ICSounds

Look up Charisma on Command on Youtube. It's a good channel for learning people skills and isn't a pick up artist channel.

First of all, I really think that you should keep talking to your friends no matter the outcome of the exam. Chances are that they will be quite supportive of you whether you do well or not and if they are mean to you then you should consider whether they are really a friend (I somehow doubt this will happen though). If you don't do well on the test you could reframe the situation as an opportunity to explore other things during this year you have away from academics. You could use it as a chance to work on personal development, start looking around for work you may enjoy doing, travel, etc. An interesting concept that I learned from Darren Hardy is that the mind has 2 parts, the thinker and the prover. Whatever the thinker thinks the prover will prove. In this case you probably have a set standard ingrained into you of what you think you can accomplish. Because you have this standard your mind will try to prove that this is the standard that you will achieve. If you feel like you can achieve something better than these standards the prover part of your brain will cause distractions to slow you down. If you feel like you're falling behind then the mind will make you stress and you will become much more focused. I think these thoughts are either the prover realizing that you can achieve more than your standard and just tossing distractions at you as speed bumps. Just realize that these thoughts are just distractions from your goals. And remember, pass or fail you will move on, you will have good times and bad times and don't confuse your thoughts with reality.

I actually could not think of a major problem while watching that video, but I have done this multiple times with problems that I've had. I won't get into those problems but I like to think of a story that I made up one time related to this. A guy is walking along happily down a street and he keeps walking until he stubs his toe on a rock that was lying on the street from this he feels a lot of pain as this is a pretty big rock. After that he gets mad, picks up the rock and tosses it and proceeds to be mad the whole day. When he was later asked why he was so mad he blamed the rock for his anger saying the rock made him angry. Another man is walking along and also stubs his toe but this man just keeps on walking happily. Both men stubbed their toe but one got angry and the other did not, the situation didn't change but the way the situation was seen did change. When a ruler dies many people may become sad and depressed while others may rejoice, again the situation did not change just the way the situation was seen. Finally, I can think of a child going to bed that thinks there is a monster under the bed. The child will build barriers all around themselves to protect themselves from the monster even though you (as an adult or observer) know there is no monster in reality, but the child will insist that there is a monster and continue building barriers, if you look at your problem honestly you will find that it is just a monster under the bed, it does not exist in reality. If you feel like stating your problem, maybe I could give you a suggestion on how it doesn't exist in reality. Also I've been reading psycho-cybernetics recently and it basically covers this problem as well. Just remember that the problem is not really the problem, the problem is how you see the problem.

Happy Birthday Leo

Well I don't know much about relationships but I've been going through a lot of negative thoughts over the past month and I've found that practicing mindfulness (Leo has a great video on mindfulness meditation) has helped me a lot with overcoming this negativity as it helps to raise awareness of these feelings and thoughts and helps with keeping present in the moment rather than stuck in the head. So I think it would help you to get into a meditation practice for 20+ min a day. Hope this helps.

I have felt this way also and one thing that has helped me is when I am able to be in an enjoyable environment where I can have fun and enjoy myself, whether it is with people or just a place that I enjoy. I think you should look for ways to get out more because none of your activities seem to involve going anywhere. The times I feel like I don't want to do anything are always times when I am not getting out or feel like I am stuck inside my house. So I think you should find a way to enjoy yourself that gets you outside of your house.