Body - Emotions - Thoughts - Good relationships

1. Imagine that you are right now in this moment in the exam or lecture situation. Imagine it as real as possible with all your senses:

• Where are you?
• What do you see?
• What do you hear?
• What do you smell?
• How does the exam or lecture ideally go in your imagination?
• How do you feel at the moment when the exam is going as successfully as you ideally imagine it?

What matters is how well you can perceive how you feel in the moment of the successful exam.

Would you like advice or support in developing your personal goal image?

Use the tool below to help you develop it.

Also feel free to contact us directly at resonanz@hda.tu-darmstadt.de to have a personal conversation.

Our brain cannot distinguish whether what we are thinking or imagining is happening in reality or only in our head.

I.e. if we imagine what could go wrong, it is for our body as if this were reality.

As a result, we feel bad, which leads to more negative thoughts that make us feel even worse, etc.

What is the consequence?

In this state of mind, it is very difficult to concentrate and to be able to call upon and contribute all of one's knowledge and skills. This is because fear and worry block the neural pathways in our brain and the smooth transmission of information.

If we are already picturing the future exam, why not be positive and successful right away?

We feel better, our brain functions better with these positive emotions and the often feared blackout does not occur.

By repeatedly imagining the successful course of the exam or lecture, the probability increases many times over that the exam will actually go the same way, just like the self-fulfilling prophecy…

If it is difficult to develop a positive target image, image selection is an excellent tool. Because we can use it to get better on the track of our needs.

Maja Storch and Frank Krause have developed an online tool within the framework of self-management training, the so-called Zurich Resource Model.

The online tool with the two image selection variants is available free of charge.

How can you use the tool?

There are two ways to use it:

1. The open image choice:

In the open variant, you select the image that spontaneously makes you feel the strongest positive emotions. Subsequently, you will be presented with emotional attributions from which you will select in two phases those that apply most to you because they trigger strong positive feelings.

2. The topic-specific image selection

In the topic-specific variant, you can work on specific topics that have so far triggered inner resistance or where the inner attitude, e.g. to a crisis event, is felt to be burdensome. Perhaps you would simply like to feel more confident in an area of your life and would like support in building a positive goal image.

Have you found your positive target image with the help of the image selection?

Print it out and place it in a place where you will see it often and remember it.

Have fun with it!