Linda asked me to post this. Various versions of this have helped students in the past.
This is a useful technique for dealing with anxiety and stress. Everyone has been afflicted with anxiety, so you know that getting it to "go away" isn't easy.
If you just deal with the stress and anxiety as it occurs, you'll get better at it over time. A lot of that comes from being unsure of what you are doing and from wanting to do well. That's normal. Don't let it worry you or bother you. Anxiety and worry never help. They just make us feel terrible and interfere with what we're trying to accomplish.
A good trick is to make anxiety a "person" and address it by name, dismissing it from your life. Find him something else to do! "OK, Mr. Anxiety, I see that you are here again. This is obviously a clue that I'm feeling stressed out. I really need to avoid worrying and stressing right now. Maybe later, I can spend some quality time with you, but not right now.
"I don't want you to feel like your efforts are wasted, so I've found this great project for you to do." Think of something Mr. Anxiety can do to serve a productive purpose and fill up a lot of time, like this: "Up at the intersection of ____ and ____ streets, there are a lot of accidents. I think it's because people aren't watching carefully. If you were to go there and help them watch, it would really help things. OK, you're going now? Good! That's great! That's a really BIG project, so I won't expect you back for several days. No! Don't worry about me! I'll be fine."
Other useful projects can be watching over children crossing streets at schools and -- one of my favorites -- checking the expiration dates on packages in the grocery store. Mr. Anxiety and Ms. Stress can spend unlimited amounts of time checking those dates. When they're done, there are oodles of other stores to check, too.
Just don't give him an assignment to worry about termites in your walls or ptomaine in your fridge. You want him out where his services will really be appreciated!
Try it. It does work.