Pregnancy and Depression
The link above is a very good article worth reading about pregnancy and depression.
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
kissing
Sexless Marriage? Consider The Lost Art Of Kissing
Posted: 08/06/2012 8:06 am Updated: 08/06/2012 8:11 am
Kissing is one of the first displays of affection to go out the window, says Jill Blakeway.
But instead of sprinting back to the bedroom, maybe one should take things slow and start with the basic building block of intimacy: kissing.
Kissing can be "more intimate than having sex" but is one of the first things to go in a long-term or sexless marriage, says Jill Blakeway, clinic director of the YinOva Center in New York City and author of the forthcoming book Sex Again: Recharging Your Libido. When kissing falls by the wayside, it's the first step to losing passion in a relationship, she notes.
"[I've had patients tell me,] 'We used to spend hours kissing,'" Blakeway said. "Then I would ask, 'Well how long do you spend kissing now?' One patient said 'When I first get in, I kiss my dog. Then I kiss my husband.'"
But it's crucial to make time for making out, Blakeway said. "Kissing is one of the first ways we connect sexually," she said. "And then over time it goes down. But there are some physical things that make kissing important. It decreases the level of cortisol, which is a stress hormone and it increases oxytocin, which is a bonding hormone. And that's why, chemically speaking, kissing makes people more relaxed and builds connection. Chinese medicine says that the mouth and the tongue have a connection to the heart. So it's the same idea. Kissing attaches people to each other."
Want to bring passionate kisses back to your relationship? Blakeway has six tips to turn your pecks into liplocks.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/06/sexless-marriage-kissing_n_1746190.html?utm_hp_ref=fifty&ir=Fifty
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Homemade body scrubs
Looking for an inexpensive gift to give someone that is still AWESOME! Well look no further! I came across this Homemade Moisturizing Body Scrub. Put it in a little jar, decorate the jar, and away you go with an awesome homemade gift!
INGREDIENTS:
-
1/2 cup Shea Butter
-
3 TBSP Olive Oil
-
3 TBSP Coconut Oil (melted, but not hot)
-
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
METHOD:
Begin by filling a 1/2 C measuring cup with shea butter,
making sure to pack it down tightly. Transfer the shea butter to a
small pan, and gently heat, using the double boiler method, until the
butter is nice and soft. You don’t want to melt the butter, but just
soften it to make it easier to work with.
Next, transfer the shea butter
to a stand mixer, and beat on high speed until it has a whipped
consistency and doesn’t feel grainy when rubbed between your fingers.
This will take around 3-4 minutes. It should look like firm whipped
cream when it is done. (If you think your tempted to eat it now, just
wait till later!)
Combine the olive oil and melted coconut
oil together in a small container with a spout. SLOWLY pour the oil
into the bowl of shea butter, while beating on high speed. You may need
to stop and scrape down the sides as you go.
Once all of the oil is incorporated into the shea butter,
continue mixing on high speed for 1-2 minutes until it is nice and
fluffy and looks like a soft, delicious whipped cream. If desired, you
could also add some essential oils now. I usually don’t, because I like
the smell of just the coconut oil and brown sugar, but you could
experiment with adding some if you would like.
At this point, you really could just
stop, and use this as an after-shower moisturizer. I have done this
before, but my favorite way to use this is as an in-shower moisturizing body scrub. It is just so nice, and makes your skin feel AMAZING! (Have I already said that? Please excuse me if I’m repeating myself!)
To turn this into a body scrub, you just
need to add something that will exfoliate. This step is very flexible,
and there are many things that could be added here. My favorite thing to use is brown sugar.
It gives it a wonderful smell, and it does a great job at exfoliating.
Some other things that you could consider using instead of sugar would
be salt, coffee grounds, ground up oats, etc. Anything that will
provide you with a gentle scrub can be used in place of the sugar. You
could even do a combination of exfoliators if you would like.
So add the brown sugar (or whatever you
decide to use) to your whipped butter and gently mix it in. (If you use
brown sugar, make sure that there are no clumps of sugar before you add
it to your bowl. It will be a lot easier to mix in this way, and you
will not end up with any big sugar clumps in your exfoliator.)
That is all there is to it! And although, you could eat
this, I think it would serve it’s purpose better on your skin! To use,
simply rub the body scrub all over yourself while you’re in the shower,
rinse off, and dry. You don’t need to use a lot – a little bit will go a long way. When you get out of the shower, your skin will feel like silk, and you will be glowing!
This recipe makes around two cups of
moisturizing body scrub. I like to store mine in glass ball jars. For a
simple gift idea, fill up a 1 cup ball jar with your homemade body
scrub, sprinkle a little brown sugar over the top (just for fun!), seal
it with a lid, and decorate the jar with a cute ribbon and/or a homemade
gift tag. Everyone loves receiving handmade gifts! I made some recently as a special treat for my friend who just had a baby, and she loved it! But make sure to save some for yourself, so you can have beautiful, glowing, soft, smooth, radiant skin too! Enjoy!
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