Ever wake up feeling anxious, worried, down, or depressed?  Hello!

Approximately 20 million Americans are taking anti-depressants–and that number doesn’t include anti-anxiety medications and sleeping pills.

As for the cause of our collective angst, just about anything can trigger it–financial worries, stress about work, health problems, an accident of fate, phantoms from the past, relationship “issues,”or even rainy weather. And very often, there’s no reason at all, for moods are unpredictable, fluctuating for reasons even a forensic psychiatrist may never explain.

But like the weather, our emotional storm clouds do come–and then go. But rather than being a slave to our moods, and reactive to them, there is, I’ve discovered, a reliable and FAST way to turn a dark mood into a bright one. It’s a remedy that’s better than Prozac, and something I do every day that lifts me up when I’m down.

I learned this technique from my great friend TONY ROBBINS–the master of peak performance who teaches how anyone can create a resourceful, powerful energy state that can propel you forward toward your greatest potential rather than remaining fixated on problems, worries, and limitations.

 I can’t tell you how many mornings I’ve awakened with a down mood or a sense of unexplainable dread or worry–and Tony’s three-part solution to negative moods ALWAYS works, so I thought I’d share it with you today.

It’s really simple: Change THREE things–physiology, focus, and language–AND CHANGE YOUR LIFE.

For me, first and foremost, the secret to lifting me up is changing my body state, i.e. physiology. So the first thing I do every morning is: stretching, sit-ups, push-ups, twenty minutes on the treadmill, then twenty laps in the pool and a few minutes in the 103-degree whirlpool. I often follow this with biking outside on the Esplanade at home here in Battery Park City. Trust me–after I’ve been running, biking, and swimming, and felt the breeze of the day against me when I’m outside–those negative moods are swept away. And it’s a lot faster than Prozac! This ALWAYS works. Hydrating is also key, as most of us don’t drink enough water. Then after the physical exercise, I always have a smoothie–apples, pineapple, raspberries, and blueberries, with a white-egg omelette or whole grain cereal. I mention all this because each of these things I’m doing is dramatically changing my body state, my physiology. And inevitably, I always feel energized and ready to tackle the day.

On another day, I’ll explain in more detail about focus and language, but in a nutshell, what we focus on is what we feel. Your focus equals your reality. Two people can experience the exact same challenge. One feels amused, one is enraged. The only difference between the two people is what they focus on, what they imagined in their heads. And both experience immediate feelings of strength or weakness in their bodies.

If I focus on all my problems, I’M a problem! So I try to focus my attention on the positive actions I can take to turn my life in the direction I want it to go. When I’m outside, I focus on the beauty of the environment here–the Hudson River, the parade of dogs and interesting people, the sailboats, the trees and flowers, the Statue of Liberty, you name it. Once I’m focused on something positive outside the space of my own head, I feel MUCH better, and again, this you can’t get in a pill.

Finally, the language we use inside our heads–how we talk to ourselves–has everything to do with how we feel. It’s been said that we all have about 65,000 thoughts each day–but the problem is that we tend to have the SAME 65,000 thoughts today as we had yesterday. Like a tape that loops endlessly over and over again, we need to change our thoughts, direct them, and use words that will help us create new futures, rather than self-defeating statements that keep us focused on the past. As the great WAYNE DYER has often told me: “The most important thing a person can do to erase fear and access power is repeating these five key words: I WANT TO FEEL GOOD! This is the same thing as saying: I want to feel spirit, I want to be in harmony with the source of well-being.”

So just for today, that’s where I leave you….I want to feel good, and I hope you do too.