Embracing the Joy: The Healing Power of Hugs

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Embracing the Joy: The Healing Power of Hugs

Ah, the holiday season—the time for friends, family, and togetherness. This time of year is my absolute favorite, and one thing that makes these moments extra special for me is all of the hugs I get from people I love. I used to wonder why these embraces made me so good, and then I decided to look into the science behind hugs.

It turns out—hugging is really good for you! Whether it's a bear hug or a group squeeze, wrapping yourself in a good ol' hug has amazing benefits for your body and mind. So in honor of this holiday season, I’m sharing with you all of the reasons you should give and receive hugs.

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The Truth About Inflammation

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The Truth About Inflammation

Chronic inflammation has become a topic of increasing interest in the fields of health and wellness. Spices like turmeric and ginger, and modalities like infrared saunas have risen in popularity as people look for new ways to combat inflammation.

Chronic inflammation is both a sign and symptom of numerous health conditions, like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, neurodegenerative disease, autoimmune diseases, digestive disorders, obesity, and more. It’s no wonder why people are concerned and trying to learn more about this!

In this week’s blog post, I’m breaking down inflammation and giving you some tips on how to keep your own at bay

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What Is Long Covid? What Can You Do About It?

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What Is Long Covid? What Can You Do About It?

One difficulty about the Covid-19 pandemic is that it never really ended. The virus isn’t something we were just able to eliminate—it’s still among us, and new variants are still proliferating (I know a lot of people in New York who have contracted it over the last few months!).

For that reason, many people are concerned about “long Covid”—aka the long-term symptoms of Covid-19. In this blog post, I endeavor to explain what long Covid is, how it manifests, and what you can do to avoid it and/or treat it.

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How To Get A Handle On Your Money (Part 2)

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How To Get A Handle On Your Money (Part 2)

Welcome back to How To Get A Handle On Your Money - Part 2! If you missed Part 1 last week (you can find it here), I asked Victoria Sechrist, a personal finance coach based in New England, to lend us her financial expertise and give us her best tips. In Part 2, she talks about common money mistakes, setting money goals, and more! 

If you read Part 1 of this series, hopefully you’ve collected all of your financial data and have started tracking your spending. You’re one step closer to living in financial truth! Which means you don’t have any illusions about your financial situation; you know exactly where you stand. 

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How To Make Your Kitchen A Healthier One

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How To Make Your Kitchen A Healthier One

When it comes to cooking and what I stock my kitchen with, I’m always trying to make choices that benefit both my health and the planet. In the last year alone, I’ve become considerably more environmentally conscious, and in doing so, I’ve been able to cut back on a major source of toxins in my life: plastic. 

Most of our kitchens are filled with plastic, from our cooking utensils and containers, to plates, cups, water bottles and beyond. During my kids' childhoods, it made more sense to have plastic items in my kitchen—like when they were learning how to hold things, or dragging a sippy cup around—but now, there’s no real reason for me to have plastic. In fact, there are a LOT of reasons for me to not have plastic around, especially near my food. 

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My Top Foods For Eliminating Bloat This Summer

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My Top Foods For Eliminating Bloat This Summer

Feeling bloated? I can relate! Everyone experiences bloating at some point—some of us more frequently than others. For a lot of people, bloating is particularly commonplace in the summer,

when we tend to consume more salt and more easily become dehydrated. (The latter happens because we sweat more in the summer, and contrary to what you would think, we often drink less water, too.) Bloating is normal, though, and it can be alleviated by eating certain gut-boosting foods.

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Why Eye Exams Matter & What To Know Before You Go

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Why Eye Exams Matter & What To Know Before You Go

Many people don’t know this (I didn’t before I learned it), but a lot can be determined about your health through your eyes. That’s why it’s so important to get a proper eye exam every year.

Eye doctors can spot chronic illness and diseases through your eyes—all you have to do is schedule the exam and show up. This goes for everyone, whether or not you wear glasses or contact lenses.

Here are a couple reasons why annual eye exams are necessary for all of us, and what to expect when you go in for one.

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Why Balance Is Important (& How To Improve Yours)

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Why Balance Is Important (& How To Improve Yours)

When we think of aging healthfully, most of us look only at the big ticket items. We think about our diet/nutrition, our workout/movement routine, maybe our sleep, but there are other aspects of health that we tend to ignore that are just as (or more) important! One of those, which I’ll discuss today, is BALANCE.

Balance as a skill and capability is highly underrated and underappreciated, even though it affects everything we do.

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How To Cope With Depression—My Advice

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How To Cope With Depression—My Advice

The conversation around mental health has expanded and deepened A LOT—more and more people are talking about their struggles every day—but we still have a long way to go if we’re going to actually destigmatize mental health (which I see as a goal that would truly benefit us all). 

Personally, I’ve dealt with depression at various points throughout my life, the most recent being the depression that stemmed from the death of my long-time partner last year. I felt emotions and pain beyond anything I’d ever felt before, and it’s taken until now, almost a full year later, for me to feel like I’m coming out on the other side.

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The Power Of Power Walking

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The Power Of Power Walking

Calling all Pure Joy Wellness Walking Warriors!!! The Walking Challenge starts THIS SATURDAY, April 29! 

For those of you who have done the Challenge before, you know the drill. We’ll be walking 30 minutes, for 30 days straight—no excuses!

For those of you who are new to PJW, the Walking Challenge is the highlight of my year (so much so that I host it twice a year!). It’s a time when the whole PJW community of women comes together to support each other and prioritize our own mental and physical well-being.

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How To Spring Clean Your Mind & Increase Your Joy

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How To Spring Clean Your Mind & Increase Your Joy

At long last, spring is here! Boy, it feels like this winter lasted forever, and I am so happy to have sunny, warmer days ahead of us. 

Whenever the season changes, especially from winter to spring, I find myself feeling very introspective. I’m constantly checking myself and monitoring my mindset, but every year when spring rolls around, I do what I call “mental spring cleaning.” In short, I take whatever is clogging and cluttering my mind, and I consciously try to get rid of it. I find this kind of exercise very cathartic and healing, and it’s become my yearly tradition. 

I’ve told a lot of my friends and clients about this mental spring cleaning practice, and they all seem to really like it, so I thought, why not share it on the blog?

Here’s how you can do some mental spring cleaning yourself, so you can go into this next season feeling clear and fresh. 

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The Importance Of Vitamin D

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The Importance Of Vitamin D

Growing up, many of us were told about the importance of vitamins—maybe by our parents, maybe in our health class.

By now it’s pretty common knowledge that we should strive to get enough vitamins every day…but what does that really mean? “Vitamins” is a pretty broad category, and each one aids the body in totally different ways.

I think it’s important that we each know which vitamins we need, and how getting enough of them (or not enough) impacts how our bodies function.

In this week’s blog post, I want to focus on vitamin D.

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How Your Beliefs About Aging Impact Your Health

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How Your Beliefs About Aging Impact Your Health

Changing the way we think and talk about aging has always been one of the core missions of Pure Joy Wellness. I’d go as far as to say it’s our founding principle. So when I came across Dr. Becca Levy, and her book Breaking The Age Code, I was instantly drawn to her work and her research—and needless to say, I devoured this book quickly. 

Her book Breaking The Age Code revolves around “age beliefs”—which are what they sound like, beliefs about aging. Specifically she looks at how our views about aging impact our lives, including how long and how well we live them.

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Your Sex Questions, Answered (Part 2)!

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Your Sex Questions, Answered (Part 2)!

Welcome back to our two-part Sex Series! In this week’s post, we’ve got just as much information and advice for you—trust me, this is a MUST read!

Whether you’re curious about lubricants, wondering about masturbation, questioning your libido, or seeking body confidence, Dr. Juliana Hauser, PhD, LPC, LMFT. has actionable tips you can apply RIGHT NOW to improve your sex life and overall well-being.

Here we go…

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Your Sex Questions, Answered (Part 1)!

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Your Sex Questions, Answered (Part 1)!

Despite how often we’re all exposed to sex (and, in some respects, how universal of an experience it is), it’s still considered a taboo topic. Have you ever stopped and wondered why that is? I think it’s natural to have questions about sex, especially as we age, given how much our bodies, relationships, and self-image can change overtime. 

I asked YOU, the members of the Pure Joy Wellness Community, to send me all of your questions about sex—and you did NOT hold back! You sent in the best questions! To answer them, I decided to ask Dr. Juliana Hauser, PhD, LPC, LMFT, a sexuality expert, coach, and educator

As you’ll see in this blog post, she has tons of practical, actionable advice for establishing, reigniting, or maintaining a healthy sex life, solo or with a partner!

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Retinol: The Missing Piece In Your Skincare Routine

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Retinol: The Missing Piece In Your Skincare Routine

Something I’ve realized over the last few years is that skincare can be a controversial topic. Everyone—dermatologists, estheticians, people like you and me—has their own opinion on what products are the best, and which are actually worth your money.

Through my work at Pure Joy Wellness, I’ve had the opportunity to speak to and collaborate with many different experts, from estheticians to dermatologists and more. This means I’ve had the chance to ask people at the forefront of their field:

What products and ingredients actually make a difference? Nearly everyone I’ve surveyed had the same response: RETINOL.

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The Five-Minute Workout Even Busy Women Can Fit Into Their Busy Days

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The Five-Minute Workout Even Busy Women Can Fit Into Their Busy Days

In this day and age, we’re all super busy. We have so much going on in every sphere of our lives—we have obligations to our family, friends, and work, and we have a multitude of responsibilities that come with every role we play. So when it comes to fitting exercise into your already hectic schedule, you probably assume you don’t have time for it, and you immediately think “yea right, that’s not happening.”

But research has shown that you don’t have to trudge along on the treadmill for hours at a time or lift 100 pound weights to reap the benefits of exercise.

Studies have shown that brief periods of physical activity do add up, and together, they have a positive effect on our weight and overall health. How brief are we talking? Just five minutes! As busy as we are, we ALL have five minutes to spare

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How Music Can Affect Aging & Memory

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How Music Can Affect Aging & Memory

Have you ever had a super nostalgic moment? I have them every day whether it be on my phone, in the gym, while watching movies, or in restaurants…basically anywhere music is playing.

Music has always been an important part of my life; ask anyone who knows me, they’ll tell you I am always listening to music!

My love of music developed the most in my teens and early twenties.

Back then, I didn’t fully realize how much music would become an influential part of the rest of my life, and I had no idea that it could help me (and my brain) age healthily!

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What To Eat To Heal Your Gut

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What To Eat To Heal Your Gut

Talk to any holistic health doctor—or Western doctor with experience in alternative medicine—and they will tell you the same thing: gut health matters.

Whatever ailment or health issue you’re dealing with, chances are a) it is stemming from your gut and b) paying more attention to your gut can help.

In this blog post, I’m going to share a few of my favorite gut-healing foods, as well as a few recipes that you can make to incorporate them into your diet! 

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The Effect Of Poor Hydration On Aging

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The Effect Of Poor Hydration On Aging

Going into this year, I’m doubling down on my primary health goals, which are to stay disease-free and alive as long as I can. That means I have to keep my body working well, and of course, that means staying hydrated.

I’ve written numerous posts about the importance of staying hydrated and why it matters for bodily functions—but did you know it also correlates directly to aging?

A recent study showed the connection, and I felt the need to share this info with all of my friends over 50 (and under 50—we don’t gatekeep health here). 

On January 2, 2023, the National Institutes of Health published a study about lifelong hydration and the impact it has on our overall health. We’ve long known the short-term benefits of staying hydrated—from helping us ward off headaches and migraines, regulating our body temperature, aiding our digestion, ridding our body of toxins, and more—but this study underscored the long-term effects

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