Stress

I'm the kind of person that is very prone to stress. I think too much. I anticipate trouble, so if I have a deadline, or really any kind of upcoming event (travel, exam, dentist appointment) I tend to get stressed out.

The thing is I know that I'll be doing that, but so far I haven't figured out a way to neutralize the stress. The stress often makes me feel trapped and I end up not preparing as well as I could, because I waste a good amount of time being paralyzed by stress. Why is this relevant? Next week I have a meeting with my thesis advisory committee. Basically it is a group of three faculty members that I meet with periodically and they advise me on how to proceed in my research. This is really for my benefit, but I always get stressed out thinking that I should have done more, and that now is really not a good time to have this meeting. However, afterwards, I always find these meetings helpful. I just wish I didn't stress out as much before hand and prepared better. I find that when I feel stress, I suddenly realize all the things I'm interested in/rather be doing other than the work that is causing the stress. In addition, I have a midterm in the Japanese class I'm taking on the same day! I don't think I'll have a very relaxing Thanksgiving, but on the plus side, it will all be over with in just over a week :)