August 29, 2019 at 11:08PM by CWC Twice a week, I head to class with a cohort of graduate-level fiction students ranging from age 23 (that’s me!) up into the 80s. Most of the time, we talk about each other’s work with thoughtful compassion. Most of the time. Sometimes, powerfully-rendered stories penned by 20-somethings get written off as lacking in experience. As naïve, superficial, and wide-eyed. It’s not just a theme in literature workshops. Undermining the experiences of younger generations is endemic in everyday conversation, and has been throughout the course of history. According to a 2018 Medium article written by Jason Feifer, editor in chief of Entrepreneur, “Our earliest texts are littered with youth bashing. From 600 to 300 BC, texts of the ancient Greeks complain of children becoming tyrants, contradicting their parents and wolfing down the best treats at the table.” He goes on to explain that cultures have blamed people with fewer years to their name for destroying language and marital customs. Today, Millennials receive a hefty serving of condescension for eating their weight in avocado toast, “killing” the collective’s work ethic (and mayonnaise, fast-casual chain restaurants, and the American dream), and being notoriously “entitled.” Gen Z, too, are “aways on their phones,” charmed by instant gratification, and just generally, “snowflakes.” ad_intervals[‘386447_div-gpt-ad-7435403-3’] = setInterval(function () { if (ads_ready) { clearTimeout(ad_intervals[‘386447_div-gpt-ad-7435403-3’]); googletag.cmd.push(function(){googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-7435403-3’);}); } }, 100); Generational divides have caused a rift between people that, in my opinion, is far wider than a difference in age truly merits. We
Tag: Well+Good
A dress rehearsal isn’t just for the stage—here’s what to do before a big change in your life
August 29, 2019 at 10:18PM by CWC In sixth grade, I begged my mom to buy me a laser pointer at Staples. Overnight, I become the best presenter among my peers. Not because the super-cool tool elevated my social status (it didn’t), but because the pointer made me want to rehearse my assignments beforehand. Middle school me was onto something. Recently, the The New York Times parenting section covered the anxiety-reducing results of giving a preschooler a dress rehearsal before the first day of school. But you don’t have to be between the ages of 5 and 13 to benefit from practicing major life moments. A career expert says the tactic works in every stage of life. “Our brains are very capable of handling a lot, but if you want to enjoy and to be productive in the experience, it really helps you brain to have less to focus on,” says Maggie Mistal, a career coach in New York City. The less we humans prepare ahead of time for something, the more “attention residue” we carry with us from moment to moment, says Mistal. The name for the plight is pretty self-explanatory, but the coach describes it as what happens when we shift our attention to quickly from one moment to the next. The lack of transition means that whatever happened five minutes ago might still be holding onto your attention, which doesn’t exactly grant you “presence.” Rehearsing is the anecdote. ad_intervals[‘419407_div-gpt-ad-7435403-3’] = setInterval(function () { if (ads_ready) { clearTimeout(ad_intervals[‘419407_div-gpt-ad-7435403-3’]); googletag.cmd.push(function(){googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-7435403-3’);}); }
How to conduct a New Moon ritual even your skeptical friends will be into
August 29, 2019 at 10:09PM by CWC Vegetarian tacos, rosé, and your most eccentric friend’s cauldron. The New Moon in Virgo got us talking, and I raised quite a few eyebrows when I revealed my go-to list for one… okay, five New Moon rituals. You know, as if I came into the office wearing my pointy black hat. But I’m from North Brooklyn, a borough that’s all tarot cards and tall girls with black hair and bangs. Trust me, when I say that it’s not weird, and it’s also not, like, hard. New Moon rituals are all about intention setting, starting fresh, and supplicating female bonding outside of a book club. Of course, I’m a novice when it comes to New Moon parties, unlike astrologer and all-things-moon expert Chani Nicholas, who’s running a workshop for the New Moon in Virgo. If you’re looking to summon the power of this New Moon in Virgo specifically, it’s a really good time to focus on purifying and organization. Note, please, that Virgo’s ruling power is Mercury. If it helps at all, please envision Sailor Mercury, the brainy blue-haired scout in Sailor Moon, to accurately depict this energy. What you want to do is create a little altar (could just be a space on your coffee table, I don’t judge). “An altar to this New Moon should comprise anything that symbolized what you are beginning, any symbol of knowledge, magic, or intuition, any communication devices that you want blessed, and any crystals related to
If you’ve ever dealt with armpit discoloration, we’ve got you—here’s how to deal
August 29, 2019 at 10:00PM by CWC I’ve heard a lot of complaints about deodorant over the past few years. “It doesn’t work,” “it’s sticky and gross,” and “it gets all over my clothes” are among the most common. But recently, two separate people brought an entirely new D.O. issue to my attention that I hadn’t heard before: The products they’d been using changed the color of their armpits. Underarm discoloration, as it turns out, is fairly common—it did, after all, happen to two people in my circle over the course of a month—and whatever you’re using to keep sweat and odor at bay could be to blame (the other option is a condition called acanthosis nigricans, which you can learn more about here). “Chemical irritation can be a significant factor for people who apply a lot of deodorants, antiperspirants, and perfumes, because these irritate the area, dry the skin, and promote a thickening of the dermis,” says board certified dermatopathologist, Gretchen Frieling, MD. “Many deodorants and antiperspirant sprays contain aluminum as an ingredient and can clog the pores, which causes further inflammation.” ad_intervals[‘419482_div-gpt-ad-7520022-3’] = setInterval(function () { if (ads_ready) { clearTimeout(ad_intervals[‘419482_div-gpt-ad-7520022-3’]); googletag.cmd.push(function(){googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-7520022-3’);}); } }, 100); So irritation, generally, is the culprit here, and chemicals tend to be the main offenders. “Chemicals that dry the skin or clog the pores should be avoided,” says Dr. Frieling. “Opt for natural deodorants that won’t add a layer of material to your skin that seals it in.” She adds that our skin (especially
The surprising ways sugar could mess with your gut
August 29, 2019 at 09:23PM by CWC When it comes to maintaining overall health and wellness, nothing’s hotter right now than the gut. The idea that if we regulate our microbiome—the ecosystem of good and bad bacteria in our gastrointestinal system—we can fully optimize our body’s health is nearly gospel in the wellness world. But in order to take advantage of all of the awesome potential health benefits of a healthy digestive tract, we may have to start rethinking our relationship with sugar. “Imagine our gut as being a garden with flowers, grass and weeds,” says Jacob Wilson, PhD, CSCS, author of The Ketogenic Bible and member of The Vitamin Shoppe Wellness Council. “The gut microbiome contains a garden with good bacteria that helps our body, and bad bacteria that cause inflammation and hunger,” he says. “Sugar selectively feeds the bad bacteria. This means you end up having more weeds than flowers.” (Weeds, in this analogy, meaning bad bacteria.) ad_intervals[‘419300_div-gpt-ad-8891272-3’] = setInterval(function () { if (ads_ready) { clearTimeout(ad_intervals[‘419300_div-gpt-ad-8891272-3’]); googletag.cmd.push(function(){googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8891272-3’);}); } }, 100); We all know that sugar is enemy number one of the health world, but how freaked should we be about its effect on our gut? Experts share what you need to know. What we know about sugar and gut health Your gut microbiome is constantly at work to maintain good digestive health—or, you know, keep the grass green and flowers blooming. “Good bacteria in our gut lower inflammation, make us happy, lean, and give us longevity,” he says.
If you sit all day long, leg flossing will help take the edge off of tight desk hips
August 29, 2019 at 08:00PM by CWC My legs are always sore and tight, thanks to all the boot camps, running, and dog walking I task them with. I try everything I can to loosen them up, from taking a Theragun to my quads to stretching in every single position—but I’ve never quite been able to shake the feeling of cement-heavy legs post-workout. In the middle of an at-home yoga sesh, though, Los Angeles-based yoga guru Kyle Miller, co-founder of Love Yoga—who just released her own at-home yoga videos—started flowing through what I can only describe as leg flossing. “This is my absolute favorite thing to do—I do it in just about every class, and I’m sure my students are sick of it,” Miller jokes as she walks me through the feels-so-good movement. “It’s such a great position for opening up the joints of the lower body.” If you’ve ever done shoulder flossing—another yoga-based move that I fell in love with recently—you’ll know that anything dubbed “flossing” really brings fluidity to your body (not to mention, it just feels divine). Miller explains to me that her practice is based off of Taoism, which views the body as its own little universe. “We have our own networks of circulation, land masses—organs and muscles—delicate ecosystems, and homeostasis,” she says. “Joints are like bends in the river, places where garbage collects. We want everything to flow, nothing to get caught and create stagnation.” This is exactly why she’s partial to cleaning out, articulating, moving,
A top psychiatrist reveals the brain-boosting nutrient that’s majorly overlooked in our diets
August 29, 2019 at 07:23PM by CWC When it comes to eating for brain health, the focus lands on omega-3s. While it’s true that the fatty acids are 100 percent linked to boosting cognitive health, Well+Good Wellness Council member and Columbia University psychiatrist Drew Ramsey, MD, says a lot of people are forgetting another nutrient that’s majorly good for your brain: vitamin E. “This is one of my absolute favorite nutrients,” Dr. Ramsey shared on Instagram. “Vitamin E is a firefighter. Every second, thousands of ‘fires’ erupt on the surface of your cells, and the dedicated job of vitamin E is to put those fires out,” he explains. “Your brain is particularly vulnerable to fires because it contains high concentrations of omega-3 fats, and these fats are very easy to oxidize.” According to Dr. Ramsey, a whopping 96 percent of people don’t eat enough foods with vitamin E to reach a recommended 15 milligrams daily. Not getting enough can not only lead to impaired cognitive function, but it is also linked to depression. The good news is, there are a lot choices full of the nutrient. ad_intervals[‘419318_div-gpt-ad-8891272-3’] = setInterval(function () { if (ads_ready) { clearTimeout(ad_intervals[‘419318_div-gpt-ad-8891272-3’]); googletag.cmd.push(function(){googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8891272-3’);}); } }, 100); What are the top foods with vitamin E? 1. Avocado Of course, right? Avocado packs a one-two punch when it comes to eating for brain health because it has healthy fats *and* vitamin E. One cup of sliced avocado has 21 percent of the vitamin E daily requirements. There’s a reason
One of the best things anyone can do for their body? Push a sled.
August 29, 2019 at 06:32PM by CWC I has always thought that sled workouts were reserved for professional football players and fitness-dedicated celebrities (like Lucy Hale) until fitness trainer Chase Weber had me try it when I visited his gym in Los Angeles. He took me out to the garage and told me to push a weighted sled all the way across the astro turf, then pull it all the way back. And let me tell you: It is as hard as it looks. The so-called “sled” looks kind of like an upside down, halfway-built desk, with two pillars to hold onto and a base that you can load with weight. The fairly low-tech piece of equipment has been around for a long time, but seems to have been pretty underrated until recently. Sleds are infiltrating more gyms and fitness studios (since my stint with Weber, I’ve also done it at New York’s Dogpound, and it’s a circuit staple at Performix House) and for good reason. Thanks to the combo of pushing and pulling movements with a cardio burst, it’s a way to get creative with full-body strength and power work at the same time. ad_intervals[‘419045_div-gpt-ad-9261280-3’] = setInterval(function () { if (ads_ready) { clearTimeout(ad_intervals[‘419045_div-gpt-ad-9261280-3’]); googletag.cmd.push(function(){googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-9261280-3’);}); } }, 100); “The sled is a multi-purpose and body composition exercise machine,” says Weber, who has his clients use it all the time. “There are a ton of benefits for athletes all the way down to the general population, and it’s generally used for
The cult-fave RMS concealer just dropped as a foundation, and OMG it’s good
August 29, 2019 at 05:00PM by CWC I remember when I fell in love with the first skin-care-makeup hybrid that I ever came across. It was RMS Beauty’s “Un” Cover Up ($36), which is a coconut oil-based concealer, that’s renowned for its ability to at once erase under-eye dark circles and blur every little imperfection on your skin, while also feeding your skin with good-for-you ingredients. If you’re as heart-eyed as I, I have good news. This week, the cult-favorite product has gained a sister: RMS Beauty “Un” Cover Up Cream Foundation ($52), comes in 16 shades and provides fuller-coverage—but it still has the same skin-boosting benefits, thanks to a blend of nourishing oils (think coconut, jojoba, meadowfoam) and beautifying herbs like turmeric and horsetail extract. “The [‘Un’ Cover Up] has been a top seller across the board,” says founder Rose-Marie Swift. “But we had so many requests for a larger ‘Un’ Cover Up for the whole face that we needed to start paying attention to the response for that product.” And so off she went on the quest to recreate the smash success of her original. ad_intervals[‘418758_div-gpt-ad-7520022-3’] = setInterval(function () { if (ads_ready) { clearTimeout(ad_intervals[‘418758_div-gpt-ad-7520022-3’]); googletag.cmd.push(function(){googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-7520022-3’);}); } }, 100); Photo: RMS Beauty What Swift noticed, though, was that so many foundations—especially with long-wear claims—tend to include drying agents like alcohols in their formulas, which can irritate skin. “I wanted to put an end to that and create products that provide balance and improve radiance for stressed and dull skin,” she says,
The secret to developing passions (rather than searching for them, like needles in a haystack)
August 29, 2019 at 01:00PM by CWC Even if you have the coolest job in the world, when someone asks what you like to do for fun, it can come across as a bit deflating if all you’re able to answer with is in-depth details about your nine-to-five. That said, our jobs keep us busy—so busy, in fact, that few of us even maximizing our vacation days. In effect this can feel like there’s simply not time for hobbies. As such, many don’t have a handy-dandy list of activities to speak of, like they might have had in high school with the likes of sports teams, clubs, and musical instruments filling up their schedule. Back then, it was probably hobbies, not a job or job-related time constraints, that largely kept people so busy, so there was likely no need to wonder under later on how to discover your passion. And, to be clear, having multifaceted interests that genuinely engage, interest, and keep you curious is great for you. One study found that engaging in a hobby for two hours a week can improve mental well-being, and hobbies have been found to help you feel less lonely (which is how more than half of Americans report feeling). But finding a hobby that fills you with purpose and happiness isn’t as simple as picking up a paintbrush, or knitting needles, or chef’s hat—in fact, figuring out how to discover your passion can feel like straight-up work. And who needs another job? ad_intervals[‘418491_div-gpt-ad-7435403-3’]