August 03, 2019 at 02:01PM by CWC Everyone, I would like to introduce you to my new favorite word: niksen. Roughly translated, this Danish word means doing nothing—or, as I’m describing it, the art of listening to Truth Hurts by Lizzo on repeat without thinking about anything in particular. It’s kind of like putting your brain on low-power mode. Following in the footsteps of such mindsets like hygge and lagom, niksen is another example of a Nordic mindset we could all take a few wellness cues from. (It’s cool, here in the U.S. we have this thing called burnout. Ever heard of it?) Doing nothing feels like a radical thing. I’ve had a to-do list for as long as I can remember. The last time I did nothing was probably around the time Kim Kardashian was Paris Hilton’s assistant. Stop, breathe, live slowly and lushly is not exactly something we’re taught. Work-life balance? I don’t know her. It’s all about the grind. Having a never-ending to-do list is pretty much a bragging right. Oh, you got four hours of sleep last night? Well I was up until 2 a.m. working on my idea for a bee farming co-working space. It’s like that scene in Mean Girls, except instead of body image we’re all trying to one-up each other with how tired we are. This mindset, that we need to be perpetually exhausted and stressed, worshipping at the altar of the hustle, in order to be successful, is why many of
Category: City
The case for period ‘neutrality’—because positivity isn’t always realistic
August 01, 2019 at 11:01AM by CWC For nearly two decades starting in middle school, Sallie Sarrel, DPT, believed the soul-crushing cramps she experienced around her period were just a part of her life that she had to accept. “I was ashamed that I hurt so badly. The bloating made me hate myself,” she says. “I felt like a failure.” Sarrel says that she went to over 14 different OB/GYNs to understand what was going on, only to be told that everything was fine. She was finally diagnosed with endometriosis 10 years ago, and went into surgical menopause at the age of 34. Now a pelvic health physical therapist who specializes in treating women with endometriosis and the co-founder of The Endometriosis Summit, Sarrel, 45, has a different take on periods. “Here I am all these years later, surviving the torment from the hormonal ups and downs, never able to have a child, not realizing the last time I had cramps was my last time ever. I am happy to be off the rollercoaster that my period put me on, but I am devastated that at such a young age I have all the menopause symptoms of a 50-year-old,” she says. ad_intervals[‘412174_div-gpt-ad-7435403-3’] = setInterval(function () { if (ads_ready) { clearTimeout(ad_intervals[‘412174_div-gpt-ad-7435403-3’]); googletag.cmd.push(function(){googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-7435403-3’);}); } }, 100); By opening up the discussion around periods and increasing awareness around conditions like endometriosis, the period positivity movement has taken some of the stigma out of menstruation. That’s been positive for the endometriosis community, Sarrel says,
Unpopular opinion: I’m a grown woman and pads are my period product of choice
July 31, 2019 at 04:00PM by CWC When I was 9, a family friend gifted me the American Girl guide to puberty, The Care and Keeping of You, a book famous for a generation of women who leafed through the pages laden with watercolored illustrations of pubescent traumas like acne. But I’d put money on the assertion that the part of this book that readers remember most vividly is the nakedly accurate tutorial on how to insert a tampon. I remember staring at the display, which we can all applaud for helping normalize and publicize tampon use, and thinking to myself, No thanks. In the face-off of tampons vs. pads, I’ve always gravitated toward the latter. My stance isn’t something I’m, um, ashamed of so much as something I’ve resolved to keep to myself when possible, which is actually pretty easy to do. I mean, when’s the last time someone ever asked you if they could borrow a pad? It’s been a hot minute (or, like, multiple decades), right? That’s because pads, in the court of public popular opinion from the scope of my personal point of view, are antiquated and outdated. Look no further than Amy Schumer’s joke in the Netflix special Growing for details. “And millennials, if you don’t know what a pad is, congratulation…. A pad is a foot-long diaper that you coil betwixt your legs and just kind of waddle around all day wearing it,” Schumer says, while wobbling about. ad_intervals[‘409745_div-gpt-ad-7435403-3’] = setInterval(function () { if
These bright, liquid lipsticks will stay put all. day. long.
July 31, 2019 at 03:00AM by CWC The beauty team at Well+Good was recently confronted with a near-impossible conundrum: If you had to choose between lipstick and lipgloss for the rest of your life, which would you choose? Personally, I was stumped. Because how could I commit to only one? I’ve always loved the easy delivery system of a lip gloss, but as I’ve aged up my beauty look, I’ve come to depend on the creamy finish of a lipstick. Then, I remembered that there was a product category out there that would give me the best of both worlds: liquid lipstick. Liquid lipstick goes on the same way a lipgloss does, but that’s where the similarities stop. In fact, as celebrity makeup artist Natalia López de Quintana puts it, it’s actually the “polar opposite” of the glossy stuff. “Liquid lips tend to finish with a matte or satin texture whereas gloss is glassy and wet-looking,” she explains. “If applied to properly primed lips, liquid lipstick will give you a full day of satin to matte opaque lip color with minimal to no touch-ups.” ad_intervals[‘411723_div-gpt-ad-7520022-3’] = setInterval(function () { if (ads_ready) { clearTimeout(ad_intervals[‘411723_div-gpt-ad-7520022-3’]); googletag.cmd.push(function(){googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-7520022-3’);}); } }, 100); For a more glassy finish, you can apply a gloss on top of your liquid lipstick which will make it shine and stay put without sacrificing the integrity of the shade. As makeup artist Daniel Martin revealed at a recent event celebrating the launch of Honest Beauty’s first foray into the category, if
A spontaneous motorcycle trip through Chile got me over a terrible breakup—and made me feel alive
July 30, 2019 at 05:00AM by CWC “But how many tattoos does he have?” This was my mom’s second question after I told her I was taking a four-day motorcycle trip through Chile on the back of a guy’s motorcycle. Her first question? “What the hell are you thinking?” It was December 24, 2017, and I was on month 11 of a yearlong trip around the world. A guy I kind of knew (as in, I was confident that he was not a serial killer, that things were fully platonic between us, and that, for what it’s worth, he had fewer tattoos than I do) offered me a seat on the back of his bike for a trip up the coast. To be clear, I had never been on a motorcycle before, nor did I have any interest in getting on one. The riskiness of the trip didn’t seem anything I needed to get anywhere near taking, but less than 24 hours after I received a “hey, want to come on a five-day motorcycle trip with me?” message on Facebook, I was holding on for dear life, cruising 65 miles an hour down the highway outside Santiago. ad_intervals[‘405466_div-gpt-ad-6934292-3’] = setInterval(function () { if (ads_ready) { clearTimeout(ad_intervals[‘405466_div-gpt-ad-6934292-3’]); googletag.cmd.push(function(){googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-6934292-3’);}); } }, 100); In order to understand how and why I spontaneously wound up on the back of a guy’s bike in the middle of South America (on Christmas Eve, no less), it’s probably worth explaining my headspace at the time: I was
The 1 obstacle between me and body-acceptance is my friends’ negative self-talk
July 26, 2019 at 09:28AM by CWC I have a positive relationship with my body, but cultivating it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. Sure, I have my days of feeling less than stellar, like when I catch a not-cute glimpse of myself in the background of someone’s Instagram story at the gym and am like, is that what I REALLY look like? When this happens, I’ll text a friend and ask if I looked bad, because I need reassurance after accidentally subscribing to this social comparison of bodies. But generally speaking, I’m good with myself. Lately though, my self-conscious moments of weakness regarding negative self-talk about my body are more often triggered by friends than things like surprise gym footage. A few of my friends have taken to comparing their bodies to those of “skinny,” “sculpted,” “toned” celebrities and influencers, wondering how they can get a similar physique. But since social comparison of my body to others’ has never served me, I’ve removed these words and phrases from my vocabulary. Instead, I focus on how I feel in my skin. It works for me…until my friends come into the picture with their own insecurities to air. ad_intervals[‘391158_div-gpt-ad-7435403-3’] = setInterval(function () { if (ads_ready) { clearTimeout(ad_intervals[‘391158_div-gpt-ad-7435403-3’]); googletag.cmd.push(function(){googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-7435403-3’);}); } }, 100); Social comparison can make us all feel like the Plastics in Mean Girls, cutting ourselves down in front of a mirror in Regina George’s bedroom. When this happens in my life, I feel as though I’m Cady
If you’ve ever cried on your mat (and liked it) Yin Yoga is the emo release you need right now
July 25, 2019 at 10:25AM by CWC There’s a reason more-and-more people are turning to fitness as a form of emotional release. We’re living in an era that’s being deemed “The United States of Stress,” where chronic anxiety has become a widespread epidemic, especially for millennials and Gen Zers who are consistently clocking higher stress levels than our elders. Along with the dangerous health issues that stress introduces, Americans are internalizing these feelings, finding distractions, and nurturing others—when what we need is an outlet. Enter Yin Yoga, the inclusive, easy-does-it practice based on holding yoga poses for lengths of time, rather than rapidly flowing through them. Yin not only produces an opportunity for physical strength and emotional release, but it revolves around the assumption that there is no standard alignment, no such thing as a standard body, and that means way fewer nerves about jumping into your first class. ad_intervals[‘410700_div-gpt-ad-9261280-3’] = setInterval(function () { if (ads_ready) { clearTimeout(ad_intervals[‘410700_div-gpt-ad-9261280-3’]); googletag.cmd.push(function(){googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-9261280-3’);}); } }, 100); There’s no perfect standard in Yin Yoga “As many of us in cities live in a constant state of high stimulation and ‘fight or flight’ mode, it’s necessary that we include ‘yin’ activities to keep our system healthy—one of the keys to longevity in our training routine is efficient physical and mental rest,” says Vanessa Michielon, the London-based movement instructor who had me weeping during my first Yin Yoga session on a faraway beach at Kamalame Cay’s Silver Linings holistic retreat, where she hosted a sunset class overlooking Bahamian
It’s never been trendier to see a chiropractor—but are they all they’re cracked up to be?
July 25, 2019 at 04:00AM by CWC Recently, I’ve noticed that a growing number of my friends won’t stop talking about their chiropractor: I went to the chiropractor yesterday and I feel so good now. The chiropractor totally cleared up my brain fog. Seriously, he’s amazing. My posture is so much better thanks to my chiropractor. I literally stand up straighter. All of the above statements are real gushing accolades from my literally cracked out friends. Even Shut The Kale Up blogger Jeannette Ogden often Instagram stories her QT with her DC. But it’s not just an influencer thing: According to the National Center for Complementary Integrated Health (NCCIH), chiropractor use has risen from 9.1 percent of U.S. adults in 2012 to 10.3 percent in 2017, the latest year statistics are available. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) estimates that employment of chiropractors will rise 12 percent between the years 2016 and 2026. So yes, chiros are a trend here to stay. ad_intervals[‘406403_div-gpt-ad-7435403-3’] = setInterval(function () { if (ads_ready) { clearTimeout(ad_intervals[‘406403_div-gpt-ad-7435403-3’]); googletag.cmd.push(function(){googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-7435403-3’);}); } }, 100); Here’s the thing: I’ve always been skeptical of chiropractors. I had always assumed that they were just the people who cracked backs and helped with posture, yet many popular chiropractors, like model-favorite and Pure Change founder Charles Passler, DC, Perfect Keto founder Austin Gustin, DC, have built careers preaching about nutrition. It’s never been clear to me what chiropractors are qualified to do, and how they’re different (or potentially superior) to physical therapists or traditional
Nike introduced us to running on air, and the Joyride will show us what it’s like to run on bubbles
July 24, 2019 at 10:00PM by CWC Gird your wallets: Nike is launching a new running shoe line that even I, a non-avid runner, need in my closet. It’s called Nike Joyride, and they are seriously making me reconsider my anti-running tendencies. Nike says running in one of these shoes is like running on bubbles, which is a truly delightful image. I spent approximately one minute running through all the other ways to describe how wearing shoes feels (clouds, Dippin’ Dots, etc.), and can say with finality that “on bubbles” is not only correct, but also how I want every pair of my shoes to feel. The bubble feeling comes from the beads, made from a plastic and rubber copolymer called “TPE,” that are strategically placed in pods in the heel portion of the footbed of the shoes. These create a unique cushion that helps with impact absorption. Nike tested over 150 materials before landing on this one (I’m assuming that their decision-making system involved some sort of bubble ranking), with the whole point being to “give your legs a day off” without, you know, actually taking a day off. ad_intervals[‘410599_div-gpt-ad-7520022-3’] = setInterval(function () { if (ads_ready) { clearTimeout(ad_intervals[‘410599_div-gpt-ad-7520022-3’]); googletag.cmd.push(function(){googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-7520022-3’);}); } }, 100); Image: Nike The inspo for these cushiony kicks came from noticing that parks with a paved running course almost always have a parallel path where the grass has been worn down. (This feels vaguely Whitman-esque to me.) That’s because a dirt or grass path is easier on
These 5-minute easy updos are saving us from the hot, hot heat of summer
July 24, 2019 at 05:00PM by CWC The term “summer hair” evokes imagery of free-spirited gals frolicking along a beach with perfectly-textured and tousled locks flowing behind them. The reality, however, tends to be a little less idyllic and a lot more sweaty, especially when it’s hot as Hades plus humidity outside (as it likely is wherever you live at this very moment, and possibly forever in the future #climatecrisis). No matter how much maintenance you’ve engaged in to keep those summer strands from frizzing out, losing their luster, and suffering sun damage, it can be tough to make a look happen rather than have it happen to you, especially when you’re just desperate to get heat-trapping hair off your sticky skin. To aid you in doing just that, I’ve culled some quick-and-dirty—but in a pretty way!—Insta inspo to serve as a guide. From top knots to low ponys, milkmaid braids to space buns, these easy updos take five minutes or less to help summer hair live up to its reputation while preventing you from hospitalization-by-heat-stroke. (Stay hydrated, though.) ad_intervals[‘410190_div-gpt-ad-7520022-3’] = setInterval(function () { if (ads_ready) { clearTimeout(ad_intervals[‘410190_div-gpt-ad-7520022-3’]); googletag.cmd.push(function(){googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-7520022-3’);}); } }, 100); It’s gettin’ hot out here, so take up all your hair… I am, gettin’ so hot, I want to put my hair up… 1. TWIN CHIGNONS Few I’m-desperate-to-ventilate-my-neck hairstyles can masquerade as intentional glam quite like this beauty. The flair helps. View this post on Instagram My “it’s too hot for hair today, but I have a lot