Listening to each parent wax poetic about their beautiful, loving dreams for their children’s futures, I realized that “happiness” was defined as the wish for them to never feel let down or disappointed and for everything in their lives to be perfect. You see the problem with this version of happiness, right? Happiness Is Riding the Waves If you have children, you know the feeling: the deep desire to fix things that don’t go their way....
We are often so busy at this time of year that we can’t do what we’d really like to do: appreciate one another, give thanks, celebrate. Instead, we’ve got a long to-do list, our usual routines are disrupted, and we get less sleep than usual. It’s a perfect recipe for boosted stress levels. So here are three suggestions to help keep you on an even keel over the holidays:...
Are you still searching for that perfect gift for your wife for Mother’s Day? If so, stick around because we’ve taken care of it for you. This Mother’s Day you will make your lady swoon! I promise, you will love making your wife feel special just as much as she is going to love receiving it! Do you feel like a LUCKY MAN??? Do you have a HOT WIFE??? Then it’s about time you told her so!...
Mindfulness practice has taught me that whatever turmoil or emotional storm I’m experiencing, I can trust that eventually I will be able to weather it and start again. The more I practice, the more confident I become in my ability to experience my own vulnerability, as well as the vulnerability of others. And being accountable is an experience of intense vulnerability. When we are called out for being wrong or for hurting someone, we fear we will be deemed unloveable....
Real talk, though: I never really understood how to determine my face shape. While so much of our appearance stays the same, your face shape can fluctuate through the years with weight loss or gain. Many women find their faces thinning out as they move into adulthood and determining the best haircut and style for their face shape can be complicated – and fluid. I’ve learned that the secret to figuring out your face shape is breaking your face down into different sections, determining the shape of each section, and seeing which category you fall into based on that combination....
Noticing and giving time to what is present doesn’t come so easily to most of us, especially when we’re under stress. However, there are steps we can take to train ourselves to bring awareness to the nourishing aspects of our lives and cultivate the conditions for enduring contentment. Raising and broadening our gaze can reveal many moments of appreciative joy in everyday life. Recognizing, seeing, and stepping away from our judging mind creates the conditions for enduring contentment....
In his new book, The Way of Mindful Education, Daniel Rechtschaffen argues that there is something simple that can be done to help change this: teaching mindfulness in schools. Rechtschaffen, a leading mindfulness educator and founder of the Mindful Education Institute, believes that mindfulness training can increase social-emotional skills—like attention, empathy, forgiveness, and impulse control—that help improve the classroom social climate and increase academic performance for kids. Research on mindfulness has proliferated in recent decades, and the results are promising, according to Rechtschaffen....
Eventually I came to mindfulness. At first, I approached it with the same demand for instant relief. But then something unexpected happened. I saw that it was impossible to really follow the instructions for mindfulness meditation—gently paying attention to the flow of breath, allowing things to be just as they are—and strive for results at the same time. So I stopped looking for cures and results, and to my surprise, some helpful openness and clarity began to arise in my mind....
We can notice this tendency before making an important decision or doing something for the first time, when a tiny voice inside our head says: “You can’t do that.” Moments of self-doubt are a normal part of life, but indulging the inner critic can become a habit that paralyzes us, sometimes leading to fear, depression, and anxiety.A little daily mindfulness practice interrupts the mental habit of self-doubt, according to research....
While many take this time of year to look back (best-of lists, anyone?) or look ahead (are we making resolutions for 2021 or just letting it wash over us?), here’s an invitation to just be here. Right here, right now, in this moment. Some of these moments will bring great peace. Others will leave us in pieces. The more we can bring our focus and presence to these moments, the more skilled we become at compassion—for ourselves and others—kindness, and finding joy, and the more we can surf the changes of our lives with ease....
4 Steps to Change a Habit for Good Step 1: Mindfulness What are habits? Habits are behaviors that become automatic because they have been performed frequently in the past. This repetition or automaticity creates a mental association between the situation (cue) and action (behavior). Automaticity is the opposite of mindfulness. Research suggests that 45% of our behaviors are repeated almost daily (1). Mindfulness is paying attention in the present moment. When mindfulness is present, we can see our thoughts, feelings, motivations, reactions, and responses with greater clarity and wisdom....
One of my clients—we’ll call her Sara—received that in a nasty text from her ex-husband, who was angry because their daughter, a young adult, had excluded him from a milestone event. Instead of confronting their daughter, the ex-husband was pinning his daughter’s actions on Sara. Understandably, the accusation consumed Sara. Even when we aren’t provoked by such high-emotion personal conflict, these days it’s hard to escape the daily dramas playing out all around us....
So if how you think, how you feel, and how you act is directly related to your beliefs, then your beliefs directly affect your marriage on a daily basis. This is true whether you share a similar belief system or whether you’re in an interfaith marriage. Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. To learn more about them, click here. Interfaith marriages are becoming more common. Nearly 40% of couples married in the last decade do not share the same religious group....
The origins of anxiety In general, anxiety is the unpleasant feeling of dread that something negative is going to happen in the future. The feeling of anxiety is particularly fed by rumination, such as worrying about calorie-intake, weight gain, appearance, social rejection, healthy, or unhealthy foods. The list of threats is endless. People with restrictive eating patterns (or more extreme: anorexia, orthorexia) often experience anxiety before, during, or after a meal....
Curly hair is inherently a bit more challenging to work around, and we’re here to demystify this hair type and shed light on some of its styling challenges. Curly hair is signified by a wavy or curly strand and is susceptible to dryness. It is frizz-prone and vulnerable to changes in humidity. How to Style Men’s Curly Hair That said, this hair type can reap incredible benefits with the use of the right hair care products....
Read on to learn all about my experience with salt spray on natural hair. How to Style Salt Spray on Natural Hair Here’s a little backstory: One night I was so tired that I didn’t have enough energy to do my nightly hairstyle maintenance routine, which involved doing my hair in multiple two-strand twists. What happened the next day? I woke up to dry, tangled curls. Unfortunately, washing my hair was out of the question, as my hair was clean so I needed to find a way to refresh and restyle my strands....
Tip #1 is to prep them in advance and store them in a refrigerator. This helps them keep their freshness and not wilt in room temperature. Tip #2 is to make sure your rose petals are not moist when you use them (on the bed, floor, bath, etc.) Wet rose petals could leave a stain. Instead, take them out of their container and let them air dry on a paper towel for a bit before using them....
The Micro Bob Haircut Trend See, there’s a reason this look had me #shewkt to the core, and the reason is this: It. Actually. Made. Sense. Not because it was perfectly on-theme for the night (it was), or that it was a look that’s—as ivory-towerers love to proclaim—as basic and ubiquitous as hair gummy bears and Instagram teatoxes (it wasn’t). But for some reason, the micro bob haircut struck quite a chord in me, and not just because the few celebs who donned the hairstyle—and there were a few—worked every angle to a T....
$5 Christmas gifts anyone? With FREE shipping? How about some FREE gift boxes to put them in, too? Oh yea- it’s happening. Your holiday shopping just got a whole lot easier. Read on… Well, never you fear- we’re about to make your Christmas {AND your wallet} a WHOLE lot merrier! Yep, we are SO excited to introduce you to our newest discovery, JuicyDealz! We think you are gonna LOVE ’em!...
