Month: November 2018

November 12, 2018 at 02:10PM There’s an old (scientifically proven!) trick for quelling your anxiety: Become totally immersed in something tedious that requires full concentration—a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle, the New York Times crossword, some tricky embroidery. Now, new research adds an old-school arcade game to that list of centering activities: Yep, your phone—AKA a major cause of anxiety—can actually help make you feel better…if you’re using it to play Tetris. A review of three studies, published in the journal Emotion, found that adults who were anxiously awaiting news (in one study, Bar exam results; in another, a job offer) experienced greater well-being during this nerve-wracking time after entering a flow state. (The concept of flow was coined by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, PhD, who describes it as “the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter.”) In the third study, 309 undergraduates were tasked with playing Tetris while they waited for their peers to rate their physical attractiveness (uhh, worst nightmare?). The game was shown to help the students to enter a state of flow and, just like in the first two studies, participants reported an increase in positive emotions and a decrease in negative emotions. While you might be rejoicing in a new justification for your Two Dots addiction (just me?), you do want to remain mindful of your screen time, which can have a negative impact on your health, including your sleep quality. So, switch up your flow-inducing activities by unplugging and

Read More

November 12, 2018 at 01:00PM As much as I want pristine skin, I also want to stay up late watching an irresponsible amount of the Sabrina reboot on Netflix and sleep in the next morning for as long as humanly possible. The 10-step Korean skin-care routine has cult status and adoration for obvious reason (ahem: results) but it also feels like it requires you to be a very chipper morning person, with plenty of time at hand (which to be clear, I am not and do not). Thankfully young Korean skin-care gurus have heard the lazy girl’s cry for a routine that delivers the same results but with less of a time investment, and it’s cleverly been named “skip-care.” Skip-care, explains Byrdie, is all about streamlining your routine and removing steps without sacrificing any of the ingredients or properties that are imperative to your hydrated and supple skin goals. “Skip-care is a skincare method that allows you to identify the essential ingredients for your skin and avoid the use of unnecessary products for a simpler, yet proper, skincare routine,” a member of the Amore Pacific team told Byrdie. AKA: It’s about asking your products to do more so you can do less. Ahhhh, the lazy girl’s dream! To do this, beauty brands, especially those in the K-beauty space, are consolidating offerings: For example, they’re offering an essence (step 7) that is also a moisturizer (step 8), or a moisturizer that also has your vitamin C serum in it.  This is a burgeoning part of the

Read More

November 12, 2018 at 11:31AM Odds are, if you’re reading this right now, you’re probably really, really stressed. No, I’m not psychic, but I’ve got the receipts: Recently, Well+Good conducted a survey of nearly 2,500 readers about stress and anxiety and—spoiler alert—almost every single person who took it experiences both. Ninety-five percent of survey takers say they’re stressed out, and 91 percent say they experience anxiety. But here’s the thing: While a lot of people said that they talk about their stress and anxiety, a fair amount (nearly 20 percent!) said they did not. And of those people who choose to stay silent, one in five said it was because they felt their struggles weren’t “a big deal.” Many others said they were too “embarrassed” to talk about those issues as well. It seems that when stress and anxiety are talked in general, it’s obvious that they’re serious issues. (How many times have you heard that stress can literally kill you?) But when it comes to our own personal experiences, a lot of us just assume it’s something everyone just has to deal with on their own. What’s up with that? Photo: Stocksy/Lauren Naefe Fear of opening up “One reason why I think people minimize stress and anxiety is because it feels better—at least initially—to downplay it rather than acknowledge it,” says integrative psychotherapist Alison Stone, LCSW. “We have grown, collectively, to use avoidance and distraction as preferred coping mechanisms to actually sitting in our discomfort.” Another reason why many people

Read More

November 12, 2018 at 11:15AM What if I told you that there was a food that could help you fight stress and depression, boost your energy, and possibly make your sex life mind-blowing—with almost zero side effects? If you’re feeling a little skeptical…yeah, you should. That’s essentially what people are saying about the superfood maca (no, not matcha), a cruciferous vegetable native to Peru that’s classified as an adaptogen—one of those buzzy herbs that are said to help your body fight stress and achieve homeostasis. People roast it, add the powder to smoothies, or make it into a fermented beverage called “maca chicha.” But there’s one catch… There hasn’t been that much research on maca, period, including its benefits, and a 2014 review of maca benefits found that more clinical study is needed to definitively know and understand the root’s perks. Many of the studies that do exist have been really small (as in, only performed on a handful of people) or were only performed on mice or rats (meaning the results can’t necessarily directly relate to people, since our bodies are very different). So all of that is to say: While maca has some promising benefits, take all of the below with a grain of salt. Keeping reading for the purported benefits of maca—and to see how the science stacks up Getty Images/Solstock 1. It may boost your libido (and help with fertility) Maca shows a lot of promise in the bedroom. Researchers from the psychiatry department at Massachusetts General

Read More