The Seattle Seahawks are Super Bowl champs and yogi’s choice. An article in The New York Times points out that many are crediting the Seahawks’ victory to their yoga and meditation practices, which were highlighted in an ESPN feature last summer. Witnessing how these practices can benefit football players may inspire more people to explore yoga themselves, says YogaDork‘s Jennilyn Carson in the Times.
When it comes to anti-aging, protecting your skin really is the best way to shed years. Not only does paying some attention to your skin benefit your physical wellness and wellbeing, it also makes you look younger and gives the illusion of health, too.
Fortunately, however much you have neglected your skin, it is easy to make it look better in a relatively short period of time. This is because the skin is a constantly growing organ, and so you can easily get rid of more unsightly bits because it is growing all the time.
You’ve probably been told it a hundred times, but the best thing that you can do for your skin is to cover up in the sun. Sun exposure causes a myriad of problems including age spots, wrinkles and dehydration. If you have to be out in the sun at all (and think carefully about whether you do) then be sure to wear a high factor sun screen and wear a wide-brimmed hat at all times. The sun’s rays are strongest in the middle of the day and the early afternoon, so these are the prime times to avoid being outdoors if at all possible.
Drinking water is also a really simple and yet effective way that you can look after your skin. Water is a natural moisturiser for the body, and when you are running low (as so many people are) then it really shows in your skin. It appears as wrinkles, cracking, dry patches and rough skin, and can really add years to your life. Buy a cheap water bottle and carry it around with you making sure that you drink at least eight cups of water per day. As an added bonus, drinking water on a regular basis also helps to flush impurities out of your body, which can be great for your skin.
Whether you work from home, or can’t be bothered to walk to the other side of the office, email has changed the way we communicate with co-workers. However, is that handy inbox really such a blessing to corporate wellness? Or are you better off with good old-fashioned face-to-face interaction?
According to UC Irvine and Army researchers, relying on emails is actually making you more stressed and less productive. Employees of different professions, including psychologists and biologists, were asked to go “off the grid” for five days and…nothing happened. No one missed an opportunity, lost a job and, perhaps most surprisingly of all, the world didn’t end. Those who participated were more focused at work, were less stressed and lesser involved with multi-tasking. Plus, the volunteers enjoyed chatting at the water cooler more than usual.
Let’s be honest; you don’t check your emails in order to be efficient, you do it to procrastinate or give yourself a break from dull tasks. However, this cuts your concentration and can hinder productivity if you do it 17 times in a day. Still, eliminating emails isn’t always possible, and it can be nice for those times that you just need a break, so how do you make sure that you’re the boss of your own inbox?
1. Choose three times in a day that you will open your emails, and never deviate from those scheduled times.
2. Let your colleagues know about your new email action plan. If they know they’ll have to wait for a response, your co-workers may get on with things by themselves instead of bugging you.
3. Set filters so that your emails are divided into ones that need a speedy reply (such as ones from your boss) and ones that can wait (like cute videos of cats).
4. Don’t take your smartphone with you on errands or switch off your email app during non-work times. If you’re worried about upsetting colleagues, let them know that you’re taking an email break and will return soon, or that you won’t be contactable outside of office hours. Leave work stress at work, where it belongs.
After high school, education becomes a melting pot of good times and hard work. Money, whilst an issue, is not such a terrible burden as of yet and the libertarian lifestyle of being young, troubled and free is something of a blessing.
As is the drinking.
It seems almost obligatory that when the education begins, so does the crazy lifestyle of clubs, parties and drinking. It’s a great life – but of course, there are risks, particularly in the avenue of sex.
At the risk of sounding like an unpopular lecturer, the lessons of sexually transmitted disease are often not heeded – you hear the stories, but doubt that you will ever become a part of them. It’s hoped that you never do.
Nobody wants to wake up with a hangover and regrets. It tends to be general consensus that a rush hook-up – or even a rendezvous with your loved one – can sometimes lead to undesirable effects if you don’t take up the right methods to protect yourself. Drinking, as you know, leads to impulsive, bad judgement – and, if you’re too drunk to care, a lack of precaution from STDs.
If you are concerned, get your friend to keep an eye on you – and you on them, whether they’re having too many drinks, no precautions or being too pants-on-head silly. Friends don’t let friends do dangerous things.
This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t go out, have a few drinks and discover that everything is comfortable to lie on. We learn from the good things as we do the bad things.
University and college breaks are possibly the best pauses in student life, with less sober moments than others – but that doesn’t mean that you should ruin the good things by being irresponsible. After all, the good times are the ones that you remember.
