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The day has come; the time is NOW! You find yourself walking into a conference room, ready to take on a job interview. You’ve done your due diligence; you have prepared for questions that might arise during this interview. You are looking sharp. Nothing can go wrong, right? But suddenly, your nerves begin to take over. You’re feeling overwhelmed, fearful, and no longer confident. This anxiety happens more often than not. These emotions can cause you to lose focus. The worst thing that can happen is allowing these emotions to take over, minimizing your chances of being the best candidate for the job. 

Just as it is essential to prepare on the outside (how you look), it is equally important to prepare your inner self. Different emotions are involved when significant events happen in your life. For instance, during an interview, it’s understandable that your nerves are hard to control. However, there are ways in which you can prepare ahead of time. Here we will discuss why you should meditate before an interview.  

Your perception of meditation might be that you sit down on the floor, cross your legs, place your palms together, and make humming sounds for a few minutes. While this is partly true, meditation’s true form happens when “an individual uses a technique such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought or activity -to train attention and awareness and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state.” (Wikipedia).

There are different ways to meditate. One of them is “Mindfulness Meditation.”  According to the article, Which Type of Meditation is Right for Me, by Holly J. Bertone, “you pay attention to your thoughts as they pass through your mind….” This process might not seem like a big deal, but when was the last time you lived in the moment? When was the last time you didn’t feel rushed? Unfortunately, culturally, we are conditioned to move fast to accomplish more in life. You need to take the time to feel all the emotions of what is happening in that precise moment and control them. Managing your feelings will help you to take on events that follow. This type of meditation helps to focus on the moment.  “Progressive Relaxation” is another way to meditate. Your body tenses up when you’re about to go into an interview. This anxiety is due to the nerves activating. An interview is considered a significant life event. Progressive Relaxation targets the body to reduce the tension built up from the anxiety caused by negative thoughts.  

Meditation has many benefits, all of which help improve your lifestyle. For instance, you achieve better sleep, lower blood pressure, and increased focus, among other benefits. Nevertheless, suppose you find yourself feeling nervous about your job interview. In that case, meditation can be as simple as closing your eyes, taking a deep breath, and imagining yourself “crushing” your interview. The primary purpose of meditation is to achieve a connection between your body and mind. Never underestimate what you are capable of; your mind is a powerful tool. Use it. 

At Polishing the Professional, we strive to help clients reach new skill levels and conquer their professional goals. As a full-service career center, we aim to reach every individual who wants to enhance their skillset and image to achieve success in the workforce. Our blogs discuss everything from career help to professionalism and offer advice on how to grow in the business world. Take a look at our previous blog, How to Set SMART Goals in 2022, to learn how you can reach all your goals.