June 22, 2020 at 11:20AM CBD is seemingly everywhere these days, showing up in a multitude of product categories, some beneficial and some altogether questionable (CBD bedsheets, anyone?). With so many options and applications, it can be difficult to separate fact from fiction — and to know where to start. We’re breaking down the basics, and sharing some easy ways to implement this wonder-working ingredient into your wellness regimen. First, a quick intro: CBD, short for cannabidiol, is one of over 100 compounds called cannabinoids found in cannabis plants, including hemp. This compound interacts with receptors in the endocannabinoid system (ECS), which plays a critical role in maintaining homeostasis, or balance, in all animals. Your body produces its own cannabinoids (called endocannabinoids), but you may choose to boost your natural supply. That’s where CBD-infused supplements, sips and skincare come into play. Unlike Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), CBD won’t get you high. In fact, by law, “hemp” is generally defined as cannabis that contains levels of THC that do not exceed 0.3%. When it comes to CBD, we’re all about ease of use (and real benefits). Here’s a list of our favorite ways to fold 2020’s most popular plant into your daily routine… Make it a Morning Ritual Simplifying the measuring required of other hemp extract products, a CBD softgel — designed to align your natural body systems to restore balance that helps support everyday stress, sleep, recovery, mood and immunity* — can be the perfect way to start the day. Our pick,
Tag: The Chalkboard
This Yoga + Meditation App Is Also An Alarm Clock – And Might Just Change Your Life
June 22, 2020 at 11:02AM For most of us, 2020 has been filled with ever-changing emotional challenges — and it’s only June. To help us all navigate this complex and sometimes overwhelming year, we’ve hunted down the best tools we can find to support our emotional, physical and mental health. The one app that has stood out from the rest is Yoga Wake Up. In fact, the Yoga Wake Up app has become one of our top personal wellness recommendations for 2020. Here’s why we’re hooked on it. Many of us know how good we feel when we incorporate yoga and meditation into our routines, but finding the time and energy right now can feel absolutely daunting. More than ever, we’re craving comfort and trying to incorporate challenging new habits or workouts at home can leave us feeling stressed and overwhelmed. That’s where Yoga Wake Up has become the ultimate game-changer. Yoga Wake Up replaces your usual morning alarm with easy, audio-guided yoga or meditation in bed. You can choose from hundreds of unique sessions to find the teacher or routine that fits you best and most sessions are between three and fifteen minutes. Waking up to a five-minute stretch and positive meditation is just the start of it. To explore what a full day using the Yoga Wake Up app is really like, we invited Kimberly Fe’Lix Forney to take us along with her and show us just how she uses it. Kimberly is a LA based wellness advocate,
Father’s Day with the Hotelier Behind the New Hotel June
June 19, 2020 at 11:09AM We’re obsessed with the Proper Hotel in Santa Monica (enter to win a two-night stay at The Proper here!). Before the quarantine began, our team spent one day a week minimum inside the Proper’s stunning, design-forward lobby and, now, the hotel group is opening another hotel just around the corner. We asked Proper Hospitality’s Brian De Lowe to talk to us about the exciting new project and to dish with us about what is means to him to be a father as Dad’s Day 2020 is just a few days away. As it turns out the baby boom of 2020 is well underway — De Lowe happens to be married to one of our own, wellness maven and manifestation coach, Jessie de Lowe and the couple is expecting baby number two in just a few months. Here’s Brian on design, dad-ing and all the rest… finish this sentence: Being a father is… The ultimate sense of purpose. For me, life has always been about creating great memories and having unique experiences. My incredible wife, Jessie, agrees. As soon as our daughter Amelie (who turns 3 on Father’s Day this year!) entered our life, my priorities became extremely clear – there is nothing better than the wonderful amazing experiences and happy memories that we share together as a family. Best travel + hotel advice for parents: Do it early and do it often. Jessie and I decided to start traveling with Amelie when she was just a few months old
Summer Solstice 2020: A New Moon Solar Eclipse in Cancer
June 19, 2020 at 10:58AM Below is a guide to this New Moon Solar Eclipse in Cancer happening June 20/June 21st, 2020. To learn more and understand how this (and all New + Full Moons + Eclipses) impact you on a personal level, you can join Danielle’s Cosmic Compass Membership or sign up for a one on one session. Spiritual Significance: New Moons are an opportune time to set intentions and plant seeds for the immediate and long term future. Each New Moon contains a specific energy. Solar Eclipses are turbocharged New Moons, occurring in a set lasting 18-24 months. This Eclipse Set started July 12, 2018 and is followed by the Full Moon Lunar Eclipse in Capricorn on July 4th, which completes this set. We’ve been exploring themes of parentage, family, ancestry, tradition, security, success and achievement and what these things mean to us, on a personal and collective level. This Solar Eclipse in Cancer, specifically, relates to our emotional connections and nurturing. It’s a birthing. Overall Themes to Explore: Family, Roots, Ancestry, Home, Nurturing, Feelings. This Solar Eclipse offers us an opportunity to explore these themes and to set powerful intentions. How do we want express this energy in our lives. What are we birthing? How you may feel: With 5 planets (Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto) currently Retrograde and this emotional weight of this Solar Eclipse, we may be feeling depleted and exhausted, unable to process all that’s unfolding in real time. This is not necessarily the
Gluten-Free Magic-Cali Bars with Date Caramel
June 18, 2020 at 10:47AM Brandi Chang’s Magic-Cali Bars are one of those recipes we never knew we needed, then instantly can’t live without. A blend of all the good stuff, from almond butter to coconut flakes, these layered bars take quite a few ingredients but are simple to construct once you have everything on hand. By shopping for all these ingredients you’ll have all the basics on hand for just about every healthy dessert recipe we love — including these banana bread brownies! This is a healthy adaptation of an old-fashioned favorite. I just love the idea of a layered cookie bar, and this recipe from my first cookbook, Family Style uses clean ingredient swaps like dates, almonds, and maple syrup. They are a total crowd pleaser — the perfect potluck contribution. Packed with layers of flavor and so good you’ll swear they’re magic. Magic-Cali Bars Makes about 15 cookie bars INGREDIENTS For the Crust 1 cup gluten-free rolled oats 1 cup raw almonds 3 whole medjool dates, pitted 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 3 tablespoons coconut oil, melted Pinch of sea salt For the Date Caramel 2 whole medjool dates, pitted 1 tablespoon water 4 tablespoons almond butter 2 tablespoons coconut oil 4 tablespoons pure maple syrup 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract Pinch of sea salt For the Layers 1/2 cup raw pecans, chopped 1/4 cup smooth peanut butter, melted 1 cup coconut flakes 3/4 cup dark chocolate chips INSTRUCTIONS Preheat oven to
Celebrate Juneteenth with The Justice Bake Sale
June 18, 2020 at 10:29AM Friday, June 19th is “Juneteenth”, the date in 1865 when General Gordon Granger of the Union Army arrived in Galveston, Texas to demand that all slaves be set free. What a momentous day in our nation’s history. This year, we’re celebrating Juneteenth as a team for the first year ever by officially taking the day off. To be honest, it has us wondering how this holiday hasn’t become the national celebration it could be. We’re wondering why we didn’t all grow up celebrating this day as a powerful moment of profound victory in our country’s trajectory. Maybe 2020 is the year that changes. This weekend is also Father’s Day which means that this weekend rivals only July 4th as the perfect occasion to celebrate the best in summery, all-American foods. Traditional Juneteenth foods include all forms of BBQ, but especially brisket (this is, after all, a Texan holiday of a kind!), as well as red foods and drinks of all kinds, which, according to the UTA’s Daily Texan, “symbolizes blood lost during the struggle for emancipation or the hibiscus tea that was frequently drunk by slaves during celebrations, depending on who you talk to.” The Justice Bake Sale Celebrating Juneteenth across L.A. on June 19th are top chefs participating in Gather For Good’s ‘Pies For Justice: A Charity Bake Sale’. While, unfortunately, there won’t be many charming bake sale experiences to be had in person as our communities remain vigilant against the spread of COVID-19, there will
Elissa Goodman On Boosting Your Vibrational Energy Through Food
June 17, 2020 at 08:20PM Elissa Goodman is a powerful voice in our wellness community, walking the talk of holistic living after surviving and thriving beyond a slew of serious health concerns. With the high-stress nature of 2020, more and more of us are looking for realistic ways to take better care of ourselves and Elissa’s guidance is gold. Her 7-Day Reset is an accessible guide to help anyone looking to bring balance to their health right now — enter your email at the end of Elissa’s story on high-vibrational foods to get the 7-Day Reset exclusively at no charge (normally $29). If you want the full treatment, we’re *huge* fans of Elissa’s Soup Cleanse (available for delivery in the L.A. area only). The cleanse is a feast of freshly made soups, tonics, lattes, plus spiralized salads-in-a-jar and the best-tasting bars we’ve ever eaten while on a cleanse. This may come as a surprise to some, but high vibrational energy is just as important as nutrition and exercise when it comes to overall health. I can tell you, firsthand, that vibrational energy was a significant factor in allowing me to overcome numerous health issues. Changing my vibrational energy positively impacted me emotionally, spiritually, and physically. There are ways to raise your vibrations and protect your energetic field through the foods that you consume. I started employing this strategy ten years ago when I became a certified Holistic Nutritionist and it has helped me (and my clients!) momentously ever since. Understanding the energetic
The #1 Most Damaging Thing You’re Probably Doing To Your Hair
June 17, 2020 at 10:58AM What’s the most damaging habit you have when it comes to caring for your hair? We would’ve guessed it’s those tightly wound buns we wrap our hair in before last-minute yoga classes — or those few times a month we use a hairdryer while our hair is still damp. However, one of our most trusted haircare pros here in L.A., Christine Thompson, Color Director for Spoke & Weal, recently told us that the worst thing we can do for our hair is to get it wet. Period. While we were tempted to take Christine’s word for it and run full board into a shower-free lifestyle (anyone else showering less while working from home?), the truth is a bit more complicated. Hair is weaker and more vulnerable when it’s wet. When hair swells it can’t take as much tension so it’s quicker to break. Christine describes the cuticle as “the protective armor of the hair. You want to keep it closed as much as possible. If the cuticle is open when you are brushing it or rough drying with a towel it can create breakage.” According to Christine, the science behind wet hair damage starts with understanding the pH scale: “It’s a myth that cold water closes the cuticle of the hair. It’s actually the pH of the hair that determines if the cuticle opens and closes. The pH of hair, when dry, ranges from around 4.5 – 5.5, just like our skin. Distilled water has a pH of
The Truth About Oil Pulling: Why It’s Easier Than You Think + How To Do It Right
June 16, 2020 at 08:00PM According to registered Ayurvedic Practitioner and Ayurvedic Yoga Therapist, Julie Bernier if you’ve caught on to the health practice of oil-pulling recently, it’s possible you’re doing it wrong. The good news is that Julie’s perspective on the daily ayurvedic practice makes the healthy habit easier — and faster! — than some of us may have assumed. It’s been thousands of years since the ancient ayurvedic sages first recommended oil pulling as part of a health-promoting daily routine. When the mainstream wellness scene picked up on it a few years ago, it blew up, and with that came a lot of misinformation. Oil pulling is not what most people think it is; here’s everything you need to know about the real oil pulling. I did a little google search and this is the general oil pulling consensus: put a tablespoon of coconut oil in your mouth and swish it around for 20 minutes. This will supposedly whiten teeth, extract toxins, and cure pretty much any disease you can think of. There are reports of oil pulling causing headaches, TMJ, and even vomiting. Oh dear! In ayurveda, medicine is only that which does not cause another problem in the body. Which means that this kind of oil pulling is not correct. And it’s not at all what’s recommended in the original ayurvedic texts. Ayurveda, the holistic system of healing from ancient India, described with immense precision the do’s and dont’s of all things health and wellbeing. Ayurveda is
A Guide To Living Well: Home Office Edition – 7 Ways To Step Thing Up At Home
June 16, 2020 at 11:00AM A few tweaks to your home office space may be all you need to boost your productivity, improve your daily mood and even catapult your creativity to the next level –specifically, it’s all about the standing desk. It should come as no surprise that, before quarantine, our HQ was loaded with wellness hacks — most of which are pretty easy (and affordable) to recreate in your own space. We spend a good deal of time working, but are we investing enough effort into how ‘well’ our work spaces are for us as our bedrooms or kitchens? Over the years, we’ve discovered a few office hacks that enhance our sense of well being in a major way. Work-life balance feels way more attainable when we’re already feeling good while we work. Whether working from home is new to you or you’ve been at it for years, try a few of our home office wellness tips to bring fresh life to your professional game. Here’s what we personally rely on for wellness in the office daily… A Guide To Living Well – The Office Edition Custom Standing Desks | A few years ago, we converted our hammered tin Parsons desks into standing desks with custom wood risers from Etsy — and it’s the best decision we’ve ever made for health and happiness in the office! Most of the standing desk options we’ve seen out there involve a clunky contraption that sits on the face of the desk. We chose to make