Understandably, this can feel like a personal stab to your skin care-loving heart. Don’t be so quick to toss that product, though. Cetearyl alcohol is a commonly misunderstood ingredient—and it’s not as bad as you might think. Chemically speaking, cetearyl alcohol is a fatty alcohol. It’s made of cetyl alcohol and stearyl alcohol, two fatty alcohols also used in skin care. On ingredient labels, cetearyl alcohol is sometimes listed as cetostearyl alcohol, cetyl/stearyl alcohol, or C16-18 alcohol....

At the same time, the term “hatha” has also evolved in the U.S. to describe a particular type of yoga class that’s typically slow-paced with a focus on proper alignment, explains Lisa Maria, national workshop director at YogaWorks and certified yoga instructor. What’s the difference between hatha yoga and vinyasa? Compared to vinyasa classes, which often flow through series of poses at a quick clip, hatha classes typically guide practitioners through postures at a slower pace with more guidance on how to do each pose correctly....

Trust really is a practice, an art—especially in those moments when it feels like you’re working hard and things just aren’t happening. In the wellness world, we put so much emphasis on the importance of letting go, relinquishing the need to control and learning to trust that things will simply be taken care of. A job will appear, along with a dream partner and loads of money. In other words: we automatically position ourselves as dependent, weak and disempowered in relation to some elevated idea of “the universe....

There can be several reasons you keep getting sick. The good news? Many of them are within your control. “When we are run down and cortisol soars, our virus surveillance cells dip and we get sick more easily,” she explains. “Cortisol itself interferes with the ability of specific white blood cells called T-cells to proliferate and get signals from the body. In addition, cortisol also lowers an important antibody called secretory IgA, which lines the respiratory tract and gut and is our first line of defense against invading pathogens....

A recently published systematic review of meditation studies reported that one in 12 people experience unwanted effects from the practice, from panic attacks to psychosis to thoughts of suicide. Similarly, the 2015 book The Buddha Pill, by psychologists Catherine Wikhom and Miguel Farias, covers similar cases, from having Messianic delusions to mania to uncontrolled body movements, and cites cautions by other key psychologists on the dark side of meditation. Han tells me there may be some parallels between the psychological episodes known as zou huo ru mo and the adverse effects from spiritual practices that we see across different cultures, from St....

You’re not putting yourself in any more harm by having sex during your period. Some people may have more physical discomfort during their period (such as cramping or sluggishness, for example), which may make them less likely to want or enjoy sex while menstruating. But every menstruating person on the planet is different, and the way their bodies work during their period is rarely one size fits all. One study in the Journal of Sex Research found about half of sexually active women have sex during their periods1, so it’s definitely common behavior....

Here are ten strategies for calming stress that really work, and are supported by science. Exercise produces endorphins1—chemicals in the brain that make you feel good—which help decrease tension, elevate mood, improve sleep, and boost self-esteem. All these are factors that can lead to reduced stress. In addition, research has found that exercise can increase emotional resilience, the way you handle stress. While structured gym time is great, Samantha Boardman, M....