Advice: Take a break from what you should do and do what you want

KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
Job worries, terrorism threats, inflation and a technology explosion all contribute to a stressful American life. Do you have to give up carbs? Can you give up smoking? How do you vote? We're definitely in chaos.
Enter here a New York writer with an answer. Michael Flocker has written The Hedonism Handbook: Mastering the Lost Arts of Leisure and Pleasure (De Capo Press, $12.95).
The author of last year's eyebrow raiser, "The Metrosexual Guide to Style," Flocker maintains that it's OK to stop trying to fit 50 things into 30 minutes. Take a break from the self-proclaimed gurus telling you how to eat, exercise and exist.
Flocker's mantra is, "Eat, drink, be merry" for who knows what happens tomorrow.
He cites the American Psychological Association, saying that 43 percent of adults suffer ill effects from stress and that stress costs American industry more than $300 billion a year.
He offers some appealing ways to ease the tense structure of your life. Find a park bench and sit. Stare at the stars from a hammock. Walk without direction. Lose the television.
He suggests small changes, not going wild. "There's a lot of wiggle room between an Amish dinner and a pool party at Caligula's place," Flocker writes.