* Fantastic photo by KO!
]]>1) Nightly baths. I grew up surrounded by the Japanese tradition of nightly ofuro and was always told it's the best de-stresser and I am telling you, it really is. The key is to take hot baths and to submerge fully so that the heat of the water literally forces your neck and shoulders to relax. Every night as I immerse myself in the ritual, it feels like I am adding days to my life. I also sleep better and wake up without any tension!
2) Exercise. Jonah's suggestion that we buy an elliptical machine was one of his best ideas (and he has a million for me to choose from!). Consistently working out at least 3 days a week has worked wonders for my mental health.
3) Acupuncture. Call it what you will but it works. I found an incredible practitioner who, just by her nurturing personality does double duty as a therapist. After every weekly session I walk out of her office feeling truly grounded and calm.
Bonus: Switching from coffee to green tea! I was in love with coffee but I've since found a better paramour. Aside from all the well-documented health benefits of green tea, it is delicious and gives me the kick I need to start my day without the edge of coffee. I used to feel anxious while riding the subway but since the switch I almost feel physiologically unable to be anxious anymore! Warning: Most green tea sold here is no good. The green tea I devour every morning is sencha sent from my family in Japan. In terms of flavor and probably greater health benefits, try getting your hands on sencha or macha from Japan. You know you have a good green tea when the color is in fact very green!
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* Fantastic photo by KO!
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* Via BuzzFeed!
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* Spotted in Chinatown. Of course.
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SAN FRANCISCO — When David Bunnell, a magazine publisher who lives in Berkeley, Calif., went to a FedEx store to send a package a few years ago, he suddenly drew a blank as he was filling out the forms.
“I couldn’t remember my address,” said Mr. Bunnell, 60, with a measure of horror in his voice. “I knew where I lived, and I knew how to get there, but I didn’t know what the address was.”
Mr. Bunnell is among tens of millions of baby boomers who are encountering the signs, by turns amusing and disconcerting, that accompany the decline of the brain’s acuity: a good friend’s name suddenly vanishing from memory; a frantic search for eyeglasses only to find them atop the head; milk taken from the refrigerator then put away in a cupboard.
“It’s probably one of the most frightening aspects of the changes we undergo as we age,” said Nancy Ceridwyn, director of educational initiatives at the American Society on Aging. “Our memories are who we are. And if we lose our memories we lose that groundedness of who we are.”
At the same time, boomers are seizing on a mounting body of evidence that suggests that brains contain more plasticity than previously thought, and many people are taking matters into their own hands, doing brain fitness exercises with the same intensity with which they attack a treadmill.
Decaying brains, or the fear thereof, have inspired a mini-industry of brain health products — not just supplements like coenzyme Q10, ginseng and bacopa, but computer-based fitter-brain products as well. Continue reading...
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* Thanks to my hubby for knowing I can never be sent too many cute animal pics.
]]>* Thanks to Eric for the link!
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AMSTETTEN, Austria — With his Mercedes-Benz and his fine clothes, Josef Fritzl looked every inch a property owner, neighbors in this tidy Austrian town said Monday. Even when running errands, they said, he wore a natty jacket, crisp shirt and tie.
Mr. Fritzl’s apartment house, its back garden obscured by a tall hedge, was his kingdom, one neighbor said, and interlopers were not welcome. On Monday, investigators in white jumpsuits combed the house and garden for clues. The authorities said Sunday that Mr. Fritzl, 73, had kept one of his daughters imprisoned for 24 years in a basement dungeon, where she bore him seven children.
The daughter, Elisabeth, now 42, is in psychiatric care, along with two of her children. Her eldest daughter, Kerstin, 19, who was also kept in the basement and whose illness pulled apart Mr. Fritzl’s secret after he had her taken to a local hospital, was in a medically induced coma and was in critical condition, the authorities said.
The authorities said Mr. Fritzl confessed Monday to imprisonment, sexual abuse and incest. The case has left this town of 22,000 people, 80 miles west of Vienna, in stunned disbelief. Neighbors milled around the three-story apartment building on Monday, watching the investigation unfold and asking how such an atrocity could have occurred in their midst. Continued...
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* Thanks to my brother for the link!
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He spent his life helping animals and then he gets killed by an animal - cruel, cruel, fate. Makes me think of Born Free
I'm out in California right now and I overheard someone say that they felt bad saying it but they were looking forward to renting Jaws
Humans are complicated.
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