Bac 2017: sophrology to manage stress on D-Day
Thousands of high school students are facing stress and anxiety as they approach the baccalaureate. But if stress in a small dose has a stimulating effect, it can, when it is too great, prove to be harmful for performance. Some sophro tips to help teens better manage their emotions on D-Day
The effect of stress on the brain
Although stress is a classic phenomenon at the time of Bac, it can impact both the performance and the well-being of high school students. The adolescent, who is mentally preparing for the possibility of failure, tells the brain that there is a potential threat, which causes a chain reaction in the body.
Catherine Aliotta, sophrologist and author of Practical manual Sophrology and Adolescence decrypted : “There is more and more talk of performance anxiety. A phenomenon that affects high school students closely when they put strong pressure on themselves to pass their exams. The stress hormone that is produced in the brain, goes in high doses, inhibits learning ability and prevents information from being properly assimilated. On D-Day, this same stress can make the high school student lose all of his means and have serious consequences a posteriori on his self-confidence. It is therefore very important to learn to manage it as soon as possible, especially if the high school student then plans to study higher. “
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Managing stress can be learned
According to the specialist, knowing how to manage stress is a learning process: “By mastering certain breathing or visualization techniques, adolescents will be able to prevent stress or reduce its impact when it sets in.” Only, she explains, you have to be able to prepare yourself beforehand, for example, during sophrology sessions: “The objective will be to implement the tools seen with the sophrologist between each session as soon as the adolescent is confronted with a peak of stress, for example, during revisions. “
A practical exercise for D-Day
To avoid that there is a peak of stress on D-day, the sophrologist recommends to high school students to work on an abdominal breathing before the test, specifying that when one is stressed, one rather tends to breathe by the thorax. A mechanism which has the particularity of bringing into the body a large amount of oxygen quickly and naturally accelerates the heart rate. But this way of breathing can increase the harmful effects of stress such as heart palpitations or dizziness.
According to her, it is therefore better to favor a softer breathing like abdominal breathing while trying to inflate the belly like a balloon. This technique also has the advantage of going unnoticed in front of other students. To accentuate the beneficial effects, the stressed high school student can imagine inspiring calm and diffusing it throughout his body at the expiration. Until you feel the desired calm.
Sophrologist Catherine Aliotta regularly delivers her precious advice in magazine publications that you can find on her blog. The specialist is also Director of the Sophrology Training Institute and President of the Syndical Chamber of Sophrology.
Also watch the interview with Catherine Aliotta on CNews:
