You might have math anxiety.

Math Anxiety is a feeling of worry or uneasiness that interferes with the ability to do math.

It's been shown to decrease working memory, which is a part of your short term memory that holds information while solving problems.

So math anxiety doesn't just make you feel nervous.

It can actually hurt your math performance.

This could make your anxiety worse, creating a loop that's hard to break out off.

But the good news is you can break out of the cycle.

Here are five tips to help.

Write about your anxiety.

Studies have shown that people who wrote about their frustrations and worries before taking a math test actually performed better.

Strengthen your foundation.

Math often builds on a set of basic skills like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

Practice a little every day to build your confidence.

Show all of your work.

Because math anxiety takes away working memory.

The more you can write down, the less your brain has to hold.

This can also help you check your work once you're finished.

Relieve stress.

Anxiety can also cause physical symptoms like shortness of breath and increased heart rate.

Combat these physical symptoms by practicing meditation or breathing exercises.

Think positive.

Math Anxiety is mostly built on the worry that you won't be able to do the math.

Therefore, self efficacy or the belief that you can do something is a counter-effect.

Ditch phrases like I'm not good at math and replace them with.

I can do this.

Everyone encounters math at some point, so it's important not to let Math Anxiety hold you back.

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