Tapping for Academic Success
WHAT’S THE ISSUE: If you are a University/College or Pre-University (Grade 12) students who wants to overcome their inner blocks to acacemic success, read on!
ACADEMIC SUCCESS STEP 1: IDENTIFY THE BLOCKS TO YOUR SUCCESS
There are so many misconceptions about what it actually takes to achieve academic success and achieve your academic potential. And it’s something that I feel people assume that just the harder you work, the more you study – that it’s all about hard work and effort, and that’s what it takes.
And yeah, obviously, if you’re not gonna put in the effort required to achieve outstanding results, or excellence, there’s a limit to how much you can achieve generally. Not just academically. Generally, in life. So obviously, there’s a minimum amount of…well, minimum? Not minimum.
It depends on how ambitious or how high your standards are that you want to achieve. But in order to achieve something outstanding or excellent or rare or something that you will feel is like the ‘I did my best’, in the circumstances, amongst all the challenges I was facing’.
We all face different challenges at different times in our lives. So we always need to be aware of the context in which we’re in, and the phase of life we’re in and have compassion for ourselves. Because you may be going through a challenge in Grade 11/12, and someone else isn’t. And someone else might be going through a challenge in university, and you aren’t. You know, we’re all going through different things at different times in life.
It’s important to have compassion for ourselves, because how else can you have compassion for others if you can’t even extend it to yourself, right? So within that context of not being judgmental and being compassionate, but still striving to do your best under the circumstances that you’re in at any given point in time, how can we maximize the chance of achieving academic success and our potential, long-term?
So like I said, it is a myth that the more effort you put in, that’s all that you need. And that the more that you study, that’s all that you need. Because, getting down to basics, your brain cannot function at it’s optimal potential if you’re under too much stress. If you’re experiencing too much anxiety.
So it doesn’t matter how much you re-frame it as ‘Stress is good’, ‘and it’s okay’, ‘and it’s part of the process’ – which it is. If it’s too much, if it’s above a certain threshhold, it will keep you back it will hold you back. It will block you from being able to make academic progress quickly, well, as quickly as you would if you were within the healthy range of stress. So that’s something that I talk about a lot in my blog articles, but it’s something I haven’t talked about in my vlogs.
So I wanted to send that message out today as a reminder that in addition to looking at your study habits and your study routines, it’s important to also look at your emotional health, and your emotional self-care habits, and your mindfulness habits – things that actually help you reduce the stress.
ACADEMIC SUCCESS STEP 2: FACE THE THOUGHTS/EMOTIONS THAT TRIGGER YOUR STRESS & NEGATIVE COPING STRATEGIES
‘I’m gonna go for a walk, and I’m gonna come back and feel better’ is a good self-care strategy. Because you do feel better – you’ve gone for a walk, so you’ve got your serotonin, you’ve got fresh air all, you’ve moved your body. All of that is good for our mental health.
But if you still get triggered at the thought of studying for that test, that exam, or working on that dissertation, or your homework…AFTER you get back from the relaxing walk, the actual trigger that is causing the stress is still there. The study stress problem is still there. The problem hasn’t really been addressed at it’s root.
The thought, and it could be a thought like ‘I’m not good enough’, or ‘Maybe I’m not smart enough to do this’ Or ‘Maybe it’s too late, because I procrastinated too much… ‘…and it’s too late, and what’s the point of trying, now, like I don’t have a chance now to do well’ or ‘to pass’ or whatever.
So the thought that’s triggering the stress still hasn’t been dealt with.
Or it could be an emotion, so you start to feel panicky and overwhelmed, and then you end up going and numbing yourself by going on social media, or Instagram, or gaming or whatever, or Netflix – which, it has it’s purpose.
And that’s great, because it does help us cope with stress. It’s what’s called a negative a Negative Coping Strategy, because it has some negative consequences. So it might get in the way of, or maybe even stop you from, achieving your goal. Right?
But it’s still a coping strategy and we need to acknowledge it for that. And appreciate it for that. Cause it does help us cope.
ACADEMIC SUCCESS STEP 3: REPLACE YOUR NEGATIVE COPING STRATEGIES WITH MORE POSITIVE COPING STRATEGIES
So the next step then is, if you are aware that you have some Negative Coping Strategies, it’s like ‘Okay, great. I appreciate these have helped me cope until now. What’s the next step now? What can I do that can help me cope that’s a Positive Coping Strategy? That can help me deal with the stress, and feel better when I think of the thing I have to do that I’m procrastinating on or the workload that I’m falling behind on – but it can help me also in a way that helps me deal with the problem.’ Right?
So you actually start making progress, or clearing some of the blocks there – the fear, the stress, the overwhelm, the anxiety, the self-doubts – whatever it is that’s blocking you from facing that. So that you can feel better about it and you can feel confident about it and you can face it, you know?
And feel proud of yourself for making progress.
I’ve noticed in my work of working with students 1:1 an EFT therapist specialized in stress, anxiety, and academic achievement that the blocks that come up are the same…whether you’re an adult student doing a University course, or a pre-university 12th Grade student. Workload overwhelm, panic, anxiety, self-doubt, procrastination, chest/stomach/head/neck pain from study-related stress. Basically, all the usual stress-related blocks rear their head when academic challenges increase.
If you’re interested in learning more about a positive coping strategy called EFT Tapping (EFT stands for Emotional Freedom Technique, also known as ‘tapping’), you can click here.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Eleni Vardaki is an EFT Practitioner specialized in stress, anxiety and academic success. She coaches students, parents, teachers, school counselors/psychologists, and other school schools worldwide. To learn more about her EFT coaching services go to: https://elenivardaki.com/eft-practitioner-services/
