Author: HealthyWay Staff Writer

Categories
Motherhood

6 Things To Remember When Giving Birth In A Turkish Hotel Room (Or Any Other Unusual Place)

Here’s the scenario: You’re in a Turkish hotel, giving birth. You don’t think that anyone in the area speaks English, you’ve never given birth before, and you’re absolutely positive that the baby’s not going to wait another second. What do you do?
For Tia Freeman, the answer was obvious: Get on YouTube. With some help from the internet, she recently gave birth to her first child, Xavier Ata, alone in a hotel bathroom.


About 1.5 percent of U.S. women give birth in locations other than hospitals, per a report from Reuters Health. But many of them do so by choice, according to Karly Nuttall, a home birth midwife—they do it to keep control, to maintain body autonomy, to curate a comfortable setting. Tia did it out of necessity.
We spoke with Tia and Karly to find out what it’s really like to give birth in a strange place—and what every woman should know if she finds herself in that position.  

1. In desperate situations, you might not think to call a hospital.

As soon as she arrived in the hotel, she started prepping. We asked Tia why she didn’t call a hospital right away.
“I thought about it,” she says, “but from the limited amount of time I’d been in Turkey—there were so few people who spoke English, and I didn’t know any Turkish other than ‘Thank you’ and ‘Okay.’ That was a factor. I also knew that each country had a different 911 number, and I didn’t know that number in Turkey.”


She also had practical concerns.
“I didn’t know how my insurance was going to work overseas,” she says, “and on top of that, he was coming so quickly. My contractions were, like, back-to-back at this point. I didn’t think I was going to make it to a hospital anyway, so I said, ‘Well, I guess we’re just going to have to figure this out.'”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BC-c9CxpDsv/?taken-by=teenwitchtia
“If a pregnancy is not planned and a baby is coming fast, sometimes people can’t get to the hospital in time,” says Karly. “A birth under three hours is a precipitous labor, and usually that means that there are no complications. Sometimes, the baby may need a little assistance breathing because it can be shocking for them, but more often than not, if a woman is having a rapid birth, usually everything is fine.”

2. A bit of guidance goes a long way.

After she realized that she was giving birth, Tia looked up tutorials on YouTube.
“In true millennial form!” she says. “I didn’t know what else to do, so I was like, ‘Well, the internet’s got my back. YouTube, Google—one way or another, I’m going to figure this out.'”


She boiled shoelaces in her hotel room’s teapot (Tia tells us that most Turkish hotel rooms have teapots), grabbed towels, and ran water in the bathtub. The shoelaces would tie off the umbilical cord, at which point she could cut through it with a sterilized pocket knife.
“I was like, ‘Alright, this should get the job done.’ I put the towel in my mouth to muffle out the screaming—because the only labor I’d known was what I saw on television, and those women always look like they’re going through hell and high water.”


Tia was preparing to “freebirth” it—she was delivering her own child, on her own, without any sort of assistance whatsoever. While, spoiler alert, everything worked out in her case, Karly recommends against that practice.
“If you are birthing at home with a midwife, they will have proper training and education,” she says. “There are three common types of complication that can happen out of hospital: hemorrhage, shoulder dystocia, and infant resuscitation. Midwives are trained and have all of the same equipment to deal with these situations. Our best tool is our ability to observe and know when something is no longer low risk and make the call to transfer if necessary.”

3. Ultimately, your body knows what to do.

As Tia began giving birth, she had a brief moment of panic.
“So I’m groaning into this towel and pushing, and I’m like, ‘Why is this baby not coming out? Where’s my epidural? How did I get into this situation?'” Tia recalls.
https://twitter.com/TheWittleDemon/status/988924447359946752?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
“And then, finally, I’m guiding his head, because I know not to pull. Suddenly, he just comes popping out into the water and floats to the top,” she recalls, laughing. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, it’s a baby!'”
We asked Karly what women should know if they find themselves in the same situation. The short answer: Relax and let your body take over.


“Stay calm and realize that is a normal and natural process,” she says. “Mothers usually know what to do instinctively. You want to deliver the head as slow as you can. You want to keep the baby warm, you want to help stimulate the baby to breathe if they are not doing so on their own with rubbing or a quick puff of air.”
Of course, the safest option is to have a midwife or doctor nearby.

4. Cutting the cord can be pretty traumatic.

After the delivery, Tia successfully clamped and cut the cord. That was the first time she felt afraid.
“‘What if I cut the wrong thing?'” she remembers thinking. “‘This isn’t a game of Operation, this is the real deal. It’s game time.'”


Karly notes that this can be a tricky part of the process.
“You want to let the umbilical cord pulse until it’s finished,” she says. “Don’t touch it or do anything to it.”


Per the American Pregnancy Association, the umbilical cord doesn’t have to be cut immediately; in fact, one study found that babies whose cords were clamped more than a minute after delivery had greater iron storage three to six months after birth. However, those babies also required more phototherapy due to jaundice.
If you find yourself in Tia’s situation, you’ll want to clamp and cut—but take your time, don’t panic, and wait for the pulsing to stop before you reach for those scissors.

5. If you can give birth in a Turkish hotel room, you can do just about anything.

Amazingly, Tia didn’t panic at all during labor, and while she admits that the experience seems scary in retrospect, she remembers feeling fairly calm.
“I just thought, ‘What’s step one? Water birth, I saw that somewhere on the internet. Okay, step two: What position do I get in? On to step three.’ And the whole time, I’m talking out loud to myself. I probably sounded crazy to the person in the next room, but I was just trying to coax myself through it.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BhVAbgJjfqo/?taken-by=teenwitchtia
“And I’m on the internet this whole time. The internet’s like, ‘Don’t push until your contractions are two minutes apart,’ and I’m like, ‘Psh, I’ve got a timer, I can do this. My iPhone has prepared me for this.'”

6. Flight authorities ask a lot of questions if you suddenly show up with a new baby.

The consulate authorities asked her how she’d boarded a plane in her third trimester.
“I didn’t really know the official rules regarding who can’t fly, but no one ever asked. No one ever told me I couldn’t—in their defense, though, I didn’t really look pregnant.”
https://twitter.com/TheWittleDemon/status/988937072764387329?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Airlines typically prevent women from flying in the last several weeks of their trimester without a doctor’s note, but some airlines don’t have any policies whatsoever. According to the CDC, the typical cutoff date is 36 weeks into a pregnancy.
“At no point did anyone chastise me or anything, but they had a lot of questions,” Tia says. “They kept saying, ‘I can’t believe you did this.’ And I was like, ‘I barely believe it myself.'”
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bih5bUslgK9/?taken-by=teenwitchtia
Tia answered dozens of questions to prove that the baby was actually hers, then filled out paperwork for a United States birth certificate. Xavier received an emergency passport.

Xavier, by the way, is doing well.

His middle name, “Ata,” references the unusual circumstances of his birth.
“It’s Turkish,” she tells HealthyWay. “I kinda just got it from the ladies that were helping me at the airport. They were like, ‘Oh, he needs a Turkish name, he needs a Turkish name!’ And I was like, ‘Well, I think I can do that.'”
Ata is both the name of the city where Tia gave birth and a reference to the founder of the Republic of Turkey.


“If you’re planning on traveling later in a pregnancy, pack a baby-go bag,” she says, “even if you’re super early and you don’t think that you baby’s coming. Babies come on their own time! If you do end up going into labor somewhere where you can’t get to a hospital—say you’re stuck at traffic or you’re at home and you can’t get to a phone—deep breaths.”
“I know, it sounds very cliché. Breathe and focus, and your body and your instincts will take over.”

Categories
Life x Culture Lifestyle

How To Make A Budget That Actually Works For Your Lifestyle

According to recent research, in 135 out of 144 countries, women know less about finances than men do. (Guys aren’t off the hook, though—about 38 percent of men are financially illiterate.)
The problem isn’t going away anytime soon. In the United States, women hold roughly two-thirds of all student debt, and the gender pay gap is totally still a thing. Women make less, owe more, and often have trouble creating basic budgets that actually work, thanks to cultural biases and outdated societal expectations.
Yes, it sucks. Fortunately, there’s a way to get the money you do make in order: Learn how to make a budget. Don’t worry; it’s not nearly as painful as it sounds, and it’s a remarkably simple process once you’ve got the right outlook.

If you’ve been putting off learning how to make a budget because you’re worried about ruining your awesome lifestyle, relax. Learning how to make a budget actually reduces stress, eliminates debt, and—our favorite—gives you spending money.

It’s basically awesome financial witchcraft performed with a spreadsheet, smartphone app, or (our preference) a paper planner. Unless you have access to actual financial witchcraft (let a girl know), you’re going to want to read on.

How to Make a Budget, Step One: Understand why most people can’t stick to budgets.

Budgeting has a bad reputation, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that people who are learning how to make a budget for the first time often end up cheating a little…then eventually dropping their budgets altogether. More often than not, they’re trying to do too much without understanding the first rule of budgeting.
“The goal is to make the budget realistic,” says Michelle Hung, who is a Chartered Financial Analyst and the founder of online financial education platform Sassy Investor. “It’s no fun setting so many restrictions on yourself, because you’ll start to resent your life.”

“It’s like a diet,” Hung explains. “If you are super strict and don’t allow yourself little splurges, or if you set up unreasonable workout schedules, then you’re just setting yourself up for failure.”

That’s not to say that you won’t be reining in the expenses. But before you try to conquer your mountainous student loan debt (sorry to bring that up) or cut your food budget down to a dollar a day, make sure that you’ve got the right perspective. For most people, that means thinking carefully about what you need versus what you want.

Remember, when you figure out how to make a budget that works, you will be able to make space for wants. But for that to happen, you need to take a long hard look at your perception of money.
“For the ‘big spender,’ they have to distinguish between needs and wants, and this can go even further back and dig deep into what they value,” Hung says. “Do they value material things? Do they spend on these things to make them feel good? Are they insecure about something? Can they simplify their life and not have so much ‘stuff’?”

As you start figuring out how to make your budget, keep asking yourself those tough questions. Try not to take anything for granted—and trust that, in the end, you’ll still have money for the occasional splurge.

First, though, you need to reach for a pad of paper.

How to Make a Budget, Step Two: Write down income and expenses (and ask questions).

Okay, ready for the hard part of learning how to make a budget? (Spoiler: It’s really not that hard.)

Start by listing all of your income sources along with every recurring bill or predictable expense. You’ll want to list everything from your Netflix subscription to your mortgage. If you don’t have exact numbers (like for utility bills, for instance), it’s okay to estimate.

Once everything’s listed, break your expenses into categories. Some common examples:

  • Entertainment: The aforementioned Netflix subscription fits in here, along with books, movie tickets, and other non-essentials.
  • Personal Care: This might include skincare products and cosmetics, but you can also lump in haircuts or spa treatments.
  • Mortgage or Rent: For most people, this the biggest single item in the budget, so it often gets its own category.
  • Wellness: This might include things like health insurance, therapy co-pays, or gym memberships.

Those are just a few basics, and you’ll build in plenty of other categories as you work through your list. If you’re struggling to think of categories, apps like Mint, You Need A Budget, and Mvelopes can help (we’ll have a few more words on those in a moment).

Right away, if you’re not already living frugally, you’ll see a few places where you can trim down your expenses. However, remember to look closely. Some “needs” might actually be “wants,” and properly identifying them can help you avoid sinking deeper in debt.

With that said, we’re not quite at the “eliminating expenses” stage yet, and we’re not quite done with that paper.

How to Make a Budget, Step Three: Set up your financial goals.

Here’s the whole point of learning how to make a budget: It’s time to set up your goals. This is where you’ll start to see how your budget will revolutionize your financial life, so be prepared to celebrate (ideally, without purchasing any new bottles of champagne).

First, let’s address one of the other major reasons that people don’t follow their budgets: They encounter an emergency scenario, start spending…and immediately run out of money. That emergency might be a busted car, an unexpected visit to the doctor’s office, or a layoff you didn’t see coming.

Therefore, your first financial goal should be to build up some savings. Budget experts often call this “paying yourself.”
“Unfortunately, many people put this last on the priority list,” personal finance consultant Andrea Woroch tells HealthyWay. “What happens then is that some months may get tight with additional expenses and [saving] gets ignored.”

Woroch recommends incorporating a hard-and-fast rule as you make your budget: Always put a percentage of each paycheck directly in your savings, without exception. Experts often recommend 20 percent, although the exact percentage will change with your financial goals over time. The point is that you’ll always be paying yourself.

“Put this money into a separate account,” she says. “Consider opening up an online savings account to get a better interest rate.”

Set your emergency fund goal to cover several months of your essential expenses. Your emergency fund will be your first major goal, after which you can think about home down payments, retirement funds, and fun things like vacations and private Cardi B concerts (hey, we don’t know how much you’re budgeting).
There’s one thing that should take precedence over your rainy day fund.

“In building a budget, there are a few things [women] should do before saving for their goals,” explains Hung. “One being, if they have credit card debt, or any high-interest loans, they need to get rid of that first—before saving for their emergency fund or their goals. Then, they definitely should have an emergency fund set aside, ideally three to six months of expenses, depending on the risk of their primary income or [whether they have] dependents.”
If all goes well, you’ll eventually set up your monthly budget with last month’s income, which is an incredibly liberating feeling if you’ve been living paycheck to paycheck.

How to Make a Budget, Step Four: Track your expenditures.

At this point, your budget is pretty much good to go. It’s time to start tracking every single payment you make.

That might sound like a big deal, but depending on your current spending habits, it might not be too bad. Dedicate 20 to 30 minutes at the end of the day to tracking those expenses (though you probably won’t use that entire chunk of time, unless you’ve been doing some serious shopping).

The good old internet makes expenditure tracking pretty easy. If you pay for everything with a debit card, check your bank statement at the end of the day and enter expenses in each relevant category. If you use credit cards for some payments, track them at the point of purchase, making a note of the payment type so that you’re able to pay down the credit account at the end of the month.
Apps like Mint can help you track payments automatically, but our financial experts recommend tracking transactions by hand wherever possible. Whether you’re entering numbers into a spreadsheet or writing down expenses in a money planner, you’re thinking about the transaction and creating a habit that might stop you from overspending in the future.

How to Make a Budget, Step Five: Make mistakes, make adjustments, and enjoy your new budget.

You’ve learned how make a budget, you’ve set some goals, and you’re meticulously tracking every purchase you make. You’re doing everything according to plan.
Guess what? You’re going to screw up.

We’re not just being pessimistic! Successful budgets aren’t rigid, inflexible rulesets. They require constant adjustment, and in some cases, you’ll find yourself going over budget in certain categories.

The best practice is to pass those overspends off to the next month, where possible. For instance, if you budget $200 for entertainment and spend $210, budget $190 next month to get your books back in order. When that’s not possible, learn from your mistake, adjust your budget or spending habits, then move on. Don’t dwell on mistakes, and don’t get discouraged if you don’t immediately upgrade your financial habits.
While you’re logging expenditures, look for places where you can save without significantly reducing the quality of your lifestyle. Sometimes that means rethinking old advice.
“If you’re expecting a kid, don’t fall into the trap of thinking you need a bigger house or car,” Woroch says. “Babies don’t need much room! Stay put and save up until you can truly afford more space.”
That’s a fairly extreme example, but it gets to the heart of the problem: Learning how to make a budget is all about differentiating the wants from the needs and logging absolutely everything. Commit to those two principles, and you’re probably in good shape. There’s no hard-and-fast rule, and your budget will adapt to your lifestyle over time.

“As long as people live within their means, are being diligent with saving, and are not overspending, especially on fixed items (e.g., having a mortgage they cannot afford so they end up being house-poor), then it really is up to the person what works for them,” Hung says.
“I believe budgeting is something anyone can do, and frankly should do,” she notes. “I always say that if you know how to make money and spend money, you certainly need to know how to manage it properly.”

Categories
Conscious Beauty Lifestyle

The Truth About Shampoo

When was the last time you sat down and thought about shampoo?
We’re not talking about spending 20 minutes browsing through bottles of TRESemmé during a shopping trip. We’re talking about the actual function of shampoo itself. Why is it necessary? Is it really necessary? And is there really any difference between the pricey products lining the walls of your favorite salon and, say, the cost-effective options at the drugstore? Or a bar of soap?

iStock.com/JackF

We’ve been thinking about shampoo for a long time now—probably too long, according to our friends and family—so we decided to reach out to a few experts to get some answers.

First of all, what does shampoo actually do?

You can probably guess the basics, but to really answer some of the difficult questions about shampoo, it’s important to understand how it works.
“[Shampoos remove] two things: the natural oil that accumulates in the hair and dirt from the environment,” explains Laura Waters, PhD, principal enterprise fellow at the University of Huddersfield. Waters is a forensic anthropologist who studied shampoo for BBC Two‘s Horizon.
Dermatologist Fayne Frey, MD, gets a little more specific in an email to HealthWay: “Shampoo is basically a liquid cleanser designed to clean the scalp of sebum, sweat, desquamating skin cells, styling products, and dirt.”

iStock.com/MihailUlianikov

Desquamation is the clinical term for when skin sheds (it’s also our new favorite word). Sebum is the oil our skin naturally secretes.
Basically, shampoo works in exactly the same manner as bar soap: It uses detergents to get rid of oils. The detergents are the heavy lifters, and other ingredients thicken the shampoo (watery shampoos don’t sell well), prevent bacterial contamination, add a pleasant smell, and make the mixture foam up in the shower.
[pullquote align=”center”]”… well-formulated shampoos will clean the hair adequately and leave the hair aesthetically pleasing to the consumer. The trick is finding one you like.”
—Fayne Frey, PhD[/pullquote]
People respond to that foaming action, but foaminess doesn’t guarantee cleaning power.
“Most consumers think foaming equals cleansing, although the two are not related,” Fayne clarifies. “Almost all shampoos are built around detergents that are blended together to achieve the [optimal] amount of cleansing, depending on the type of hair.”
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“Harsher detergents, or surfactants, strip the hair of almost everything,” Fayne continues, “leaving the hair dull and lackluster, often [susceptible to] static electricity,” she explains. “Milder surfactants don’t clean as well but leave the hair more manageable. Certain ingredients are added to shampoos to address manageability, and other ingredients are added to make the shampoo itself more appealing to the consumer.”

What about specialty shampoos?

Specialty shampoos are big business. Baby shampoos, for instance, promise “no tears,” while oil control shampoos promise to detoxify the scalp and reduce grease. That’s not all marketing, but it doesn’t imply any massive differences in the formula’s basic composition, either.
“There are many different ‘types’ of shampoo claiming to be for different groups of the population,” Waters says. “They all do the same job—clean your hair. It is just that some, such as baby products, use milder [or more dilute] surfactants, which means they will be less likely to irritate the skin but also not be as effective if you have a lot of oil/dirt to wash away.”

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“Most of the other types of shampoos, such as ‘volumising’ and that sort of thing, have added ingredients as well as the surfactants,” she says. “Some put a coating on the hair to make it seem thicker, some have extra conditioners, but they still all contain surfactants.”
That’s also true for bar soaps. In fact, if you find yourself in a situation where you’re completely out of shampoo, a little bit of bar soap should accomplish the same basic thing.


That’s right; shampoo is, ultimately, unnecessary. That doesn’t mean that it doesn’t serve an important purpose.
“Most people believe that their hair looks better when the oil is removed,” Waters writes. “It looks and feels cleaner, but there is no need to wash it away, really.”

That brings us to the “no-poo” movement.

Disregard the silly name; the idea is that hair is healthier without shampoo because the natural oils in our hair are, well, natural. Why strip away something that’s supposed to be there?
It’s not a ridiculous idea, and it’s gone somewhat mainstream. Gwyneth Paltrow is an avid no-poo-er, per a report in Express.co.uk, and publications like Marie Claire and The Telegraph have published fawning testimonials from no-poo adherents.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BidF3QCB__b/?tagged=nopoo
There’s even a dedicated site, nopoomethod.com, to guide new non-users. According to Frey, there’s nothing wrong with foregoing shampoo completely, provided that you don’t mind some changes in the texture and feel of your hair.
“For healthy scalps, personal preference [determines how often you should shampoo],” she says. “[There’s] no consensus. No evidence that shampooing at any given interval is beneficial to scalp health.”
https://twitter.com/itmaehata/status/984488616905920514
If you don’t wash your hair at all, sebum will build up, potentially causing itchiness or oily dandruff. With that said, Frey notes that scalp health and hair aesthetics are two entirely separate issues.
“Individuals with scalp conditions, redness, itchy scalp, scaly scalp, or other irritations should seek medical attention and see a dermatologist before expecting to cure their scalp ailments with [over-the-counter] shampoos and conditioners,” she says.

We asked Frey whether our shampoo habits might harm the health of our hair.

“The bottles say lather, rinse, repeat, but they never tell you when to stop!” says Frey.
We’ll always appreciate a decent shampoo joke.

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“The answer to your question is there is no consensus on how often [to shampoo] or if any given individual with a healthy scalp really needs to shampoo,” she explains. “Before the 1930s, shampoo didn’t even exist. Folks used bar soap if they desired to clean their hair.”
The first liquid shampoo hit markets some time around 1927, but of course, people had been washing their hair for centuries prior. Modern shampoo is largely safe; cosmetic shampoos are regulated, for both their contents and their branding, by the Food and Drug Administration. Medicated shampoos must be approved by the administration.

That means those scary-sounding sulfates listed on the back of your shampoo bottle are safe—within limits. One study published in the International Journal of Cosmetic Science did find that sodium lauryl sulphate, a common commercial shampoo ingredient, caused noticeable damage to hair proteins. That study was carried out at a microscopic level, however, and the authors didn’t recommend against shampoo use; their goal was simply to compare the conditioning effects of different hair products.

Frey says that, provided you have a healthy scalp, you can shampoo your hair as frequently or infrequently as you’d like.

“Folks who don’t want to expose themselves to the chemical ingredients in shampoos … never need to shampoo,” she tells us. “Shampooing daily has become part of the American culture, but for most [is] totally unnecessary. Some say it is un-American to not shampoo, but the ‘no-poo’ movement is growing.”
https://twitter.com/pimpgotdistress/status/996367948251049985
For what it’s worth, we couldn’t find anyone who says that it’s unpatriotic to forego shampoo, but we’ll take Frey’s word for it. The takeaway is that if you like oily hair, you can safely stop shampooing. Just be prepared for the results.

“It is perfectly normal to have oily hair, but most prefer not to … . [How] quickly your hair generates oil depends on how often you need to wash it away,” Waters says. “Dirt from the environment sticks to the oil, and so the former makes the latter seem worse.”

Ever thought about pH levels? Maybe you should.

“Certain characteristics of shampoos and conditioners will affect hair appearance,” Frey notes. “The pH of a shampoo can affect [hair strength] and manageability. Unfortunately, the pH of … shampoos and conditioners is not found on the labels. Consumers must contact the manufacturers for this information.”

iStock.com/Steve Debenport

“The pH of the scalp is around 5.5; pH of a hair shaft is around 3.6,” Frey continues. “Very alkaline products (high pH) can leave the hair with static and difficult to manage.”
According to one study in the International Journal of Trichology, shampoos with an alkaline pH may “increase the negative electrical charge of the hair fiber surface and, therefore, increase friction between the fibers.” That friction, in turn, could lead to cuticle damage fiber breakage.
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While the researchers advocate for pH labeling on shampoo bottles, they acknowledge that further research is needed to figure out what the optimum pH range is.

Our experts agreed on one point: Great conditioners, it seems, are worth the money.

When we asked Frey whether shampoos can ever really add volume to hair, she quickly got to the real issue.
“Possibly, for some people, it can appear to have a small effect for the short term,” she writes. “[But] it’s the conditioner that makes a much bigger difference.”
“The idea of beautifying the hair is a secondary issue for shampoos and better addressed by well-formulated conditioners,” Frey says.

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Conditioners basically bind cuticle flakes to the shaft of each hair, providing a smooth feel and improving appearance. They’re not magical—they can’t add new hairs to your head, either—but they can provide the so-called “volumizing” effect that manufacturers love to tout.
“Shampoo doesn’t tend to be left on the hair for long and is quickly washed away, whereas conditioning products are left on for longer and more likely to have an effect,” Waters says.
“The price of a shampoo is only partially about the ingredients: it is also the image, such as the packaging, et cetera,” Waters continues. “… I wouldn’t buy the [expensive bottle of] shampoo, as it isn’t that much better than [an inexpensive] bottle.”
[pullquote align=”center”]”Some like their hair a bit wavy, others not so much. Beauty, when it comes to hair, is truly in the eyes of the beholder.”
—Fayne Frey, PhD[/pullquote]
Frey recommends experimenting to find what works well with your hair and scalp.  

“Of course, well-formulated shampoos will clean the hair adequately and leave the hair aesthetically pleasing to the consumer,” Frey says. “The trick is finding one you like.”
When buying any product for your hair, it’s imperative to keep that you in mind.
“Some folks like the full, wild hair look, others prefer flat,” Frey says. “Some like their hair a bit wavy, others not so much. Beauty, when it comes to hair, is truly in the eyes of the beholder.”

Categories
Happy Home Lifestyle

Why Air-Purifying Plants Are A Breath Of Fresh Air

Air-purifying plants sound like something out of science fiction, so maybe it shouldn’t come as a surprise that we know about them thanks to a NASA study. In the 1980s, a team led by Bill Wolverton, PhD, determined that plants are capable of removing volatile organic compounds from sealed environments.
Obviously, those findings were important for aerospace professionals—a typical spacecraft has a significant amount of weird compounds bouncing around inside of it—but the NASA Clean Air Study also had important implications for typical American households.

We decided to look into the practical side of the science: Can houseplants really improve indoor air quality, and if so, to what extent? Are certain plants better than others?

How Volatile Organic Compounds Affect Indoor Air Quality

First, let’s take a quick step back: Volatile organic compounds (better known as VOCs) are a problem because they’re thought to cause various ill effects, including fatigue, allergic skin reactions, headaches, nausea, and even serious problems like central nervous system damage. Some are known carcinogens, per the Environmental Protection Agency. There’s even evidence that VOCs cause something called sick building syndrome, which occurs when the occupants of a building become mysteriously ill.
Unfortunately, we basically invite these pollutants into our homes: VOCs can be emitted by certain paints, flooring, furniture, computer printers, aerosol sprays, and hobby supplies.

So, how do air-purifying plants get rid of VOCs?
Do they chow down on them, Little Shop of Horrors style? (Not quite.)
To find out how air-purifying plants do their jobs, we reached out to Wolverton, who’s continued to research plants’ effect on indoor air quality since his groundbreaking work with NASA. He’s also written several books, including his most recent, Plants: Why You Can’t Live Without Them.

“Plant leaves produce negative ions as they emit water vapor during the process of transpiration,” Wolverton tells us via email. “Plants with the highest transpiration rates produce the most negative ions. Negative ions have the ability to destroy airborne molds and bacteria. Negative ions are charged particles that attract dust to their leaves. This is why dust often accumulates on their leaves.”

“So, in essence, the negative ions are pulling dust particles to the leaves and reducing the amount of dust particles that are suspended in the air,” he continues. “This same mechanism assists in the removal of VOCs from the air. The transpiration process pulls air down to the plant roots. VOCs in the air are brought down to the root zone, where microbes biologically break them down and utilize them as a source of food for themselves and their host plant.”

We’d love to simplify that as “Yes, plants chow down on pollutants, Little Shop of Horrors style,” but it’s a bit more complicated than that. There is some evidence that micro-organisms surrounding the plants do most of the heavy lifting. In any case, plants do seem to eliminate VOCs, but scientists disagree as to the extent of the effect.
Majbrit Dela Cruz of the University of Copenhagen has also studied how potted plants remove VOCs.
“In our group, we have not investigated homes or offices, but there are a few other studies that show that plants remove VOCs in real-life conditions,” Dela Cruz tells us. “Unfortunately, there is not much research that has investigated removal of VOCs by plants in real-life conditions. At the moment, I would say that it’s impossible to make a general statement to what extent plants can improve our air.”

Wolverton, on the other hand, strongly believes that houseplants can affect indoor air quality (IAQ), and not simply by producing oxygen.  

“Most homes do not use mechanical ventilation, and interior plants can be very effective in improving IAQ in energy-efficient homes,” he writes. “While at NASA, we conducted a study in a tightly sealed structure that we termed the ‘Biohome.’”

“Through sophisticated analytical instrumentation, we showed that interior plants could remove most of the chemicals within this structure that was laden with indoor air pollutants.”

Are certain air-purifying plants better than others?

All of that research is fascinating, but it doesn’t really help us choose between a Boston fern and a peace lily.
“I’m often asked the question Which plants should I choose for my home and how many?” says Dela Cruz, shortly after we asked her those exact questions in that exact order. “This is not possible to answer.”

To be clear, Dela Cruz does believe that plants improve air quality, but she didn’t want to recommend specific plants, simply because she believes that researchers need to study the issue in greater detail before offering advice.

“People wonder how difficult it can be to quickly test a lot of plants,” she writes. “It may not be difficult to screen a number of plants to see if they have a potential to remove a few compounds, but to investigate if they can remove hundreds of compounds over a long time period (which is what they should be able to do in real-life conditions) will take a lot of time.”

Wolverton, however, isn’t shy about making recommendations. His company’s website notes formaldehyde (a common and potentially harmful VOC) removal rates for a number of different potted plants in potting soil, so if you’re looking for specific air-purifying plants, these are the plants Wolverton recommends based on his research.

Boston Fern (Nephrolepis exaltata Bostoniensis)

The Boston fern showed the highest removal rates in his study: 1,863 micrograms per hour. While you probably won’t be measuring micrograms of VOCs, it’s good to know that this easy-to-care-for fern is at the top of Wolverton’s list. If you get one, don’t forget to keep this baby humid—it thrives in damp soil!

Dwarf Date Palm (Phoenix roebelenii)

The dwarf date palm comes in second in Wolverton’s tests, with a removal rate of 1,385 micrograms per hour. If you’re feeling tropical vibes, this is the plant for you. It’s an easy plant to love, but make sure you’ve got space: They can grow to between 6 and 12 feet tall.

Bamboo Palm (Chamaedorea seifrizii)

If you’ve got a low-light space, the bamboo palm might be your best bet for air-purifying plants. Wolverton notes that this plant removes 1,350 micrograms of formaldehyde per hour. Though it’ll get tall like the dwarf date palm, it’s a little more low maintenance.

Dracaena Janet Craig (Dracaena deremensis ‘Janet Craig’)

The dracaena Janet Craig may be the perfect houseplant: It’s easy to care for (sensing a theme?), its colors are beautiful, and Wolverton says it removes 1,328 micrograms per hour. Get yourself a Janet.

English Ivy (Hedera helix)

We all know English ivy. Though it’s usually grown outside, give it some bright light and something to climb up (or down), and it’ll be perfectly happy purifying the air of your abode. Wolverton notes that its removal rate is 1,120 micrograms per hour, too.

Weeping Fig (Ficus benjamina)

It’s a tree! Inside the house! And though it has a sad name, the weeping fig will bring joy (and a decrease of 940 micrograms of formaldehyde an hour) into your house. Though its natural habitat is the rainforest, it’ll work well in your house too—provided that you leave it alone.

Peace Lily (Spathiphyllum ‘Clevelandii’)

Not quite a gardener? Start with a peace lily. It’s not actually a lily, it’s hard to kill, and it’s pretty. Plus it’s on the NASA study’s list and Wolverton’s list as a household air-cleaning plant, thanks to its removal rate of 939 micrograms per hour.

Areca Palm (Dypsis lutescens)

You haven’t seen a plant on Instagram if you haven’t seen an areca palm on Instagram. This big palm, with a 948 microgram removal rate, will cover up a bare corner or wide wall easily. They can live for up to 10 years, so be ready to commit.
(Wolverton does note on his site that these removal numbers come from chamber-sealed studies, not in a real house where “conditions could vary significantly.” So he recommends doubling up if you’re looking to buy one—or more!—of these air-purifying plants.)
Regardless of contradictory research about VOC removal, having plants within the home is a great way to reduce carbon dioxide and increase the amount of oxygen, which is beneficial on its own. If you’re looking to get started, Wolverton writes on his website, “I recommend at least two good-sized plants per 100 square feet of space within a home. Of course,” he notes, “if the homeowner can maintain more plants, then it is even better.” Plant ladies, unite!
When choosing any new air-purifying plant, keep these tips in mind:

Remember that some plants are toxic to pets and humans.

According to the National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care, examples include the morning glory, lily of the valley, iris, foxglove, and hyacinth. Flowering plants, in other words, tend to be poisonous, whereas plants like the Boston fern, jade plant, and snake plant (ironically) tend to be safe. Research any new plant before bringing it into your home, regardless of how cute it looks on your kitchen table.

Suit your houseplants to your lifestyle.

Your new plant can’t purify the air if it’s dead. Some of the HealthyWay crew aren’t natural green thumbs or used to sticking to watering schedules, which is why we picked up a cast iron plant (Aspidistra elatior) in our office; it got its name because it’s incredibly tough! Other hardy options include the jade plant and spider plant. Boston ferns aren’t too tough to care for, either, but they require plenty of light and high humidity.

Finally, if you’ve got allergies, avoid blooming plants, as they can produce pollen.

Wolverton also suggests taking a few extra steps to eliminate standing water. “It is best to cover the potting soil with a layer of porous material, [for instance] aquarium gravel, hydroculture pebbles, etc.,” he writes. “This allows the surface of the plant container to stay dry, and therefore, [it] will not grow mold.”
This might also boost the plant’s air purifying powers to some extent. “I recommend that people with allergy sensitivities grow their plants in hydroculture,” Wolverton writes. “In hydroculture, plants are grown in pebbles instead of soil and the container is sealed. Therefore, you eliminate the problem of standing water in the drain tray when using potting soil. Our studies show that plants grown in hydroculture are more effective in removing VOCs because the air can more easily travel to the plant’s roots through pebbles than in compacted soil.”
If you’re concerned about VOCs, the best way to keep them out of your home is to stop them from entering in the first place. Choose low- or no-VOC paints, renovate with low-VOC construction materials, and buy higher quality furniture (secondhand where possible—it’s better for the environment, and antiques beat IKEA any day).  

With that said, a few houseplants will certainly improve air quality, and although the extent of the effect is debatable, we’re pretty happy with our cast iron plants and Boston ferns. Plus, we get to tell our houseguests about “biofiltration.” That’s certainly worth a trip to the gardening center.

Categories
Happy x Mindful Wellbeing

Feeling The Burn? Fight Back Against Burnout With Advice From CEO Emilie Aries

When you’re burned out on your work, nothing seems satisfying. You’re working long hours, and you start to disassociate; you feel as if you’re watching someone else do your job. You’re cynical, and even when you’re succeeding professionally, you’re not able to appreciate your accomplishments.
Psychologists typically associate these symptoms with burnout syndrome, which is recognized by the World Health Organization as a diagnosable mental health disorder and is included in the 10th International Classification of Diseases (ICD 10) as an undefined additional diagnostic term. Although it isn’t yet recognized in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), several countries (including Sweden) consider it to be a legitimate reason for taking sick leave.
The good news—and yes, there is good news—is that you’re not alone. According to one Swedish study (remember, Sweden has acknowledged burnout as a significant problem, so they’re decades ahead in terms of research), about 13 percent of workers suffer from burnout, and women tend to have higher burnout rates than men.
Why the discrepancy? To some degree, that’s still up for debate, but some psychologists believe that women might provide more emotional support in the office than their male colleagues. For instance, if a co-worker is feeling stressed out, you might feel responsible for consoling them, but your male co-workers might not feel the same responsibility. Institutional sexism, we meet again.
Successful, career-driven women are especially vulnerable to burnout. When Emilie Aries was only 21, she’d accomplished some incredible things; she was the youngest state director in the nation working on behalf of President Obama’s Organizing for America campaign, and she was in a leadership position in the midst of the Great Recession.
“For all intents and purposes, I was doing well—on paper,” Aries tells HealthyWay. “I was doing work I cared about. And who was I to complain? I’d achieved everything I wanted, straight out of graduation.”
Behind the scenes, however, Aries was suffering. She was exhausted from work, but there’s more to burnout than just working long hours. The Stanford Social Innovation Review lists lack of rest, feeling a loss of control, and not having a strong community in your life as contributors to burnout, too—and Aries was experiencing all of these.
Today, Aries runs Bossed Up, an organization that raises awareness for occupational burnout while providing supportive resources for professional women. Her goal is to promote sustainable careers, and yes, she’s as awesome as she sounds.

We spoke with Aries to learn more about her experience and to find out how we can recognize—and deal with—the symptoms of burnout.

HealthyWay: Before we discuss burnout, could you briefly explain what Bossed Up does?

Aries: We’re a training company that helps women navigate career transitions. We have a special eye towards preventing burnout so that women can craft happy, healthy, sustainable career paths.

I started it back in 2013 after burning myself out in the world of organizing and advocacy. And it was ironic, because I got very good at helping people make their voices heard and advocating on behalf of the causes and campaigns that I believed in, but I really had trouble advocating on my own behalf. I couldn’t draw the healthy boundaries I needed to be sustainable.
I had to bottom out to recognize that this is something a lot of women face. We’re living in a world that’s not quite sure it likes women who advocate on their own behalf.

So I set out to really understand that problem better, and in doing so, I learned so much about how to sit in the driver’s seat in my own career that I had to share it with other people. We have a ton of free resources online and a very active community of women who are doing just that through online and in-person training programs.

When you experienced burnout, what was it like? What were some of the signs you noticed?

Well, I think burnout is so troubling in that it really afflicts the highest achievers in an organization. That was certainly true in my case.
I was sad, and I felt like I dreaded going to work. I didn’t know how to turn off. I was working all the time. I was glued to my Blackberry and iPhone before my feet hit the ground every morning. It made me realize that even though I care a lot about this work, it makes the people who are the most passionate—well, it makes them become not passionate. It dims the light of the people who were once so ambitious.

Was there a tipping point, or a single event, where your occupational burnout became overwhelming?

I distinctly remember driving through campus at my alma mater, Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and I was bone-tired. It was one of those days where I had events all night, up and down the state. I was rushing from one thing to the next, and I stopped at a crosswalk and saw these young students who were only three years younger than me.
They were rolling their bags home for Thanksgiving break. Something in me just snapped; I felt so jealous of those students—even though I was supposedly ahead of them in life. I paid attention to that jealousy. I caught myself feeling bad for feeling sad. That meta-level of emotions—I should not feel ungrateful, I should not feel unhappy, I should be grateful for any job—helped me realize that [I was burned out].
I was jealous of these students because, in my professional life, I’d been waiting for permission to take a break. I was waiting for someone to tell me that it was the end of a semester. You know, life doesn’t work that way after graduation, and that’s when I realized I needed to make a change.

What did you do to deal with burnout once you realized this was affecting you?

It started with getting help, frankly. I was dealing with a lot. I wasn’t just dealing with work stress—in many cases, burnout is not just a product of overwork.
I was also dealing with a partner at the time whom I cared for deeply, whom I lived with, who was struggling with alcoholism. Anyone whose life has ever been touched by addiction knows that they call it a family disease for a reason. It’s extremely excruciating to watch someone you care about slowly harm themselves.
So I was juggling, in a sense. I was trying to look like I had it all together, and so I was isolated at work and at home.

There were a couple things that really changed the game for me. One was getting help, professional help. I’d never been to therapy before—nobody I knew had been to therapy before—and I ended up talking to my primary care physician about the burnout. That felt good, to finally confide in someone else. She said, “Let’s get you into therapy, and then we’ll deal with your boyfriend, who clearly needs therapy.”

I couldn’t refuse, and that was a game changer. The other variable that really changed was that I applied the products of therapy; I now have the time and space to actually think about myself. It’s socially acceptable for me to think about myself—what I want, where I’m going.
For the first time in three years, I took my nose off the grindstone for a second and didn’t just focus on doing well for others. I had permission to spend some time in that mental space, that headspace.
From that mindfulness, I started creating rituals in my life. I started walking more—I had gone from being a college athlete to avoiding the gym entirely, so I changed that.
Finally, I received support from my community. That’s huge. I had professional help, I had time and space to think about what I wanted for the first time, and I connected with close friends in a really meaningful way. Right after graduation, we’d all scattered across the country, and I felt really detached. I started to change that.

Once you reconnect with the people who really trust and love you, who really see you for the courageous person you are—even if you don’t see that in yourself—that’s a game changer. So those are the things that I recognize now, and the research shows that those things are a huge part of what leads people to burnout: a lack of community, a lack of a sense of agency in your life, a lack of rest and renewal.

It sounds like dealing with burnout was a long process. I wouldn’t think it was easy to realize you were burned out on your career.

It’s sad that you have to learn it this way. That’s the irony. I was a budding political rockstar in the state of Rhode Island, and I had to make this decision: Can I be this fierce of a woman with so much ambition while taking care of myself? Like actually fully embracing sustainability?

And the answer is yes. You have to. Otherwise, you’ll burn out, then you’ll bottom out. Obviously, I didn’t know that, so I was more focused on working more and more. How can I get more done? How can I outperform everyone around me? How can I continue to get straight As?

And that’s not how life works after graduation, right? There’s no syllabus to follow. So I think it was a hard lesson to learn, but it reminded me that I’m the main character in my life, in my career, and I’m the one who’s going to decide what I do with it.

Tell me about how you overcame occupational burnout. I’m guessing it wasn’t easy.

For me, it was a series of very hard decisions. I had to walk away from the career I’d started to build. I left my relationship, which was extremely difficult and dangerous, and that was a very scary thing to do.

That also left me with thousands of dollars of debt, just because of how ugly things became. On top of everything, I chose to move to Washington, D.C.

Why D.C.?

Because I wanted to. [laughs] That’s the thing, there was no good reason. There was no right answer. I’ve been waiting for all these people to give me permission to just pursue a career, and I was done with that.
I decided that I wanted to live in D.C., and I knew I could find a way to make that work given my political background. That meant getting a one-bedroom apartment and sleeping on a mattress on the floor. I found myself rebuilding everything when I was 24 years old.
I got another job, but it wasn’t another state director job—I could clock in at 9, clock out at 6, and pay the bills. I got out of credit card debt. I got in the best shape of my life. I spent more time on myself.

And that physical strength gave me a ton of mental strength, which helped me really reflect on what I’d overcome and how I could help other women overcome it with less isolation.

One of the things I’ve seen that Bossed Up does is kind of fight back against the culture that doesn’t accept that burnout exists. You also tackle the gender discrepancies that make it a common problem for women.

There’s not a ton of great, widely cited research that highlight gender discrepancies, and I think that more research [needs to be] done. What we do know is that stress, in general, absolutely hits women and people of color in different ways than white, male-identifying folks. It has much more to do, in my opinion, with how life looks outside of work than it does inside the workplace.
We know that full-time working women are still doing twice the amount of housework that full-time working men are doing. Sadly, that’s the best that ratio has ever been. I guess the good news is that men are doing more around the house than ever before, but the disparity is so enormous to me. It’s just no wonder that it feels like a very radical act to embrace self-care as a part of your daily or weekly routine, especially after kids arrive.

I was going to ask about that. Pursuing a career while being a mother—it’s not like your responsibilities as a parent disappear when you get to your workplace.

I think that being childless is an often invisible privilege. Folks like myself can take that for granted, especially when it comes to having agency of your own.

And having agency is a really important thing for warding off burnout. That’s even if you have the privilege of having a partner. Maybe you’re a single parent, maybe you’re doing this whole thing on your own, or maybe you’re just a single person who doesn’t have someone else to help with the laundry or make dinner when you’re having a crazy week. So there’s also some burden there on single folks that can be overlooked.

It’s just that the basic mechanics of our workplaces are designed for a traditional family unit that’s not really all that prevalent anymore. Work is designed for someone who has a wife at home, who’s taking care of the home front. If we were all so lucky! That’s just not how things work anymore.

Yeah, that’s a great point. The work day, expectations of work, career paths—those things haven’t really changed that much since the 1950s.

Exactly! So we have to start to look at the structural assumptions we’re making about where employees’ lives happen.

We’re long past the time in which workplace flexibility should’ve been a basic part of the worker’s experience.
I also want to make sure we acknowledge racial disparity. There’s a term in the research called racial battle fatigue, and it really points to this added layer of stress that minority folks [experience] in a majority environment.

That’s any type of minority group, by the way. The “minority” might be men in nursing, for example, or it might mean people of color on a predominantly white college campus. More often, this affects racial minorities, but anyone in a minority–majority environment experiences this added layer of stress due to everyday microaggressions.

How might those microaggressions contribute to burnout among women?

Let’s say there’s only one woman in the office in the board meeting. [And there’s] a seemingly innocuous comment: “Hey Suzie, would you mind taking notes?”

The assumption that Suzie is the note-taker can feel like a microaggression. It makes her pause and think, “Am I being judged based on my gender here?” These types of comments don’t seem to be a big deal, but they can chip away at your sense of belonging, adding to your stress and adding to that feeling of detachment.
The point is that, yes, it’s important to recognize that happier and healthier workers are more productive and that we can craft sustainable workplaces. But the way that burnout manifests for women and people of color—and especially for women of color—is different, as they encounter additional burdens or stressors in a [workplace culture] that’s chronically stressful.

In other words, we shouldn’t assume two people with the same job are experiencing the same amount of stress from that job.

Yes. Exactly.

I think that’s a really important point. What can we do—either as employees or employers—to fight for a more flexible workplace where burnout is less of a problem?

That’s a good question. I think every workplace is different. Every career path is different. From the employer’s standpoint, it requires having courageous conversations with employees about stress. More importantly, it’s about setting expectations for rest and renewal.

If a company says, “We really believe in taking vacation,” but then the CEO and all the managers are sending emails when they’re supposed to be on vacation—you know, they’re not practicing what they’re preaching. You need to create a culture where sustainability is actually practiced.

For employees, I think it requires ditching the martyrdom mindset—the idea that in order to be successful, you must suffer. It’s so ingrained in the American dream; we pride ourselves on our productivity, but we’ve hit the point of diminishing returns. More hours doesn’t produce better rewards.
So instead, we need to recognize our choices. We need to recognize the power we already have in our lives, at every level, and not wait for permission to put our oxygen masks on first in order to help others.

What does that look like? What can a person do if they’re starting to encounter burnout?

Maybe that means meditating a couple of times a day when you’re feeling really stressed.

Maybe it’s about refusing to relinquish control of our lives—saying things like, “I can’t,” “You don’t understand,” “My career path is special,” “No.” It’s recognizing that we all have choices. We all have power over how we bring more community and agency into our own lives.

Figure out what renewal looks like for you because it can be very different for different kinds of people. It’s hard work. In our culture, we sometimes get this idea that we need to sprint to keep up with the Joneses, or maybe the Instagram of the Joneses, for this era. But it’s about enjoying the ride. It’s about crafting a way to do what you want to do in a sustainable way.

When you make it to the finish line, can you really enjoy it if you’re crawling over that finish line? I don’t think so. Success feels so hollow when you’re too burned out to achieve it.
Remember, if you’re suffering from occupational burnout syndrome, the safest course of action is to seek professional treatment. To learn more about Emilie Aries and her work, visit Bossed Up.
Finally, studies show that environment makes a big difference in workplace stress levels, so support your co-workers while demanding the same levels of support. We’re all in this together.
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Categories
Happy Home Lifestyle

Going Green: Here's How To Make Sure Your Eco-Friendly Home Is Actually Sustainable

We probably don’t have to sell you on the advantages of an eco-friendly home. Putting the future of life on this planet aside, a sustainable home can save you a ton of money.
According to data from UtilityScore, the average single-family household spends $226 per month on utilities. Energy-efficient upgrades can reduce those expenses by $200 to $400 per year, per the Department of Energy, putting a decent chunk of change back in homeowners’ pockets.
Need a more significant financial incentive? Eventually your home’s energy efficiency might even affect its overall value.
“I really expect that home energy labels are going to become the norm, at the time of sale, sometime very soon,” says Asa Foss, director of residential technical solutions of the U.S. Green Building Council. “I really see that driving the market in the not-too-distant future.”
“People in the lending community are now looking at how they can [assess] utility costs to make that part of the fundamental information they use to determine how much home you can afford,” Foss tells HealthyWay. In other words, if you have a truly eco-friendly home, you might enjoy a higher sales price when you’re ready to move on. And if you’re looking to buy, you might be able to lock down a lower interest rate.
Even if your primary concerns aren’t money or the environment, there are other reasons to go green. Some eco-friendly upgrades might make your home a more comfortable—and healthy—living space. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) notes that many household products contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs), some of which can have “short- and long-term adverse health effects.” Invest in eco-friendly upgrades and you can reduce organic pollutants, potentially avoiding some of those effects.
We’ll just assume that we’ve convinced you to take a look at your home’s sustainability. That was the easy part—but where do you start?      
That depends on whether you’re buying, renovating, or just looking for a few simple upgrades. Here’s what you need to know.

Eco-Friendly Renovations: Planning a Sustainable Makeover

Everyone loves a good remodel, but unless the Property Brothers spontaneously show up on your doorstep, you’re probably shelling out big bucks for major renovations. Making sustainable changes means budgeting carefully. Eco-friendly materials often pay for themselves over time, but they’re initially expensive, and you’ll want to make sure that you’ve got enough green to go green.
“Depending on your budget, you can set a goal,” says Erica Leigh Reiner, owner of E. Leigh Designs, an eco-friendly interior design firm. “For instance, you can say that 20 percent of items or materials will be green, and then you can prioritize what those will be.”
Not sure where to start? To get the most substantial benefits, just look up.
“It’s difficult to properly insulate the walls of a home after it’s already constructed,” says Foss. “However, from an energy-loss perspective, the most important place is the ceiling. That’s absolutely the first place that people should be looking when retrofitting.”
Foss also recommends investing in inexpensive insulation upgrades in the basement or crawlspace. Cellulose insulation is an especially attractive option for eco-friendly renovation, as it’s often made from recycled newspaper and provides an R-value that’s similar to fiberglass but with fewer potentially toxic substances. Wool insulation is another renewable alternative.
For significant renovations—room additions, kitchen remodels, and the like—try to choose recyclable building materials. For instance, look for wood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. Products carrying an FSC certification are sourced from sustainably managed forests. Wherever possible, choose local materials to minimize fossil fuel consumption from freight.

Oh, and remember those VOCs we mentioned earlier? They’re potentially a big deal; the EPA notes they’re a potential cause of “sick building syndrome,” a mysterious medical condition in which the occupants of a building show signs of illness. Many construction materials can emit VOCs, but paints are an especially significant contributor.
“Use no-VOC paint for as much of your space as you can afford,” Reiner says.
Note that low- or zero-VOC paints can still contain harmful substances such as formaldehyde, so research paint brands carefully before making your purchase. Dark paints generally require more pigments than lighter paints, and as such, have higher levels of VOCs on average.
And as strange as it might sound, flooring can also affect indoor air quality. Again, look for low- or no-VOC flooring options.
“Even if you can’t afford eco-bamboo or cork flooring, you can probably get low-toxin flooring,” Reiner says.

Buying an Eco-Friendly Home: What makes a home sustainable, anyway?

If you’re buying a new home, keep this in mind: There’s nothing to stop sellers from using the term “eco-friendly” to offload a decidedly eco-unfriendly property.
“There needs to be an educated conversation about the [home-buying] process,” says Jeff Bogard of R.E.A. Homes, a custom home builder in St. Louis. “Consumers need to understand what sustainability means—the science behind how homes function, right-sizing utility systems, finding longer lasting materials, and things of that nature.”

It’s pretty overwhelming, but fortunately, there’s a shortcut.
“Look for building certification programs,” Foss says. Admittedly, he’s a bit biased in this respect; his organization runs the LEED for Homes certification program, one of the most widely used sustainability programs in the United States. Even so, Foss says that all sustainable certification programs are beneficial for ecologically mindful consumers.

“Building certification programs are really the easiest way for consumers to tell,” he says. “The biggest organization in the country, for homes, is Energy Star, which covers somewhere from 5 to 25 percent of the home market. It’s a really good baseline for people to look at.”
Other popular home energy efficiency programs include the Home Energy Rating System (HERS) Index and the Department of Energy’s Home Energy Score.  
“There’s a lot of local and regional home sustainability programs, which differ, but we’re all pretty much looking at the same things,” Foss explains. “There are nuances—and they’re important nuances—but we’ve got the same goals. We’re all trying to go green, it’s just different shades of green.”
Bogard agrees and notes that consumers should pay special attention to appliances, particularly water heaters and HVAC systems. While you’re shopping, don’t be afraid to ask your real estate agent for copies of actual utility bills, and personally inspect important appliances. If you’re thinking about upgrading right after you move in, make sure that your home will allow for the upgrade.
“You might want to upgrade to an eco-friendly water heater, but that will depend on your home’s flue situation,” Foss says. “But there are some really tremendous eco-friendly options available, particularly with water heaters.”

Look for a home inspector who specializes in analyzing eco-friendly homes. Green home inspections through organizations like InterNACHI evaluate a home’s materials, energy efficiency, and features that could affect human and environmental health.

Building an Eco-Friendly Home: Make sure you’ve got the right approach.

Planning on new construction? Make sure you’ve got the right mindset for eco-friendly building. For starters, you’ve got to look past the upfront fees.
“Very few people build a home more than once in their lifetime,” Bogard says, “so the default is to think of upfront costs as the total expense of the home. There’s very little conversation about operating costs and lifecycle costs.”

“Let’s say you get a more expensive HVAC system that costs less to operate. After a certain number of years, it pays for itself, and it’s eventually a reverse annuity for the client,” he explains. “You’ve also got to think about how long the system will last before you need to replace it. A system with a higher price tag that lasts for five more years is probably the better value.”

Yes, that means that you might pay more up front initially. The good news is that an eco-friendly builder can greatly reduce your living expenses over the long term while providing a comfortable, sustainable home.
“We have several accounts of people who built homes several times bigger than their old homes—old meaning homes from the ’50s and ’60s—where the monthly energy costs are significantly lower in newer, larger homes,” Bogard says.
To ensure sustainable construction, you’ll need to work closely with your contractor from the first stages of the process. Bogard notes that many “sustainable” construction projects start off on the wrong foot.

“When you stick-frame a house in the traditional way, you end up with a lot of waste that ends up in the dumpster, which ends up in the landfill,” he says. “When you use wall panels, the sections of the home come out, get delivered to the home, and there is no waste, so nothing is going to the landfill. It’s a win–win. You’ve got to look at the whole home to do things the right way.”

Starting Small: Quick Ways to Make Your Home More Sustainable

Let’s say that you don’t have the budget for huge renovations, and you’re not in the market for a new home. Are you doomed to waste fossil fuels and suffocate on VOCs until the end of time? Not quite.
Minor home improvements can improve both air quality and sustainability. For starters, consider adding a few plants. Some studies show that certain house plants can improve indoor air quality by removing VOCs from the air in a process called phytoremediation (don’t worry, there’s no quiz at the end of this article).
However, you need to get the right type of plant, as some indoor plants can actually release VOCs. Bill Wolverton, PhD, is one of the NASA scientists who discovered this effect, and he recommends Boston ferns, bamboo palms, and dwarf date palms, among other species.
When you’re ready to tackle sustainable interior design, remember: Reduce, reuse, recycle, in that order. Try not to purchase anything you don’t need, and wherever possible, avoid brand-new products.
“Buy quality secondhand pieces,” Reiner suggests. “There are so many online platforms to buy pre-loved pieces in any style and price range these days. This reduces [the] demand for new products that require virgin resources and fossil fuel for shipping and trucking.”
Reiner says to steer clear of cheap furniture manufactured in other countries, as tempting as the low price tag might seem.

“The wood is probably composite wood glued with formaldehyde, the fabric is probably petroleum based, the foam cushions may have been sprayed with fire retardant, and they were shipped long distances on ships using petroleum,” she says. She recommends taking 15 minutes to research manufacturers and look for green alternatives prior to each purchase.

“I am fascinated with products made from unwanted material,” Reiner says. “There are countertops made of recycled glass or stone, aluminum tiles made from old airplane wings, beautiful tables made from old barn wood, and leather floor and wall tiles made from reclaimed leather. Reclaiming or repurposing unwanted materials is great for three reasons: First, you greatly reduce the amount of energy, water, and virgin materials needed for the product. Second, less waste will enter the landfill. Third, the products might be made closer to home.”
What if you don’t like any of the sustainable options? We’re not judging; we’re pretty picky when it comes to interior home design.
“Even if there’s nothing you like in your style or budget, you can always limit your footprint,” Reiner says. “Take old paint to paint recycling centers or call carpet recyclers to pick up old materials. You can also donate old items—cabinets, materials, and furniture—to an organization like…Habitat for Humanity’s [ReStore].”   
When your main priority is reducing your carbon footprint, focus on making your home (relatively) airtight. If your home has a lot of windows, consider picking up some energy-efficient blackout curtains, which can keep your home cooler during the summer and warmer during the winter.

While you’re at it, check your windows for air leaks, which can easily cost you big bucks over the course of a year. During the winter, use temporary caulking to seal your windows (you’re not opening them until the spring, anyway), and consider getting rubber gaskets for any drafty electrical outlets. Use pipe blankets to keep water pipes warm during cold snaps.

Ultimately, your results will depend on your goals, budget, and your commitment to the project.
“Make a plan,” Reiner says. “The clearer you are about what you want, how you want it, and by when, the easier it will be to stay focused. Be your own project manager.”

Categories
Conscious Beauty Lifestyle

4 Beauty Staples From Cleopatra's Time That Lived On (And One That Should Stay Hidden Away)

Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator, “The Father-Loving Goddess,” queen of Egypt, beloved of emperors, leader of armies, muse of Shakespeare and Elizabeth Taylor, lived near the banks of the Mediterranean Sea more than 2,000 years ago. She warred with her princeling brother for Egypt’s throne and won with an assist from a few Roman legions, courtesy of a boyfriend named Caesar. After two decades of absolute power, Cleopatra took her own life for love—or so the story goes.
Plus, she was beautiful. Like, historically beautiful. Who better to turn to for beauty secrets than the woman who captured the hearts of Julius Caesar and Marc Antony?

iStock.com/The Hollywood Reporter

Cleopatra probably took some beauty secrets with her to the as-yet-undiscovered grave, but we do know this: She was a woman of her time. Egyptians of the 1st century B.C. were as obsessed with skincare and cosmetics as any contemporary Kardashian. They had it all: perfumes, cleansers, ointments for zits and wrinkles, fingernail polish, and, of course, eyeliner. You know that winged eyeliner trick that’s so hard to get right in real life? The ancient Egyptians invented that look.
https://twitter.com/MeltCosmetics/status/830153280932106240
But not everything in Cleopatra’s makeup kit would work for us these days. Styles change by the season, and we’re talking about millennia—plural. Today, we investigate the ways Cleopatra kept her skin in emperor-tempting, kingdom-ruling shape:

1. The Original Winged Eyeliner

Cleopatra couldn’t take a selfie, but she did have legions of artisans to paint her image on frescoes and sculpt it in bas relief. Look at any example of ancient Egyptian portraiture and you’re bound to notice something about the eyes. They look like Sophia Loren. They look like Amy Winehouse—men, women, and gods alike. The ancient Egyptians perfected the art of winged eyeliner.

HISTORY

But lacking Maybelline, what did they use to create the perfect cat’s eye? Powdered galena, wrote historian Lionel Casson in Everyday Life in Ancient Egypt. They’d grind up the lead-based metal and mix it with fats or oils or resins to create a thick, dark goo that functioned as eyeliner and mascara in one. It’s called kohl.
Historians are starting to think kohl was good for more than beauty, too. Researchers found that lead sulfites in the cosmetic spur a natural immune response, according to Discover magazine. Cleopatra’s eyeliner wasn’t just makeup. It was an antibiotic.
Smith College

That’d be pretty attractive to the people of the Nile River Valley, who were prone to bacterial eye infections with the annual floods. If you’re thinking of digging up some lead and grinding your own kohl, though, think again. You’re better off with something from the cosmetics aisle.
“Lead is most dangerous to growing children because it can cause severe anemia,” points out Tanya Kormeili, MD, a board-certified dermatologist in Santa Monica. “I would not recommend having anything with high lead around if you have kids. Otherwise, it is unclear how much it would absorb through the skin, but high levels of heavy metals (especially mercury) are proven to be toxic to all humans.”
National Geographic

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration agrees. In some parts of North Africa and Central Asia, people still make kohl the old-fashioned way. It occasionally gets into the U.S. market under a variety of names: kohl, tiro, surma, kajal, kwalli. The FDA headline on the subject offers a stern warning: “By Any Name, Beware of Lead Poisoning.”
The FDA is serious about the threat. They set an import alert for products that use the terms kohl, kajal, or surma on their labels. This is one ancient cosmetic that belongs in the past. If you’re prone to eye infections, there are antibiotic drops for that. Modernity does get some things right—leave this one buried.

2. From Cleopatra to Cara Delevingne

The recent move toward a full-eyebrowed look would have been familiar to Egypt’s most famous queen. Women of Cleopatra’s time filled out their brows with charred almonds, per Marie Claire. This little trick isn’t relegated to years that end in B.C., either.
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“My late grandmother used various nuts for makeup!” Kormeili tells HealthyWay. “The key is to slightly charcoalize the nut over a flame until it is black. The black ‘ink’ is a natural product used for eyeliner and pencil. It is natural and organic.”
But what if Cleopatra wanted a little more color? That’s when she’d touch up her brows with powdered malachite, a copper ore with a green tint, wrote Casson. Cosmetics manufacturers use copper powder in their products to this day, according to CosmeticsInfo.org. You could be putting on your face like Cleopatra already!

3. A Soak of Milk and Honey

“Age cannot wither her,” Shakespeare wrote of Cleopatra. Today’s dermatologists might have figured out the secret of the queen’s famed agelessness.
“Cleopatra’s famed baths in the milk from [donkeys] is well known,” says dermatologist Sonam Yadov, MBBS. “The scientific basis is still in use today: The lactic acid in sour milk is an exfoliating and skin-brightening agent. Thus, her milk baths were just an ancient and effective ‘chemical peel.’ Today, we use the same lactic acid, just in more purified and concentrated forms in our offices.”
The “Father-Loving Goddess” might have mixed honey into her milk baths, according to popular legend (and about a thousand beauty blogs). That makes sense to Kormeili. She touts the skincare properties of milk and honey both.
“It is interesting that thousands of years later we are doing this and getting great results,” the dermatologist tells HealthyWay. “There are new studies to suggest that honey has both antibacterial and wound-healing properties. As such, I am using it on my surgery patients post-op! As for the milk baths, we [use] lactic acid in a variety of skin peels and products for exfoliation and skin brightening.”


Kormeili should know. She’s on the forefront of the dermatological use of lactic acid, an organic compound that comes from soured milk.
“I am currently working on an office procedure that would involve using lactic acid with a variety of other natural acids for skin brightening and melasma,” she says. “None of my patients would want to soak in a tub of milk. It is easier to get it at my office!”

4. Lipstick from the Pharaoh’s Tomb

Today, you can head to the nearest Walgreens and find lipsticks in every shade from “dusty lilac” to “warm tangerine.” Cleopatra’s lip coloring of choice would be right at home on that shelf. It’d be called “red ochre.”


Iron oxide gives powdered red ochre a rich crimson flush. Ancient cosmetologists would mix this pigment with grease or tallow to make a bright, kissable paste that Marc Antony’s wife back in Rome probably discovered on his shirt collar (if ancient Romans had shirt collars).
Oh, and Cleopatra’s people also invented a surprisingly familiar beauty hack. “Use your lipstick as blush,” the makeup bloggers say. “It’ll look great!”

Thutmose, “Nefertiti Bust” (1345 B.C.)

Whether you’ve been able to pull that trick off or always end up looking like Raggedy Ann instead, Cleopatra got there first. She didn’t just use red ochre on her lips, reported Marie Claire. She also rubbed it into her cheeks for a bit of definition.

5. The Mani-Pedi of the Gods

No modern woman would neglect her nails. Neither would an ancient queen. Women today don polish, shellac, gel, acrylic; women of Cleopatra’s time tinted their fingernails and toenails with henna, giving them a gorgeous scarlet glow, wrote Casson.
It might not have been a gel manicure with intricate design work, but it did the trick. Even better, henna is generally safe for adults when used topically, as in cosmetics, according to WebMD. At least the women of ancient Egypt could tint their nails without ingesting paint-chip quantities of lead.

Want to try this yourself? Go ahead! There are lots of great YouTube tutorials to get you started. We’re fans of the one above.

The Cosmology of Cosmetology

If Cleopatra were to march out of a pyramid and into the modern world, we doubt she’d be surprised by today’s makeup counter. While specific styles grow and evolve and devolve and come back before disappearing again, everyone wants to look good—preferably good enough to catch the eye, if not the heart, of the most powerful ruler on the planet.
“I think the lesson is that human bodies have not changed that much,” says Kormeili. “Neither has our desire for beauty and health!”
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That’s not all we’ve borrowed from history, either. You can’t always get the look you desire with YouTube tutorials and Sephora catalogs. Even ancient Egyptians had their beauty experts, although they tended to double as physicians.
“I would recommend patients seek expert help if they are trying to improve things,” says Kormeili. “In the Egyptian times, there were ‘natural healers’ and ‘medicine men’ who would come up with the treatments. The average person did not ‘google’ ideas and do trial and error. The mistakes with skin can be so expensive to fix.”
That’s wisdom for the ages.

Categories
Refresh x Recover Sweat

Best Ways To Clean A Yoga Mat, According To Experienced Yogis

If you’re dedicated to your yoga practice, you probably love your yoga mat and would like to know how to treat it right, which means cleaning it from time to time. Why? Downward dog, for one—not to mention Child’s Pose—puts you nose-to-surface with your yoga mat. Nothing ruins the bliss of a pranayama breathing exercise like the smell of last week’s hot yoga session rising up from your lululemon or Stella McCartney.
But many of us hesitate over our yoga mats with our Lysol wipes in hand, wondering if we should risk making contact. Will this cleanser ruin the yoga mat’s finish? Will it make our Manduka smell like chemicals forever?
Dozens of yoga mat cleaning products are available, but that doesn’t exactly address our indecision. Search for “yoga mat cleaner” on Amazon and you’ll get nearly 300 results. Not all of them are relevant, but the thought of wading through them makes us want to pop into lotus pose for sanity’s sake.
If you can relate, take a deep breath and read on. We talked to experienced yogis to find out what they use to clean a yoga mat, how they do it, and when. Here’s your all-in-one guide to keeping your yoga mat clean.

Why It’s Important to Clean Your Yoga Mat Regularly

The choice of a yoga mat is personal, but one thing is for sure: You get what you pay for. Higher-end mats like the Manduka Mat PRO are built to repel moisture, channeling sweat away to prevent the growth of microbes. Other luxury choices like lululemon yoga mats prevent germs from taking over thanks to a built-in antibacterial additive.
If you opt for a more affordable yoga mat, you’re probably looking at PVC, and you might have to clean it more often to blast away bacteria. While all-natural yoga mats are terrific, they often need more intense cleaning than their high-tech counterparts according to Maxine Chapman, yoga teacher and founder of wellness subscription service Buddhibox.
“Some yoga mats are made with natural fibers like cork or jute that are more porous,” Chapman says. “For these type of mats, I definitely recommend rinsing the whole mat with a hose or in the shower, then hanging to dry.”
No matter what yoga accessories you choose, keeping a clean mat is the right move for your health. Back in 2006, when public, shared yoga mats were a big thing at gyms, podiatrist Greg Cohen warned the New York Times of a 50-percent increase in athlete’s foot and plantar warts over two years.
“The first thing I ask is, ‘Do you do yoga?'” Cohen told the Times. This was Brooklyn Heights in the ‘00s, so who didn’t do yoga? Ultimately, Cohen attributed the increase in athlete’s foot and plantar warts to his patients’ use of shared athletic mats.
Even if you wisely decline to share yoga mats, it’s always a good idea to keep your own gym gear clean. Microbiologist Robert Lahita told Elle in 2016 that yoga mats are “a very fertile source for infection, mainly because people sweat on them and they are rarely cleaned.”
Let’s prove that last part wrong.

How often should you clean your yoga mat?

Given the wide variety of brands, materials, and designs in today’s yoga-mat marketplace, it’s tough to nail down a one-size-fits-all schedule for cleaning yoga mats. In fact, the experts tend to vary a bit on their recommendations.
“I practice every day, but only clean my mat about one or two times per month,” says Jenay Rose, otherwise known as Instagram wellness star @namastejenay. “I always do a dry wipe-down before and after practicing, but keep in mind I don’t really practice hot yoga. If you do, or if you sweat a lot, you’ll definitely want to clean your mat more often.”
Chapman agrees with Rose’s point about hot yoga.
“I would say if you are practicing hot yoga, [you should clean the yoga mat] every single time,” she tells HealthyWay. “For other styles, once or twice a week. If the mat starts to smell or feels dirty, you definitely need to clean.”
Rose mentions a few other telltale signs that it’s time to clean your yoga mat thoroughly.
“If your mat feels dirty, or has little bits and pieces, particles of dirt, on it, it’s probably time for a cleaning,” she says. Which brings us to our next point.

Yogis Explain Their Favorite Ways to Clean a Yoga Mat

Once you decide to clean your yoga mat regularly, you’ve got a dizzying array of options for how to execute the task at hand. You could invest in some yoga mat wipes. You could try a do-it-yourself yoga mat cleaner. You could even try cleaning your yoga mat with vinegar. If you’re really lucky—and you pick the right yoga mat—you might even be able to toss it into the washing machine. But what do the experts do with their own heavily used yoga mats?
Annie Appleby, who teaches yoga at Stanford University and runs yoga provider YogaForce, prefers to go the all-natural route.
“I love tea tree oil,” Appleby tells HealthyWay. She uses 100 percent pure essential oil, which she suggests you “buy from any health food store or online from Amazon. Put a few drops on a damp cloth lightly soaked in hot water.”
In a YouTube clip demonstrating her all-natural way to clean a yoga mat, Appleby takes her damp, tea-tree-oil-infused cloth and vigorously wipes down the surface of her mat. She’s done in just a few seconds. But what if you want something more tailored to the yoga-mat-cleaning task than tea tree oil?
Chapman prefers a ready-made yoga mat cleaner—provided it’s all-natural, of course.
“I like to rinse [my yoga mat] then spray with an all-natural cleaner,” Chapman says. “My favorite cleaner is Om Spray from Oiliving Life. [The maker] is in Florida and has a very clean line of sprays and cleaners.”
Depending on your mat, though, you might want to avoid even the natural cleansers, warns Rose.
“To clean my yoga mat, which is a Liforme, I dampen a towel with water and wipe down,” she says. “Because of the material of this mat, which is on the stickier side, I don’t use any cleaner, as it can damage the sticky aspect.”
For the record, the Liforme website recommends dish soap, heavily diluted with water, and cleaning their products once every five to 10 uses. The site also warns that “over-cleaning or using abrasive products will wear out the materials faster.”
So would Rose ever consider going with another yoga mat, maybe one that’s more receptive to serious cleansing products? No way, she says.
“I love this mat because it is totally non-toxic, thick, non-slip, and lasts me about one to two years of daily use.” She goes on to say, “Mats…that have toxic chemicals are going to need cleaning more often, in my opinion, because they begin to smell as the chemicals are stripped away…this is why I practice on a mat that is non-porous and made of non-toxic chemicals. And since it is already a ‘clean’ mat, it lasts longer and can withstand a lot more.”
Meanwhile, perhaps unsurprisingly, microbiologist Lahita counsels more extreme measures. As he told Elle, “I advise people to clean their mats with a Lysol spray or bleach diluted in water.” He points out that DIY approaches like cleaning a yoga mat with vinegar won’t kill off every type of bacteria.
On the other hand, bleach can damage the surfaces of some yoga mats, according to a report by Rodale’s Organic Life. Always follow manufacturer’s instructions and, when in doubt, reach out to the supplier of your yoga mat for details.

Drying a Yoga Mat: Taking It Slow

What is washed must be dried, and there is a right way to dry a yoga mat. Expert consensus seems to be that hanging your yoga mat until it air-dries is the gentlest way to get ready for tomorrow’s yoga class, if not the quickest.
“Open it and let [it] hang, or just dry [it] on the floor overnight,” says Appleby. Rose agrees.
“Lay flat to dry!” she says. “Don’t ever roll [your yoga mat] up while it’s still wet, because it won’t dry and may take on a mildew smell, depending on the quality of your mat.”
Besides, we’d add, bacteria love moisture. That is where they live.
If your yoga mat is still damp when you’re getting ready for your next session, resist the urge to toss it into the dryer. Most manufacturers, including lululemon, advise against tumble-drying—presumably because the heat and rough treatment can damage your yoga mat. The safest route is to air-dry.
Most importantly, enjoy your next session secure in the knowledge that your yoga mat is as fresh as you feel when you make it to savasana!

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Categories
Mindful Parenting Motherhood

Cosmic Kids Yoga: Jaime Amor Talks Anger, Mindfulness, And Better Ways To Teach Our Kids

Since 2012, Cosmic Kids Yoga has been a positive force in the sometimes questionable world of online children’s entertainment. The concept is simple: Teacher Jaime Amor guides kids through a series of poses using a colorful cadre of animals to make the lessons more appealing to young minds. She stands on a round yoga mat, talking directly to her audience, bringing them through “yoga adventures” that invite them to use their imaginations while moving their bodies.
If Cosmic Kids Yoga stopped there, that would be enough, but Amor has a bigger mission. In the vein of legendary television presenters like Mr. Rogers, she focuses on imparting useful lessons to her young audience, teaching them how to handle difficult emotions, confront personal challenges, and interact with their world in healthy, positive ways.
Over the last six years, Cosmic Kids Yoga has grown. Episodes like “Pedro the Penguin” quickly gained hundreds of thousands of views, and the Cosmic Kids YouTube channel now has more than 200,000 subscribers.

We spoke with Amor to discuss how yoga can help children—and to find out what’s next for Cosmic Kids Yoga.

HealthyWay: We mentioned this in our emails, but a few of our editors have kids that are big fans of yours.

Amor: Aww, that’s amazing! That’s so encouraging when we hear it. I always thought that if the kids like it, we’re doing something well.

What is it about Cosmic Kids Yoga that you think makes it such an effective form of exercise for children?

It really works on multiple levels. Firstly, because of the way that they’re physically engaged, they’ve got something physical to do. And secondly, the stories just keep them wanting to continue along on the adventure.

You’ve got quite a range of stories, too.

Yes, you’ve got everything from mermaids to space monkeys to baby seahorses. The kids are really interested in all of the cute, fun characters.

There’s a practical side—all the things that I’ve done in the videos are things that I’ve practiced and done with kids in real-life classes, so I know that they work.
And we have these practical life lessons where kids are able to take some of the techniques that they learn in the stories and then apply them to their real life, you know? If they feel like they need some headspace and calm, they’ve got their 10-down count that we learn in Lulu the Lion Cub. It’s about slowly breathing and counting down from 10 to one.
That’s a proper mindfulness technique, really. But it’s also really practical for a kid; if they ever notice that level of stress in themselves, they can just engage it. I think it’s the combination of the fun factor and the practicality of it that really makes the kids want to do it.

And yoga feels good—that’s certainly something!

Yes, it feels good! I think that moving your body, doing these yoga poses feels great. And kids love moving. They’re always moving in some way. That’s how we work out what our bodies can do.

Mindfulness isn’t really something that we focus on as a culture. We don’t really give children the tools that they need to deal with their emotions in a healthy way.

Yeah, exactly. And I think what I’ve found is that, in the stories, we can create an event—a situation—where a particular feeling or challenge will crop up.
Perhaps our brothers and sisters have been making fun of us. Well, Lulu the Lion Cub, she hasn’t learned how to roar yet. She’s feeling those same emotions, because her brothers and sisters are saying, “Wah, wah, you haven’t learned how to roar yet!”

That’s a real thing that a lot of kids will relate to. So we’ll go with Lulu on a little journey to see how she might help herself deal with that frustration in those moments. There, vicariously through a character, you’ve learned a technique, but it doesn’t feel like you’re being told what to do. It’s not being pushed on you; it’s being offered as a solution.
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And in the stories, I often make the kids the heroes. They’re the ones actually giving Lulu the advice that she might take to help herself.
When you put kids in control like that, when you give them that hand of power, they say, “I know what I’m doing; I feel confident in this.” And so when they’re confronted with that situation, they really feel that those tools are at their fingertips, ready to use.

Speaking of practicality, we were wondering about some of the practical elements of the show. Who comes up with all of the creative ideas?

We have a really small team. I generally come up with the stories. I work with Martin, my husband, and we work very much as a team to decide on the message. What do we want to do in this story? What do we want kids to take away with them?
And then I’ll go away and I’ll build a plot around situations that kids might have found themselves in, then try to relate that to the animal world. What’s brilliant about the animal world is that it lends itself to yoga; obviously so many yoga poses are based in nature. It really helps to create a yoga journey that I can put together with that story.
Then we rehearse a few times. I go to schools, and I try [the story] with different groups of kids. I’ll figure out what bits are working, what bits aren’t working, and then it’s ready for the green screen studio.
We go into the studio once every four or five months. I’ll have spent three or four weeks trying to cram as many stories as I can into my head, and then I’ll try to film over a couple of days, between six and 10 stories.

Cosmic Kids Yoga uses a lot of green screen. Is that a challenge?

It is, but I’m used to it now. Initially, it was quite interesting. It was just a piece of fabric that we put up in a local village hall.
Now, [the studio] is five minutes down the road from us, and it’s a proper, full-on, wonderful, infinity curve green screen, which is absolutely amazing.
In the room, usually, there’s me, my husband Martin, and Konrad, who’s our third team member. He does all of our production, films it, and does all of our backgrounds. He’s an incredibly talented guy, so he knows how to build these wonderful worlds.
So it’s the three of us. There’s also Nick, our animator, who draws our little characters that appear sometimes at the beginning of the session. That’s it, really; it’s a very intimate affair, so I feel incredibly relaxed.
I think about the camera like it’s a group of kids I’m talking to. I think that’s another factor that helps the kids get it. They really see me talking to them—because I am talking to them. There’s a lens in the way, but I don’t think about it like that.

Was there a single experience you had, or a single factor that led to the creation of Cosmic Kids Yoga?

I used to be a children’s entertainer. I would work through the weekends as an actor, and I would dress up as a fairy, or a princess, or a pirate, and I’d go to a children’s party. I would have two hours to make it the most fun, exciting, engaging two hours they’d ever had, and really celebrate the birthday boy or birthday girl.
Quite early on, I realized that I couldn’t just sit there and tell a story in a costume. It occurred to me that if I actually got them to physicalize the story with me as I told it, they would be a lot more engaged.

Sure enough, they were. I used to tell this story—there was a witch, and in order to stop the witch from putting a curse on all of us, we had to learn these five special moves. I taught them five yoga poses, and they’d make the witch melt into a puddle on the floor. They’d all be elated, jumping around. “We did it! We did it!”

It was at that point that I realized—you can make something so much more experiential if you get kids moving. Not only that, you’ve got 25 kids in a room, and they’re very high energy. They’re excited to be at the party. But it’ll be completely pin-drop silent when you’re teaching them these moves.

That’s when I knew that there was this incredible combination of storytelling and yoga that could, in itself, be an activity.

Did you immediately start trying to build Cosmic Kids Yoga?

At that point, I was working at a school—I was running a cookery club. I talked to the headmaster and said, “Would you mind if I tried some yoga with the kids?” He was really open to it, so it started from there.
That grew. I was doing 15 classes a week at various schools all around where I lived. After doing that for about two or three years, Martin, my husband—his background is in innovation—he looked at me as I was dragging my mat somewhere after a long, long day.
He said, “I think we should try filming you and see what happens if we put it on YouTube.” That was where the Cosmic Kids online world was born.
That really made sense to me at that point, because often in my classes, you would find that if it was 3:15 on a Wednesday afternoon, not all the kids felt like doing their yoga at that prescribed time. But that’s when the after-school club is, or when they’ve been told, “You’re doing yoga.” That’s when they have to do it.
Having it available on a video on a platform like YouTube suddenly means that they can do it whenever they want. That meant the world of doing yoga for kids became so much more accessible.

How long after that did it start to become a success?

It took some time, you know. We were delighted every step of the way. When you start from nothing, when you start at zero—you get your first view, and you’re like, “Oh! Oh! We’ve had a view!”

We filmed three in the first day, and we sat on them for about three months because we thought they were ridiculous. We thought they were really odd—nobody was going to watch them.

But we put them up, and they slowly started getting views. We didn’t know anything about YouTube and how it works, so we started paying for ads. We attached ourselves [via ads] to Sesame Street.
From there, we started getting a few more views, then we stopped doing the ads, as we had our own little foothold of teachers and parents. We got feedback: “This is great!” “My kid really likes this!” “I’m going to tell my friends about it.”
Gradually, it became a more organic thing, and it grew really steadily. I mean, it took us about four years to get to 100,000 subscribers, but it’s one of those channels that isn’t really a subscriber-led thing. It’s more about the views.

Now it’s at the point where it’s 2–3 million views a month. It’s quite a bit more significant, and a lot of schools use it.

That has to feel very rewarding.

It is, relatively, yeah. You just keep putting one foot in front of the other, and you keep learning as you’re going. That’s the thing about self-publishing, isn’t it? It’s about putting yourself out there. And you can really see the arc of someone’s journey.

What’s your mindset for growing Cosmic Kids Yoga and bringing more kids into the fold?

What’s really been great is what’s at the core of it. The yoga adventures have been so sticky for the kids—they’ve been waiting for the next video. They’re keen to keep up the practice, and they want the next story.
The variety is really important to them, as I’ve found in teaching my live classes. Every week I go in and they say, “Which story are we doing this week?” You couldn’t say that you’re doing the same one as last week. That’s my motivation for keeping it fresh, and hopefully making it more appealing to more kids.

That’s fantastic. The exercise, obviously, is at the core of that, so let’s talk about yoga in general for a moment. When did you get into yoga?

I was about 19 and I was at drama school and we had a very spiritual voice teacher. She’d run a voluntary yoga session for us, and I found it really, really opened the door, because it showed me you could find this state of relaxation.

I found that really useful when I was working as an actor as well. Being on stage, or working with the camera, if you can find a state of calmness, or steadiness, or peace in yourself, you end up producing a more open and effective performance.

It wasn’t until I got into my sort of late twenties and early thirties that I thought, “Okay, I’m going to take my training and study yoga a bit further.” So I learned how to train and teach in Ashtanga.

Who are some of your favorite people in yoga? And just generally—who inspires you as an entertainer?

There’s my teacher here in the UK—he’s amazing—he’s called Jeff Phoenix. He’s got a pretty big following. He’s been doing it for 20 years, and he just oozes all of this tremendous energy. He’s an inspiration.

Recently, I’ve really enjoyed Dylan Werner, I think he’s really cool. And Patrick Beach. They’re kind of these young bucks that are coming up through the ranks. Back to the classics, Shiva Rea is amazing.
In the showbiz world, I was mostly inspired a few stage actors. Rory Kinnear is brilliant. I know he’s done a lot of movies as well, but seeing him on stage was inspiring. I’ve always loved Helena Bonham Carter—I know she’s absolutely mad, but I just think she’s great! There’s something kind of dangerous about her, and she’s exciting to watch.

Do you have any plans for Cosmic Kids over the next year?

At the moment, we’re in that sort of stage where we just want to keep making it. We’re in a really good groove at the moment. And there’s always new ideas kind of coming up and out of the woodwork. Kids will say, “Can you do a Pokémon one?” or “Can you do one about this movie that’s about to come out?” Kids really love the movie-themed episodes.
We’ve had schools using Cosmic Kids Yoga, and that’s something we’re really excited to see. What other forms could Cosmic Kids take? Could it take the form of a game? Could it use these other technologies we have now—Xbox Kinect, motion capture, even VR? So we’re considering those types of things, anything that could create an even more engaging world that kids could take part in.

We want kids to feel closer, and feel stronger about mindfulness in their own lives. That’s really our focus, just to keep making people aware of it and help more kids discover it.

I think it’s wonderful. Especially helping kids handle emotions in a healthy way is something we really need right now.

Absolutely. The next episode we’re going to be releasing is one of my stories, Mr. Hoppit the Hare, and it was inspired actually by [writer] David Sedaris. I don’t know if you know him. He’s brilliant. I just think he’s just so funny and dry.

And he did this incredible story about animals, which was inspired by Donald Trump building a wall between the States and Mexico. I just thought, well, here’s an opportunity—how do we celebrate diversity? How do I appreciate who’s in my community, and look around and see what’s happening around me, and recognize the good in it?

It’s interesting where your journey takes you, and how exactly how we can help kids learn about their own mental health, but also show them socially where everything is and how it’s unfolding in front of them.

Categories
Nosh

Tomato, Tornado: The Grind Behind Your Favorite Farmers Market

If you want the best produce anywhere—along with humanely-raised meats, local honey, and the occasional cool art trinket—visit your local farmers market. You’ve probably got one nearby; according to a 2014 survey from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, there are over 8,400 of the markets throughout the United States, and demand continues to grow.
We regularly visit our weekly farmers market, but we wondered what goes on behind the scenes. How much time do vendors spend at their booths? How does the weather affect their operations? (Both a lot and a little, it turns out.) Are we annoying them when we try to haggle?

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We reached out to a few vendors to learn the ins and outs of the trade (and hopefully get some good tips for endearing ourselves to our favorite farmers). It turns out that…

The work starts long before customers stroll in.

To some degree, this isn’t a surprise. However, if you’re thinking about joining your local farmers market, we can’t stress it enough: Make sure you’re aware of the work you’ll be putting in.
“For me, preparation can vary from the day before to a couple weeks before, depending on what time of year it is and if I have other events planned,” says Lisa Graham of YYC Beeswax in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

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“At the beginning of market season, it takes a bit longer to prepare/update display pieces and make sure inventory is up to date. I sell handmade products, and the time it takes to make each item varies, so I usually start preparing a few weeks in advance of my first market of the season and at least three days before a market in the middle of the season.”
Many of the vendors at farmers markets are—surprise, surprise—actual farmers. They live in rural areas, so commuting can take some time.
“I grow all my own product,” says Stan Caliper of Caliper Farm to Market in Royse City, Texas. “It takes at least two hours to pick and at least an hour to drive to a market from my rural location. It takes a minimum of one hour to set up and to stock the tent. The shortest markets are four hours.”

“[I plan for] at least one drive back and one or two hours to sort and restock,” he says. “That’s about 10 hours to do a four-hour market, not including any production time.”
If you’re thinking about getting into the farmers market trade, Caliper warns that you’ll never have a Saturday free. You’ll be spending that time outdoors in a pretty pleasant environment, of course, but hey, it’s still a sacrifice.

Your profits depend on the weather, which can be frustrating.

“It’s all weather related,” Caliper says. “On the best days, I can’t take the money in fast enough. [On] rainy and cold days, I sit in a chair, exposed to the elements, and see no one.”
If you’re a full-time vendor, that’s a big problem. However, once you’ve opened your booth, you’re in it for the long haul.

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“We are out at the markets rain, shine, or near-tornado,” says Stephanie Peace of Ludwig Farmstead Creamery in Missouri.
Wait…tornado?
“A couple of years ago, there was a bad storm coming in—we all had the option to stay or go. I was already set up along with a lot of other vendors, so we opted to stay. We could see the dark, ominous clouds rolling in fast, and we all tried to help the other vendors get their tents up as quickly as possible.”


“Even with weights to hold the tents down, a couple of tents flew up in the air and ended up forcibly crashing and getting twisted and broken. It was definitely an exciting afternoon. Thankfully, no one was hurt. After all of that, some of our die-hard customers came to the market and helped to salvage a hard beginning to the day.”
Our sources seemed to agree on that point; a bad day can quickly become salvageable, so the seasoned veterans don’t start packing up until the market’s officially over.

It’s something of a fraternity.

One of the big perks of being a vendor? You get to interact with a lot of really cool people, and, if you’re lucky, you’ll walk away with a few free tomatoes.
“The other vendors and I barter with our products through the market season,” says Merilyn Konnert, founder of Utopia Bath, Ltd. in New York. “I get so spoiled with the freshest vegetables, the freshest fish, it’s fantastic.”

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Konnert says that she feels a strong personal connection with the other vendors. A two-time breast cancer survivor, she runs a survivorship coalition at her local hospital, and people often stop by her booth to ask for advice.
“If I miss a Saturday morning, the following Saturday, they’ll stop at my table and check on me,” she says. “It’s marvelous.”
Other sellers told us that farmers markets are tremendous places for networking. For farmers, a connection with a local restaurant can prove extremely valuable.
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“Farmers markets were our main source of income when we first started out,” says Peace. “But now, they are mostly for exposure and to meet some chefs in the area.”
Of course, some vendors don’t have much time for networking.
“During the open hours of the market, I stay at my booth as much as possible to interact with shoppers,” says Graham. “When it slows down, it’s nice to learn a bit more about fellow vendors nearby. All of the markets I attend have great communities, and we get to know each other well as we run across each other at other markets.”

No, you’re not supposed to haggle.

We’ll admit it: When we visited our first farmers market, we tried to negotiate for a packet of artisanal beef jerky. As it turns out, that was a bit of a faux pas.
“I have had a few people try to haggle on price, and I do not appreciate it,” says Graham. “This is my livelihood, and I spend a lot of time evaluating my prices to give what I feel is a fair price to my customers.”
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“Occasionally, we have people who try to haggle,” says Peace. “It is generally not an accepted practice with any of the markets. Some vendors may offer some things on sale for that week, but haggling is not something we do.”
“[Haggling policies] depend on the location,” explains Caliper, “but it rarely happens to me. I don’t appreciate hagglers, personally.”

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When you run a booth at a farmers market, you interact with customers one-on-one. Sometimes, that means being assertive when they’re being unintentionally rude.
“I’ve had parents allow their children to touch all of the soaps—ruining the packaging with their sticky-bun or pickle-juice fingers,” Konnerth says. “But I’ve learned to just speak up.”

To succeed, you need to offer something different, and you need to be flexible.

“At any market where you want to be a vendor, make sure you have something different to offer,” suggests Peace. “You can still have some similar items as other vendors, but you will stand out and make more if you have a different product available. We are vendors at multiple markets that have another cheese vendor, but they sell goat’s milk cheese, and we are raw cow’s milk cheese, so that we don’t compete too much.”
Full-time vendors typically attend multiple markets, so schedules can be somewhat hectic.
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“I have my favorite markets I frequent as often as possible,” Graham says. “They usually change from week to week. Markets that run all summer, I try to book one, two times per month. I am reaching the point now where I will be at multiple markets on the same day, which means I have to prepare double the inventory and hire help. In addition to farmers markets, I also attend handmade markets geared toward hand-crafted products and community events.”
Different markets appeal to different types of consumers, and experienced vendors understand how those differences can drive sales. Peace says that first timers should look for markets that can guarantee decent attendance, even if registration prices are somewhat expensive.

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“Before becoming a market vendor, ask some of the vendors who are there how the market is,” Graham says. “It’s even better if you know the vendors well. It’s also helpful to learn the demographics of the market and the marketing strategy. There are sometimes opportunities to take advantage of marketing opportunities for your business, such as in the market newsletter or via donations to a local event.”

Mind your manners (or move on).

“The average customer may not realize that the person behind the stand actually produced the product,” says Caliper. “Know your farmer. I’m standing right here. I don’t want to poison you, or me for that matter. I know the history of the product.”
If you make comments about quality, make sure to stay respectful. Otherwise, don’t be surprised when your favorite farmer turns you away.
“If you insult me or diminish my product, I will take it personally,” Caliper says. “I don’t even want you to have it, at any price.”

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Ultimately, the people who set up booths in farmers markets don’t do it for the money; they’re passionate about their work, and they enjoy building personal relationships with their customers. That’s why farmers markets are such awesome places to visit—you get the peace of mind that comes from knowing exactly where your food comes from.
“This is my passion and my livelihood,” Konnerth says. “I’ve learned a great deal. None of this makes a 5 a.m. Saturday morning wake-up easy, but it does make it rewarding, and I love it.”