Antioxidants That Can Help Slow The Aging Of Your Skin

Is your skin showing signs of aging? If it is, welcome to the club. The aging skin club is one that everyone is a reluctant and unwilling member of. Aging skin happens, but there are steps you can take to slow the process down.

Consume Foods Rich In Lycopene

Foods that are rich in Lycopene are helpful for improving your skin texture and increasing your collagen growth. Foods that are rich in Lycopene include red fruits and vegetables. You can also take vitamin supplements and use skin care products that have lycopene in them. (more…)

Pranayama: the importance of breathing in mindfulness meditation

It’s hard to imagine that breathing could be underrated (I mean, without breathing, where would we be?), but it really is. The simple act of airflow through the nose and mouth is not only necessary for life, but also can be an integral part of a feeling of calm, centeredness, and well-being. Pranayama is a Sanskrit word meaning “breath or breathing” and, in some contexts, “controlled breathing.” It is a combination of Prana (“life force”) and ayama (“to draw out”). Numerous forms and practices exist, involving the timing, manner, and rhythm of the breath. This can include alternating nostrils, adding pauses or specific sounds and phrases, shaping the mouth in a particular way, etc.
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Happiness is a… Cold Knife?

It is not uncommon for people to say to me, in dinner conversation, at a party, or even sometimes when visiting family, “I can’t believe people actually choose to have surgery.” Obviously, the speaker in these instances has a preconceived bias. They may feel that attempts to use medicine or surgery to improve a person’s appearance are ill-conceived or shallow in some way.

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Lee Miller and Man Ray: Light, Texture, and 1930’s Photography

I recently had the pleasure of seeing a fantastic exhibit at the Legion of Honor in the Presidio, here in San Francisco. The show dealt with the complicated, and quite artistically productive, relationship of the photographers Man Ray and Lee Miller – both American ex-pats living in Paris in the late 1920’s and 1930’s. Man Ray, born Emmanuel Radnitzky to immigrant parents in Philadelphia, is famous for his novel techniques involving “camera-less” photography and re-exposure of already-exposed negatives. He is also an important member of the early 20^th century Dada and Surrealism movements. Lee Miller, born in upstate New York, began her career as a model – famously ornamenting the covers of Vogue after her discovery at age 19 in Manhattan by the media baron Condé Nast.

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Pop Art and the Beautiful Silhouette

Despite all of our poetry, song lyrics, and fairy tales, the concept of beauty is fluid. What is considered beautiful in our society today may be very much the opposite in 3 or 4 decades. Some enduring concepts exist (hold out for the next BLOG post for more on this topic!), but even a casual glance around one of the country’s great art museums will rapidly demonstrate my point. Traveling from the Rubenesque nudes, with their voluptuous figures – round bellies, plump cheeks, full hips – to Post-Modern figure drawings or Cubist portraits – with their sharp angles, long and lean figures, and chiseled faces – we can see that over the course of a couple centuries, “beauty” transformed from one extreme to its opposite.

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Uniquely You!

Consume Foods Rich In Lycopene