For many years, my soul was trying to guide me, but I wasn’t paying attention. Even when my soul tried to communicate with big glaring WARNING signs or GO HERE billboards, I disregarded them. Thinking back to the year 2000, I have to laugh when I think about how my former husband and I stood in line for three hours at the courthouse to get our marriage certificate. And finally, when we were at the very front of the line, belly up to the courthouse clerk, there was a bomb threat....

Just like adults—children require healthy vitamin D levels to thrive. Vitamin D is best known for assisting the body to absorb calcium and phosphorus for building bone.* We know this because how often were we told to drink our milk for big, strong bones? Of course, there’s calcium delivered in that approach, too. But what’s lesser known, and at least as important, is that vitamin D plays a key role in immunity....

“We’re trying to make zero-waste cool by bringing it to the fine dining level,” explains Carlos Henriques, who runs new Helsinki-based restaurant Nolla alongside Luka Balac and Albert Franch Sunyer. In New York City by invitation of the Finnish Cultural Institute, they are sharing how they’ve managed to eliminate most of their restaurant waste in a series of panels, talks, and tastings for the NYCxDESIGN festival. While adopting such strict standards may seem impossible, the three say that many of their suppliers were able to switch over to reusable packaging relatively easily—it just took a little insistence....

You are silent. And comes in meaning thousand fold, comes at long last over everyone." ~ Rainer Maria Rilke From the moment we rise in the morning, we are engulfed in external noise – the alarm clock buzzing, music blaring, coffee pot beeping. We live our lives amidst noise everywhere, and some of the most pressing and stressing sounds are the ones we live with internally. Our minds are filled with woven thoughts – always one after the next....

That being said, there are some things we generally advise you to avoid in your personal care products, as research has shown them to be questionable at best. They’re commonly referred to as the “dirty dozen.” If you stick to clean and natural products, you likely won’t find these—but if you dabble in more traditional products, keep an eye out for these on the ingredient list: An older survey found that a releaser was found in one-fourth of all beauty products8; there is no more up-to-date version of this study to assess the current cosmetics industry....

Gratitude is “the practice of making space for appreciation,” licensed psychologist Snehal Kumar, Ph.D., tells mbg. This could be an appreciation for the people and things in your life, the experiences you’ve had, or the experiences you’ve yet to have, but gratitude can also (and should) be rooted in an appreciation of the self, Kumar explains. So what happens when you do something about it? Here’s a list of all the various benefits of practicing and expressing gratitude on a regular basis, according to the experts and scientific research: These findings suggest that when you’re in the thick of a stressful situation, if you are able to refocus your attention and energy on things that you are grateful for in the moment, you can calm both the mind and body, therefore reducing the physical and mental symptoms of stress....

And when you start learning about the causes and triggers of inflammation, it can begin to feel a little overwhelming. How do you know if you’re suffering from it? Do you absolutely need to get a bunch of fancy tests or pay out-of-pocket to see an integrative medicine doctor? Here’s how to know if chronic inflammation is a problem for you: According to Marvin Singh, M.D., an integrative gastroenterologist, the common signs he looks for in his patients include “joint aches, rashes, fatigue, food sensitivities, bloating, fever, mouth sores, abdominal pain, bloating, allergies, brain fog, changes in bowel habits, muscular pains, obesity, hormone imbalance, among many other things....