Source: http://greatist.com/live/narcissistic-personality-traits?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=feed_http–greatistcom-

Narcissism is way more than refreshing your Newsfeed to see how many likes your most recent post got. This video starts off talking about “grandiose narcissists,” the in-your-face-look-how-great-I-am types that usually come to mind. But not all narcissists are loud and proud. “Vulnerable narcissists” are much more introverted. They’re still entitled, but instead of craving the spotlight, they’re easily threatened and feel like victims when someone challenges their superior self-image.

Thanks to our materialistic culture (and maybe our genes), these personality traits are on the rise in the U.S.—and social media is not helping. The good news: Narcissists can work on being less self-centered. It’ll just take some serious self-reflection and perhaps some therapy to get there.

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Source: http://greatist.com/live/dont-look-like-you-have-an-eating-disorder?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=feed_http–greatistcom-

When you think of someone with an eating disorder, you probably imagine a woman who’s shockingly skinny and frail. As this powerful video proves, that stereotype is not only false, it’s harmful. Hearing “you don’t like look you have an eating disorder” could send the message that you don’t need treatment or should try harder to really look the part. Plus, as the two guys in the video point out, many people overlook the fact that millions of men struggle with eating disorders too.

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Source: http://greatist.com/live/surprise-marriage-proposal-cycling-class?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=feed_http–greatistcom-

We know, another viral wedding proposal. We tend to be a Scrooge when it comes to these public displays of affection. (Whatever happened to intimate moments?!) But for some reason, we couldn’t help but crack a smile when watching this video, in which one indoor cycling instructor proposes to another instructor mid-class. This one pulls out all the stops: choreography, matching shirts, and adorable posters (“It was love at first playlist”). Why are we sniffling? Must be our allergies. We need a box of tissues, stat.

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Source: http://www.sonima.com/meditation/mindfulness-lessons/

Of course, we were a little freaked out initially. We were about to become first-time parents and had no idea what would happen after the nurse handed us our daughter. We expected crying, sleepless nights, and plenty of dirty diapers. We also knew there’d be quiet times when she ate, slept, or cuddled. But how would we know what we should be doing when, or what we should do next? Where was the manual for this thing??

Mercifully, we quickly learned that you don’t need one. When our daughter, Piper, arrived, she came with her own set of signals that were subtle but real: A hunger cry, a tired cry, a confused look that means, “Hey, you better check the back of my shorts.” What we never could have predicted, however, were the larger lessons Piper would teach us from day one and continue to educate us today, almost three years later.

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A guru is born.

Things the Little Guru Shows Us Without Even Trying

Piper, and kids in general, automatically practice many of the mindful habits that we tend to unlearn somewhere on the path to adulthood. Being present. Being content. Not wanting more than we need. Kids display these behaviors without thinking.

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Source: http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/02/26/465431695/eat-less-meat-were-told-but-americans-habits-are-slow-to-change?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=thesalt

There may be growing chorus of veggie cheerleaders, but don’t assume most Americans are choosing salad over hamburgers.

iStockphoto

These days, it can be hard to ignore all the messages to eat less meat and more vegetables.

Last year, the World Health Organization used its megaphone to publicize the link between cancer and excessive red meat consumption.

Environmentalists push the message, too, by pointing to all the energy, water and land required for meat production. Some animal welfare advocates, like the Humane Society of the United States, are all for a plant-based diet.

Additional Information:

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// Create a local require.js namespace
var require_meat_consumption_us_20160224 = requirejs.config({
context: ‘meat-consumption-us-20160224’,
paths: {
‘pym’: ‘http…

Source: http://www.foodpolitics.com/2016/02/three-books-about-eating-2-the-practice-of-eating/

This is the second of three books about eating.  The first is here.

Alan Warde.  The Practice of Eating. Polity, 2016.

This is a sociologist’s attempt to establish a theory of food consumption.  Advances in theory, he says, have been limited for three reasons:

First, eating has been looked at as a series of practical problems, as a terrain of crises.  Second, the topic has been dealt with in multidisciplinary contexts where theoretical synthesis has had low priority.  Third, consumption remains subordinated to concern about production.

This book makes up for those deficiencies and will be greatly appreciated by graduate students of sociology, food studies, and other academic disciplines.

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Source: http://greatist.com/eat/coffee-health-benefits?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=feed_http–greatistcom-

Coffee is one of those “vices” (like chocolate and wine) that supposedly comes with a slew of health benefits. But when we read stories that say downing six cups per day can lower your risk of type 2 diabetes, we’re understandably skeptical. Our BS receptors shot sky high while watching the video “This Is Your Body on Coffee” (check it out below), which claims that drinking four or more cups of coffee per day can improve your overall health.

Yes, the video cites real scientific studies, but before you fill up a celebratory mug, check out these four disclaimers:​

1. Studies and recommendations aren't the same thing.

Findings from one-off studies aren’t the same as doctors’ orders. Even the meta-analysis that looked at 28 studies and found people could drink up to six cups of joe per day without increasing their risk of type 2 diabetes wasn’t meant to be prescriptive, says Jessica Yeh, Ph.D., an epidemiology researcher at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. (Yeh worked on one of the studies included in the meta-analysis.1
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“The implication of this study is that if you’re drinking a lot of coffee, maybe it’s not such a bad thing,” she says. “If you’re not already drinking coffee, there’s no reason for you to start to prevent type 2 diabetes.” Not to mention, many of the studies i…

Source: http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/02/26/468166791/when-beef-is-off-limits-beaver-and-muskrat-make-it-to-lenten-menu?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=thesalt

Beaver barbecue at Bootleggin’ BBQ in St. Louis, Mo. Though many Catholics abstain from eating meat on Fridays during Lent, in some parts of the country, water-dwelling mammals have long been considered fair game.

Alan Greenblatt for NPR

It doesn’t taste like chicken and it’s definitely not a fish, but some people in St. Louis are eating beaver for Lent.

Many Catholics abstain from eating meat on Fridays in observance of Lent, the season of penance between Ash Wednesday and Easter. The church has made exceptions — at times, in some places — for aquatic mammals such as beavers, muskrats and capybara.

That’s good enough for Brenton Brown. “A friend of ours said that the Catholic Church is fine with this for Lent,” says Brown, co-owner of Bootleggin’ BBQ in St. Louis,…

Source: http://greatist.com/move/wine-lovers-workout?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=feed_http–greatistcom-

It’s tough to muster up the energy to work out when happy hour is calling your name, but what if you could kill two birds with one stone here? Say hello to Reebok’s amazing new Wine Wednesday Workout (ignore the day), inspired by trainer April Storey’s viral wine workout video. Although this video doesn’t actually involve drinking wine, we won’t judge if you improvise.

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Source: http://zenhabits.net/controller/

By Leo Babauta

Almost our entire lives are spent in a quest to gain control, security and comfort in our lives. Unfortunately, we never really get it, so we keep trying, relentlessly.

This is the main activity of our lives.

What would happen if we stopped?

We could be less restricted by fear, less anxious, less driven by the need for comfort … and more in love with life as it is.

You might be surprised by how much we strive for control.

The Ways We Try to Get Control

The basic nature of live is that it is everchanging, uncontrollable. When we think we have stability in life, something comes up to remind us that no, we don’t. There is no stability, no matter how much we’d like it.

And this kinda freaks us out. We don’t like this feeling of instability, of loss of control. So we do things to cope, out of love for ourselves. These are strategies for control, security and comfort.

Some examples among many:

We go on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Pinterest, because doing so is comfortable and feels like we know what we’re doing (a feeling of certainty, of things under control).
We make a to-do list or even try out an entire productivity or organizational system, because it feels like we’re getting things under control.
We clean, or declutter, or organize our desks.
We tackle email, because it’s out of control, and getting it under control sounds much less anxiety-inducing.
We …