AVOID THAT HOLIDAY STRESS
Here's another way to do it:
"Get a helper's high. A recent study shows that people who were asked to perform a different kind act every day—small courtesies such as helping a neighbor shovel her walk—reported a marked increase in happiness after 10 days. Whether you do it with money or time, giving is good for you. "Helping others increases your own level of gratefulness and positive emotions," says Sheela Raja, PhD, a psychologist and stress researcher at the University of Illinois."

TODAY'S HERO
The reason why is pretty obvious:
"As Doug Powell plodded, exhausted, through the final miles of Ironman Wisconsin in September, other racers kept shouting out to him. Not the usual "You can do it" or "Keep going," but "Thanks" and "You're such an inspiration."  Powell is almost completely blind. The 60-year-old Falls Church resident did the 140.6-mile swim-bike-run in 16 hours, six minutes, tethered to a sighted racer.
"At first I was embarrassed," Powell told me the other day. But later he realized that "I've touched something in other people that they resonate with."  Think about how exhausting and mentally taxing it would be for any of us to train for such an event, and then add the obstacles Powell had to overcome. Anytime he wanted to train on the road, on a bike or in open water, he needed a sighted partner, someone willing and able to go hours at his pace. This was not infrequent; Powell logged two one-hour training sessions a day for the better part of a year, plus a long run or bike ride every Saturday.  When last winter's snowstorms hit, Powell logged an unbelievable four-hour session on his treadmill and 71/2 hours on a bicycle trainer. The commitment needed to train for the race was so great that he missed a memorial service when his wife's father passed away.  I ventured that it is impossible to come through such an experience without some sort of epiphany, and Powell, an athlete all his life, said the year "reinforced that I will do what it takes. I don't think I could have said that about myself for all of my life.  "I don't think I've changed," he added, "other than I've done something that no one can take away from me."