by Marisa Conrad, REDBOOK

Shutting down stress and boosting your mood can be as simple as getting dressed in the morning. Try these tweaks to your daily routine to leave your inner Negative Nancy in the dust.

Related: 5 Dresses Every Woman Should Own

1. STRIKE A POSE
Your neighbor yammers nonstop about her yoga class, but is it really more calming than your treadmill time? Most definitely. A new study from Boston University found that people who twisted, toe-touched, and tree-posed three days a week felt more positive and less anxious than those who walked for the same amount of time. Why? The combination of focus, slow breathing, and stretching make you feel relaxed and loose. For free yoga workouts, try the Yogamazing podcast on iTunes, or try our favorite moves at redbookmag.com/exercisevideos.

Related: REDBOOK'S Top Beauty Products for 2011

2. GET SOME LOVIN'
If you or your guy are prone to anxiety or a temper, having sex more often may make you both happier, a study in Read More »from 4 Fast and Free Ways to Get in a Better Mood

Whether you're after gorgeous color, a bombshell blowout, or overall superhealthy locks, stylists know the tricks to get you there. Here, they reveal their top must-try tips.

By Kelly Thore

1) Find a shampoo that lathers less. Sudsy doesn't necessarily mean clean-sometimes, it means the opposite. Shampoos that lather too much are often overloaded with moisturizing products, which can leave build-up in your hair, making it look and feel dirtier quicker. So opt for a sulfate-free formula.

Related: How to Rehab Your Limp Locks and Split Ends

2) Give your locks a burst of cold. Before you hop out of the shower, turn the cold water on for a second and quickly rinse it through your strands. It helps seal the cuticle, adding a sleek finish to your locks.

3) Play hot-and-cold as you dry. When using a round brush to dry your hair in sections, start from the roots and dry all the way to the ends, letting the brush linger at the tips of your strands. Let your hair cool off like this on

Read More »from 10 Salon Hair Tips You've Never Heard Before

It's official: America is taking back the lunch hour. According to our polls, one in two Americans eats a homemade lunch every weekday, and the number of women carrying in has spiked 33 percent in 10 years. The savings we reap ($79 a month, according to a survey of our foodie friends) sure doesn't hurt. But health may be the biggest driver behind the make-at-home trend. "Twenty years ago there wasn't so much enthusiasm for adding healthy ingredients into our diets," says Harry Balzer, chief industry analyst for NPD Group, a consumer market research firm. "We were only focused on subtracting the bad things." Now it's a balance: Experts are seeing more made-from-scratch dishes, fewer fatty cold cuts and processed cheeses, and increasing amounts of fresh fruit (it's the most popular lunch ingredient in women's bags).

Here are a few other trends:

TREND #1: You're Savvy About Salads

• Sixty-four percent of Americans are changing what they eat for health's sake, according to a survey from the

Read More »from Is this you? Lunch survey: One in two Americans eats homemade every weekday

By Guest Blogger LeeAnn Dance of Back in Force

Leslie Simpson missed working. The Massachusetts mother of two boys had quit her job at a small design firm after her first was born and had been home for two years when she first felt the yearning. By year four, the yearning had morphed.

"I was becoming really anxious and really depressed," Simpson says. "I loved being a mother, but it was that isolation."

Her tipping point was an afternoon husband-griping session with a group of fellow stay-at-home moms.

"I felt like I was in a chicken coop," the 49-year-old Simpson recalls. "I said something about when I go back to work, and one of the women looked at me and said, 'Go back to work? Well then, why did you have children?'"

Simpson felt more isolated than ever. And she developed a habit.

"I would sit in the parking lot and read Working Mother," Simpson says. "It became my dirty little magazine."

The primary motivator for returning to work, according to a 2005 study

Read More »from Are You Ready to Re-enter the Workforce? A "Relauncher" tells her story

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