There are some easy ways to maximize the value of gift giving, as well as support sustainability at the same time. With a little forethought and a few simple strategies, we can elevate the experience of both giving and receiving gifts to make gift giving more fulfilling and rewarding as a result. 4 Ways to Make Your Gifts Meaningful 4 Ways to Make Your Gifts Meaningful 1. Make Thoughtful Purchases Presents that are tied to an activity someone is passionate about are more likely to bring joy for months and years to come, especially when compared to fad gifts of the season....

A collective effort to help each other lower our political anxiety is important for reasons that reach well beyond the day of the election. When people feel anxious they move into a reactive mode. Anxious people tend to be less flexible and less open to new experiences and points of view. They’re more likely to oversimplify what’s upsetting them and view life through a binary lens. In an election year that means voters will grab on to narrow, inflexible beliefs around issues and candidates as if they were life rafts: She’s smart but he’s not; he’s authentic but she’s inauthentic; they’ll run this country into the ground but we’ll build it up....

Susan Cain • Crown Susan Cain wants to know if we can transform the way we love, lead, parent, talk about death, and understand each other by embracing the “hidden riches of sorrow and longing.” In looking for the answer, Cain turns to philosophers (past and present), researchers, songs, poems, and anecdotes and weaves them together in nine chapters. We’re never given a single answer to what is possible when we embrace the bitter in bittersweet emotions, partly because each of us gets to choose how and when to let sorrow in....

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Whether it be at a gallery opening, after-work happy hour, or evening at the museum, low ponytails are a must for the modern woman. And Walters knows that, arriving to New York Fashion Week for the first time, curling iron and hairspray in hand. But even as a seasoned stylist surging to the top of her industry, Walters learned two great tips on her Road to #TRESNYFW. “Use more product than you would think,” as it gives the hair a more textured look, and “prep the hair with the right product before even blow-drying,” for it’ll thicken up the strands....