Stressed? Ask Yourself Three Vital Questions

The only time you have no stress is when you're dead. So you have to have some stress, but it doesn't have to age you. How you doin' on that? Ask yourself:

• Are you living life from (a) fear or (b) passion?
• Are you playing life to (a) avoid losing or (b) win?
• Are your goals based on (a) preserving the status quo or (b) achieving growth?

If you answered (a) to any of those questions, it may mean you're not enjoying life's journey and you're making choices that are causing the kind of stress that's aging and exhausting. Use these strategies to have more vitality than a first-grade classroom with a Ritalin shortage:

• Draw a little box with an amoeba inside (you know, one of those blob-like, single-celled organisms). The amoeba should fill up 70% of the box but also go outside of the box. The box is your job. The amoeba is you. The empty spots in the box are where you often focus all of your effort, but perhaps you should focus more on the part of the amoeba that's outside the box.

• Withhold judgment. Pick a day to live without judging -- yourself or others. Yes, stay neutral, even about the twerp in the next cube who has a gas problem or the dog walker who lets her poodles pee on your begonias.

• Eat right. In a nutshell: Just say no to saturated or trans fats, added simple sugars or syrups, and grains that aren't 100% whole. Say yes to colorful fruit and veggies and to foods rich in omega-3s (walnuts, canola oil, lots of fish).

• Get moving. Do at least 30 minutes of physical activity -- walking is fine -- every day.

• Do all of the above for 2 weeks. If you don't feel better -- happier, more alive -- stuff this in the toilet. But if you do feel better, keep it up for life. We bet your toilet won't get stuffed up.