Meditating Before Interviews

  I am thinking about interview anxiety, and how meditation and reflection can be used to deal with the stress of interviews. Interviews are interesting in the sense that they are often considered high-stakes, meaning that nobody wants to be rejected in them, and most people want to be able to take something away from an interview such as an opportunity to occupy a position or learn something new. While watching the breath is one way of coping with pre-interview anxiety, I tend to feel that another way is to be aware that the source of the anxiety is often a sense of high self-expectation, as well as a heightened feeling of having to hide what are perceived as weaknesses in oneself. For instance, if there is a volunteer position I want to explore, I might envision or even 'embody' the sense of what an ideal candidate for the position would look like, act like or talk like. However, in doing so, I create this huge pressure in myself, and I am not allowing myself to see what experiences I actually embody based on my past. It is as though I can't possibly imagine that I have these rich resources from my personal thoughts and experiences which would be equally valid in applying myself to the position.
    I think it's hard to separate one's thoughts about who they think they should be from the reality of who they are and all the abundant wealth of experience they have. It takes a deep faith in one's own life-story, to know that how this story has unfolded has layers of interesting and complex meanings. However, I believe that there is a stillness in that knowing which can allow someone not to be overwhelmed by the thoughts of personal inadequacy that sometimes happens in the face of the unknown or new situation.