The walking is an excellent idea. In addition to the physical and psychological benefits, it's amazing how many nice people you can meet out for a stroll. That's doubly true if you have dogs. A person out walking their dog has already passed a big measure of decency with me.

Like most of us Blue, you tend to let small things cloud all your big accomplishments. In 2009 you earned permission to continue your doctoral research. How many people do you think achieved something as amazing as that? I also seem to remember something about a super cool concert in London. Wow!

Rather than making some New Year's resolution that only stresses you out, how about writing a list of the ten greatest things about you? (If you say you can't think of ten things (slap), we'll do it for you. The hardest part will be paring it down from a thousand.) Put that list by your bed so it's the first thing you see in the morning. Better yet, write it in luminous ink so you can see it in the night when our deepest insecurities seem to grab hold under cover of darkness.

Keeping what is positive and REAL in the forefront of our thoughts can help beat down the negative things we speculate might happen.

Cheers