During my freshman year of college, I met a guy, who, for the sake of this article, I will call X. I went to a fraternity party, something I did not do often, as I consider myself one of those (admittedly annoying) people who looked down on frat guys. But that night, boy was I happy I made an exception.
After five minutes of half-buzzed mingling, I caught a glimpse of X through the corner of my eye, and suddenly– struck as if by lightening, a force of nature I had never felt, but knew existed because I had seen it, remote and remarkable– I could not breathe. I felt every bone in my body weaken, alerting me to the fact that I had been touched by something wonderful and frightening.
I made my way through the room, but never lost sight of the one face around which the entire crowd seemed to revolve. During one particular stolen glance, I noticed his eyes turning towards mine. He did not move them, but left them there, glaring more intensely with each passing second till he started moving (could it be towards me?) closer…and closer…(maybe his friend is behind me, I thought)…and then he stopped right in front of me, and it was clear, there could be no mistake who he had come for, and everything around us dissolved. [continue reading…]
As much as I love the summer time, I truly hate paying for the cost of air conditioning. I mean, I would way rather spend that money on a good pair of shoes!
I am a huge fan of Yoga and firmly believe it can solve almost every issue in life. This belief was further enhanced thanks to YogaWorks instructor Peggy Hall, who shared some amazing, and inexpensive, tips to stay cool this summer without.
From easy yoga poses to dietary fixes, to the temperature of water when you shower, to new ways to utilize commone household items, these tips will definitely keep you and your wallet very happy this summer.
Read on for her top 10 tips for beating the heat without the AC! [continue reading…]
One of the best ways to stay organized in life, work and in general is with an agenda. To some it’s a diary to others it’s a planner; whatever you call it, it serves the same purpose in many different forms. There are monthly versions, which lay out the month with little space for detail. Then you have the weeklies that map out a week, usually Monday to Sunday which, depending on the size of the planner, leave a limited amount of space. For those of us who are a bit busier, there are the daily planners, with each page dedicated to a single day. Some planners even list time by the hour!
Buying a planner is like going to Starbucks. There are so many different options, additional add-ins, like calculators, note section, address book, etc. You want something chic and portable, but still practical and useful.
Organizing and practicing time efficiency starts here. Buy a planner and start to write things down. From the time of your favorite TV show to a morning run, log it, do it, and don’t forget about the dinner promise you made to your mother last month. With many options below you will be sure to find one that matches your lifestyle.
Check out my top 10 planner picks after the jump! [continue reading…]
A few months ago, I received some unsettling news from my dentist: I was grinding my teeth in my sleep, something I had apparently been doing for quite some time (the condition is formally known as Bruxism). The grinding had gotten so bad that I had actually started wearing away at the surface of my teeth!
The news was a bit unsettling but also somewhat of a relief as it elucidated why I was experiencing some strange symptoms- trouble sleeping, headaches, jaw tension, and aching gums. However, it wasn’t much of a relief when I asked my dentist what could be done to rectify my little predicament. His solution was to fit me for a mouth guard, which would cost me over a grand! The alternative? Settle for life as a tooth grinder, or bruxist, and continue to deal with the many detrimental side effects. Not wanting to shell out that much money to correct a problem I never really knew I had, I decided to hold off, figuring I would find a better way to solve this issue.
I had put this problem on the back-burner, convincing myself it really wasn’t that big of a deal. In a fortuitous twist, Eric, who knew nothing about the problem that I was pretending not to have, mentioned that a friend of his had actually invented a new product designed to cure my condition! While a mouth guard would stop tooth grinding itself, this new design, the SleepGuard, would actually solve the problem for good at its root.
Naturally, I decided to give it a try and the results were so great, I just had to share it with all of you, especially since I’m sure more than a few of you are amongst the millions who suffer from this condition
Even though it’s summer, we’re still spending some time indoors (Heat wave! Thunderstorm!) and that means candles are just as in-style as Havaianas. As a candle aficionado, here are some picks for the best of the season.
Check them out after the jump! [continue reading…]
Love will make you forget time and time will make you forget love. ~ Anonymous
After graduating from college, I moved to Israel hoping to experience life outside of my comfort zone. I started waitressing at an International restaurant/bar, where I met David. I remember laughing to myself right after meeting him- “you and this British dishwasher, as if that would ever happen!”
For the first two weeks, our verbal exchanges were kept at a minimum: speaking only Hebrew, saying only “thank you” and “you’re welcome.” It took two weeks for him to realize that I wasn’t Israeli (as he had assumed), and for me to realize that he, in fact, was not British. He was an American who grew up in Miami and had recently completed his three-year term in the Israeli army. From there, we became fast friends.
We spent a lot of time together over the next month; hanging out after work, during work, outside of work. I felt so comfortable around him, and felt like I could truly be myself and tell him anything. He was my best friend. I’m sure you all can tell where this is going…
I’m going to get a little personal here because I think what I have to say will resonate with more than a few of you. A few years ago, I was with a guy who I thought was the love of my life. I was home from college for the summer and I thought the long-distance thing was treating us well. However, as my heart grew fonder, his moved in a different direction entirely.
Thanks to a little site called MySpace, I soon discovered my perfect guy was cheating–a fact that I never would have caught onto otherwise. The relationship was over then and there but the pain sure wasn’t. Instead, it was exacerbated to the point of brutal, unflinching, immense agony thanks to some friendly little networking sites- I’m talking to you too, Facebook.
How so? Well let me break it down. Thanks to Facebook- I knew EVERYTHING about their relationship.
Trying to forget someone you love is like trying to remember someone you never met~ Anonymous
As a child, I never dreamed about my wedding like a lot of little girls do. I always knew I would find my soul mate, but it wasn’t something I really thought of, until I met him.
I met him at 23, fell in love with him by 24 and at 25, he broke my heart.
In the early stages of our relationship, I knew right away that I had found him- the one person on this Earth for me. I can’t tell you how I knew, but something felt so right. It took me seven months to become his girlfriend and I felt in my heart, this was it. This was the man I would spend the rest of my life with, raise the children I never wanted to have with, have the house, dog and family with.
So what happened to the dream we both had? He lost his job and drifted away. He wanted to deal with this part of his life on his own, to not have me worry about him, us and the future. He left and broke my heart.
“It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, and it is not possible to find it elsewhere” ~Agnes Repplier
I was once a very foolish little lady and I know I’m not alone. I wanted a boyfriend more than anything. I never stopped to wonder why, I just wanted it. Now this isn’t gonna be a tale about how I wanted it and it didn’t happen and then when I stopped wanting it, it did. My desperation did somehow result in a relationship and from there, chaos ensued.
Saying I wanted a boyfriend had a very clear underlying message- I wanted to be loved, desired, to feel good about myself, to have someone there to make me feel good about myself when I didn’t. During the course of our relationship my moods were totally contingent upon the way he responded to me- a compliment would lead to exhilaration. An insult? Well I’d fall to pieces.
Not surprisingly, the relationship didn’t last and it was only in the years after that I realized the reason why: I was looking outside myself for love and approval, a fatal misstep I see committed all the time. After this relationship ended, I truly learned the value of loving myself, and I found that with my newfound confidence, I was a much happier person out of the relationship than I had ever been when I was in it.
“The heart has its reasons which reason knows not of” ~ Blaise Pascal
I was barely fifteen years old, sitting outside secretly smoking cigarettes at my uncles house, just lying back with my cousins on the roof and looking out at the vast, beautiful summer sky. A virgin in all senses of the word, I had yet to even kiss a guy at that point, but as I stared into the sky that night, a peace came over me and I suddenly looked up with a smile and said, “I think I want a boyfriend. My first serious boyfriend.”
Given that, I simply thought it was destiny when less than a week later, at the start of my sophomore year, Anthony (*names changes) caught my eye. We would smile as we passed each other in the halls and he would always come linger next to my desk before the start of class. The first Friday of the school year, at the football game, me, my best friend, him and his best friend, all left the game to go to the movies- he had been asking me non-stop. Shortly into the movie which was, of course, a horror movie, he kissed the side of my face and whispered, “Will you be my girlfriend.” And just like that, one of the most powerful relationships of my life began.
We always believe our first love is our last, and our last love our first- George John Whyte-Melville
It feels like the pit in your stomach is going to crawl up into your heart and die a slow, painful death. Killing you softly, the pit requires certain sustenance to go on. So, you begin to torture yourself, feeding the pit, because without that pit you feel empty and alone.
I dated him for four years. During my freshman year of college we locked eyes and it was all very magical. I assure you. I was a young, hopeless romantic. As I got to know him better I was sure that I would never love anyone as much as him. That I would never feel as comfortable naked around anyone else. That I would marry him, that we would have babies, and live happily ever after. I was seventeen.
Four years later I think we both knew, him consciously and me subconsciously, that there was no way we would work out. We wanted different things. I see that now. But back then all I saw was him pushing me away for no reason. I was mad at him and he was avoiding me at all costs. When it came time for it to really end I was devastated.
Goals are an essential part of human existence. Our goals breathe meaning into our every day lives. They push us forward, drive us, motivate us, and inspire us to become even greater. I have many goals- some big, some small. Over the years I have accomplished many of my goals and there are some that I’m still working on. This blog, for instance, was a major goal of mine for years and for some reason, I was unable to lift the idea off the back burner and move forward with it. I have been giving the concept of goals a lot of thought lately and have uncovered some wonderful techniques that have helped me and will help you in attaining your goals and becoming the person you’ve always wanted to be.
Read on for more! [continue reading…]
Stress is an inevitable part of our daily lives. We all know that stress can cause countless health issues and have all been advised to reduce our stress-levels, but as with most things, this is way easier said than done. I am a huge yoga-proponent for many reasons, especially the fact that it drastically helped reduce my level of stress and anxiety and all the body aches and pains associated with the two. Yoga isn’t just about increasing strength and flexibility, as you learned last week, simple yoga poses can be done at any time to combat daily aches, pains and frustrations. To help your days become better and brighter, I’m sharing 5 more poses to try, straight from YogaWorks instructor Irina Oviannikov.
Read on to find out how you can alleviate pain and tension in your wrists, hips, back, and shoulders and for an amazing technique to overcome your mid-day slump without a trip to Starbucks.
As you learned in my Small Steps for a More Gorgeous You post, I am an avid Yoga proponent. I’ll admit that I have been very on and off with Yoga through the years and during my ‘on’ periods, I notice that I feel and look so much better then when the off switch is hit. Yoga has a lot of Big-Picture benefits- increased strength, flexibility, better muscle tone as well as a glorious inner calm. There are also many quick and easy poses you can do whenever for insta-results to combat every day aches, pains, and frustrations.
Read on for tips from expert Yogi, Kathryn Budig, from Yoga Works, for suggestions on alleviating every day issues, be it sore and achy feet, commute-induced exhaustion, or the after-effects from a long night of partying. [continue reading…]
I’ve done it, you’ve done it, all of our friends have done it, and it’s pretty safe to say that it is a common practice among women around the world. Of course, I’m talking about the hours spent dissecting, analyzing, hypothesizing, and trying with all of our might to understand why men act the way they do. Men seem to greatly enjoy playing it ignorant and innocent, but trust me, they know what they’re doing and there is always a reason (and no, it isn’t always because ‘he’s just not that into you’).
I’ve definitely had my ups and downs in the love-department and my experiences have taught me that when you need a shoulder to cry on, round up your girl friends and when you need answers, ask a guy. It can be difficult to find the right guy to solicit for advice (again, it comes down to that ignorant and innocent thing). Fortunately, my blog partner is not only a straight guy (and a very attractive one at that), he is an expert on relationships and will be making your lives better and brighter by answering all of your burning questions.
If the guy you’re seeing, or dating, or in a relationship with is doing something that you just can’t understand, don’t drive yourself crazy trying to figure it out- just join the A New Mode newsletter and we’ll answer your burning questions (and send you daily game-changing relationship tips too).
We will post the questions and answers weekly (don’t worry, we’ll keep you anonymous) or maybe a few days per week more depending on how shady the men in your life have been acting!
I wasn’t always a savvy, sophisticated city-girl working in the fashion industry. I was once a tragic fashion victim and a naïve girl who ALWAYS got her heart broken. I once oozed with insecurity from head to toe.
That’s not to say I’m perfect- there are still those fashion missteps and completely misread dating signals… however, I have improved drastically in all these areas and through the years have picked up on some important tips and tricks for handling anything life throws at me with confidence, ease and most importantly, a bit of style.
And with that, I would like to welcome you to anewmode.com! Words can’t convey what an exciting moment this is for me – the moment when an idea and vision that I’ve carried for over a year is finally coming to fruition, ahh!
It took a while for all the pieces to fall into place and now that they have, I’m hoping you will share my excitement and get ready for an amazing new addition to the blog world.
I have worked as a fashion and beauty writer for about 2 years now, lending my voice and ideas to a range of different style sites, and now I think it’s time to bring all of my ideas into one place.
My mission is not to preach, I want to discuss. I want this to be a community where I can share what I’ve learned and hear about your experiences as well. I am really excited about taking this next step to contribute something completely original and fresh to the areas of life I love so much: fashion, beauty and lifestyle.
My vision for anewmode.com is just that: A new mode – a new way of approaching fashion, style, and beauty as well as life – a new attitude, new ways of dealing with relationships, new tips for making each day as fabulous as possible, because isn’t that how the world should be? We’ll focus on developing a strong personal style, what works for you and what doesn’t, as well as developing a strong personal relationship with yourself- because who is more fabulous than you?!
I invite you to check back frequently because I have a lot of fabulous-ness in store for you – trends, hot styles, amazing deals, celebrity interviews, beauty products that will change your life, inside access to the male-mind, exclusive giveaways, and lots and lots of tips on being confident, achieving your goals, dealing with stress, coping with heartache, getting what you want out of life, and SO much more.
