In addition to being convenient (that’s right: no more having to run to a massage therapist every time you need some relaxation or relief), massage cushions have positive effects on your health. A 2016 study found that massage therapy can greatly help with pain management1, and additional research discovered a correlation between long-term massage therapy and lower blood pressure2. More recent studies have shown chair massages can help reduce stress3. Since finding the right massage cushion may feel like a daunting task, we’ve done the heavy lifting for you....

Here are the 8 best bits of relationship advice we heard from experts in 2022, so our relationships can flourish in the coming new year: “One recommendation I have for couples to nurture their relationship is to do an intention challenge. To do the intention challenge, all you have to do is create a list of 12 things, which can be a mixture of gifts and gestures, to do for your partner once a month....

The study, published in the journal Sex Roles, involved 146 undergraduate students of varying ethnicities in same- or mixed-gender pairs. The students were all assigned both a self-disclosure task, where the goal of the conversation was to facilitate sharing and listening between friends, and a negotiation task, where friends had to make a decision together and make a case for their point of view. The conversations were all video-recorded and analyzed to see if there were any key differences between how men and women tended to communicate—and there sure were....

That said, not everyone suffers from a daily onslaught of chronic stress, and caffeine tends to affect each individual differently. So it becomes an individual issue that we have to decipher for ourselves and with the help of our trusted health care providers. For me, eliminating coffee was a godsend because the amount of caffeine was pumping into my body daily, coupled with chronic high stress levels and a variety of other destructive habits, left my body in a perpetual state of fight or flight....

According to licensed therapist Jody Kemmerer, LCSW, toxic positivity stems from wishing we were feeling something we aren’t. We aren’t comfortable with those tough feelings, “so we admonish ourselves to feel differently,” she previously explained to mbg. But if we do this all the time to avoid or deny our genuine experiences, she says, “we run the risk of invalidating our feelings.” In the past year, the phenomenon of toxic positivity has received more and more attention....

In Ayurveda, a traditional health system, your child’s tendencies and preferences are reflections of different body types. And the latest understanding of brain development gives valuable insights into what your child is capable of at different ages. The two together—ancient wisdom and modern neuroscience—define what I refer to in my book Dharma Parenting as brain/body types. They are easily distracted, especially if they’re out of balance, so they may lose their focus and make mistakes or wander off before they finish a task....

To administer Reiki, a practitioner channels life force energy through his or her hands unto another. It’s said that the aforementioned spiritual guidance enables the Reiki to flow through the affected parts of the subject’s energy field and charges them with positive energy. It raises awareness in and around the physical body where negative thoughts and feelings are contained. This causes the negative energy—such as stress, anxiety, physical pain, sadness, confusion, etc....