Mindfulness and the Social Work Exam

Mindfulness meditation may be something you're already recommending to your clients for all kinds of symptom relief. But are you practicing mindfulness yourself? There's good reason to--not just to relieve test anxiety and the general sense of overwhelm that can hit when you're prepping for the licensing exam. See Mindfulness Can Aid in Focus and Working Memory. Mindfulness ed and practice were studied. The result:

[S]cores indicated that the mindfulness group significantly improved on both the verbal GRE test and the working memory capacity test. They also mind-wandered less during testing.

What works for the GRE should work for the ASWB exams (LCSW, LMSW, etc), right? Big, vexing, standardized tests take lots of focus, verbal skills, and working memory. So, good reason to get to it. And so what if it helps you be more calm, centered, and all that other good stuff?

Here are some free mindfulness resources on the web to get you started:

• UCLA Free Guided Meditation
• Tara Brach Guided Meditation
• Video Guided Meditation Search

Breathe, half-smile, and get licensed!  Good luck.