December 05, 2019 at 01:30PM by CWC Mental health issues affect everyone, but research suggests people in the Black community are less likely to have access to culturally competent care. According to the American Psychiatric Association, only one in three African Americans who need mental health care receive it. That’s where organizations like Chicago’s Sista Afya Community Mental Wellness are making a difference. Founded by Camesha L. Jones, LSW, the group serves fellow Black women through mental wellness education, workshops, group and individual therapy, and community outreach. The idea, as Jones puts it, is to make mental wellness simple, accessible, affordable, and centered around Black women’s experiences. Here, she speaks with Well+Good Council member Latham Thomas about the healing power of community—and why she prefers the phrase “mental wellness” over “mental health.” Latham Thomas: Where did you come up with the idea for Sista Afya? Camesha Jones: I like to call myself a mental illness survivor and a community mental wellness advocate. After I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and had been hospitalized twice, I was looking for resources for Black women but I wasn’t finding anything. In 2015, I was in the midst of my graduate school training in social work. I thought that with what I’d learned from my personal experience and in school, I could put the two together to create a community mental wellness organization—a platform for black women with mental health conditions to receive the support that they need through groups and classes. I believe
Category: Yoga
The “Melt Method” will decompress your neck in 3 minutes flat
December 05, 2019 at 12:00AM by CWC My neck feels like it’s perpetually stuck in a C-curve. Thanks to all of the staring down at screens that I do throughout the majority of my day, my neck alignment is way off and my posture‘s a mess. But all it takes to combat that tension is an easy exercise to decompress your neck. Enter: the “Melt Method.” All you need is a foam roller or a towel to put behind your head, and you’re good to go. “The unloading of our spine is so overlooked and a daily necessity,” says Karen Joubert, PT, celebrity physical therapist in Beverly Hills. “The use of cell phones has made this a necessary addition to our daily routines.” She likes the melt method because you barely need anything and it only takes about three minutes to do. “Use a foam roller, or, if you tend to have a forward head that makes this difficult, use a small hand towel and fold it,” she says. “Place it under the base of your head—not under the neck. Also bend the knees to unload the low back.” Just the pressure of gravity on your neck over a foam roller works to decompress all of that forward tilting that you do. Sue Hitzmann, neuromuscular therapist and creator of the Melt Method, says it’s key to keep the pressure consistent at the base of your skull, which you can do by looking up at the ceiling. To get all sides of
The rise (and rise) of black leggings over the past 10 years
December 04, 2019 at 06:00PM by CWC Black leggings are a nearly ubiquitous staple in women’s wardrobes today, but that hasn’t always been the case. Throughout the past decade, leggings have been a stretchy symbol of the rise of athleisure—and, by the same measure, the fall of getting “dressed up” for anything but the most formal occasions—and an increasingly massive moneymaker for brands. In the ’70s, leggings shimmied onto our fashion radar after Olivia Newton-John donned her shiny pair in Grease‘s final scene (a look that later inspired American Apparel’s ultra-popular Disco Pant), and it soon became a staple of ’80s aerobic culture and a key component of Madonna’s boundary-pushing, Like A Virgin-era style. In the aughts, women began to layer leggings under dresses, skirts, and tunics (so many tunics), sometimes accompanied by a vest and low-slung belt. By contrast, in the 2010s, leggings made from sleek technical fabrics that include mesh and seaming details have taken center stage—in recent years, often paired with a bare midriff and coordinating crop top. What would have looked out of place outside a gym not so long ago is now akin to a power suit for the wellness era. With the boundaries between work and leisure becoming blurrier by the year (a consequence, in part, of the smartphone’s ubiquity), women are demanding more comfort and performance from their everyday attire—a need that leggings, and by extension, athleisure, have promised to fill. Brands ride the leggings boom to the bank Lululemon is a pioneer in
It’s been a big decade for sunscreen—so we’ve filtered what you need to know about the state of SPF
December 03, 2019 at 09:00PM by CWC The year is 2009. Barack Obama is president. Everyone’s talking about Kanye interrupting T. Swift on stage during the VMAs. Apple launches the iPhone 3G. And people are taking selfies with those brand-new devices to show off their sun-kissed skin, glistening with tanning oil. Flash forward to the present and instead of whipping out the baby oil, people are now bragging about who’s scoring higher on the SPF scale (bonus points if you’ve got zinc). The past decade has seen massive changes in all areas of our lives, sun protection attitudes included, and while many of these are positive, there are both existing and new challenges present in the quest to keep people safe from the sun. “There’s still so much confusion and misunderstanding around sun protection,” says New York City dermatologist Elizabeth Hale, MD, senior vice president of the Skin Cancer Foundation. “We know that sun exposure is responsible for over 90 percent of all types of skin cancer and contributes to 90 percent of premature skin aging. We need people to practice safe sun habits and get in to dermatologists for skin checks. That’s the most important point and that hasn’t changed,” she says. So, what has? One of the greatest tangible differences from 10 years ago is the shift away from sun worship (aka tanning) and towards sun protection (we know tanning of any kind damages DNA and tanning in a bed ups a person’s risk of melanoma by an
It’s been 5,000 years, but yoga just can’t be stopped
December 03, 2019 at 06:00PM by CWC Every yoga class shares a guiding principle: Listen to your body. And clearly, there’s something to this golden rule that resonates with yogis, because it’s been 5,000 years since the practice’s inception, and it has a larger following than ever before. The number of American yogis rose by 50 percent between 2012 and 2016, and in 2019, the Global Wellness Institute crowned yoga the world’s most popular workout. Take a quick glance at a chart showing the climb of Google searches for “yoga near me” over the past decade, and you’ll notice it looks more like a handstand than a plank pose. The versatility of the practice is a major contributor to its spike in popularity. After all, yoga isn’t one thing—and there’s a style for everyone. Hatha-style classes focus on breathwork, meditation, and foundational poses, while hot vinyasa classes raise your heart rate and offer the sweaty satisfaction of a HIIT workout. As we enter a new decade, and yoga tacks another 10 years onto its five-century track record, we asked some of the biggest names in yoga today to talk about why the mindful practice has such staying power and why so many of us will keep asana-ing our way into the future. The history of yoga—and why it just keeps growing in popularity Before the mid-20th century, the physical practice of asana (or the body postures associated with yoga) hadn’t arrived in the United States. While the exact history of
Matcha and turmeric and CBD, oh my! Looking back at a decade where ingredients became the heroes
December 03, 2019 at 05:00PM by CWC It’s a truth universally known in the wellness world that once a certain healthy ingredient becomes popular, you can expect to see it everywhere. Matcha isn’t just for lattes anymore—it’s in our skin-care products and baked goods, too. Turmeric has transcended curries to create golden milk, protein bars, and face masks. Even collagen—once just a forgotten by-product of animal bones—has transformed itself into a must-have wellness ingredient in the kitchen and in your bathroom cabinet. It’s the wellness equivalent of a Top 40 radio song—you hear it once, and then you start to hear it everywhere, all the time. While these ingredients often get placed on what seems like a newly built pedestal, the truth is, most of them haven’t exactly gone from zero to hero overnight. “Lots of popular [ingredients] out there that we learn about come from other cultures, like Chinese or Ayurvedic medicine [both centuries-old practices]—and that just goes to show how much we can learn from others,” says Robin Foroutan, RDN, an integrative medicine dietitian and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. While many of these above-mentioned ingredients could only be found at an herbalist or acupuncturist’s office, the wellness industry has propelled them into the limelight over the past 10 years—and into practically everything we eat, drink, or use on our skin. Why people look to ‘hero’ ingredients Nate Favini, MD, medical lead at Forward, feels that medicine has traditionally focused on disease prevention rather than how
The death of the ‘bikini body’ is the best thing to happen to fitness in the past decade
December 03, 2019 at 03:00PM by CWC In the days before you could order both groceries and magazine subscriptions online, it was damn near impossible to walk through a supermarket checkout line without seeing the term “bikini body” plastered on glossies at the newsstand. By today’s standards, strapping two pieces of material onto any body fits the bill, but a decade ago, the term was still reserved for only those with six-pack abs and not an inch of perceived bodily “imperfection” in sight. The definition was so narrow, the ideal so unattainable, that when actress and runway model Kate Upton appeared in a bikini on her first Sports Illustrated Swimsuit cover in 2012, people straight-up called her fat. Fast forward five years to when she appeared on the magazine’s cover again in 2017—a year after Ashley Graham became the first curve model to cover the issue—and that same body was criticized for not being “diverse enough,” proving just how much our definition of the “bikini body” has changed for the better over the last 10 years. Sports Illustrated isn’t alone in broadening the loaded term’s definition: Major magazines have banned it (for what it’s worth, at Well+Good we’ve never used it unless the words “every body is a” were out in front), the Victoria Secret fashion show is dead, and heck, even Barbie got a body-positive reboot. “It was a ridiculous notion that you couldn’t be considered beach-worthy or ‘bathing suit-worthy’ or beautiful in general because you didn’t fit into
How mindfulness came to save us from a mindless world
December 03, 2019 at 02:00PM by CWC Mindfulness is hardly a new concept; in fact, the practice of cultivating an awareness of (and, often, gratitude for) the present moment stems from 2,500-year-old Buddhist psychology. Yet, in the past decade, learning how to be mindful came to the forefront of wellness culture and subsequently mainstream culture at large. Now, whether you want to stop biting your nails, or smash your fitness goals, or channel your ambition at work, mindfulness is a go-to tool for making it happen. And if you’re curious about specific strategies for practicing this modern mindfulness, there are no shortage of resources. You can try a walking meditation, any number of meditation apps, or celebrity-vetted tips from the likes of Tim Ferriss, Miranda Kerr, and Oprah. Evidence of the societal-wide embrace of mindfulness is also clearly seen in pop-culture references. “We’re seeing celebrities, major CEOs, fashion icons, and musicians like Kendrick Lamar [who rapped about meditation on several tracks on his last album] speaking openly about how meditation is critical to their lives,” says Jesse Israel, founder of mass meditation movement, The Big Quiet. “When individuals of significant cultural influence speak positively about something that has impacted their lives, people pay attention.” It’s clear that the ancient practice has found a foothold in the collective conscious, essentially becoming the backbone of modern self care during these past 10 years. But how and why did it happen, especially given the multiple millennia during which mindfulness certainly existed before it
Feeling holiday-cheer burnout? Here’s how to unwind, according to your zodiac sign
December 03, 2019 at 12:00AM by CWC The year is officially coming to a close…but not before a bunch of holly, jolly holiday stressors come at you like merry little freight train. From festive work parties and tense family dinners to enough social obligations to make you want crawl into bed until 2020, you might be 110 percent over this season already. Yet, given that it’s not yet 2020, how are you supposed to make it through? According to astrologer Carolyne Faulkner, author of The Signs: Decode the Stars, Reframe your Life, some secrets for weathering the supposedly most wonderful time of the year involves gleaning secrets from your star sign. find how the planets are bringing on this unique strain of um…strain. Below, she shares what each zodiac sign can expect in terms of yuletide burnout, plus her best practices maximizing self care among all the holiday craziness. How to unwind from holiday stressors, according to your zodiac sign Aries Fiery Aries is a go-getter who will probably push themselves to crush every Q4 goal and then some. Nonetheless, it’s crucial that you don’t run yourself into the ground. Though you’re usually energized and now is no exception, the burst of motivation you’re experiencing won’t fuel you forever. “Your ruler, Mars, just left your opposite sign, Libra, which boosted your energy,” Faulkner says. “It’s wise not to keep the foot on the pedal until the very last day of work, or you’re likely to become unwell. Tip for holiday stressors: Slow
Video killed the radio star, but digital won’t end the reign of boutique fitness
December 02, 2019 at 04:00PM by CWC Cheers had the bar, Friends, the coffee shop, and Seinfeld put diners squarely on the map. None of these ’90s shows have been rebooted, but if they had been at some point in the last decade, it’s likely their crews would’ve been popping in and out of a spin shop or yoga studio (or at least hitting the smoothie bar) instead of their OG signature haunts. In the last 10 years, boutique fitness studios have become the place to work out and hangout, and as early-morning wake-up calls to sweat have become integral to spiritual, mental, and physical health, there has been a boutique fitness boom. Because of this, fitness enthusiasts have shifted away from big box gyms to boutique studios like Orangetheory, SLT, and Y7, where they can do hyper-targeted workouts as part of a community that believes in the same core pillar of sweat. When Well+Good launched in 2010, SoulCycle and Barry’s Bootcamp (which were founded in 2006 and 1998, respectively) were the only mainstream options to speak of, but as wellness became the gospel of the decade, the number of studios quickly started to grow. In fact, in the five-year span from 2012 to 2017, boutique fitness membership increased by 70 percent, according to the International Health, Racquet, and Sportsclub Association. The rise of wellness certainly propelled the adoption of boutique fitness forward, but community and convenience were core to studios’ staying power. Boutique fitness studios became the place everyone