Ayurvedic values can be applied to every aspect of life—from physical health to mental well-being, beauty rituals, and diet. “The literal definition of ayur is ’life’ and veda is ‘knowledge,’” ayurvedic health counselor and Yoga Medicine instructor Cristina Kuhn tells mbg. “[It] is the knowledge of life or the knowledge of how to maintain health in daily life and therefore support longevity.” Here are 10 modern well-being practices that actually stem from this ancient mind-body medicine....

Masochism is popularly associated with BDSM (also known as Bondage and Discipline, Dominance and Submission, Sadochism and Masochism); a sexual masochist is someone who likes pain as part of sexual activity, which can be a healthy and empowering kink. The psychological masochist is someone who looks for ways to torment themselves in their day-to-day. To know if someone is a masochist, we’ve broken down some common masochistic behaviors, traits, and tendencies....

It’s a small price to pay for safer fragrance but, still, a bummer nonetheless. However! A few handy tricks can help your clean perfume last longer; it just may take some more time to get the most out of the juice. And honestly? Slowing down to connect with your fragrance only adds to the transformative experience—so we’d consider it a total win. Cat Chen, founder of clean fragrance brand Skylar, explains further: “All your pulse points are like little radiators,” she tells mbg....

“Think about the amazing food!!” he said. Since my only experience with Thai food was way-too-oily sauces with a few unrecognizable vegetables all dumped on white rice, the food wasn’t exactly a selling point for me. So off to Thailand we went, him: excited about the food, culture, monkeys, and elephants, me: excited about the massages. And now back from Thailand, I’m missing, craving, yearning, cooking the food, reading books on Buddhism, practicing more yoga, diffusing lemongrass essential oils, displaying elephant figurines around the house, and he’s saying, “I big fat told you so!...

Debra Lee Baldwin, the author of Succulents Simplified, likens their plump leaves to a succulent steak. “When you push on it, it has that soft resilience,” she tells mbg. “Tropical plants have thin leaves because they’re getting plenty of moisture from either rain or humidity, so they don’t need to store it.” “Based on the research I’ve found, there are over 10,000 different types of succulents that we know of, but a lot of those include the ones that humans are now cultivating and hybridizing,” Rachael Cohen, the author of Infinite Succulent, tells mbg....

I use the duck test—that is, if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it probably is a duck. There are no physical blood tests, MRIs, or exact determinations that can identify narcissism. Even therapists have to go on just observations of the behavior and attitudes that a person presents. So below are all the traits and behaviors that are signs of a narcissist. Not all of these traits have to be present to make a determination of narcissism: According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, which therapists use as a guide, a person needs to exhibit only 55% of the identified characteristics to be diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder....

She notes that gaslighting can be small or it can be extensive; however, “whether small or large, there can be a snowball effect where it impacts your sense of judgment, daily life decisions, and negotiations.” And even when it’s unintentional, it’s still damaging. As therapist Aki Rosenberg, LMFT, previously told mbg, “Gaslighting at its core is always about self-preservation and the maintenance of power/control—namely, the power/control to construct a narrative that keeps the gaslighter in the ‘right’ and their partner in the ‘wrong....