I've been writing this healthy lifestyle column since 1976. You do the math. Fortunately, I still can, and it adds up to a big number, one I celebrate every September, the month "Energy Express" first got started in my hometown paper, the Chicago Tribune.

Sadly, that great newspaper is living on fumes now, but the growing legions of healthy lifestylers are thriving: We're living longer and stronger, eating cleaner, and — if you've made it to the As Promised Land — we Boomers are becoming more rather than less active.

Indeed, reaching for the best-but-still-affordable celebratory bottle of French champagne, I see many hopeful signs of healthy lifestyle progress: tons of new fitness and wellness magazines and websites; a jillion more women playing sports; more school lunchrooms serving healthier meals. And yes, if you're very diligent and do the research, it is now possible to find an M.D. who actually understands the link between nutrition and health. Bravo.

Looking around, I don't see many people in the mood to join in a toast. Most people I know feel they are toast, and they are burning mad at a government and a regime that has let them down.

The economy is tanking, families are suffering, the forces of change are battling the forces of change and, yes, we are caught between Iraq and that hard place known as financial instability.

No matter what side of the issue you're on, there could be issues with your health, down the line, if you don't get a handle on smart ways to react in a crisis.

— How can I stay calm while my world is in meltdown? You can, and you must, or you will begin to stumble badly. (Reference: Sarah Palin's mind-boggling Q & A with Katie Couric.) This is what I know for sure, after 30-plus years on the fitness beat: When the going gets tough, the tough must get still, using whatever calming technique or tradition you choose. One good way is yoga — does this sound at all familiar? — but I urge you to find your own path to that altered, deeply restful state. Practice some form of meditation. Use deep breathing to ease tension. Read Rumi or Robert Frost, or write poems of your own. If you don't have a plan for calming down, please get one quickly, before all the polar bears drown.

Is exercise a good way to cope with bad news? YES! I shout to the rooftops, now covered with gardens in certain enlightened cities throughout the lower 48, another hopeful sign of greener living. When bad news strikes — and it will — get thee to your favorite form of exercise. Take a long walk. Go hit some tennis balls. Buy a recumbent bike, and sweat your way through the nightly news. Studies keep proving that in times of stress, exercise is your best friend (and Krispy Kremes are your worst enemy). So get out your running shoes. Even better — bin the crucial weeks ahead — get out the vote.

— How can I keep a positive attitude? According to the new Psychology of Happiness, a person can learn to frame reality in a way that is less stressful to the body, less toxic for the heart. So consider this: Is the end of the world as we know it always a bad thing, or just the next thing? What if the next thing is something better because we have gotten rid of some of the bad guys, the bombast, the bloat? What if alternative, renewable, non-oil-based Energy Technology (dubbed ET by Tom Friedman, my choice for energy czar if Al Gore says no) really is our path back to greatness in a new global economy that rewards honest work, restrains greed and makes organic blueberries affordable to all?

Is watching Fox news bad for my health? It can be. Too much MSNBC, too. Take breaks from the news. It's the overload of media, not necessarily the message, that harms your health and can set off your own Great Depression. So get involved with your community, stay informed about the issues, but don't overdo your exposure to gloom and doom. Creating fear is an old political strategy for numbing reason, and it works way too well. Change is inevitable. Impermanence is the nature of life. Remember that great old tune — it even predates Energy Express — "accentuate the positive."

Energy Express-O! Don't Panic Revisited

"Courage is knowing what not to fear." — Plato

Marilynn Preston — fitness expert, personal trainer and speaker on healthy lifestyle issues — is the creator of Energy Express, the longest-running syndicated fitness column in the country. She welcomes reader questions, which can be sent to MyEnergyExpress@aol.com. To find out more about Preston and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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