Year: 2019

May 08, 2019 at 02:00AM by CWC The other day, I was driving across town, listening to an old Spotify mix, when a song came on that reminded me of a former boyfriend. I immediately drifted into a mental montage of all the great times we had together—beach bike rides, art projects on his kitchen floor, buying the weirdest stuff we could find at the flea market. But my nostalgic haze went *poof* when my mind eventually landed on the defining memory of our relationship: the time I found out he cheated on me early in our relationship. I know. You might think that’d be the first thing I recall when I think about this particular guy. But, no—I, like so many others, perpetually view my past experiences as happier than they actually were. Once a period of my life is over, it’s like my mind automatically Facetunes it, blurring out any imperfections and bathing it in a hazy, soft-focus glow. The good times stay sharp, while the bad times blur into the background. Admittedly, none of my bad times were that bad to begin with—I’m not talking about serious trauma here, just the regular ups and downs of life. But still, what’s that all about? The psychology behind seeing memories through rose-colored glasses According to cognitive behavioral therapist and psychologist Jennifer Guttman, PsyD, there are a few things at play when we romanticize the past. For one, she says, this kind of thinking is a hallmark of a glass-half-full

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May 07, 2019 at 04:00PM by CWC Things you never thought would make a comeback but did: low-rise jeans, Roseanne, and spring colds. (Oh, you thought colds were only a winter thing? Guess again.) There’s just something that much worse about having to stay inside when it’s nice out—planting the seeds for a person (definitely not me!) searching desperately various ways to kick their sniffles to the curb so they can still make it to outdoor brunch. Enter: the rumor that you can actually “sweat out a cold.” There’s a biological reason why colds make you feel like garbage. “When viruses infect, they invade normal cells throughout your body and use those cells to replicate. This can kill, damage, or change the cells and make you feel sick,” explains Elizabeth Targan, MD, primary care physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. What happens next is that you might get a fever—yep, even with a cold, but it’s typically a low-grade fever—which is your body’s way of supercharging your immune system to fight off the virus. (It also helps hinder the virus’ ability to replicate, says Dr. Targan.) When you have a fever, your core temp rises, and you sweat. That’s why there’s all this chatter about “sweating out” a cold. If fevers are actually helpful, proponents claim, then on could theoretically shake off their illness faster by heating up the body through other means (like exercise or stepping into a sauna). The reality is a bit of a bummer: “There

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