For the stressed, too-busy woman -- I know that I have a lot of stressed-out women on my holiday list. My wonderful friend Maryam Webster has written a book with dozens of helpful exercises and techniques to combat stress and recharge the woman's soul. The book is an easy read and everyone on my holiday list is getting a copy. The book is aptly titled Everyday Bliss for Busy Women: Energy Balancing Secrets for Complete Health and Vitality. I love this book and I can speak first hand of the effectiveness of the techniques inside. This book is a treasure that any woman on your holiday gift list would be grateful for.

A magazine I read a couple months ago had a page about carving out me time, specifically, about creating and writing a bliss list -- special treats for yourself designed to help you automatically have more energy. The piece stems from a book called, "Everyday Bliss for Busy Women: Energy Balancing Secrets for Complete Health & Vitality,"Maryam Webster. Webster is the director of The Energy Coach Institute. I saw another book out recently by energy coach Kimberly Kingsley.

These little things that bring me happiness, though, are easy to fit into a day, especially once I start getting up earlier to beat the toddler clock.

Here's my list.

1. Chocolate
2. A crisp, clean Chardonnay
3. A sweet Riesling
4. Sitting outside on a quiet morning
5. Nature walking
6. Yoga to energizing, but relaxing music -- or with my girls
   
7. Clean sheets
8. Daydreaming
9. Meditation
10. Planning just about anything
11. Browsing bookstores -- used and new
12. This candle
13. Take out and a video with hubby (if he doesn't fall asleep!)
14. Listening to music
15. Going to bed early

How long do the benefits of your yoga practice last? Until you walk into that first business meeting of the day, during the commute to work just as you hit a traffic snag, the moment before your child has his/her first tantrum of the day, right before your teacher announces that you have a very big assignment due tomorrow? Let's face it -- life can be challenging. And habits can be hard to break. Sometimes the peace and bliss of that 20, 30, 60, or 90 minutes of yoga just doesn't get us through the day. My question is -- who says that you have to relegate your yoga to one specific time slot during the day?

I use my yoga constantly throughout my day -- it doesn't end when I step off the mat. Just before writing this I was engaging in some deep yogic breathing to calm my rising ire towards my slow as molasses computer. If you've lost that yoga feeling and you want to get it back, try incorporating one -- or all -- of these yoga breaks into your daily routine.

• Waiting for a bus - use the bus sign as a wall to stretch those tight achilles tendons in an arm-supported Warrior Pose.
  
  
• When sitting down for the first few minutes, allow the top of your body to drape over your thighs and touch the floor. See how long you can stretch your torso forward, out and down.
  
  
• When rising from your chair, take no more than a minute or two to do tadasana - mountain pose - by standing tall and decompressing your spine and ribs upward. Stretch arms up and reach for the sky until you feel/hear your joints strain slightly. Then back off and into an easy hold.
  
  
• When you're picking up something you dropped on the floor, get all the way down on your hands and knees into Virasana, or Hero's Pose for a few moments, then down into Balasana, or Child's Pose. Relax there for a minute before picking up your dropped object.