September 26, 2019 at 01:00PM by CWC Truth: We all complain about our jobs at some point throughout the day (whether you’re annoyed with your workload, your boss, or the less-than-stellar snack situation in the office kitchen). While letting out some steam is totally normal—and something everyone needs to do occasionally to rid their minds of negative thoughts—if those thoughts are constant (and affecting yourself and your teammates), then there might be an issue. At our recent Wellness Collective event in Los Angeles, Sarah Panis, founder of Gritty Movement, asked how positive everyone was about their job on a scale of one to 10. Out of the 40 people who joined for the wellness-filled morning, maybe (and that’s just maybe) 10 people held up all their fingers. What Panis suggests doing is recognizing and reframing your negative beliefs into a positive mindset. And that doesn’t mean radiating rainbows when you walk into the office. Panis defines positivity as “a feeling of optimism and confidence that’s constructive. What it’s not: Constant joy, fake happiness. What it is: Recognizing the power you have over your mindset.” The process of cultivating positivity takes three easy-to-implement steps. First, write down what’s bothering you. Do you feel like your boss is micromanaging you? Are you having a hard time trusting your team? Let it all out in a journal. After that, pay attention to how it makes you act after feeling this way—do you retaliate by snapping back to others? Do you fail to delegate
Category: City
The next generation of climate activists won’t be underestimated
September 26, 2019 at 01:45AM by CWC On a sunny Friday morning in Santa Monica, California, dozens of people paraded down the street in front of a gleaming new mall. But this wasn’t the usual weekend shopping scene—instead of toting bags from West Elm and Nordstrom, the crowd carried signs emblazoned with slogans like “Fight for Our Future” and “Make Earth Great Again.” The usual hum of traffic noise was drowned out by a resounding chant: Hey, hey! Ho, ho! Fossil fuel has got to go! And, perhaps most poignantly, many of the protesters were cutting their elementary-school classes to be there. Without a doubt, these mini-revolutionaries were inspired by Greta Thunberg, Isra Hirsi, and Jamie Margolin, just a few of the teen activists associated with the massive Global Climate Strike of September 20. Organizers estimate that on that day, a record-breaking 4 million people attended 6,000 climate strike events in 185 countries around the world. The Global Climate Strike was a joint effort among several youth-led climate organizations—including Thunberg’s Fridays for Future, Margolin’s Zero Hour, and Hirsi’s Youth Climate Strike—as well as allies such as Greenpeace, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and Sierra Club. Businesses including Patagonia and Ben & Jerry’s closed their doors that day in support of the strike, while websites such as Tumblr and Kickstarter went dark. Each group of local climate strikers presented their own demands. In the US, for example, protesters weren’t just seeking an end to deforestation and fossil fuel use—they were also speaking up
Why you should never make an important decision on an empty stomach
September 25, 2019 at 09:01PM by CWC When hunger strikes, I don’t trust myself to decide what pair of shoes goes with my outfit—much less to make life-altering decisions. Visions of alt-pasta dancing in my head put everything on hold. And according to Uma Naidoo, MD, director of nutritional and lifestyle psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, science backs filling your belly before going all-in on moving in with your significant other, dying your hair purple, or accepting a new job. “Research supports not making a decision on an empty stomach,” explains Dr. Naidoo. “Ghrelin is a hormone made in the GI tract that affects the brain. It is released when the stomach is empty. In a healthy person, once you eat, the action of this hormone stops.” So far, research on how the presence of ghrelin affects your ability to be rational has mostly been conducted on animals, or extremely small sample sizes of humans. Dr. Naidoo says the results are still worth noting, however. Most recently a small study with 50 subjects, conducted by Benjamin Vincent, DPhil, from the University of Dundee’s Department of Psychology, found that hunger threw a wrench in participants’ decision-making processes. “Hunger made them impatient and more likely to settle for a small reward that arrives sooner than a larger reward promised at a later date,” says Dr. Naidoo. “Simply said, what the research appears to show us is that we seem to make poorer more reckless choices when we are hungry. Yet another factor
The astrological reason it feels like all your friends have birthdays in the same month
September 25, 2019 at 07:30PM by CWC I made a new friend the other day, which, as an adult, feels like a giant accomplishment. When our conversation turned to astrology, as they do, I was hardly surprised when she told me she’s a Scorpio. I’m a Pisces, and many of my close friends are Scorpios. So that means each November, I’m to-the-brim busy with birthday celebrations. Maybe for you this doesn’t happen in November, but there’s still a good chance you have one month that sticks out as more stacked with celebratory group dinners than the others. According to astrology, this is not a coincidence, but rather birthday compatibility. “Astrological compatibility extends beyond romantic relationships,” says Rachel Lang, intuitive astrologer and healer. “We can look at astrology to help decipher compatibility in all types of relationships, including friendships, enemies, bosses, co-workers, frenemies, family members, and friends who feel like family.” She says that it’s very common to have friends born within the same sign (she’s even had clients with friends born on the same day). “Astrological compatibility is complex, but there are a few general guidelines.” First, understand how to break down the signs in terms of polarity (yin and yang), quality (cardinal, fixed, and mutable), and triplicity or element (fire, earth, air, and water). “The signs with similar triplicities tend to relate well with one another because they have a similar way of focusing and expressing their energy,” she explains. “You may find that many of your friends’ sun
In defense of cancel culture, complications and all
September 25, 2019 at 03:30PM by CWC Cancel culture—the phenomenon of deeming someone or something worthless, irrelevant, and over in response to transgressions big, small, ephemeral, and chronic—is our buzziest catchphrase as of late: There have been calls for canceling Saturday Night Live’s Shane Gillis, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, and comedian Dave Chappelle in the past month alone. President Trump told the U.N. General Assembly on September 24 that “a free people must never, ever be enlisted in the cause of silencing, canceling, or blacklisting their own neighbors.” (RIP, irony.) And on the Emmys red carpet, Sarah Silverman described cancel culture as “righteousness porn.” I get where she’s coming from, but I don’t think canceling is a bad thing. It’s also not a new thing, and before we were canceling people, we were canceling brands—at least my family was. One of my earliest memories involves me walking up to the guy restocking the vending machine at my dad’s tennis club and informing him that he shouldn’t be putting in Nestlé Crunch bars because babies in developing countries were dying and it was Nestlé’s fault. We were boycotting Nestlé to stop its aggressive marketing of formula to women in developing nations, which it eventually did (for a time). And so my parents stopped their boycott (for a time). Canceling and boycotting are related but not the same, I want to make clear. After Nestlé changed its tune, Crunch bars were back on the menu for us because the purpose of
The ultimate guide to every alt-meat burger on the market right now
September 25, 2019 at 01:05PM by CWC Whether you’ve scored an Impossible Burger from a Burger King drive-thru window or grilled a few Beyond Burgers at home, you’re probably figured out by now that meat-like, plant-based burgers are officially the buzziest new protein option. (Oh, and we totally called it, too.) This is one food trend that RDs are generally pretty into. “By reducing meat intake, not only do we have an opportunity to improve our health, but also make a positive contribution to efforts to reduce or slow climate change,” Nora Minno, RDN, a plant-based dietitian and certified personal trainer in New York City. The motivation for choosing plants over meat is three-fold: (1) reduced risk of certain conditions and diseases, like Type 2 diabetes and cancer, (2) animal welfare and (3) the environment. The alt-meat conversation has long been dominated by the Impossible Burger vs Beyond Burger debate, but now more companies are stepping into the fray with their own meat-like burger offerings. Morningstar Farms will launch an Impossible-esque “bleeding” burger in early 2020, and Trader Joe’s is reportedly launching its own plant-based patties this year. So many options, so little time. In order to help you navigate this increasingly crowded space, we talked to dietitians to help us break down the nutritional benefits of each plant-based burger currently on the market right now. 1. Best overall: Beyond Burger Known as the first plant-based burger to actually look and taste like beef, the Beyond Burger (made by Beyond
How to figure out if you should buy or rent your home, according to a financial expert
September 24, 2019 at 09:38PM by CWC We’ve all heard the same old story about how millennials will *never* own homes due to oat milk lattes and avocado toast stealing all their savings. But if you feel you’re on solid financial ground, the real question that continues to pop up for women everywhere—or at least at our recent Wellness Collective event in San Francisco—is how do you even know when you’re ready to buy, or should stick to renting? “If you’re just crushing it financially, don’t wait on your life to buy a house,” recommends Natalie Schnuck, managing director at First Republic Bank. Translation: Don’t wait on a relationship or a new career if you feel secure in your financial situation and you’re ready for that step—just go for it. And if you are ready to take the leap and claim some bricks, Schnuck suggests doing the research. Figure out your price range, the distance from your work, and the schools that are in the area if you plan on adding (or currently have) tiny members in your family. As for the financial part of the home-owning equation, you’ll need 25 percent of your home’s value ready for a down payment, according to Schnuck. To the rest of you who aren’t ready to buy a home, guess what? You’re not doing anything wrong. “Rent gives you flexibility—it’s okay to rent,” Schnuck says. “You’re not throwing money away, you’re saving stress and saving money.” You can have your apartment and your
I’ve had a funeral for every pair of running shoes I’ve ever owned—here’s why
September 24, 2019 at 08:00PM by CWC Whenever the time comes to retire an old pair of running shoes, I repeat the same ritual. Laces in hand, I carry my sneakers to the trash, drop them inside, and proceed to ugly cry for the next 20 minutes. The waterworks portion of the footwear funeral might seem dramatic to you. Hey, maybe it is. But I’m not crying because the shoes themselves have ceased to be of use to me. The tears are because several hundred miles are behind me, and I feel endlessly, stupidly grateful. The best way I can explain it is this: Some people collect things as a hobby; I collect miles. Running shoes hold the tactile memory of every bridge, beach, or forest I’ve ever covered. They’re a memory capsule of my footsteps, but before that, they’re something even better. The right pair of sneakers can give you what you need. In early 2019, I took a pair of Brooks Ghosts (my long-time favorites) on a trip to Sedona. I spent a lot of time out west hiking deep into the forest, unplugging, and reconsidering what I wanted out of the next few years of my life. Even when when I was walking—not running—I wore these shoes, and dreamed about my life. They carried me through canyons and below tree canopies, and they also let me wander deeper into my mind. They supported me—period—and I left Arizona with red clay caked thick into their soles and something else,
How to stop a (typically male) chauvinist mid-sentence
September 24, 2019 at 06:30PM by CWC I can’t tell if I prefer working from home because I get to spend time with my cats, or because it means I’ll never have to share a cubicle with another chauvinist again. Chauvinism, which typically presents in males who exhibit superiority over another group, commonly crops up in professional settings. But, like me, you’ve likely encountered them elsewhere in the wild. There was that Tinder date who told me I’ll probably never “make it” as a journalist so I might as well quit while I’m ahead (who’s laughing now, Jeff?), to the squat-rack meathead at the gym who placed his outstretched hand too firmly on my lower back, ushering me towards the elliptical machine and away from the heavy weights. The good news is that we shouldn’t have to settle for this kind of condescending behavior. Your first task in dealing with a chauvinist is to validate your own feelings, says Emma Levine, PhD, a licensed psychologist and founder of Perennial Wellness. Remind yourself that, that yes, it’s true—women who stand up for themselves are more likely to be labeled as bossy or aggressive, rather than assertive or self-assured. And that’s okay. “Sometimes being a voice is more important than being well-liked,” she says. “Sometimes being a voice is more important than being well-liked.” —Emma Levine, PhD Once you’ve normalized your feelings of anxiety about speaking up, create some emotional distance between yourself and the perpetrator. “The most important thing a woman
7 dermatologists share the *one* product they’d bring if they were stranded on a desert island
September 24, 2019 at 02:00PM by CWC “What would you want to bring with you if you were stranded on a desert island?” What started as my favorite game to play on a first date has recently extended into an unlikely place, the dermatologist’s office. I’ve recently taken to grilling my favorite skin-care professionals on the one product they couldn’t live without, with one catch: On this island, there is unlimited sunscreen, so SPF products are off-limits (otherwise, that’s what every single one of them would have chosen). The results? A selection of skin-perfecting potions that have proven to deserve a space not only on a desert island, but in all of our cabinets at home. Asking a dermatologist to choose the one product they can’t live without is admittedly, as Dr. Rachel Nazarian so aptly put it, “like asking a mother to choose her favorite child.” But we did it anyway, and you can find their picks below. SkinMedica HA5 Rejuvenating Hydrator, $120 “I’m going with hyaluronic acid. It absorbs water—which would be lacking on the desert island. I would slather it on to keep my skin soft and supple.” –Mona Gohara, MD, New Haven dermatologist Photo: Elizabeth Arden Elizabeth Arden Retinol Ceramide Capsules Line Erasing Night Serum, $48 “My desert island product would be a vitamin A derivative, a la a retinol or retinoid. It helps with so many skin concerns: fine lines, wrinkles, hyperpigmentation, loss of elastin and collagen, and sun damage. If I can only