Wellness

Wellness

Alexander Basil has created a cosmos. His instantly recognizable style and established color palette implicate the subject matter in a process of calm and sure scrutiny. Central to this cage is the familiar figure that reappears, on a quest through daily life. The protagonist is both the subject and object of reflection that morphs in and with his surroundings, travelling worlds beyond the room he finds himself in.

After working for 40 years at the county's Department of Agriculture, my grandpa started a part-time job at a local towing company. He didn't have to, financially, but he wanted to stay busy. What started as a fun retirement gig evolved into three more decades of dedicated work. Even into his 90s, he didn't fully quit working, and that's just how he liked it.

Die Sauna is free after 6pm, she said cheerfully in a mix of German and English, adding that all I needed was a towel. From that day on, sweating in the steaming sauna became my nightly ritual. I couldn't quite join the occasional conversations that bubbled up around me my German was very basic and my confidence level was hitting rock bottom. So mostly I sat quietly, listening, nodding, absorbing the rhythm of strangers unwinding at the end of their day.

The radically inclusive SASV is a secular and service nonprofit that celebrates life, welcomes all people and supports everyone fulfilling their potential. It aims to help people "live better" with inspiring, thought-provoking and practical ideas that help people lead the lives they want; "help often" by encouraging community action and lives of purpose; and, "wonder more" with talks, singing as one, readings and games to connect with each other and world. Most of all, have fun, be nice and join in.

My patient Alice began experiencing self-blame in childhood. Her well-intentioned mom put her on diets when she was in her early teens. Even before that, she had started to develop what she eventually called the "self-hatred voice." She vividly remembers when she was ten years old, sitting in the front yard with her legs bent, seeing the inside curvature of her leg and wanting it to be smaller.

When Jennifer Vaughan, 55, returned to work as a substitute teacher after her facelift, nobody said anything outright. Vaughan worried, "God, is it not enough of a difference that somebody isn't asking?" However, there were signs her coworkers were just being polite. One teacher did a double take and stammered their way through asking if something had changed. She told a few other teachers, and said, "They were like, 'Okay, I thought something was up, but I wasn't totally sure.'"

When Joseph Pilates developed what he first called Contrology in the early 20th century, there were no dedicated studios or intimidating contraptions. There wasn't even a reformer yet. (That came later, improvised from leather straps and hospital bed frames.) The idea was simple then, and it still is now: Pilates asks you to work with what you already have. Your body does the work, and a mat just makes it more comfortable.

After a season of heavy makeup looks and heavy meals not to mention yo-yoing between icy winds and stuffy heated interiors your skin might look and feel flushed, dry, dull and irritated. After all, late nights, crackling fires and bottomless eggnogs add heat to anyone's cheeks especially those with rosacea or eczema, says consultant dermatologist Dr Randa Akel, making this time of year prime for flare-ups.

To live a healthy life, it's crucial to have a healthy brain. In the short term, it keeps you sharp and firing on all cylinders. In the long term, it can reduce your risk of cognitive decline, dementia and stroke. Practicing basic healthy behaviors, like eating nutritious food and getting regular exercise, is the best way to enhance your brain power and protect the longevity of your neurons.

Oftentimes, in the mental wellness sphere, it can feel like there are a multitude of healthy behaviors we are supposed to practice. This seems to reach a zenith as we consider New Year's resolutions. It can feel overwhelming. It can feel like we can never do enough. Even worse, it can cause self-blame if we don't act in the prescribed ways.

That title's not a typo. The 5-to-9 is the time period before and after the 9-to-5 workday. Social media influencers have racked up millions of views showing off their outside-of-work schedules-#5to9routine has more than 35 million views on TikTok. During these videos, quick cuts of clips show off aspirational mornings and evenings packed with journaling, working out, meditating, cleaning, side hustling, and more. The trend's an offshoot of the " 5am club," which counts Mark Zuckerberg and Michelle Obama as early-rising members.

I creaked and groaned and belched like a tractor. Heaving myself out of the back seat of a car took so much effort that I dreamed about a portable winch. I waddled to the bathroom four or five times a night, between bouts of heartburn. I woke up with headaches, a mouth as dry as an emery board and a heavy coating of fatigue that I could never shake.

In Auvergne, France, some 200 volcanoes have shaped the landscape into rolling hills, meadows, lakes, and waterfalls. Though dormant, volcanic energy still pulses through the region, and mineral-rich springs have created one of Europe's most distinctive-though overlooked- wellness destinations. France's tradition of thermalism dates back to Roman times, but its tradition of hydrotherapy, known as les cures thermales, is not simply about soaking to relax.

For decades, public health messaging warned against high-fat dairy. But the argument against it is largely "circumstantial," says Benoit LaMarche, a Canadian food scientist who headed up an evidence review of the relationship between dairy and heart disease risk, published in May. The review concluded that generally speaking, fat-free, low-fat and full-fat dairy products had the same effects. Some studies have even shown the benefits of higher-fat over lower-fat dairy.

Admittedly, it was my fault, and was the result of an experiment: What would happen if I only wore one knee-high compression sock on the 15-hour flight from Newark to Cape Town? On my other foot, I wore a regular ankle sock to see just how effective compression socks can be for circulation while in the air. Surely, after 10 years of flying across the Atlantic monthly for my career, my body has acclimated to spending hours at high altitudes-right?

I have a proposal to make: 2026 should be the year that you spend more time doing what you want. The new year should be the moment we commit to dedicating more of our finite hours on the planet to things we genuinely, deeply enjoy doing to the activities that seize our interest, and that make us feel vibrantly alive.

This is also known as 'The Scandinavian method' as it is standard procedure in the Scandinavian countries,

Every late sleeper has heard it: The chorus of comments that bounce off the walls when they come downstairs after 9 a.m. " Look who decided to join us," your parents might say, as they sip their third coffee and rattle off everything they've already accomplished. "Welcome to the land of the living!" On TikTok, many people are talking about sleeping in late, how it gets a bad rap, and how it's sometimes even met with disdain.

Who'd have imagined that "engineering" inconvenience and discomfort out of our lives could be a threat to our health and longevity? Like not eating enough fruit and vegetables, many of us are deficient in specific types of health-promoting stress. According to recent research, moderate stress jump-starts biopathways that promote the repair and resiliency of our cells. These biopathways are part of a "rescue team" spearheaded by protective enzymes, proteins, and various growth factors that fling open the doors to better health.