But… what if we told you that learning how to do a side French braid is even easier than doing it the regular way? It’s not that hard to recreate; you have a full visual of what you’re doing. With a regular French braid done at the back of your head, you’re trusting muscle memory—and years of middle-school practice—to create that perfect stitch. Which, let’s be honest, can be a challenge, particularly during those rushed mornings when you just can’t even....

Far from a radical revision, the guideline newly suggests a little well-chosen time is fine starting near eighteen months, when used interactively with a care taker. Below eighteen months no time remains best, apart from maybe video conversations with grandparents. From two to five, an hour daily maximum is recommended, and for older kids, two hours total time tops, no different than before. Why is screen time such a uniquely charged and challenging topic?...

McDonagh’s essay lost me at the start of paragraph five, which begins “So what exactly is mindfulness? On the back of a week of sessions, I can assert with some confidence that…” I’m a journalist myself, and it still amazes me that writers are encouraged to offer guidance on a topic in which their experience is next to zero. Would McDonagh critique the plays of Moliere after a week of French lessons?...

To fall into this goal-oriented mindset is to fundamentally misunderstand what meditation is, and how it helps. Indeed, expecting meditation to “make me better,” perhaps based on the results of clinical studies, may well sabotage the practice, whose benefit comes partly from letting go of the tendency to grasp for results. In the UK, psychologists have positioned mindfulness within the cognitive-behavioral tradition, and there are similarities—like CBT, mindfulness offers a practical set of skills that can help people relate more effectively to their thoughts and feelings....

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. To learn more about ’em, click here. Before we jump into all this gourmet dinner party goodness, we have to give a shout-out to our own Diva Elizabeth for designing these printables for us! She’s totally helped unleash our inner chefs and we love it! Gourmet Dinner Date Printables Your printable gourmet food date pack has everything you need to create the perfect experience....

Say goodbye to bedhead and knotty strands! Read on to get our top hair tips when sleeping so you too can wake up with a great hair day (even if it’s just flexed via the small screen!): Top 5 Hair Tips When Sleeping 1. Silk Pillowcases Are Worth It Frizz be gone! If you wake up with rough-looking hair, it may be down to a rough pillowcase. As much as we love cotton sheets, it’s totally worth it to pick up a silk pillowcase....

Very early in the campaign, I realized that my daily meditation routine wasn’t enough to prepare me for the challenging conversations that lay ahead. I’d need to hit reset several times a day, and especially before challenging meetings, in order to ensure that my choices and actions were aligned with my intentions for the campaign. The Mindfulness Gap Between Meditation and Life I distinctly remember the moment I saw the gap between practicing mindfulness in my meditation practice and being mindful in my interactions....

Headpieces Are Having a Major Moment We’re all about styling your hair to show off your natural texture and letting that serve as the base for your beautiful headpiece. Make the most of your curls by using a wave-boosting product, create a sleek style with your straight hair or simply let your texture run free. We’re firm believers that regal hair accessories don’t discriminate when it comes to hair type and texture....

Healthy Hair Habits 1. Stretch out the time between washes. It’s no secret that the more you wash your hair, the drier it can become. While we’re not advocating for greasy and oily hair, we are saying that this is the perfect time to train your hair to last longer in between washes. If you’re having a hard time dealing with greasiness, try Love Beauty and Planet Volume and Bounty Juice Grapefruit Day 2 Dry Shampoo....

Today, any thirty-minute TV show includes at least eight minutes of advertisements, and much of the television programming for kids is rarely more than a twenty-two-minute commercial for tie-in toys or other merchandise. Even when they turn off their screens, our children are barraged with advertisements for toys, games, and the latest gadgets—not to mention having such goodies placed at child height in grocery stores, pharmacies, coffee shops, and more....

Afro Holiday Hairstyles for Short Natural Hair 1. Braided Back Updo Holiday Style Want a quick yet elegant updo for that holiday party you’re headed to? Try this braided back style. Simply part your hair in the middle, french braid your hair down on opposite ends, and then Bobbi pins the two end pieces in the back together. Don’t forget to top it off with Dove Style+Care Compressed Flexible Hold Hairspray for a long-lasting look!...

Everything You Need to Know About Honey Blonde Hair Keep scrolling to learn more about the 1970s honey blonde hair and learn how you can achieve this shade. What is Honey Blonde Hair? Honey blonde is a medium-tone blonde hue that originated from the ’70s. During the decade, blonde shades ranging from butterscotch to caramel to golden blonde were extremely popular, which we’re seeing make a comeback with the honey hue....

Other possibilities: listening to music, turning off your phone, getting a massage, loving-kindness meditation, walking on the beach, and reading a book. Slightly less common ideas? Horseback riding and playing backgammon. Do you feel relaxed when meditating? A sense of relaxation can be a nice side effect of meditating, but it’s not a requirement. 55% say they usually feel “chill” when they meditate. For 39% meditation can be relaxing sometimes....

My phone and I became fast friends—though I was a jealous, needy friend, and kept my iPhone clamped tight to my hip in a pouch, not unlike an old West gunslinger with his colt revolver. Ask my wife about my compulsive phone-checking at the dinner table and you’ll know a bit about what became my addictive cycle of non-work-related phone-fun (and suffering). Whether it be the mindless nudge toward your phone screen, a thick slice of cake, a cigarette, or various substances, craving is familiar to us all....

How to Grow a Man Bun If you’re ready, read on to learn more about how to grow a man bun and be prepared to change your just-rolled-out-of-bed game forever. We’ve gathered all the man bun inspiration you need here. Growing your hair out long enough to fit into a man bun is no easy feat, but with the right tips and a lot of discipline, it’s definitely doable!...

What’s the difference between these two outcomes? A new paper by researchers at UC Berkeley suggests that it might be self-compassion. The researchers recruited 400 adults and invited a group of them to identify their biggest regret, then write about it with self-compassion and understanding. Some wrote about cheating on their partner; others wrote about becoming estranged from their parents. As a comparison, other participants journaled about their regrets from a perspective of self-esteem—focusing on their positive qualities, rather than their negative ones—and others described a hobby they enjoy (the control group)....

So the question becomes whether we can actually allow emotions to arise and flow through us naturally, because they are simply a part of human experience, and let go of resisting them so intensely. This is a significant part of mindfulness practice: to continually work to accept the presence of strong emotions (or any emotions) when they arise, to acknowledge them, and allow them to play themselves out. There is no such thing as an illegitimate emotion....

There’s a song by Taylor Swift {stick with me here} called Happiness. This song is actually quite sad despite the title, but there’s one line she wrote in the bridge that kept coming to mind in light of this topic: “No one teaches you what to doWhen a good man hurts youAnd you hurt him too.“ Every person and couple to ever walk this earth will make mistakes. I’m sure we can all agree on this, right?...

Very effective when “setting” hair for some body—particularly while you, goddess that you are, are doing your makeup in the meantime—hair curlers also come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Knowing how to use hair curlers and their different sizes also make a big difference in the overall look. The smaller barrels made it easy for those with shorter hair to still form a curl (thus making the feathered, curly look of the 1970s accessible to all hair lengths)....