How to overcome F1 visa interview nervousness.....
I see lot of comments in the chat room "I have interview next week and Iam nervous"
You can't really sit still. You fidget with a hand or a foot. Your palms are perhaps starting become a little moist. You don't feel so good. You feel nervous.
I see lot of comments in the chat room "I have interview next week and Iam nervous"
You can't really sit still. You fidget with a hand or a foot. Your palms are perhaps starting become a little moist. You don't feel so good. You feel nervous.
What do you do?
What can you do in advance to prevent F1 interview nervousness? And what can you do to lessen or remove the nervousness that may rise within you just before or during your visa interview?
Below are a few tips.You may want try a combination of a few of these tips. For example, if you are feeling a lot of nervous energy then don't go for the positive visualization right away. It may not have that much of an effect if you're nervous and your mind is already throwing various negative visualizations in your face.
Instead, first take some belly breaths to calm yourself down and to center yourself. Then, when your breathing is nice, deep and calm visualize how well an upcoming F1 interview will turn out.
Below are a few tips.You may want try a combination of a few of these tips. For example, if you are feeling a lot of nervous energy then don't go for the positive visualization right away. It may not have that much of an effect if you're nervous and your mind is already throwing various negative visualizations in your face.
Instead, first take some belly breaths to calm yourself down and to center yourself. Then, when your breathing is nice, deep and calm visualize how well an upcoming F1 interview will turn out.
Be prepared
If you have a F1 interview then study what you are about to say carefully before going for the interview. Carefully go over frequently asked F1 visa questions and try to come up with your answers for your case. Try to funnel each questions and try to come with answers as well.Not only verbal answers are sufficient, but you also need documentary evidence for things that you planned to say. Think about what worst VO can ask you in your case and figure out some good strong technical answers. Never prepare your answers giving excuses.For (e.g) If VO asks you why your GRE is less? Don't say I had a fever, had family commitment kinda for immature answers. Instead,say what really had happened during your GRE preparation and what you learnt from that event and how you plan to overcome such scenarios in future during your study in US.
Doing this carefully and meticulously can remove a lot of nervousness. It may not always be fun. But being well prepared can be helpful not only to remove nervousness but also to ace the interview easily.
Doing this carefully and meticulously can remove a lot of nervousness. It may not always be fun. But being well prepared can be helpful not only to remove nervousness but also to ace the interview easily.
Ask yourself: What is the worst that could happen?
What is really the worst that could happen? How will it affect you in the long run? In many cases you'll find that the answer boils down to: not really that much I do have a different option. I can Study in Australia, UK, Canada.May be you can complete graduate studies in UK and do PhD in US.We have seen lot of students doing that.You know what Indian economy is much better than US, may be you can find a great dream job in India and stay there.Ok in worst case, if you are desperate to study in US you can reapply again next term. It's easy to get too wrapped up in what is about to happen and magnify the event and possible consequences in your mind until it seems like it's a matter of life and death. It seldom is. Asking a few simple questions can put things into a healthier perspective and calm you down.
Take 30 belly breaths.
Believe me .This works. Try it. Belly breathing is a wonderful way to vanquish negative feelings and visualizations and return to the present moment. Just taking a few dozen belly breaths can change nervous and shallow breathing into a calm and strong alternative. It's quite remarkable how quickly this can change how you feel. Here's how you go about it:
Sit in a relaxing position with your legs apart.
Put your hands on your stomach. Using your stomach breathe in slowly through your nose. If you are doing it right your stomach will expand and you'll feel it with your hands.
Breathe out slowly through your nose and do it with some force so you feel your stomach pull slightly inwards towards your spine.
Breathe in and out 30 times. Take slow and deep breaths.
After you have taken 30 breaths and focused on counting them you should not only feel more relaxed and centred. Your body will also be able to continue breathing in this manner without you focusing on it. And that's it. Continue with your normal day.
Taking some deeper breaths with your belly can also be useful if you start to feel nervous before your F1 visa interview.
Sit in a relaxing position with your legs apart.
Put your hands on your stomach. Using your stomach breathe in slowly through your nose. If you are doing it right your stomach will expand and you'll feel it with your hands.
Breathe out slowly through your nose and do it with some force so you feel your stomach pull slightly inwards towards your spine.
Breathe in and out 30 times. Take slow and deep breaths.
After you have taken 30 breaths and focused on counting them you should not only feel more relaxed and centred. Your body will also be able to continue breathing in this manner without you focusing on it. And that's it. Continue with your normal day.
Taking some deeper breaths with your belly can also be useful if you start to feel nervous before your F1 visa interview.
Visualize in a positive way
Much of our time is spent habitually visualizing what may go wrong in a future situation. This can, of course, create a lot of nervousness. It can also give you the results you imagined – or feared – through self-fulfilling prophecies. If you think you'll fail, then you are making it a whole lot harder for yourself to succeed.
Visualizing in a positive way is definitely a more useful and pleasant way to spend some time with your imagination. Now, you may think that visualizing this way is just unrealistic. But visualizing in a negative way is just as unrealistic. Either way, you are imagining what may happen in a possible future scenario. Doing it in a negative way may just feel more realistic because that's what people around you are doing or because it's what you've been doing every day for the last few years.
How you imagine things will unfold and what will happen can change a lot about how you behave, what you say and how you feel in this future situation. And that can have a big effect on how things actually go.
Here are some practical instructions for when you, for instance, have an upcoming F1 interview:
Visualize how great the interview will unfold – see and hear it – and also how great will you feel during the interview.
See yourself smiling, being positive, open and having a great time. See the excellent outcome in your mind. Then release by visualizing that it has already happened, that the interview is over with the visa stamp on your passport. This is surprisingly effective and will get you into a good and relaxed mood before even stepping into the visa consulate.
The above solutions are the quicker ones. The suggestions below are the ones you need more time to incorporate. It may take weeks or even months. Over time you can gradually make these ideas stronger parts of your life. And they can make you feel less and less nervous in any situation.
Visualizing in a positive way is definitely a more useful and pleasant way to spend some time with your imagination. Now, you may think that visualizing this way is just unrealistic. But visualizing in a negative way is just as unrealistic. Either way, you are imagining what may happen in a possible future scenario. Doing it in a negative way may just feel more realistic because that's what people around you are doing or because it's what you've been doing every day for the last few years.
How you imagine things will unfold and what will happen can change a lot about how you behave, what you say and how you feel in this future situation. And that can have a big effect on how things actually go.
Here are some practical instructions for when you, for instance, have an upcoming F1 interview:
Visualize how great the interview will unfold – see and hear it – and also how great will you feel during the interview.
See yourself smiling, being positive, open and having a great time. See the excellent outcome in your mind. Then release by visualizing that it has already happened, that the interview is over with the visa stamp on your passport. This is surprisingly effective and will get you into a good and relaxed mood before even stepping into the visa consulate.
The above solutions are the quicker ones. The suggestions below are the ones you need more time to incorporate. It may take weeks or even months. Over time you can gradually make these ideas stronger parts of your life. And they can make you feel less and less nervous in any situation.
Practice, practice, practice.
The more you practice, the better you will overcome nervous situation and more you will be confident during F1 interview. You have been there before, you know pretty much what will happen. So you will feel more and more comfortable and less nervous with practice
Realize that people on line don't care much about what you do
One big source of nervousness is focusing too much on what people on line will think of you. And thinking that their criticism is always about you.
But people don't think that much about what you do. You keep much of your attention from day to day on your problems, challenges and triumphs. And that's exactly what the next guy/girl is doing too.
In general, people keep much of their attention on their own challenges and problems. And their criticism is often about something negative in their life rather than about something you do. So don't worry too much about it. So when you answer to VO don't think what the next person on line will think. He has his own problems.
Now, it's very easy to fall back into a behaviour where you feel needy and wonder what people may think about you and what you do. But by working on this you can, step by step and over time, become less and less worried or bothered by what people might think. This allows you more inner freedom to do and try what you want since you're not feeling trapped in box of other people's opinions.
But people don't think that much about what you do. You keep much of your attention from day to day on your problems, challenges and triumphs. And that's exactly what the next guy/girl is doing too.
In general, people keep much of their attention on their own challenges and problems. And their criticism is often about something negative in their life rather than about something you do. So don't worry too much about it. So when you answer to VO don't think what the next person on line will think. He has his own problems.
Now, it's very easy to fall back into a behaviour where you feel needy and wonder what people may think about you and what you do. But by working on this you can, step by step and over time, become less and less worried or bothered by what people might think. This allows you more inner freedom to do and try what you want since you're not feeling trapped in box of other people's opinions.
Stay in the present moment
This one ties into the one about belly breathing. When you take those deep, powerful breaths and focus on doing that your mind seems to silence. Your projections of what may happen at the F1 interview will die out. Nervousness comes from these negative projections of what may happen sometime in the future or from what happened in the past, perhaps from reading lot of 221(g) F1 visa experience from different blogs. When you instead focus your attention on what's happening now, now and… now the nervousness dies out too. Make it a habit and try to expand the time you can spend in the present moment before your thoughts drift away again.
Staying the present moment can be very beneficial if you want to lessen negative feelings and thought in your life. I highly recommend checking out books like The Power of Now or A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle to deepen your understanding and get better explanations of something that can be so simple and powerful but also so difficult to describe.
Staying the present moment can be very beneficial if you want to lessen negative feelings and thought in your life. I highly recommend checking out books like The Power of Now or A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle to deepen your understanding and get better explanations of something that can be so simple and powerful but also so difficult to describe.
