Overcome Testing Anxiety: Expert Tips To Ace Your Exams With Confidence with Shara Ruffin

Are you struggling with testing anxiety and looking for effective ways to conquer it and perform your best during exams? This episode is for you! In this episode of Anxious & Ambitious, we have a special guest, Shara Ruffin, Founder and CEO of "Journey To Licensure," a consulting company that combines wellness, clinical supervision, and professional development coaching to support social workers through the challenging licensure examination process. We talk about… How Shara’s personal journey with failing the licensing exams to be a Social Worker led her to founding her consulting company, “Journey To Licensure” How getting a diagnosis of ADHD helped Shara to understand how she learns and pass her exams How to overcome the fear and anxiety associated with testing  How to reframe your relationship with failure to regain confidence in your abilities after failed testing attempts  Understanding the thought-feeling-behavior cycle and how to leverage it to change your reaction to testing How presence and mindfulness can help you to pass your exams How to ground yourself and using your senses to move through stress somatically  Simple tools and tactics you can use to move through testing anxiety How getting diagnosed & getting on medication to take care of her mental health  The power of your breath for connecting to your body and the present moment to calm your mind  Your breath as an anchor that holds your ship down in the storm of anxiety  Practices to do leading up to the exam to manage your testing anxiety ahead of time  Test day: what to do on the day of your test to set yourself up for success What to do if you start to feel anxious mid-exam to refocus and finish strong  How to pace yourself and stop stressing about the time you have left on a test  The surprising key to overcoming test anxiety  How to condition yourself and train your mind How to harness the most powerful tool you have to elevate your chances of testing success!  …and so much more!  Connect with Shara: All Shara’s Links Facebook LinkedIn YouTube Books on Amazon Connect with Nicole: Follow the Anxious & Ambitious podcast! Instagram @roarwithnicole Facebook Follow the podcast on Instagram @anxiousandambitiouspodcast so you don’t miss any updates Thank you for listening! Share this episode with a friend or family member to be part of the ripple effect! DISCLAIMER: Please note that the following podcast is for entertainment purposes only. The content discussed in this podcast should not be taken as professional advice or be used as a substitute for seeking professional advice. While we strive to provide accurate and up-to-date information, the views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily reflect the views of the producer or host of this podcast. Furthermore, any information provided in this podcast is intended for general information purposes only and should not be relied upon as the sole basis for making decisions. Listeners should always do their own research and seek professional advice before making any decisions based on the information provided in this podcast.