Wellbeing

A few months ago, in the midst of an erotic dream with a Jennifer Lawrence lookalike, whose details are now (sadly) blurry, I felt a familiar sensation: a buildup of pleasure in my nether-regions, followed by an intense release — so intense,…

Hair discrimination is an active and incendiary form of racism that still lurks in professional environments. It's another example of our society devaluing Black Americans, forcing them to conform to white standards of beauty and respectability, and…

Need a habit to get through trying times? Try solitude. Ever since the rainy season retreats of the Buddha 2,500 years ago, sages have celebrated the transformative power of being alone. In Christian monasteries, silent mindfulness became part of…

As America has appeared to collectively wake up to the injustices marginalized communities — especially Black Americans — face daily, a controversy has been brewing around a beloved symbol of queer identity and diversity: The rainbow flag. Many…

Although criticized as a haven for misogynists and white supremacists, Reddit also provides a space for people to ponder some of life’s burning questions. Among the most popular: Why does my sneeze smell weird? One Redditor likened the odor of…

I love fireworks, and I always look forward to the Fourth of July displays on the Mississippi River in New Orleans. Unfortunately, my dogs and I do not align on this issue. Once the bottle rockets start popping, my fur babies shake and hide. But I…

In the U.S., we’re still grappling with our first wave of COVID-19, dealing with hospital overcrowding, and even seeing some parts of the country which have reopened and then closed again due to new infections, signaling how unprepared the country…

As we move into the dog days of the COVID-19 pandemic, otherwise known as summer 2020, a lot of people are beginning to wonder how to stay healthy. Because the novel coronavirus is novel, scientists are only beginning to discover the details about…

Believe it or not, you used to be able to buy a pair of “Blue Lives Matter” booty shorts on the Walmart website. They even sold matching T-shirts and neckties, for the uber-narcs. Alongside all the “thin blue line” crap, there were “Irish Lives…

As it sinks in that we’ll likely be living with COVID-19 for a while, the face mask has transcended its intended purpose as a method of protection and evolved into a fashion accessory. Stylish masks fitted with filters and even straw holes for…

I enjoy partaking in the herb every now and then, especially now, savoring the high it brings as a brief reprieve from the coinciding stressors of a pandemic and worldwide racial reckoning. But cannabis, like any substance, can have side effects.…

Yesterday I left a Zoom yoga class less than halfway through. That’s no big deal for a lot of people, but I’m also a yoga teacher so I will usually sweat through an even truly terrible session for the sake of camaraderie. It wasn’t the asana (the…

While most of us struggle to simply maintain sanity in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, scammers are actively trying to prey on our fears. Count on internet jerks to kick us while we’re down. While some of these scams are just annoying, some can…

Most antivirals in use today target parts of an invading virus itself. Unfortunately, SARS-CoV-2 — the virus that causes COVID-19 — has proven hard to kill. But viruses rely on cellular mechanisms in human cells to help them spread, so it should be…

At first sniffle, my friend insists drinking orange juice will prevent a full-fledged cold from forming. She’s definitely wrong, but she’s not alone in her thinking — and I love her anyway. It’s common advice that chugging liquid vitamin C —…

I had only been living in New York for a few months in 2014 when I came across Roya Marsh’s work for the first time. A friend of mine dragged me to a poetry slam on the Lower East Side and as poet after poet took to the stage, my attention was stuck…

In college, I had a roommate who routinely talked in her sleep, usually about her chemistry homework. While I was up late studying one night, she sat up abruptly in her bed. “Where’s my calculator? Have you seen my calculator?” she demanded,…

Never have I been more conscious of how much of a bubble I live in than during this pandemic. Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, which began sheltering-in-place in March, businesses have largely stayed closed, and most of us are wearing masks and…

Many states are seeing major surges in COVID-19 infection rates, and unlike at the start of the pandemic, experts are starting to shift their attention from at-risk elders to people in their 20s and 30s. The highest rate of infection is now among…