He was an instructor at my yoga studio who, through his intoxicating looks and 20-something prowess, helped me temporarily forget that my life was actually in complete shambles (i.e. that I had suddenly become a 40-year-old single mother of three without any plans for my future.) We’d go on long hikes, spend afternoons wrapped in my bedsheets, and travel to hidden hot springs and tropical beaches enmeshed in the physical comfort of each other....

“A common misconception is that insecure people are shy and withdrawn. While this may be true for some people, others may appear outwardly confident. Sometimes it is not until you get to know someone on a deeper level that their self-doubt and insecurity become apparent,” Jamea says. Another common misconception is that being insecure is a character trait, when really it’s a feeling or state of being, according to licensed clinical psychologist Avigail Lev, Psy....

When others tell you to bury your feelings, it makes you question yourself and the messages your body is trying to send to you. Think about how many times today you’ve attempted to push away a painful feeling by scrolling through social media, bingeing on Netflix, or using food, alcohol, or addictive substances to avoid emotions. In a world filled with distractions and with the invalidating messages we’ve received throughout our lives about emotions, it’s easy to see why so many people are afraid of feeling....

And, just as the infant must one day push against her mother to become herself, we, too, need to eventually create boundaries in our relationships, and make sure to preserve the edges of our individuality. Particularly at the beginning of a relationship, during the so-called “honeymoon phase,” pushing our lovers away is the last thing we want to do. We want to stay in what I call the “merge cycle” — and why wouldn’t we?...

Many health care professionals also consider chronic stress a significant risk factor for illnesses such as cancer and heart attacks. One reason is that our body’s physical reactions to prolonged stress may accumulate slowly and go unnoticed in our attempts to adapt to ongoing stress. However, even if it seems we’re building a tolerance to stress, our nervous system is still dealing with an overload, which can seriously affect overall health in the long run....

What the CDC (or any of the powers that be, for that matter) doesn’t address quite so clearly—much to many experts’ dismay—is the fact that nutrition is also a nonnegotiable in the fight against COVID-19. Of course, all that information is important and useful—as are the other COVID-19 guidelines the CDC has laid out. But, unfortunately, there’s not a single mention of nutrition as a preventive measure—it’s entirely left out of the conversation on their “Prevent Getting Sick2” section....

This was me in the years leading up to menopause. I was 243 pounds, and I was hangry. If you can relate, you may be wondering, “Is this increase in appetite an effect of menopause, or is it my imagination?” And if it is a real thing, why does it happen in the first place? To stop the hanger, you need to understand why your body is reacting this way and what you can do about it....