Month: October 2018

October 23, 2018 at 05:07AM Years ago, I was among the first of my friends to get a smartphone—a big, clunky, purple BlackBerry. Being able to email, text, surf the web, and make calls from the same device made me feel like I was a superhero with the world at my fingertips—or at least somebody with urgent messages to send and receive. Thinking back, I couldn’t tell you whom I was communicating with or about what, but I know for sure that my BlackBerry made it look like I had it going on. Fast-forward to the present, and those first-date butterflies I felt with my BlackBerry have since morphed into a toxic relationship my iPhone. It’s funny how being busy (or in this case, seeming busy) on a device can make you feel important and successful. The busy trap, a still-too-relevant term writer Tim Kreider coined years ago, keeps us glued to our smartphones, caught up in our calendars, and thinking about nothing but the next thing. While the gadgets aren’t directly responsible for the chaos, they certainly don’t help; studies have even shown that an addiction to them can mimic symptoms of substance abuse. And since we cannot, for the life of us, just turn them off, we masochistically self-subscribe to get notified about those after-hours work emails, which fuels the stress that keeps us up at night and more-ominously threatens our health. A way to know the epidemic is real and really threatening? Big tech companies that have

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October 23, 2018 at 03:00AM Anyone who’s constantly on the go knows that though prioritizing recharging can require some scheduling gymnastics, taking the time is so worth it. But the simple, brilliant method Olivia Culpo uses to make this an everyday reality allows for a ton of mini breaks without compromising her ability to check off everything from her to-do list. Talk about a mental-health win, right? The model, actress, and former Miss Universe recently revealed to Byrdie there’s one easy way she recharges in the midst of getting through her jam-packed schedule: by using the Pomodoro Technique. “I definitely think taking breaks is important. There’s this new method I heard about called the Pomodoro method.” she says. “It’s basically a way to calm our minds since we’re all so overstimulated. If your attention span is short like mine, taking those breaks will help.” “[The Pomodoro Technique] is basically a way to calm our minds since we’re all so overstimulated. If your attention span is short like mine, taking those breaks will help.” —Olivia Culpo As Culpo explains it, creator Francesco Cirillo’s Pomodoro Technique is a cinch to follow: “You focus on 25 minutes of activity or work, then you take a five-minute break. Then you do another task, followed up with a five-minute break,” she says. Abiding by plan, which is essentially Tabata for your to-do list, helps her get things done while also ensuring she allows herself time to recharge. And the scheduled productivity plan can benefit your mental health, too: No matter what

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October 23, 2018 at 03:00AM Doctors and nutrition experts emphasize the importance of hydration as if you’d die without it or something. (Oh wait…) It’s the most fundamental way to lead a healthy life. Of course, while guzzling the contents of your S’well bottle is hydrating on its own, there’s a new trend emerging in the water world—and no, it has nothing to do with any of the different “types” of waters taking over the refrigerated section of the grocery store a la alkaline, hydrogen, or electrolyte. Instead, these waters are (ahem) swimming with extra benefits, from lowering anxiety with CBD to helping you sleep better with melatonin. One such newly released water with benefits is Szent, which incorporates the benefits of essential oils through a little rubber ring right under the cap. The water itself is totally plain, but tastes flavored because you’re smelling the essential oil from the ring, as you sip. “We wanted to create a flavored water without using anything artificial, Szent chief creative officer Madeleine Grandbois says. Instead of using sugar or artificial ingredients, the flavor experience is all in the nose, but you’re still experiencing some of the benefits of essential oils. Inhaling the citrusy tangerine, for example, can boost your mood while the mint flavor can help you focus. When I asked hydration expert and sports medicine professor Sandra Fowkes Godek, PhD if these essential oil waters were hype or healthy, she told me she was into the idea. “If the flavor benefit encourages someone

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