Day: March 17, 2019

March 17, 2019 at 01:25PM by CWC A few weeks ago I started a new morning routine. Since I primarily work from home and can set my own hours on most days, I decided to live the (self-care) dream with my ideal morning routine. The idea was to do it for a month, and narrow down from there. Let me say up front: I had been compiling ideas for a long time.  So it was kind of a ridiculously long list. But in the spirit of experimentation, I fully I believed I would be able to do all of them for a solid month, since I’d gotten good results from all of them individually. Spoiler: It lasted eight days. And in that time I kind of wrecked my life—or at least my sleep schedule, which took a hit because I had to find time somewhere for all these extra to-do’s. This was my regimen: • Wake up and do a quick body-scan meditation. Do a “thank you” morning mantra, saying (out loud) everything I’m grateful for. 10 minutes. • Journal longhand for three pages, using The Artist’s Way method of writing “morning pages.” 20 minutes. • Clean up morning mouth by using a tongue scraper, then oil pulling with coconut oil for 15 minutes. Brush teeth. 10 minutes. • Drink 8–12 ounces of water and head out for a workout. 90 minutes. • Make the post-workout smoothie of my dreams: some kind of combo with greens, bananas, cacao, maca, and plant-based protein. 20

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March 17, 2019 at 09:47AM by CWC While you’re not going to find a lot of double-blind peer-reviewed studies to chart “bad vibes,” it’s a concept that almost everyone understands. You walk into a room, and it feels off. You spend time with someone whose negativity seems like it’s created a dark cloud that follows you home. Or maybe you’re the one who needs to get rid of “negative energy” attached to you and you just want to lighten things up somehow—physically, mentally, and emotionally. It’s definitely possible, according to people who believe in an energetic fields—which is the basis of the chakra system in Ayurveda and the energy meridians that Traditional Chinese Medicine manipulates with techniques like acupuncture. “We all feel and respond, to each others’ vibrations, even if we’re not aware of it,” says Bridget Ambrose, an energy medicine healer who has studied reiki and craniosacral therapy. Both use light touch to reputedly help balance your energetic field to boost health and offer a feeling of well-being. According to Ambrose, “negative” energy is used to describe a lower, denser vibration—and it may feel like exhaustion, overwhelm, anger, helplessness, and even jealousy. It can also come in the form of addiction to worry, feelings of fear, suppressed anger, says Alyson Charles, a New York-based shaman and energy healer known as the “RockStar Shaman.” “When anger is continuously suppressed and not healthily expressed it can morph into deep resentments, unconscious sabotaging behaviors, etc., like when someone is trying to manipulate you

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March 17, 2019 at 05:00AM by CWC Whenever I’m making my arounds in the gym, there are certain workout tools I see people using that always impresses me. There are battle ropes, which make you look like a badass prepping for a superhero movie. Assault bikes, which just seem really advanced and intimidating. And then there’s the ubiquitous yet mysterious Bosu balls. I’m sure you’ve seen them around—they look like those big bouncy balls that you do crunches on, but chopped in half and attached to a flat base. If you’re like me, though, you just kind of gape at them as if they’ve been implanted into the gym by aliens… and then proceed to ignore them. This is a mistake: Trainers strongly advise getting to know them, because Bosu balls can be your new stability-building BFF. “The Bosu ball is a piece of fitness equipment that’s used for balance and stability training,” explains Tiffani Hendin, obé fitness instructor. “I love it because it can be added to so many simple exercises to make them even more challenging and effective.” It’s all about stability training, which is essential in a robust workout routine. “Stability is a very important part of a strong, healthy body, and the Bosu ball allows that to be incorporated in so many different ways,” says Hendin. “Working with an unstable surface [like a Bosu ball] is incredibly effective by recruiting more muscles and leveling up moves that your body has possibly gotten used to. Balancing works

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March 17, 2019 at 04:17AM by CWC Intro tktk So, New Year’s Day was January 1. Lunar New Year kicked off February 4. But we’re not done with new beginnings yet! The astrological new year (when we start Aries season, the first sign in the zodiac) is coming up. And in honor of this fresh start, we’ve given Cosmic Health a bit of a makeover—to reflect the fact that astrology is not only crazy popular, it is creating increasingly sophisticated readers who can talk retrogrades and a rising suns with the best of them. Here, astrologer Jennifer Racioppi gives you an extra in-depth look at the whole week rather than day-by-day guidance, delving deeper into the cosmic conditions shaping the next few days (and giving you lots of fodder for celestial chats with your astro-obsessed pals). Mercury is in retrograde until March 28, and as trickster Mercury continues to retrace its steps in Pisces this week, depths of old emotions are being drudged up—asking you to release that which you no longer need (perhaps through yet another cathartic cry). On March 20 at 5:58 p.m. Eastern, the sun exits the sign of the fish, entering into Aries. Yes! With the sun moving into a cardinal fire sign, initiating a new season and kicking off a fresh zodiacal start, the length of day and night equalize. From an astrological perspective, the sun’s entrance into Aries reignites the zodiac. Ironically though, this year, it also happens to coincide with the sun and moon opposing one

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