There seems to be a trend here. Illness and stress. Spending wild amounts of money and stress. The culprit behind so many of our health problems is staring us in the face. Want to cut chronic diseases and health bills? Start with stress, the crisis at the heart of the health care crisis.

The operative word here about stress is that it is a perception, also known as a thought or point of view. There are objective stressors, to be sure. But how these affect us determines our body's stress response.

De-stressing is a personal experiment in discovering what makes you calm down. So in my efforts to de-stress, I'm joining some of my colleagues in making a list of a few things I'm determined to stop stressing about.

Despite being a stage-five worrier, I try to keep my anxiety in its proper perspective. But after researching and writing a piece published earlier this week about what stress is doing to your body, I realized I still have a long way to go when it comes to handling the ever-present stress in my life.