That’s right, you read correctly. I got myself a wife through meditation. Without meditation I might not (and probably wouldn’t) be married right now. I also found that when you are that alone (as I was), you start to hang out with those who feel comparably lonely. I was almost running out of friends without partners and/or families. On my first beginner shiatsu1 course, I felt out of place. We started our days with Qigong and ended in a circle holding hands....

Salt is made up of sodium chloride. Sodium is an essential mineral, “essential” meaning we must consume it from our diet, since our bodies can’t synthesize it. Sodium has many vital functions in the body, which I go into more in my book, The Salt Fix. Since we lose salt every day through sweat and urine, we need to consume some salt in order to live. When we become depleted in salt, the brain seems to react by sensitizing the reward system—and not just the reward system for salt, but the same reward system4 that drives us to other pleasurable activities....

But in the last year, it’s also become the unlikely home to another beauty consumer and brand: The kind that cross-references the Environmental Working Group’s website on a regular basis and whose routine defaults to less is more. Sephora, in what seemed nearly unthinkable only a few years prior, became a clean beauty hub—if not the go-to clean retailer for many. But by the time they launched their clean section last year—which included a verified stamp of approval, designated section on the website, and an official list of nasties—things had changed....

A derivative of western Africa, Madagascar, and South Asia, these twisty desert plants love heat and humidity and are incredibly resilient in indoor environments. If your snake plant isn’t getting enough sunlight, it will tell you with droopy and sad-looking leaves. While you should be careful to not suddenly move your snake plant from a dark corner to a high-light environment, you can train it to grow really well next to a window that receives some brighter light....

If you’re on the path to longer tips, you may want to consider opting for an oval nail. This is a classic shape that’s safe for fragile nails, easy to achieve, and arguably one of the better canvas shapes for nail art. Within this list, there are a few categories that distinguish which shapes are best for which kind of nail length and look. First, we have classic shapes like square and round....

The first step, then, is to generate awareness of one’s unique conception of essential qualities. As an individual becomes more self-aware, a personal “list” of essential qualities can be used both to form and to guide relationships. A firm understanding of one’s essential qualities allows for the open and honest communication of these essential needs to others. The more important the relationship is, the more critical it is to have a meeting of the minds and spirits on the necessary qualities for that relationship; when a relationship is more peripheral or less significant, there is often greater leeway....

The real mental shift came about a month or two before I met my current boyfriend of three years. Getting the hang of this whole “being alone” thing, I started to move outside my comfort zone. I went after things I had never had the confidence to follow through on. I started going to small indie performances by bands I loved (that my friends weren’t into); I took a bus to Maine and went skydiving as my birthday present to myself; I even joined a running group to train for my first half marathon....