stress management

Everyday stresses can dampen anyone's mood. But don't let the stress get to you too much — you may be shortening your life if you do so.

A gerontologist says that his longest-living patients are the ones that know how to take life's stresses and roll with the punches. Even though they've experienced their share of setbacks in their long lives (like losing loved ones and health scares), they've been able to maintain a positive disposition, which translates to years living longer: a study found that those who had negative perception about aging had more than a seven-year difference between the length of their lives and their happier counterparts.

While it is easier said than done, the ability to adapt a happier outlook is a good idea for your health. Want some suggestions on how to do so? Check them out after the break.

If you're the type that clings onto your pillow for dear life when Monday rolls around, try getting up a little earlier tomorrow to beat the Monday blues. If you have more time in the morning, you will feel relaxed when you're getting ready for work.

Make your cup of coffee, enjoy the beginnings of the morning, and take your time getting to work without feeling a sense of urgency. Get a fresh start to a work day, and you might just feel a big difference!

It's not the product that makes the company, it's the people behind the firm. Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel said recently at a Commonwealth Club talk that the "main success of Google and Facebook [is] probably hiring of talented people. [It's] more the people than the specific products." However, success is not just monetary — it's also the overall happiness of a work environment, and who you interact with on a daily basis can contribute to that.

If you're struggling to make sense of why you're so unsatisfied with work, take a look around you. Are you surrounded by negative people who drain your energy? You can try to have a more positive approach to them, and it might just make a difference. After all, positivity breeds positivity. Little things like doing a favor for your co-workers without expecting anything in return or being more vocal about expressing gratitude can help.

And if you find yourself engaged in nasty office politics, use these tips to maintain workplace harmony. It also helps to realize that you don't have to be BFFs with everyone at your office, and maintaining pleasant professional relationships is OK, too. Of course, it's icing on the cake if you have a close confidant at work, but don't fret about it if you don't.

If you're like me, you may constantly find yourself tackling never-ending to-do lists. I think one of the worst drawbacks of a to-do list is that it becomes entrenched in your mind — you're always thinking about what you have left to do and that can take a toll on you. For example, sometimes I can't help thinking about it when I'm in bed, and that leaves me restless.

The solution to reducing the stress of a to-do list is to counter it with a do-not-do list. Russell Bishop, a life coach, gave some great advice on Huffington Post: at the end of each day or work week, not only should you cross out the items you have accomplished, but you should also mark that you're not going to do the remaining tasks for the rest of the night or weekend. Writing it off on your list will help to give your mind a mental break from the to-do list. This is such a savvy, yet simple tip — do you have more ideas on how to better manage a to-do list?

During the Samantha Brown interview for our Dream Job series, Sam shared with us her tips for de-stressing. I imagine it must be tough to be constantly traveling, especially if you're doing it 250 days out of a year like she is. Here's what she had to say:

"I would say a good night’s sleep is imperative for me. I need at least seven hours and if I don’t get seven hours I start to get really cranky. Also, eating well is a part of maintaining stress. If I can’t find good food to eat. I rarely eat fast food, I’ll go to grocery stores and buy bags of green and just eat them raw. I love vegetables and vegetables just make me feel healthy and they give me a lot more stamina and the endurance I need to do my job. I also usually walk wherever I travel to. I go for long, I mean, four or five hour walks when I have the time. If we’re shooting, I don’t have that time, but on my day off, I rarely have an itinerary. I don’t have a list of things I have to do because that’s my work schedule. On my days off, I’ll just walk through the city and go where the day takes me. I rarely refer to travel books or guides or magazines. I just go where my heart takes me, which I think is a really important element in travel that I think rarely people bring to their travel. Everyone has a very set itinerary and all these dos and don’ts and really you should just kind of wander and get that childlike discovery to get that feel of what it’s like to have that childlike discovery again.

Love her tips? Read our exclusive interview with Samantha, the woman who has our ultimate dream job!

I can't exactly unwind with a bubble bath at work, so when I'm feeling a little stressed at my desk, I like to take a few minutes to listen to some music or take a few deep breaths. My friends recommend taking a quick moment to watch some hilarious YouTube clips, and they will often share them with me. I admit, there's nothing like a laugh to relieve my stress. Do you have any savvy ways of preventing yourself from feeling overwhelmed on the job?

A new study published this month in the Journal of Neuroscience, reports findings that confirm what we may have long suspected — when it comes to stress, men and women respond differently. Using functional MRI to monitor the brain activity in healthy men and women, the research revealed that men's and women's brains process stress in different ways, which in turn, influences how their bodies process chronic diseases like depression and heart disease.

After men and women were shown "stress-triggering" images, their brains were scanned. Women were scanned both at the start of their menstrual cycle and again during ovulation. Now this is interesting — for men, the brain activity in response to stress was similar when compared to the brain activity of women who were at the start of their menstrual cycles. But stress levels were higher in men when compared to women who were ovulating. Ahh . . . the magic of ovulation. According to the study's author, Jill Goldstein, scientists "found that women have been endowed with a natural hormone capacity to regulate the stress response in the brain that differs from men."

Ladies, do you notice that you feel calmer and less stressed in the middle of your cycle when you're ovulating?