How can I become more hands-on?

Practice, practice, practice.

What @marinelife said. Also, when you are putting your knowledge into practice, think of it as learning the concept, in a new way. Don’t put the pressure on yourself to have to do it perfectly, or believe that you are supposed to be doing it like a pro.

By doing just that go out and do it in the field for real. I was just talking to one of my co-workers about this and the college kids right out of college suck when it comes to the job because they have book learning. I found that true with nurses while a family member was in the Hospital the more they had hands on learning the better.

Blah, yeah, I suppose you’re right. I guess this is kind of the sister question to this question here. I have pretty bad anxiety when it comes to these “performance”-like situations and the nerves just make me suck more. Practice is probably the way to get over this. But every time I have a bad experience, it makes me more nervous for the next time and I then I do even worse. Ugh :(

Have you checked out your school’s clubs? My Community College has EPSO (Engineering and Physics Student Organization), which has a lot of student-teacher collaboration, where students will decide what they’d like to do, and teachers will give some guidance or resources. I’d bet your college will have something like that. No grades, nothing to have anxiety about, just pure practice.

You mean other than joining the TSA?
Get it? Hands on?

It sounds like you’re talking about performance anxiety. There are anti-anxiety pills. But the other thing I know that helps are mindfulness techniques. These are supported by meditation and yoga. However, in your mind, you become so attached to doing well that you drive yourself into an anxiety fit.

It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter. That’s your mantra.

Hands on is about exploration. It’s about making mistakes. That’s how you learn. Really. You can’t learn shit without experimenting.

But that’s the difference between theorists and experimentalists. Theorists can live in the world of the mind. Experimentalists have to get their hands on. You don’t live in the right world for doing experiments. Let me guess. Did you ever get muddy while a kid? Did you ever push your hands deep in the dough?

Help me out here. Find any image from your childhood where you didn’t care what you looked like. You just got so involved in what you were doing you forgot reality. That’s the image you need to keep in your head when doing experiments. That, and remembering to let go of all your anxious thoughts. They don’t help and they don’t actually matter. Piffle. Let them go. Shake your hand dismissively as you send them on their way. Literally feel the wait of those thoughts as you push them over the edge into the garbage heap.

K?

Stop segregating the two. Work the concepts into practice by applying them to the real world and see how they work.

You have already been given great advice. I read your “sister question” so I’ll consider your question from a slightly different angle.
How is your handwriting? Does it get worse under stress?
If yes, then you might have a slight stress induced tremor.
If no, then forget what I just wrote and do what everyone else said.

@wundayatta Thanks for your advice. I’ve been working on developing these mindfulness techniques. I saw a couselor at my college who helped me with this. It’s harder than it seems, at least it is for me! We also discussed the possibility of anti-anxiety medications, but I just don’t know how I feel about that right now. I know what I need to do is sort of detatch myself from the importance of the situation – even if it does matter, I need to learn to feel like it doesn’t in order to calm myself. My physics labs at school, unfortunately, seemed to do everything they could to make this as difficult as possible, between the strict 50 minute time limit and the really grumpy TA’s who made me feel like an idiot for asking questions… ugh. Same situation with my driving test; my tester was really grumpy and unfriendly and intimidating as shit; I got nervous as hell and made about every mistake in the book. I guess what I really need to do is learn how to avoid having an emotional reaction to these stressors. I need to develop a thicker skin. :(

@Sarcasm Thanks for this suggestion. It would help me a lot to be able to practice these things without the pressure. I also need to work on handling the pressure better, but it would certainly help to come into the situation with more confidence, which I could gain from having some extra practice under my belt. I’m not sure exactly what clubs my school has, but I’d also bet that there’s something suitable about there. I’ll definitely look into that when I go back.

@worriedguy My handwriting does indeed get worse when I’m nervous. My hands shake when I’m nervous, and I’ve noticed it in my physics labs and while driving; I’m sure that’s half the problem. Is there a way prevent such a physical reaction to stress? Or can I only avoid it by learning not to let these situations stress me out so badly?

If you need to do something immediately and you don’t have control over your anxiety through mindfulness techniques, a short-term anti-anxiety medication (Xanax, et al.) will do wonders for you. In 15 minutes or so, you’ll be calm enough to do what you need to do. In the beginning of my therapy, I had to take it frequently just to get to a place where I could actually do any mindfulness work at all. Once I had the most troubling symptoms under control, then I could start working on my mind and my life, you know? Don’t resist medication if you really need it.

I was in therapy for several years, and between that and medication, My life is ever so much better, now. I take a daily dose of Effexor just to keep me on an even keel, and a small dose of Xanax when the anxiety becomes a panic attack (very rarely, these days).