exercise our brains (study, desk work, exams etc).

This is where the physical side of yoga has been invaluable to me for decades. My final suggestion for successful studying is to be sure you have good, as fresh as possible, air to breath.  For the importance of this please refer to my other post on Breath & Breathing elsewhere on this site.

“How is this yoga?” you may ask, but yoga translates in English as union, so when asked to discuss Chair yoga for students during exam time of course I will consider there are other things as important as explaining ways of moving, I will be in the school to show that.  Although succeeding and preparing for success involve more than physical movements, the peace, balance and strength I have gained from my physical yoga practice help me be more of who I want to be every day.  Adding a little yoga to the experience by taking/making time to move a little (take a quick walk-about a few times an hour) as much as possible even when confined to task, your experience will likely be more fulfilling, less draining with hopefully better results, as has been my experience since I was in high school in the 1970’s.

In the beginning is you

In the middle is you 

In the end is you 

I wish you all the best you can dream of, I hope for happiness always, but of course ‘life happens’.   We may get knocked down but yoga has always helped me get myself back up, over and over.  Besides yoga teaches my body how to do that in neat, uplifting ways (couldn’t resist). Giving time to our own selves is important to the well being of the whole world, not just us. 

As within, so without…  Namastè 

Jaclyn