September 14, 2019 at 12:00PM by CWC I like my eyelashes to feel like actual butterflies sitting on my eyeballs, protecting them from crap in the air while making my eyes look pretty and feminine. With lots and lots of length. Some people get annoyed by eyelashes that they can literally feel open and close and hit your under-eye area with every blink, but not me. While I’ve used everything from lash-lengthening mascaras to heated eyelash curlers (and hell, even a lash lift), my favorite lash booster is the cult-favorite Grandelash MD Lash Enhancing Serum ($65). It’s beloved by lash lovers everywhere (and has 60,000 loves on Sephora) for a reason. Nothing else has made such a visible change in my lashes as this serum. Shirley Chi, MD, a California-based dermatologist, isn’t surprised by the popularity of Grandelash serum. “It has a lot of amino acids and peptides in it, which creates a good environment for hair to grow,” she tells me. “If you have a good environment, then the hairs are more likely to grow longer.” Of course, this doesn’t actually mean you’ll have more hair follicles; she points out that it simply means your lash strands are going to be more nourished, so they’ll give you that fuller butterfly look. “Your lashes will look thicker, not only because of the conditioners that are in the product—which do make your hair look more voluminous—but because the proteins and plant extracts make a good ambiance for your hair to grow
Category: City
30 percent of millennials are lonely, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing
September 14, 2019 at 12:00AM by CWC When YouGov released its survey of 1,254 adults this summer, the results—which found that 30 percent of millennials are lonely, making them the loneliest generation—made headlines all over the internet. Many found the stats to be surprising (for instance, one in five reported feeling as though they have “no friends”), but to me, they weren’t in the least: A few weeks prior to the survey release, I found myself sobbing to my therapist about how lonely I, a millennial, feel every single day of my life. Instead of encouraging me to get out there and find a community, or do something to otherwise “solve” for my predicament she asked me to try and embrace it—to figure out how to deal with loneliness and make the best of it. Having never received advice like this ever before, I was skeptical. But after consulting three other pros, I’m convinced it checks out: One of the best things any of us can do in this situation is to challenge ourselves to learn how to deal with loneliness. Because as soul-sucking as loneliness can feel, there are certainly ways to reframe the way you think about it—even into a positive that can actually benefit your life. “All emotions serve an evolutionary purpose—they’re signals meant to keep us alive and procreating—so loneliness is meant to feel uncomfortable and to motivate us to connect,” says therapist and executive coach Megan Bruneau, adding that connection helps us to “turn off”
How to strength train your ’emotional resilience’ before disaster strikes
September 13, 2019 at 11:23PM by CWC Not to brag, but I think I’m on my way to wining the gold medal in emotional resilience. Emotional resilience, ICYMI, is the ability to adapt to a stressful change or recover from a painful experience efficiently, and my year has had plenty of that. But, uh, is there a way to toughen up yourself up emotional without going through traumatic events? Well, like a paralyzing fear of change, research long suggested the emotional resilience was something relatively genetic or inherited. My suspicion: if you’re highly neurotic like me, the predisposition to be resilient is not really there. Like, you fear change, and then you cry about it. The good news, though, is that you can build up emotional resilience like you can build up washboard abs (I mean I can’t, but someone can). In fact, there are courses in the United Kingdom and New Zealand that teach emotional resilience. If you don’t have the cash for a plane ticket, though, we do have some advice on hand. To psychologist Helene Brenner, PhD, author of I Know I’m In There Somewhere, emotional resilience isn’t about effortlessly bouncing back from disaster with a big grin on your face. It’s about exerting emotional control in a healthy way. “You’re human, you have emotions for a purpose,” says Dr. Brenner. “Often, resilience is more like quick recovery. You’re thrown off balance, but you feel it, you go through it, but you bounce back pretty quickly. You
Yep, you can mimic Swedish or deep tissue massages with just a ball
September 13, 2019 at 04:00PM by CWC Some people come home to significant others who love and cherish them—and, like, that’s cool. Personally, I’m at the stage of my life where I’m most excited to walk through my front door and find my three sweethearts: my foam roller, lacrosse ball, and Theragun. We gather together on my yoga mat and work through my ultra-sore muscles until right before bed. They give me free massages without asking for anything in return. I’m smitten for each and every one of them, and once you know how to transform your own recovery tools into at-home masseuses, you’ll feel the same way. At the Wanderlust 108 festival in Brooklyn, Julie Wu—an instructor with RAD roller—taught me how to transform any recovery tool into a bodywork specialist equipped to give both a Swedish massage (which is usually lighter) or a deep-tissue massage (which is way more intense). According to Wu, the fastest way to switch up the pressure a tool applies to your muscles is to change the surface upon which you are rolling. If you sprawl out on hard wood, for instance, a lacrosse ball won’t have nearly as much of as a buffer as it would on say, turf or carpet. And thus, if you desire a massage that goes deep, deep, deep into your muscle tissues, you need only locate harder patch of ground. “When you use [a ball] on a hard surface, you get a little less compression out of the
Running in the rain is an inevitable part of training—here’s how to keep it comfy
September 13, 2019 at 02:30PM by CWC I’ll use just about any excuse not to go for run: “The air quality isn’t great today.” “My allergies are acting up.” “My cats will miss me too much.” So, I am definitely not one to lace up my trainers when the skies open up and let it rain; however, I recognize that not all humans are as motivationally-challenged as I am (and that goes double for those who have 20-milers penned on their calendars for the very near future). As fall and winter begin to bring their delightfully damp days, marathon training halts for no one. Because, you know: runner’s gotta run. If you’re one of these said runners, I’d like to, at the very least, help keep you as comfortable as possible (in part because I need to engender favor with fit individuals who can help me survive the dystopian future; in part because running while feeling soppy can feel daunting). You’ll need some sort of a hat, a windbreaker, moisture-wicking lower-body clothing, and, of course, the right shoes. (P.S., running shoes are different than training shoes—did you know?) Below I’ve compiled some options, including the official New Balance windbreaker of the TCS Marathon, which is making its internet debut today, that can help to keep you dry and moving forward. While temps are certainly about to dip, none of this gear is meant to keep you particularly warm (aside perhaps from the vest), so you can add layers and take
What it’s *really* like to get a $2,000 facial treatment
September 13, 2019 at 01:01PM by CWC [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmXa5V2KkJE] Close your eyes and imagine getting a $2,000 facial. Are you envisioning your skin being scrubbed with tiny crystals? The most extra LED light setup? Face masks and chemical peels and gadgets galore? Yep, that’s pretty accurate, at least in senior video producer Ella Dove’s experience in Well+Good’s latest episode of What the Wellness. As Dove waltzes into New York Dermatology Group’s (chic AF) clinic on Fifth Avenue in New York City, she prepares to try out the $2,000 “runway” facial (yeah, it even has a fancy name) right before our very eyes to see what the fuss is about and if it’s actually worth the hefty price tag. “This is the most outlandish episode I’ve been a part of,” she says, right before she gets her complexion scrubbed clean of gunk, zapped with high-tech lasers, exfoliated on multiple levels, and plumped and toned with radiofrequency and LED light therapy. During the 90-minute skin-enhancing extravaganza, you get to witness just what happens to your skin when it gets some of the techiest, ingredient-savvy love around. “This is the crème de la crème of what dermatology and technology have to offer,” says Dove by the end of the facial. It’s true—NYDG’s treatment is all about utilizing the latest advancements in skin technology so that your skin truly leaves looking out-of-this-world radiant. How does Dove’s complexion look once it’s over? Is this extra-level facial actually worth it? Watch the video to see what true
This is the exercise NASA astronauts do when they get back from space to recover
September 12, 2019 at 11:01PM by CWC List out all of the different types of exercises in the world, and you’d be hard pressed to find one more fun than a rebounder workout. After all, the entire premise is basically just jumping on a trampoline—the way you used to back in third grade—with some choreography mixed in. Rebounding has been around since the early eighties, but has risen in popularity lately thanks to a number of studios like New York City’s The Ness and Los Angeles’s LEKFit integrating trampoline workouts into their class offerings. And for good reason. There are a whole lot of benefits of rebounding (aside from it being one of the most enjoyable ways to break a sweat). Seriously—a study out of NASA in the eighties (this is when these types of workouts first became popular) found that jumping on a trampoline can give you a full-body workout without the impact and pressure on your ankles and knees that you might get from running on a treadmill. They dubbed it an effective way for astronauts to recover and regain bone and muscle mass after returning from space, and needless to say, if it’s good enough for astronauts, I’ll be all over it. Want to do the same? Here are the benefits and how to incorporate a routine into your sweat mix. The benefits of rebounding It gets your heart pumping: The most obvious benefits of rebounding have to do with your cardiovascular system. If you remember anything
The 2-minute shower routine that a derm and acupuncturist say will jolt you awake
September 12, 2019 at 09:25PM by CWC Taking a shower is the best $0 self-care method that there is. Think about it: A few minutes under the jet stream gives you an excuse to slather your body in fancy products while simultaneously washing away dirt/grime/stress/sins, and you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who didn’t feel better when they stepped out of a shower than they did when they stepped in. But one way to up your shower self-care game even more, aside from investing in a $22 body wash, is to turn it into a hydrotherapy session. Hydrotherapy—which is a fancy word for “hot/cold therapy”—does a whole slew of good things for your body, and has become a spa-scene fixture over the past few years. But according to board-certified dermatologic surgeon and specialist David Amron, MD, you actually don’t have to leave your bathroom (or even your shower) in order to experience it for yourself. He cites switching the water in your shower from hot to cold as one of the easiest (and free!) ways to activate your lymphatic system. “Hydrotherapy has many healing health benefits such as relieving sore achy muscles, relaxing for stress relief, and its overall cleansing ability to detoxify,” confirms Tina Tsan, a licensed acupuncturist, adding that it also helps reduce swelling by improving your lymphatic function. When you alternate between hot and cold water in the shower, it helps get the fluid in your lymphatic system moving, otherwise known as lymphangiomotorcity (… try saying that three times
8 trainers share the best moves for working your obliques—and there’s not a side plank in sight
September 12, 2019 at 05:52PM by CWC There are so many exercises you can use to work your core. Crunches, sit-ups, leg raises… the list is never-ending. Located on the sides of the abdominals muscles, the obliques can be particularly tricky to isolate. And since no one wants to do side planks for the rest of their life, I asked a crew of top trainers to lend some advice. If you want super-strong abs, you need to target the internal and external obliques to help you bend and twist, support your back, and keep your posture in check. The best oblique exercises, according to top trainers 1. Oblique marches “Oblique marches not only fire up your obliques. The total-body move also challenges your balance and recruits other muscles as well.” —Gerren Liles, Hyperwear athlete and Equinox master trainer How to do it: Hold one medium or heavy dumbbell in your right hand, with elbows locked, and the weight about a hand-length away from your hip. Start to march in place, driving your knees up to hip level, without allowing your center of gravity to shift as you’re raising your legs. Stay as upright as possible. March for about 30 to 45 secs and then switch sides. Repeat for 3 to 5 sets. 2. Pallof press “The Pallof press is not just one of my favorite oblique exercises, but it’s one of the best exercises for the core, period. This movement targets overall core stability and also activates the glutes and
Meet ‘enjoyment anxiety,’ the reason you feel pressured to have the best. time. ever.
September 12, 2019 at 05:44PM by CWC Last month, I took two weeks off to vacation in Bali—and I don’t mean “vacation” in the 2019 sense, whereby a person is physically out of office but still checking in on emails, fielding client texts, and being quasi available. Rather, I tried the best way I knew how to stop stress and intentionally disconnected from everything related to work for the first time in more than a decade. I fantasized about this trip for months before I left, imagining how breezy I’d feel traipsing through rice paddies and sipping on fresh coconut water without the usual cloud of deadline stress hanging over my head. But once I crossed the Pacific Ocean, my worries shifted to a different subject. See, as a freelancer, I don’t get paid vacation time, meaning my savings account would surely take a pretty sizable hit from this trip. Beyond spending money on hotels and restaurants, I was also missing out on half of my monthly income. For the first few days, as I wandered jet-lagged through the traffic- and tourist-clogged streets of Ubud, a troubling thought kept entering my mind: Is this really going to be worth it? I’ve come to know this sensation as enjoyment anxiety, and as it turns out, I’m not alone in feeling it. A few days after I returned, a colleague admitted that she felt the same way whenever she was faced with a high-stakes experience—like buying tickets to an expensive show or