Before a stress inducing assignment, help students positively reframe their feelings of stress and shift from a “threat mindset” to an “opportunity mindset.”

Action:

Ask students to make a list of all the ways an upcoming task could go well and how it might benefit them.
Inform them that recent research suggests that arousal doesn’t hurt performance and can even help performance.
Suggest that they say the phrase “I am excited” out loud to themselves three times.

Reason:

Those who reappraise their anxiety as excitement are more likely to productively channel their stress. It takes less effort for the mind to reframe a negatively, highly-charged feeling (e.g. stress) to a positively, highly-charged feeling (e.g. challenge) than to positive but low-arousal emotion (e.g. calmness).