My poor chakras. Up until a few weeks ago, I didn’t even know they existed, and now I realize how desperately they were calling out for some urgent attention.
I recently visited the Aveda Spa at Civello in Toronto, to try their Chakra Balancing Massage ($100/60 mins), which is based on the Indian philosophy of Ayurveda. This is a practice that focuses on keeping the seven different energy centres in the body well balanced and working in harmony.
Before the treatment started, I was shown different chakra cards and asked to choose the ones I identified most with. I gravitated towards Muladhara – which is located at the base of the spine, and can lead to feelings of lethargy, resistance to change and the need to slow down.
The massage includes a variety of stress relieving actions- muscles kneaded into a doughy submission, turning your mind onto “relax” with some gentle meditation and pressure points stimulation via reflexology to increase energy.
Did it work? Put it this way, I was so “zenned” out afterwards, I left my earrings in the dressing room and had to sheepishly go back the next day to collect them. Definitely one I can recommend for the stressed out and the over-worked.
Prefer to try at home? Look for Aveda’s Chakra Body Mist range of pure essential oils, which you can spray on anytime. $34
Beauty editor (and regular blogger) Vanessa Craft will be giving editor-in-chief Linda Lewis a 4-minute midlife beauty makeover on Canada AM tomorrow morning at 8:40 am. Hope you will be watching, and be sure to come back to the site to let us know what you thought!
Wow, Lynn Crosbie’s piece about Meg Ryan in today’s Globe and Mail is – not to put too fine a line on it – scathing:
Actresses always moan that there are no more roles as they get older; that they are like old mares in a pasture and so on. Helen Mirren and Judi Dench are far older and rougher-looking than Ryan, but they are not oiling themselves into a fat suit, as Ryan does in the beginning of My Mom’s New Boyfriend.
The fact of the matter is there are no more hot-young-chick roles for women in their 40s and 50s, and why should there be?
Go have a read and come back and tell us what you think. Is Crosbie’s commentary bang on? What do you think of the roles available to women actresses over 40?
On a totally separate note: Kudos to Tish Cohen on the reception of her second novel (read the National Post‘s coverage here). Tish was featured in our “Firsts After 40″ section in our Summer 2007 issue: Her ‘first’ was her first novel. Can’t wait to read this one!
Today’s Globe and Mail raises the interesting topic of pressure around age in the workplace. Are people lying about their age to get ahead?
We know from our online poll that (as of writing this post) 67% of you have never lied about your age. But have you felt that you should at the very least gloss it over in order to continue to command coworkers’ respect, or gain business from clients? Does youth trump experience? What’s your take?
Now here’s an interesting thought: the Boston Globe is running a piece suggesting that friendship contracts should be legalized. The idea is that then social supports could spring up for friendship could spring up: employer or government supported leave to care for a friend and other benefits of the sort.
Although I’m not sure I agree with the hassle – it’s hard enough to lose a friend informally, never mind having to go through a divorce – the whole concept of the importance of friends in our lives is huge – when it works, and even when it doesn’t.
What’s your take? Should friendship contracts be available? What should go in them?
And of course if you want to share a tale of friendship, add your voice to our View from her section – don’t forget you could win $1,000 if you share a story before October 31.
beautyblender’s Ultimate Makeup Sponge
I’ve fallen hard for this sassy little makeup sponge which has developed a cult following among celebrity makeup artists because of it’s ability to apply streak-free, flawless concealer and foundation. I have to admit, I love the look of this sponge so much that I have been keeping it (still in it’s whimsical polka-dot packaging) on my desk at work.
Every once in a while, I’ll take it out, give it a squeeze and think about the glowing, even-handed foundation application I’ll soon be sporting. Now, this would mean actually taking the sponge home to my makeup drawer, but I’m not quite ready to do that yet. I’m still at the admiration stage of this crush and don’t want to disturb my little fuchsia pink work mate.
By the way, I’m not the only one in love with the beautyblender Sponge – half of the More office has popped by to coo and play with my wee new addition. Celebrity fans include Oprah, Diane Sawyer and Macy Gray.
$22
www.beautyblender.ca
Here’s a neat story at the New York Times: Robyn Okrant is following Oprah’s advice for one year and blogging about it at her blog livingoprah.com. (Hat tip to Salon’s Broadsheet for sharing this story.)
The idea’s not quite original: Cathy Alter’s book Up for Renewal: What Magazines Taught Me about Love, Sex, and Starting Over has been out for over a month now. (Have you read it? What do you think? I haven’t gotten there in my stack of books yet.)
But it does raise the interesting question of how what we read in magazines and watch on television impacts on our approach to life. I’m having one of those moments myself: investigating some thyroid issues with a copy of Lisa Fitterman’s article for More in hand.
What advice have you found via a magazine or a favourite television show that’s worked out for you? Would you be up for a year of expert-guided reinvention?
This post started with this link: the Hong Kong Lego User Group has built their own Olympics - from Lego. The pictures are amazing, even for those of us who don’t have a fascination with the bricks.
So I decided to see what I could find around the web that gave a bit of a different view than the daily Olympic medal count. Here’s what I turned up:
These photos of women’s fencing, on Boston.com, had me mesmerized.
Was it a spider on Kerri Walsh’s shoulder? Nope, a new kind of athletic tape.
Olympic ads are geared towards women. So are you buying?
And of course I’m not immune to the medal question and have to note that Dara Torres took two silver medals at the Olympics. Maybe we’ll see more athletes competing after 40?
Share your Olympic link finds in the comments!
Madonna of course turned 50 over the weekend and has the coverage been fun to read. Here’s a quick roundup:
On her body as temple, from the National Post.
Coverage of her party from the Gossip Girls.
She’s sold more solo albums than any other female artist in history.
What do you think is the lasting appeal of the material girl?
The New York Times reports this week on the demise of Sigrid Olsen’s line. The money quote?
It is a curious development in the fickle business of fashion that clothing labels like Ms. Olsen’s, made by and for the baby boomer generation, are among those being hardest hit by the current economic turmoil and retail retrenchment.
For Canadians this may be an eerie echo of the demise (and revival) of the Linda Lundström line.
So what is the issue? It is really a focus on youth, or is it just that these lines aren’t selling well because, well, we’re not buying them? Where do you shop?
