Don't blow it off, suck it up, shake it off, or rub dirt on it, hoping it will go away. Laugh-away your stress.

Save your heart, your circulatory system, your endocrine system, your immune system, and your neurotransmitters, laughing out loud, laughing outrageously, laughing raucously, and chuckling from the bottom of your belly. Belt-out a good guffaw now and then for the sake of good health and long life.

If you don't laugh as loud and as frequently as doctors suggest, your veins, arteries, and capillaries will constrict. Not funny. Your adrenalin and cortisol will skyrocket from accumulated stress. Definitely not funny. You put yourself at-risk of high blood pressure and heart disease, and you also increase your risk of clinical depression, which decidedly are not funny.

Reduce stress and boost your health. Laugh. And when laughter doesn't work, laugh some more.

Follow the Nurses' Example

Nurses know how stress kills; they have stories to tell. Better, they have jokes. Surgical nurses have greater command of "gallows humor" than any ten Vegas comedians. They especially love making jokes about arrogant new doctors. When the situation normally would make you sob with sorrow, you must make a joke of it. This one's a classic, one of the very very few clean ones: 'Guy comes in for by-pass surgery. New doctor by-passes the guy's heart and goes straight for his prostate'. In the right moment, that joke makes a team of nurses roll on the floor with laughter.

Chill! Put It in a Different Light.

A very old song by Destiny's Child chorused, "Change your mind, and your heart will follow," and physiology proves just how completely and literally Beyonce's and the girls' words captured the absolute truth. You always have a choice, you choose either to control your situation, or to let the situation control you. When you feel most completely trapped, let it go.

Two comedy routines help keep minor set-backs and stresses minor. First, take it to its most absurd and illogical consequences. Seriously and deliberately blow it out of proportion and discover just how ridiculous it is. Turn the bad day to a complete disaster as if it were an episode of 'I Love Lucy''. Picture it. Play the movie of it in your head. Crack yourself up.

Second, imagine the source of your stress can engage you in dialogue. You know you talk to your office machines all the time, imagine they can talk back. The Xerox machine frequently tells me, 'Yes, Holly, I jammed on purpose just to spite you when you need me most. I'm just evil that way. Ha-ha-ha.'"

Work It

Your sense of humor needs a daily work-out just like every other muscle in your body. The more you strengthen your sense of humor, the more you boost your immune system, improve your respiration and circulation, and build your defenses against depression. You cannot believe it is an accident that late night talk show hosts come from the comedy circuit: good laughs release many of the same endorphins good sex releases, and together they give the soothing, calming relief of two valium. Just as importantly, recruit friends who share your sense of humor.