Brigid Blue Wallace (@brigid.blue) is a farmer living in New Jersey. I didn’t know much about her before inviting her on, and truthfully didn’t need to. Longtime readers of the newsletter will know that “good-on-paper” credentials often make for a boring interview. The less obvious the guest, the better.

You can find more of Brigid on TikTok and her baking Instagram.

What does health, or being healthy, mean to you?

Being healthy is like winning the golden ticket of life. Sometimes you don’t win the golden ticket, and sometimes you do, and you try to keep it in mint condition, but over time it bends and folds and wears down. Sometimes you accidentally leave it in your pants pocket and put it through the washing machine, and find it all crumbled up in faded pieces. Health is the will to live. It transcends the flesh. It’s the spirit in the flesh.

Animals can smell health; it’s the first thing they do when they meet each other. We do it too. It’s a sixth sense that women, in particular, have. I can smell a rat from a mile away like a prize bitch hound, and I feel most healthy when those senses are sharp. When I want to know if one of my animals is sick, I see how the rest of the pack is responding to them. Every living creature has its own special value and contribution to the collective consciousness of the group.

For me, most of my desire to be healthy is due to my fear of death. I suppose my healthiest day will be the day I make peace with the fact that I’m going to die. I’m a body for God to experience life on earth through, and right now I don’t want it to ever end.

How would you describe your current lifestyle?

It’s a life of chores with small pleasures along the way, like a crumb trail keeping me going. It’s devotion to the land and the animals, and in turn, myself. I don’t see a division between myself and them. There is no place where I end and the garden begins.

I’m still in my heaven body, so I’m trying to use it to its full potential. Every day, I try to perfect my crafts and learn new skills. Some days the window is wide open and the flowers are in full bloom, and other days I’m laughing as I throw a punch at life and it throws one back at me.

Gambling is very spiritual to me. It’s devotion to fate and the practice of believing before seeing.

How do you start and end your days?

My days begin early. When I get up, I drink hot water and make myself a latte from Blizzard’s (our cow’s) milk. Then I try to get my rockstar gf of a dog up out of bed to run amok before I leave for work. Just before the sun rises, when everything is washed in my favorite color blue, I sit and drink my coffee by candlelight and watch the birds eat from the bird feeder.

Once I get to work (I am a farmer), I feed and tend to the animals, then I hook up my team and do the farming work with horse-drawn implements instead of tractors. I spend my days plowing the earth from which I came and to which I will return. I plant and harvest the crops and fatten the livestock and the men. The cow has to be milked every day, and when I get home, so does my lover. A woman’s work is never done.

I end the day falling asleep in front of the fire on my old lambswool rug with my dog. There’s a cold glass of milk in my hand, a belly full of dessert, and a shit-eating grin on my face.

Can you recall a moment when you became more aware of your health, or your relationship to it changed?

My consciousness feels and has always felt really old, like it’s been here forever and is never going to leave. In my twenties, I lost three people very close to me consecutively, and I started questioning how my consciousness could still be here while theirs, somehow, was not. I started wondering where it went, and where it always was.

This spurred a desire to control life itself, and “health” was a part of that comedy skit. I think that’s why I like farming so much — it’s like a mini diorama of the circle of life. The curtain is drawn, and we act out a Shakespearean play with plows and seeds, earth and rain, semen and female bodies. Creating life and caring for it gives the momentary illusion that you can control it, but reality comes creeping in like a bad omen, reminding you that playing God doesn’t let you outrun fate.

I suppose my healthiest day will be the day I make peace with the fact that I’m going to die.

Do you have a spiritual practice?

Manual labor brings closeness to God, and God speaks to me through the radio A.M. 103.5.

Gambling is very spiritual to me. It is believing in luck and a higher power inside yourself. It’s devotion to fate and the practice of believing before seeing. Cracking open peanuts and throwing them to the birds is my current rosary.

I was raised Irish Catholic (should have never told my therapist). I grew up with that culture and spent a lot of time with family in Ireland. Irish people are very superstitious. We believe in miracles and exist in a spiritual landscape that communicates with those who have a tuned antenna.

I have been practicing Transcendental Meditation for many years now, and use it as a pacifier in my toolkit.

What’s your relationship to self-healing?

Unfortunately, you just have to wait for your brain to fully develop. When I turned thirty, it was like a switch went off and everything was rewired and smooth. Like when you bang on the TV in just the right spot and the static magically goes away. The suffering was lifted.

Do we not become one another when we sit face to face? You have to be careful whose eyes you look into every day. Love and Devotion have always lived deep inside of me, and life has been a trial-and-error journey towards finding the right spot to put them.

Do you work with any practitioners, texts, or modalities on a regular basis?

The animals will tell you all you need to know about someone. You have to ask your senses and trust that intuition, hone it like a superpower. Your nose will not steer you in the wrong direction.

I have a few deities that I have made up for myself; they look over me, protect me, and guide me. The Ice Man and The Fat Man. They appear as warning symbols when darkness shows up in my life. They are like a lighthouse piercing through the fog when I’m lost out on choppy waters.

When do you feel the most nourished?

I feel most nourished when spring and summer come around. It’s like in The Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy enters Oz and everything turns from black and white to color. I love blue skies and warm golden light and hate when the sun sets.

Getting a good night’s sleep feels like falling in love. I have small teeth, and I always joke that when I fall in love, my teeth double in size. It has that way of making you feel beautiful. But also, like stepping into Oz — at some point, night always falls. There are many dark corners in colorful Oz, and things are not always as they seem.

How do you reset?

Music, Transcendental Meditation, gardening, eating and cooking good food, bathing, deep sleep in clean, soft sheets and warm blankets, going to the movies, painting, swimming in the ocean, eating fruit, sour candy, and coffee.

Do you have a favorite meal?

My favorite meals are nostalgic of what my father used to cook for me. If I could reenter any memory in my life, it would be eating the food he used to make: Shirley Temple, steak, pickles, sour green apples with salt, olives, potatoes, bubble gum (a pack a day), licorice, plum jam and butter on rye bread, beef stew, ice, berries and milk, coffee, sour candy, A-1 milk, cigarettes, salad with a poisonous amount of vinegar, and mint chocolate chip ice cream.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

I wouldn’t.

What advice would you give to the person reading this?

Be kind to animals. Do not move stones. Every cockroach becomes a king. Only with love can you pay for love. Let go of suffering at any chance you get. If evil is passed to you, let it end with you, and do not pass it to someone else. Because what you reap is what you sow, everything you do to others you are doing to yourself.

What would you like to see or create more of in the world?

Rest, fun, internal and eternal peace and love.

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Listen to Brigid’s Health Gossip playlist here.

Related reading:

Matt Blackburn (@mattblackburn) is the founder of Mitolife, a wellness brand rooted in mitochondrial health and his CLF Protocol — a framework that looks at aging through the lens of cellular stress and energy.

I first came across Matt’s work years ago, and have since come to admire his willingness to (publicly) change his mind — a quality that feels increasingly rare in the health space today.

On his podcast, Mitolife Radio, he’s tracked many of these changes, revisiting earlier positions while exploring topics like iron overload, high-dose melatonin, and the neuroprotective benefits of tobacco. His approach aligns closely with the Health Gossip ethos, viewing health not as a variable to optimize, but as the practice of tending to your life as a whole and iterating as needed.

You can find more of Matt’s work on Instagram and his website.

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What does health, or being healthy, mean to you?

Being healthy means using resilience instead of avoidance. You can be in an electric vehicle without getting a headache, and can go into big cities without feeling sick immediately from all of the electromagnetic radiation. Supplementing the right vitamins and minerals in the right amounts and forms — on top of a balanced diet, including animals and plants — creates this resilient state.

How would you describe your current lifestyle?

My current lifestyle includes a healthy blend of technology use and nature immersion. Being 100% off-grid creates a unique challenge when juggling two or more wood stoves in the winter and operating heavy machinery to clear snow or downed trees. Living by myself in a cabin in the woods has given me rugged resilience and a sort of initiation into manhood that I didn't receive in my younger years.

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Last weekend, about 25 of us gathered for the Health Gossip x STARGIRL day retreat, hosted in collaboration with MERIT Beauty.

I first connected with Emma Glenn Baker of STARGIRL last year, after our respective appearances on each other’s platforms (you may remember her Health Gossip interview, or my STARGIRL episode). We realized how much our audiences overlap, and throwing an event together felt like the natural next step.

It was truly such an honor to meet you all and celebrate the spirit of our projects. As the first retreat that either of us had thrown, it quickly exceeded our (…already high) expectations. We shared our daily routines, learned new practices to carry home (Eyren Powell’s lymph massage, Supriya Jein’s sky body meditation), and walked away with goodies from Earth Archive, VanMan, Pro Mix, MERIT, and more… along with a custom flower essence blend, created in a workshop led by .

(Listen to the audio below for a taste of what led Amanda to this medicine, which you can also read about in her “Remedies” column for County Highway.)

Here are some more highlights, captured by Angela Cabarios and Marco de Acetis.

See you at the next one?

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is an herbalist and the author of Naturally (2025), a beginner-friendly guide to herbalism and beyond.

I’ve found Rachelle’s approach to living — and, by extension, health — to be truly refreshing, an example of how, today, living “alternatively” doesn’t necessarily mean living in rebellion, but living in truth. As she wrote in a recent post, “When we’re brave enough to act according to our convictions, I believe, we end up resembling our truest selves.” She continues:

“What I want to see more of in the world…is an example of how to live differently. How to leave a life, for more life; how to leave a marriage, when nothing exactly is wrong. How to change radically and honestly, despite every pressure not to do so.”

You can find more of Rachelle on Substack and Instagram.

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What does health, or being healthy, mean to you?

I have come to know the deepest state of health as one that requires, and results from, our living the lives we are meant to live. Meaning that no amount of biohacking can compete with existential misalignment.

To me, health is a state of aliveness — body, mind, and spirit.

How would you describe your current lifestyle?

Beachside-jungle, pleasure-seeking, surf-addicted flowing — which could not be more different from the lifestyle I maintained until about two years ago.

I’ve been studying health my whole life, which means I know how to push my body (and brain) to the limit. I did that, working essentially nonstop from the time I was barely an adult. Through my move to New York (no money, no friends, no job, etc.), and many wild years in the fashion industry, through building my own businesses (herbal product lines, herbal cafe-apothecary, a private practice, classes and workshops, endless amounts of content…), and writing my book (Naturally). Then, suddenly, I stopped.

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My mum Julie is the most abundantly loving person I know. She was born in a small town in Quebec, traveled the world, trained as a classical pianist, and then as a speech-language therapist. After meeting my dad, she moved to New Zealand with him to have my brother, and I grew up in a smaller and warmer country. She really embodies joyful warmth and a nurturing spirit. She is always welcoming stray friends to the family dinner table, dropping me off blessed pumpkin seeds, second-hand wool jumpers, and stews. She gives every facet of her life the same kind of care, love, and enthusiasm.

Since my brother and I moved out of home, she has thrown herself into life in a very inspiring way. She’s started painting, drawing, doing pottery, joined her church choir, and cycles everywhere avidly. I think we can all take something from mum’s approach to life, and tap into the endless well of beauty and divinity she seems directly connected to. Recently, she sent me a message saying, “I feel close to you when we are online together.”

I caught my mum near the end of Lent, which led us to discuss her relationship to her Catholic faith, which is very intertwined with her intuitive and joyful approach to health.

—Romily Marbrook

How does your faith influence your life?

My faith is at the center of everything, completely. It’s like a sun inside me. I live on earth, but I feel very connected to another invisible world. Everything brings me back to it: you, my children, people around me, my workmates, my friends, my sisters, music, art, nature. Walking inside churches where so many others pray settles my eyes and my soul.

I pray a lot, especially on my bike. I always start with, thank you for protecting me on the road this morning, thank you for looking after me, always. Then I think of you, protect Romily, stay with her, and the same thing for your brother, for everyone. I thank God for always making His presence felt to me. I don’t know how to describe it, but it’s like a cuddle, like the feel of a merino or cashmere sweater. I think that if you can feel the pleasure of a merino or cashmere sweater, you can feel the pleasure of God’s cuddle.

How has your faith evolved throughout your life?

Enormously. When I was a little girl, I had a lot of faith, or a strong connection with Jesus; I think the word “faith” doesn’t quite translate what it is about the feeling of being touched by almighty love. But my connection faded when I grew up. I stopped connecting with it because it felt a little naff, and I didn’t see anything I liked in the religion as it was being practiced. When I arrived in New Zealand, I met a lot of Māori people, and I loved the way they lived in their faith. When you and your brother arrived in my world, it was one of the biggest shocks of my life. I was like, oh my gosh, wow! I remember seeing you and being so in love with you. I cried, you’re so beautiful, it’s incredible. It was clear to me that it wasn’t just me who did that. You were like little gifts from the sky.

I’ve always known that before I was conscious of my faith, or my connection to God, I felt like I had a petite joie in me. Since I started going to mass again, it’s clear to me where this joy comes from. Everything I do is informed by something else. It can be a bit contentious to talk about my connection with God, so I go very gently with it. People at my work see me come in with a rosary wrapped around my bike, they think it’s funny and that it looks quirky and cute. I like this. It’s approachable. Having lovely, soft, and gentle connections with people around me makes me feel good. It gives me a lot of hope.

How did your approach to health and existing in the world change when you moved from Quebec to New Zealand?

Well, I’ve never liked processed food; it’s always made me feel sick. When I lived in Grand-Mère as a child, I didn’t have much choice because it was such a small town. My mother only ever made good meals. We occasionally went to A&W, or to get hot dogs at a local shop called Chez Auger. When I moved to Montreal, I discovered an organic shop called Frenco’s on St. Laurent Boulevard that sold things in bulk: tofu, organic peanut butter, veggie patties. I’d never seen anything like it before.

I loved moving here because food is made on a much smaller scale. In North America, when you walk into the supermarket, and it’s minus 40 outside, and you see a pineapple or a passionfruit, you think, that’s not right! Everything in New Zealand, everything, was so crispy and fresh. Fresh fish was extraordinary, the milk tasted so much better. Now, they’ve added permeate, so you need to buy raw milk if you want it to taste good. When I arrived in New Zealand in the 90s, all the milk tasted like that, the meat, everything was so good. I felt people had a different kind of care. I liked that there was wine made here. I think that wine is good for you. I have one glass of wine when I feel stressed, and I’m cured. It’s amazing.

How did you get into the realm of organic food?

Good question. I think I used to read underground newsletters about it in Montreal. In Grand-Mère, we had one organic food shop that my mother would laugh about, saying they sell things for three times the normal price! But I went inside, and looked around like, wow, it’s enlightened in here! I loved it, and I bought incense from them. I think that was my first contact with organic food.

When I think about what you do for your health, it all seems very intuitive to me. You really just do things that make you feel good.

Yes, I eat fruit and vegetables every day. I always have some apples in my lunchbox. I feel like it cleanses my body. Now and then, I hear about a new fad, and I’m always so excited to try it. Like my turmeric tea with honey. I put my milk in my cup, I put my honey in it, a little turmeric, saffron and pepper, then a little bit of warm water inside to dissolve. It’s very important that you don’t put honey in boiling water, it’s a living organism! My pinkie is always my guide for temperature.

I always drink lukewarm beverages. It just makes me feel so good! I feel like the warm water goes everywhere in my body. It’s a strange and beautiful thing.

What do your mornings look like? What are the things you do that make you feel good and ready to start your day?

I get up, and I always look at the sunrise. I take pictures of it every morning. I do a prayer, I thank God for giving me a good night of sleep, even if it wasn’t very good. I thank Him for giving me a good job where I can be late without issue. I always have to massage my eyes with a flannel and warm water, and I like to stretch while I do it. It feels good to look after the gift of seeing.

I wash and alternate between hot and cold water quite often when I’m getting ready in the morning. I like to keep my face wet when I apply my creams, they feel like barriers around me. Then I like to put a little natural foundation around my nose and eyes, and I love to put a little rouge around my nose.

Then I brush my teeth, but I don’t actually brush my teeth, I brush my cheeks, my tongue, even underneath. I don’t want to wear my enamel, I want to keep my teeth forever. At night, I brush them very thoroughly, but I don’t eat anything at night, so why should I brush them in the morning? I’ve been doing it for years and I don’t have any cavities. My teeth are very strong.

I then often get into the bath and wash my feet. It does me so much good to put hot water on my feet in the morning. It is a humble thing to do.

After that, I do my morning yoga. I love it.

When I get dressed, I always have to wear things I feel comfortable in. I only buy secondhand clothes with natural fibers. All the chemicals they put in new clothes are gone when you buy them secondhand; they’ve already been softened! I find it so boring to go into a shop to buy brand new clothes.

When did you start doing yoga?

When I was studying music at university, I did yoga classes. Yoga and swimming were the only physical courses we were allowed to do because they didn’t want us to hurt our hands. I loved it. I’ve done yoga all through my life. I’ve never gone to the same class religiously, but in my own way, I’ve found something that works for me.

I also bike to work every single day, rain or shine. I don’t want to worry about parking. I feel so nimble on my bike, I feel as if I am flying above everyone! I’m very fortunate, I feel loved by the sky. I feel as if the sky is looking after me, and I would never want to be complacent about that.

What are some things you do when you get home to finish your day?

I don’t have very good routines when I get back home. I go on my Facebook, I waste a lot of time on it. I love to watch baby reels and my Catholic reels. I love my Catholic reels.

I eat the same thing almost every week: a lot of eggs, organic chicken liver once a week, red salmon, and little strips of steak. After dinner, I’ll do pottery, draw, and write in my journal, which I do very frequently. I drew your apartment recently, but it’s not very good.

I’ll practice my piano or my choir songs. I always do yoga before bed, it prepares me so well for sleep. I do little prayers when I’m in bed. I thank God for my day, and ask him to protect everyone I love.

How is Lent changing your daily routines?

I eat a lot more moderately, I pray more, I give more to the less fortunate, especially women I see on the street. Lent is about three things: fasting, praying at your weakest moment to connect with God, and practicing generosity. (I started fasting at the beginning of Lent, and I felt very fatigued; I re-read the regulations and they say that after 60 you shouldn’t fast anymore, so I stopped.) During Lent, time seems to slow down. I took the week off work to slow it even more.

Lent allows me to think more about God and Jesus’s life. It’s about loving others like ourselves. To me, this means we have to start by loving ourselves, warts and all. Forever forgiving. When I am trying to improve myself for the sake of solely feeling better, the feeling it gives me soon wears off. But if I’m doing so to be better at distributing God’s gifts, it feels everlasting.

When do you feel at your healthiest?

When I slow down and take the time to do what counts for me. Connecting with my family, organizing nice means to commune on. To look after my children, giving them food and going out with them. Listening to my children’s wisdom, they are so full of it. Going to mass every week, and more if possible. Meditating on the sacred texts we read in mass. The Psalms are so incredible! When I do my hobbies, especially when I practice my choir’s Gregorian music. When I am physically active and look after my earth vehicle. When I am in nature, when I eat well, when I write in my diary…

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More Mom Gossip:

Today’s guest is the one and only , the writer, actress, and director perhaps best known for HBO’s Girls (2012-2017). Critics-a-many have called her “the voice of her generation”; more recently, friend of the letter, Courtney, dubbed her the “patron saint of Substack.” Her second memoir, Famesick, is out now.

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What does health, or being healthy, mean to you?

Growing up in the height of the diet-obsessed 90s and early 2000s — Snackwells cookie commercials on TV, my mother and her friends all drinking a confounding daily powder called Ultraclear, which tasted like a vanilla-infused crayon, speedwalking for their lives — I didn’t realize it, but I thought that being healthy meant being thin. I started eating Lean Cuisine with my grandmother when I was eight, and I wanted to have twig-like arms swimming in my thermal, delicate ankles sticking out of my Pumas. Soon, jeans got tighter and tank tops got smaller and puberty came and my body started to change, which coincided with a spike in profound, fight-or-flight anxiety and painful periods (which, I was told, were just a fact of female life, like deciding whether or not to get an underage belly button ring from the place that also made fake IDs, or having a man expose himself to you on the subway).

Looking back, I can put together the emergence of my chronic health conditions like a detective going into a fugue state of newspaper clippings and red string. But at the time, it felt like everyone else was moving around in a body that made sense, could do its job, and mine was always glitching.

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Happy April, everyone. It feels like we’ve been moving through a few different types of new year energy since the “conventional” new year on January 1st, from the spring solstice to Aries season. These last few days, I’ve felt a sense of major calm, and also gained perspective on the ways in which I had been living in survival mode over the past few years. Fast mornings, constantly hurrying, pulse racing, prioritizing productivity over all else: my version of survival mode afforded little room for creativity or flow, and, as I’m looking back on photos of myself from this time, there’s a palpable sense of disconnection and sadness in my eyes. Oftentimes, returning to ourselves simply means slowing down.

(It’s funny how things can feel the same for so long, and then all of a sudden, you wake up anew. Willow flower essence has been helpful here. Probably, also, the emergence of spring.)

I’ll be headed to New York next week for 10 days, one of which will be spent with some of you. It will be my first time back since moving last spring, and I’m excited to reconnect with people and places there. I’ve been sitting on a long piece about my time there, and also a series of entries (originally intended for ’s Collected Agenda) from last March, around the time when I first decided to leave. An excerpt:

(Paid subscribers can read the full piece here.)

In other news, I recently did a podcast interview with friend-of-the-letter , touching on self-trust, discernment, and aura-maxxing.

Whenever I have these conversations, I’m reminded of how much matter is living in us, waiting to be unearthed by someone who isn’t us. Being asked the right questions truly is a form of love.

I recommend starting the episode around the 10-minute mark.

I’m working on a few different things for you, including the long-awaited provider directory (live soon!). Some of these have been derailed by new commitments, including the full-time job I started last week; nevertheless, we persist.

NOTE: The below is paywalled for non-subscribers. Subscribers, you can read the full version in your inbox!

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Thursday

E is still at her office when I arrive, so I use the lockbox to get in and rest for a bit. I only brought one book in my carry-on, Joanna Walsh’s Hotel, knowing that there were just a few pages left and I wanted to read them while in a transient state. The book is tiny, and a bit more forgettable than Break.up, if only because her style (drifting, liminal, almost clinical in its broaching of emotion) is one I already know. But I find the premise, a hotel reviewer contemplating the end of her marriage, compelling. In moments like these, she really nails the female state:

“I want my temperature taken hourly, my pillows smoothed, my corners hospitalized. I want cool water and a straw, I want to be referred for treatment. [...] I want it to be time for something to be done about me; it’s too late for me to do anything for myself. I want to be told to do things, then told to do nothing. [...] I want to be a hopeless case.”

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John Doe (@pain___house) is a poet from Michigan and the author of Autumn in the Pain House (2024). He lives on the West Coast.

What does health, or being healthy, mean to you?

I’ve been blessed with consistently good physical health throughout my life. To me, health has always referred to mental health and sobriety. I’m often very ill mentally, I have been addicted to almost everything. I’m healthy when I’m living a life in line with an Alcoholics Anonymous program and the DBT principles set forth by Marsha Linehan.

How would you describe your current lifestyle?

I recently relocated to the West Coast from Michigan. Besides one very troubled year in New York when I was 19, this is my first time leaving my home state. I feel very inspired here. The landscape is dramatic and my lifestyle includes a lot of driving. This is by design, I detest public transportation. Spending time alone in cars is, in my opinion, the closest we get to whatever happens before birth or after death.

Moving here has been one of many changes I’ve made since releasing my first book of poetry in Fall 2024. Another change has been semi-departing from Twitter. For people who are familiar with my writing or Twitter, this is a big change! I posted non-stop every day for almost two years while living an underemployed, celibate, cortisol-fueled life.

Now I have a wagey job that aligns with some of my interests. My drive to work includes a long bridge soaring over a portion of the Pacific Ocean. I have a girlfriend. I don’t know if I can live this ‘dopamine detox health chungus’ lifestyle forever, I would probably get bored, but I’m really enjoying how things are right now.

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Welcome back to Health Gossip Top Shelfies, a series peeking into the medicine cabinets, vitamin shelves, and beauty (slash wellness) rituals of our dear community.

Today marks our first male Shelfie. is a New York City-based consultant, magazine editor, and the writer behind HEAVIES. I loved his interview with Molly Young, which filled in some of the blanks from her Health Gossip feature (protein pancakes, prison workouts, et al). Now, Chris is here to fill in some of the blanks from his own routine. Enjoy.

Who are you?

I’m Chris, a writer, magazine editor, and consultant based in New York City. My pie chart of work is all over the place. During the day, I’m head of editorial at SSENSE, but I write features for places like GQ (where I was an editor for nearly a decade), New York magazine, National Geographic, The Believer, etc. I also work as a consultant and strategist with my friends at C47 and the Office of Applied Strategy, and write the health and wellness newsletter, HEAVIES.

Outside of all that… I’m heavy into Muay Thai and train at Five Points Academy like 5 days a week. My gym is my favorite place in the city, and I’ve made a handful of wonderful friends there. I’m also 41 and tired 99% of the time, mostly because my wife and I have a four-year-old son who is very curious and funny and enjoys waking us up before the sun comes out.

Describe your approach to health and wellness.

The wellness industry, at least here in America, is one of those downstream effects of a society designed to profit off healthcare. It’s partly why I try not to overcomplicate my approach to health.

To my mind, it’s mostly just four things: eating right 80/20 (mostly whole foods), getting enough sleep, moving your body, and filling your life with people you love. That’s basically it. Supplements, red light, PEMF, peptides, hyperbaric — all that other sh*t is fun and nice to have, but not required.

Fundamentally, I think of being “healthy” as introducing necessary friction into your life. Cooking for your people, lifting heavy objects, reading challenging novels, walking places, meeting up with a friend even though it was a long day and every ounce of your being just wants to bail and order Seamless and binge Netflix or whatever. That’s sort of been the mission with HEAVIES: the case for doing the hard thing in order to become a little more resilient.

What are some of your must-haves?

I get sent a lot of products to try, but the important-ish things for me are:

1. Filtered water. This is probably the big one for most families, since hydration and cooking with water can do a lot of work for your health. My friend Dr. Michelle Davenport is the source code for all of this, as water-based cooking, i.e. soups and braises, is sort of the skeleton key to longevity. Essentially, it helps lower the level of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) in your food, which are these harmful compounds associated with inflammation, oxidative stress, and all that bad stuff associated with the Western diet. I use an AquaTru reverse-osmosis countertop system and have been testing the Rorra filter. New York tap water, while delicious, is filled with PFAs and microplastics — not because our water-treatment infrastructure is poor, but because a lot of building pipes are really old.

2. Creatine. Since I’m sleepy all the time, I find that 10g of creatine daily, as recommended by Dr. Rhonda Patrick, helps mitigate brain fog and has helped me squeeze in more reps. The downside, which isn’t even really a downside, is that I’m like 17 pounds heavier than I’d like to be (my fighting weight is closer to 125 pounds).

3. Whey protein. I try to get 120g of protein a day, which is a lot to get from meat alone, so I often supplement with a shake or two. I like whey because its amino acid profile is more complete than, say, pea protein, which can be high in heavy metals.

   

4. Beetroot powder. Good for blood flow and heart health. For vanity purposes, I love that bodybuilders swear by the stuff because it makes your veins look cool and throbby.

5. Vitamin D. I’m originally from Southern California and grew up surfing, meaning getting enough sun when I was younger was never an issue. Quite naturally, I was shocked when a recent blood test revealed that I was close to being vitamin D deficient, so as a result, I’ve been supplementing with a little something extra to get through this relentless winter.

Any wellness secrets you swear by?

Hot pot night. Ideal food (soup, protein, veggies) and friends. Very communal. Good for the soul.

I’m a big believer in PEMF therapy to speed up cellular healing and get it done frequently at MOCEAN (second-favorite spot) here in New York City. It’s a game-changer, especially for nagging injuries; it should be more popular than red light, to be honest.

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is an indie product developer and beauty brand strategist. Obsessive Into the Gloss readers — which I assume many of you were — may remember her from her days at Glossier, which she helped launch alongside Emily Weiss. You can read more about her health and beauty escapades on Self Involved.

What does health, or being healthy, mean to you?

Health is the feeling of freedom and ease in mind, body, and spirit.

How would you describe your current lifestyle?

The past year has been a bit weird because my mom got diagnosed with glioblastoma last June and I moved back home to Buffalo temporarily. I’m still in the in-between space of my “real life” in NY and then posting up in my childhood bedroom. It’s been a really expansive experience and an unsolicited test of my own resiliency. My world quite literally got turned upside down.

Because I had already been very dialed in on my own health when this happened, I doubled down in Buffalo as a way to stay sane. I do best with routine, so really the only thing that shifts when I’m not sleeping in my own bed is my diet. I’m a much better eater in New York than I am in Buffalo, the junk food capital of the world. Otherwise, I stick with my morning supplement/injectables routine, found an amazing Pilates studio in Buffalo that’s randomly owned by my childhood ballet teacher (a sign from the universe), maintain my twice daily meditation schedule, keep in close touch with my group chats, and ultimately it has been really nice to be with my family.

I stopped drinking last May because I was testing out some new protocols and wanted to eliminate any variables. It was meant to be temporary, but I just never picked it back up. It’s been kind of a blessing in disguise. I didn’t necessarily drink a ton before, but I noticed that as I got older, I wouldn’t have a physical hangover the next day but an emotional one — morbidly depressed, totally anxious about every little thing. If I had been drinking last summer under all that stress, I would’ve totally lost it.

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Welcome to In Prayer, a new series by artist and writer Lola Jamin. In each installment, we’ll explore the mechanics of prayer through conversations with those who have uniquely developed practices. The aim is to expand our understanding of what prayer is and can be, so we might realize our own paths forward into deeper connection with ourselves and the world around us.

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IN PRAYER WITH PEGGY KELLEY

“I go to a place where the Holy Spirit is so thick in the room that I couldn’t tell you my name.”

My mom met Peggy Kelley, lead Christian Chaplain at Cedars Sinai, in the early 90s, when both were actresses in Los Angeles. I’ve known Peggy since I was born, and she has become one of my dearest teachers.

Peggy works with patients of all faiths, or of no particular faith at all, often in the midst of immense transformations: sickness, death, or birth. She provides Reiki, blessings, spiritual counseling, and prayer.

This past Spring, Peggy attuned me to Reiki, and soon I will practice at the hospital she works at. During training, I shadowed Peggy on the ICU, post-op, and NICU floors. When Peggy prays, the words pour out of her, coating everyone like a balm.

For our conversation, I meet Peggy at her home in Burbank, California. Inside, I am greeted by Peggy’s two small dogs, Mother Theresa and Hildegard. As we talk in her living room, her cat, Socrates, lays at our feet.

There is so much heart in Peggy’s practice, shaped by the grief she’s shared in and the miracles she’s witnessed. I’m excited to share her approach with you.

Lola Jamin: I’m curious about your journey towards spiritual healing. What brought you there?

Peggy Kelley: I came to Los Angeles to be an actress and I wanted to make sure that I kept my toes in my faith. I was raised Catholic, so I started teaching Sunday school at St. Monica’s. I was teaching six to seven year olds when 9/11 happened, and that changed my path. Some of those kids were in really intense existential crises. They had big questions. “God’s supposed to be good. Why did this happen?” That made me realize I wanted to do something else.

That’s when I started the journey to become a chaplain. It was a huge endeavor: all this training, a Masters of Divinity, and certification. I ended up at UCLA for my first unit of training, and then Children’s Hospital.

At what point did you learn Reiki?

After clinical training, I was pushing back on getting the Masters of Divinity, because I was a bad student. I was terrified. When I was working for Disney doing comedy on cruise ships, I met sisters Anne Marie and Teresa. They would rescue me when the cruise would dock. They’d drive me to their house, and I could put my feet in the grass, and we’d pray.

When I knew I had to get my M.Div., Anne Marie and Theresa said, “You’ve got to go to St. John’s.” It’s one of the toughest seminaries. They petitioned the dean and they grandfathered me in with no bachelor’s degree. It was so scary. I was having panic attacks.

This fabulous nun, Mary Rachel, said, “Honey, I heard you’re having trouble. I’m going to help you.” She did Reiki on me, then said, “I’m going to teach you and you’re going to get done with this degree.” I learned Reiki over a weekend in the basement of a monastery in Minnesota.

Among some devout Christians, there’s a view of spiritual practices like Reiki being incompatible with a Christian faith. But you learned Reiki from nuns. What do you make of that?

The Benedictine tradition is super mystical. Historically, Christianity is super mystical. It’s the Holy Spirit — a spirit that lives within you that you’re supposed to feel and communicate with.

I knew there were some in the community that were like, “This is not cool with us.” Which is ironic, because the laying on of hands is such a Christian thing to do. Jesus did it all the time. Nurses and healers have used their hands. Sister Mary Rachel told me, “Honey, this is the Holy Spirit. Don’t be afraid of it.” So I used Reiki and prayer a lot in school.

What does prayer mean to you? How would you define the act of praying?

Ultimately, it’s just talking to God. Whatever’s on your heart, it’s coming up.

There are prayers that are lamenting, really deep, painful moments of people crying out. That kind of screaming, lamenting anger — that’s prayer.

Often when I’m with patients who are really sick, they’ll say, “I’m so glad you came, because I feel like I can’t pray.” I often say to them, “I think your life is prayer right now. You’re moving through this insanely difficult time; every minute of your day is prayer.”

There can also be moments when you feel an incredible wash of grace or beauty. In the Catholic world, it’s very sensory. The five senses are enacted to bring you to God. Even the stained glass windows; people looked at those to find God.

When you pray for people, how do you find the words?

I really want to honor what their tradition is. I feel like I’m this conduit. I’m taking your story and creating it into this narrative that we’re going to lift up to God together.

I’ve had experiences where patients say, “Thank you, God, for giving me cancer, because now I understand something I never did before.” That’s their prayer with me. We say, “Thank you for giving this incredible challenge, so this person could come to this place where she knows you.” Or you’re brought to your knees. There are times when I pray at night where I do get on my knees.

What is it about getting on your knees?

It’s humility. It’s not comfortable. My grandparents, in their 90s, would get on their knees on their carpeted living room floor watching mass on television. It’s recognizing everything’s so much bigger than you.

But you can pray anywhere. You can be in your car. Sometimes, when I hear a siren, I do a little sign of the cross. It’s such a part of my life, I don’t have a day without it.

What do you believe are the necessary components that make a prayer a prayer, rather than a recitation, or a meditation, or making a wish?

If there’s an intention to it, there can be a sacredness to it. They’ve done MRIs on nuns when they’re praying; you can get into a different place within your brain. And you feel the Holy Spirit so strongly. I’ve had that in patient rooms; when I walk into the room where the person’s been praying, it’s almost like a remnant of the prayer is still in the room. I call it the “hairy toe moment” — as in, Jesus’s sandal is there; he’s standing in the room with me.

One time, you told me the prayer, “Show me you’re here, please remind me that you’re near.” It’s so simple. I didn’t even know I could ask for that.

And then eventually you’ll come to a point where you’re like, “Oh, I know you’re here. I need you to stay close today. Walk with me.”

What do you think is the outcome or the effect that praying has?

It does go somewhere. Sometimes I just say “I love you” to God. When you say “I love you” to someone, it feels good. Why wouldn’t it feel good to God?

People get mad at “thoughts and prayers,” especially in the world we’re in now. I think thoughts and prayers do matter. Prayer is active. You’re showing up. It goes somewhere, because it’s intention, and the intention has action to it.

When you pray with others in vulnerable moments, what does it feel like to you?

I really get away from myself. I get out of my way. I say, “Lord, use me, and then stay in the room when I leave.” I’ve had these wonderful moments with brand new babies. The parents are in a state of awe. I say, “Remind them who they are. Be that third parent in the home.” It’s this cycle of calling in the blessing.

The same process is in death; I see it as a new birth. I’ve been called into rooms where a patient is actively dying and no one else is there. What a gift, to be in this space to walk someone home, telling them, “You’re safe, God’s in the room.” I say, “There’s nothing to be afraid of. You can step over.”

It feels very pure, very honest. Sometimes I don’t know who I am. I go to a place where the Holy Spirit is so thick in the room that I couldn’t tell you my name. You are touching the hem of God. You are getting a little taste of what the next world is.

And when you pray with people of different faiths, what has that taught you about what prayer actually is?

Last week, I was with a Muslim couple and their son who is critically ill. She was calling out to Allah. I said, “It’s the God of all people that we’re talking to.” And she said, “Yes, it’s the God of all people. Pray, pray, pray.” We were praying over her son; she was praying in Arabic and I was praying in English. It’s a profound experience to be welcomed into that realm.

Do any moments come to mind about the power prayer has?

In 2008, Sister Theresa got diagnosed with breast cancer. The Benedictines are the oldest order of monasticism, and they’re all over the world. They put out an email to all the communities and said, “Could everybody pray at this one hour?” There were thousands of sisters around the world praying all at the same time.

Theresa came out of surgery and went back to the monastery. She goes, “Peg, they couldn’t find it. It’s gone.” I said, “What?” The surgeon said he couldn’t find it, and it never came back. The nuns walking around just said, “The power of prayer!” It was that matter of fact. It wasn’t even like, “Oh, that’s so mystical.” It was just: that’s what happens all the time.

It is easy to hear that and think that if we could just pray hard enough, maybe the sickness could go away. How do you reconcile an experience like that with what you see at work?

I don’t think you can. There are miracles that are super obvious. Truly mystical, miracle-believing women like the nuns don’t really bat an eye at it. I’ve seen crazy things happen in the hospital where I’m like, “What do you mean that patient’s alive?”

But this is what’s really hard for people. That’s the big wrestle with faith. In the Catholic tradition, it’s God’s will, not ours. We can pray and petition, but it doesn’t mean it’s going to come the way we wanted it. I think every prayer is heard, but the answering of it isn’t always exactly the way we ordered it.

There are a lot of mysterious things with faith. The miracle, to me, is that God’s with you no matter what. I always have the Holy Spirit with me. There’s a buzz that never goes away.

There can be times when it’s really dark and you can’t see it. When a patient is about to die and the doctors have determined further medicine is futile, the family will say, “We’re praying for a miracle.” I’ll say, “You can’t get in the way of a miracle. If a miracle is coming, it’s coming, no matter what you do.”

I do struggle with the very manifest-y stuff. I think it’s great, but I get concerned about teaching children that.

Yes. Also that feeling of, “I guess I didn’t pray hard enough, because if I did, I would have the thing I wanted.” Our brains want to hold on.

We want to understand everything. We don’t want mystery. But I think that’s where you have to step into prayer and say, “I’m going to do it anyway.” Maybe for the first time you just sit on your knees for a minute. God is not going to say, “That’s the worst prayer ever.” That would be a really bad God!

How would you recommend someone start who has never started a prayer practice?

Get on your knees, go to a place that you find beautiful, or find a piece of music that touches your soul deeply. Something that makes you feel reverent of something beyond you. I love sleeping. You know that place when you’re just waking up and you’re so relaxed? It’s such a liminal place.

When I wake up, I try to have the first words that come out of my mouth be “thank you.”

That’s prayer, Lola.

I’m not fully myself in those moments. I don’t have the armor of “me.”

That’s prayer. Maybe when you hit your snooze, you pray: “I receive this incredible sleep. What a gift.” Or, “I’m looking for you today. Can you show me something?” Little, tiny practices will let you feel like you’re connecting. Not manifesting stuff as much as receiving.

And you can read!1 There’s 10 billion beautiful prayers written in the world. St. Patrick’s prayer is gorgeous: “The God above me, God below me, God around me.” He’s putting on the armor of God. Before I leave my house, I’m going to cover myself in God.

When I was in the ICU with you, it felt like nothing was stable. How do you maintain a center of calm around chaos?

Connect to yourself. Hold your heart for ten seconds, do your breathing. Remind yourself who you are before you go into something chaotic; who you are in that space that’s wholesome and safe. When I’m looking at a baby, they’re covered in it. It’s that little fire.

When things are really hard, remember this is not the first time in history that there’s been an upheaval. Out of chaos comes creation. That’s the Bible story. Remind yourself that things are gonna change. It will get better. Look to the sages who survived things that are really hard but made something incredible out of that. Even internal chaos, anxiety or depression — out of that comes incredible creation.

And look for little signs. Be a mystic. Karl Rahner said, “The Christian of the future will be a mystic, or he will not exist at all.” Every time I see a random penny, I feel it’s God going, “Yeah. Gotcha.”

For me, it’s whenever I see a leaf fall off a tree. It just feels irrefutable.

That’s what a mystic is. You see it.

One day I was looking at a flower. I was really sad, and I just stared at this flower. Maybe 15 seconds went by and then a petal just fell from it.

Oh my god! That’s God.

I had never caught the exact moment it happened.

Everyone’s searching for those. St. Augustine said that “we’re restless until we rest in you, O Lord.” He talks about that restless heart. We’re so restless. Nothing scratches it until you have those moments where you touch the hem of God and you go, “Oh, that’s it!” But we can’t have it all the time in this world.

My final question is if you could lead me in a prayer.

You want to pray with us, Hildy? Let's pray for Miss Lola.

I call out to all that is good and loving and wholesome and compassionate in this world. I call out to you, God, God of all people. I ask you to blanket Miss Lola, cover her in the light of the Holy Spirit. Remind her who she is in that space within that is untouchable by any sadness, any anxiety, any worry. It’s untouchable because it’s hers, because you put it there. Let her find that space again, God. Let her develop it and love it so she can get closer to you, and find you in all the dropping leaves, and all the pennies, and all the flowers. I thank you, Creator, God, the great architect of good things, that you created this beautiful young woman, Lola. I offer all of the grace to you, and I lift up all the glory to you. And I know that you hear us, and that you love us. Amen.

[Hildegard puts her paw on our hands]

Oh look! She had to do the follow up! [To Hildegard] Did you go to bless her? Did you go to bless her too?

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is the author of ten books, including Leave Society (2021) and Trip: Psychedelics, Alienation, and Change (2018). You can find more of his recent writing on The Paris Review, Granta, and his Substack, Tao Lin.

What does health, or being healthy, mean to you?

Daily poop. Experiencing nature. Feeling peaceful. Reading books that reduce fear, like The Truth About Contagion and Life After Life. Caring for and loving something — hard with humans, can use pets.

How would you describe your current lifestyle?

Working on my writing while caring for my cats and detoxing my liver and learning.

How do you start and end your days?

Start: exercise and meditation. End: talking to myself, my spirit guides, and my soul about my day and my upcoming dreams.

Can you recall a moment when you became more aware of your health, or your relationship to it changed?

I had chronic nosebleeds as a child. A doctor scalded the inside of my nostril to try to stop them. It didn’t work. From then on, I engaged with mainstream medicine many more times due to lung collapses, chronic pain, and other acute and chronic issues. Each time, my trust in it decreased. By my mid-thirties or so, I’d lost all interest in conventional medicine. I haven’t been to a dentist or a doctor since 2015 or so. I believe the body’s best healer is itself. I’ve been working on a book titled Self Heal since 2022. I put it on hold in 2024 because I had insomnia, chronic pain, and eczema. I’ve had these since my twenties but they were getting worse in 2024 and I was confused.

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My mom was my first example of health, and the most steadfast and exemplary soldier of routine. She’s centered her life around wellbeing in the most private manner, with zero social media, no external output of self, no seeking of attention or praise… She is most certainly the tree who falls in the forest when no one is there to hear it.

Every morning since I can remember, my mom has woken up before the sun rises to move her body, often alongside my dad. She eats clean, meditates, prays, and maintains rich social connections. She does and has done all of this — never privy to the current and fading wellness trends.

She was reading Mark Hyman when I was a baby, long before he was taken seriously. She had an acupuncturist and has always been discerning about supplements. She does tasks in silence without the goal of “lowering her cortisol,” and she ate a high protein diet before we were stringing those words together...

She is the epitome of wellbeing and she does it all silently, for no one but herself, and her vessel, allowing up to show up as a mom and teacher and friend with vigor and vitality. She has been the most radiant example of what decades of taking care of yourself looks like, and I just hope to keep up with her.

—Chloe Chandler

Starts recording.

I take the fifth!

I don’t think that’s how that goes.

[…]

I wanted to start at the beginning. You’ve been working out and eating clean for as long as I can remember. How long does this predate my existence? What piqued your interest?

I have been working out religiously since junior high school, around age 13. Middle school. I did sports. I was never stellar, but I was fine.

I wasn’t either.

My earliest memories of working out were doing Jane Fonda in our basement on a VHS tape. It was like pilates, and she always had the greatest leg warmers and outfits.

At that time, were you doing these videos because it was fun, or did you want your body to look a certain way?

Oh yeah, I wanted my body to look a certain way.

At 13?

Definitely.

How do you feel about that now? Are you disturbed by this, or do you think that’s part of what it means to be a woman?

I can’t speak for other women, but that’s how it’s always been for me. My closest friends’ body types were very different than mine, and that played a role. Most of them were tall and bean poles, and I’ve always been short.

Did you care about your diet at that point too, or was it just exercise?

I cared about my diet, but I was a kid. I remember eating Chipwiches at school. Nanny always cooked our meals. We never had fast food. I was eating balanced. I don’t remember many snacks in the house either. Ice cream was always our thing because that’s what [our] nanny loved too. I think that never really went away for me.

You worked out through all three pregnancies. Did you change your routine for each pregnancy? What was that like?

With you, I didn’t know any better. I tried to keep running as long as I could. I tried to do yoga as long as I could, but I got frustrated and felt out of control of my body. I walked. I did the machines at the gym. I remember the moment in pregnancy when exercise became frustrating.

Did it get easier with Olivia and then with Brody?

No, it got harder [laughs]. You wanted honesty! I think with Brody I gained 65 pounds. I could’ve been a more graceful pregnant woman. You see these pregnant women now who are so cute, and I wasn’t like that. I was scared out of my mind.

Growing up, I always felt like you weren’t a person with many emotional attachments to food. It always appeared to serve as fuel. Do you have emotional memories tied to food?

I enjoy food, but I will find a way to nourish myself without cooking because I don’t enjoy it. I love when people cook for me, and I enjoy going out to eat.

You like chicken and vegetables and pizza.

It’s bad to say, but if I could eat whatever I wanted without knowing the nutritional value, I would eat pizza and lasagna every night. And ice cream. And raw cookie dough. This is probably not the way you wanted the interview to go.

No, this is great. […] I want to talk about P90X because that was such a thing in our house. I remember you doing it, dad doing it, and I did it sometimes with you guys. What was the P90X craze about?

I loved Tony Horton. I don’t remember how we ended up getting it. I loved the people in the videos. They were like our friends. It was hard. P90X1 was better than P90X2. Leg days were the worst. There were times we couldn’t walk up the stairs or sit on the toilet without hurting.

You and Dad work out together, usually at the same time, every morning since I can remember. I remember waking up to the sound of the treadmill going at 6am. Do you think working out together has had any impact on your relationship?

Having similar lifestyles in that sense, you don’t realize it at the time, but it has kept us both going all these years.

Could you see yourself being with someone who doesn’t work out?

No, I don’t think so. I value the lifestyle, and I would prefer to be with someone who values it as well. You don’t realize it when you’re 20 or 25, but now that we’re 55 and 56 years old, it’s like all the years of hard work have come to fruition. I feel like I’m 25, and mentally even better than 25. Physically, I feel like I can do most of the same things daily. Maybe I couldn’t run a marathon now like I did at 25, but I could do most of the training I did then. If one of us had stopped working out, it would have changed our relationship. Not in a bad way, but it would have been different. We would have aged differently.

What is your favorite and least favorite form of exercise?

My favorite is cardio.

Really?

Yes. If I didn’t have to do weights, I wouldn’t. I lift weights for my health, but I prefer cardio. My favorite is walking, but it’s walking after I’ve done the hard work. At the end of the day when I walk, it’s calming. It’s not something I have to put much effort into, so even if I’m tired I go. I do love running. I love how I feel after a run. I can’t imagine not being able to run, because nothing else feels as good to me.

Let’s talk about running. You’ve been running since you were how old?

I never ran track, but I was probably in junior high when I took up running.

And you’re now?

56.

So you’ve been running for 40 years.

Yes, about.

And you don’t have any chronic pain. Why do you think you’ve been able to run for decades and remain pain-free?

Because I balance it out. I don’t run every day. When I have tried, my body starts to break down. I run four times a week, and that has been a sweet spot for me. Even when I was younger training for a marathon, my body didn’t like that. It was one and done for me.

What do you like about running?

I like being able to. I can’t imagine not being able to do it. I love sweating, and there aren’t many things that get me sweating as much as a run does. Except now that I’m sitting here sweating. So except for perimenopause, I guess.

You run in silence.

Yes, in silence. Whether it’s on the treadmill or outside, I always run in silence. I drive in silence too. I do a lot in silence. I like it.

That must mean things are sorted in your mind palace to be comfortable with that.

I often just count my blessings when I’m in silence.

Really?

Yes. And on the way to work I’ll listen to affirmations.

I didn’t know that.

(Chloe’s sister): It’s true. Last year, I went to work with mom and she made me listen to affirmations the entire way.

In this decade of your life, what are your current goals exercise-wise? What are you striving for?

At this point in my life, I want to stay healthy and fit. To me, this means I can get down on the floor and play with my dog. I can run, I can jump, and not hurt myself. I can put my leg up in the shower to shave and not pull a muscle. Just keep everything feeling good. Young, I guess. I feel young.

Speaking of dogs, you and Dad have always had a dog together. Do you think this plays a role in how active you are?

I remember when I got Rosie, I said that dog is getting walked no matter what. I have walked her at least three miles every day since I’ve had her. She’s been a huge factor in my life as far as walking is concerned. I could say I wouldn’t go out on half the days if I didn’t have her.

It must teach you a lot about consistency and discipline, and the necessity of things getting done whether you want to do them or not, because you have another creature’s well-being in your hands.

Yes, I feel like I owe it to her. Plus, walking has brought me deep friendships.

Is that how you feel about yourself too? Like you owe it to yourself?

Yes. I’m afraid of stopping and not being able to do it. I am afraid of getting sick. But now I’m able-bodied and grateful to be. My “whys” have changed as I’ve gotten older, but I’m not stopping. I can’t. I’d lose my mind. We’ve been through a lot of hardships and through them all I’ve worked out, and that is something I know I can always do for my mental health.

On mental health, was there ever a time in your life where diet and exercise were more unhealthy than healthy?

I am a person who cares about how I look in clothes. It is always on my mind. Sometimes throughout my life, working out was the only thing that kept me at a healthy weight. But I’ve learned that it doesn’t matter how much exercise I do—

C & A in unison: You can’t out-exercise a bad diet.

I’ve seen it on myself over the years. Eating healthy is the first line of fire.

My whole life you have always been extremely natural and minimal with your cosmetics. You’ve never had any work done. Do you feel different pressures as you get older?

No. Not to say I wouldn’t want to get rid of wrinkles here and there. But I would never undergo elective procedures. We all age if we’re lucky, and you do your best to look your best at the age you are. Age gracefully. In my opinion, a 75-year-old with cosmetic surgery still looks like a 75-year-old with cosmetic surgery. If you think about movie stars and actors who do it, in the beginning they look fine, but as they age it starts to look like they’ve had a lot of work done.

I also don’t want to inject anything into my body. I’m scared of going to the doctor anyway.

You’ve always had quite an extensive and expensive supplement routine. We’ve always been a middle-class family. Why was it important to you to financially prioritize supplements?

Because if you don’t have your health, you don’t have a lot. I prioritize it because I’m okay with spending on things I think are important for my health. I would rather do that than buy an expensive bag or clothing item all the time. And it does make a difference. Bad supplements are not as effective. So I’ve always tried to get better quality ones.

You and Dad raised three very health-conscious children. Was that a spoken decision between the two of you, or did you raise and feed us the way you did yourselves?

Dad and I have a lot of things in common. We also have things that aren’t in common. But one thing we share is how we wanted to raise you guys. We weren’t feeding ourselves crap, so why feed you that? It never occurred to me to keep Oreos or things like that in the house. We didn’t care about you being on sports teams, but we cared that you moved your bodies. [That you] just did something.

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is a health and wellness writer + content creator, with a focus on bioenergetics and ancestral beauty rituals. Her medicinal makeup brand, Fauna (seed oil and synthetic-free, and made with edible ingredients), will be launching soon.

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What does health, or being healthy, mean to you?

Being healthy means so much more than just “not being sick.” Being healthy is about your having enough energy to feel amazing, sharp, excited, inspired and motivated for life. For your cells to have the energy to function optimally — they are the building blocks of every organ in our body! And our metabolism is how our body creates energy, it's controlled by our thyroid, and is the root of all health.

How would you describe your current lifestyle?

I live a very non-toxic, holistic, and “crunchy” lifestyle. I have chickens for eggs, I make all of their food from scratch, mill my own flour, bake sourdough, make cheese…I'm obsessed with nourishing through nutrient dense and ancestral foods. It's very Weston A. Price x Ray Peat! Infused with the rituals of ancient princesses, which happens to align very much with what they teach.

How do you start and end your days?

I am obsessed with the morning and night routines of ancient princesses. There is a lot to pull from that is now scientifically backed to improve your sleep and health, while feeling incredible and nourishing.

In the evenings after making dinner, I always make sure to turn off all the regular lights, and turn on only incandescent, red light, or candle light. I use blue light-blocking glasses if I'm on a screen. I charge my phone in the bathroom; it's close enough to hear the alarm, but far enough I don't use it before bed or in the mornings. Plus, it makes me get out of bed to shut it off! I love hot baths, herbal oils, beeswax candles, and mulberry silk sheets.

The morning is *very* specific.

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Welcome to the third and final issue of our Saturn Return series, ft. Health Gossip readers who have recently finished their Saturn Return. Today, we’re hearing about Rebecca’s elopement, Saara’s creative awakening, Shelbi’s charting of her own path, and Sofia’s search for home. (Plus: some bonus advice at the end.)

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Rebecca Catherine Kelly

Rebecca Catherine Kelly is a brand consultant living in North Vancouver, BC. Outside of her work with clients like Raimundo Langlois and Sex Magazine, she interns at a local farm.

What were your expectations going into your Saturn Return? On a scale of 1-10, how invested were you in Western astrology?

I was probably somewhere between 6 and 7, I had started seeing an astrologer in Montreal a couple years before my Saturn Return started and was pretty aware of what a Saturn return was before going into it. I started feeling major shifts internally before it officially began and was sort of excited and anxious about it at the same time. I knew that major life events were likely going to happen and I was excited for that, sort of in an adventurous way. I was already pretty eager for change in my life at that point, so I was mostly just hoping that things would evolve in a way that felt more positive and nourishing; and that the things I wanted to hold on to still wouldn’t be negatively impacted.

What house is your natal Saturn in? How did these themes play out during this period?

Seventh house, loosely conjunct my Sun (~10 degrees) and square Jupiter and my moon in the fourth.

I got engaged two days before my Saturn return was exact. It retrograded back over about six months later, when we were trying to decide how we wanted to get married. When it went direct again and passed over the last time, we had finally decided to elope in Hawaii rather than have a big event. We got married about three months later.

One of the biggest takeaways is that Saturn isn’t necessarily as bad as he’s made out to be.

Saturn in the seventh also brought me new clients and business relationships. I started a consulting business in the summer of 2023 when Saturn first dipped into Pisces, and decided to pursue it full-time as of January 2024, right before Saturn entered Pisces for good.

Perhaps due to the square to Jupiter and my moon, I also moved back home to BC in August 2023, while Saturn was first in Pisces. A few weeks before my exact Saturn return, we signed a lease for an apartment that we love and feel very at home in.

I was also pretty withdrawn from the majority of my close relationships during my return, partially due to moving across the country, but I had been craving solitude and sort of became a hermit.

What were some of the most unexpected or surprising moments?

We decided to move to BC very unexpectedly and had a lot of ups and downs at the beginning. We weren’t exactly sure how it would play out but everything worked out really nicely in the end. When I was a teenager, I had vowed to never live here again, so just processing that I wanted to move back home and then loving being here was a very surprising development in my life.

Quitting my old job and becoming self-employed was also an unexpected and scary moment. I had always tried to do things responsibly so it was hard to allow my instincts to guide me into what felt like a huge unknown. It was almost like I couldn’t stop my rational mind from dissuading me from doing it. It’s one of the most rewarding decisions I’ve ever made and has totally transformed my relationship to myself. My intuition and instinct is much clearer to me now and I trust it a lot more.

What were some of your biggest takeaways? How has your life changed?

Basically my entire life changed — relationship, job, home. I’m grateful that I went into it excited for something new, I think it helped me navigate these huge changes with an open-minded and adventurous attitude. One of the biggest takeaways is that Saturn isn’t necessarily as bad as he’s made out to be — there’s certainly been uncertainty and lows, but everything has shifted in a way that feels more aligned with how I want to live and I feel a lot more at peace now than I did before.

What advice would you give to someone newly entering their Saturn Return?

Embrace uncertainty and allow your instinct to guide you. Even if you can’t clearly visualize exactly what you want or where you’re headed, it will reveal itself with time. Saturn is all about balance and rewards humility and hard work, staying grounded and focused on my core principles was helpful for me throughout the whole experience.

Embracing my home and solitude, being in the woods or water, spending endless time with my dog, interning at a farm, gardening and growing my own food, going to the beach — these all became essential to me.

Saara Lampwalla

Saara Lampwalla is a consultant to conscious founders and brands, helping them scale through strategy, operations, and partnerships. She also coaches creatives and entrepreneurs through the lens of mystical systems and hosts Rich Souls, a podcast where the mystical meets the practical through conversations on embodying one’s essence in work and life.

What were your expectations going into your Saturn Return? On a scale of 1-10, how invested were you in Western astrology or narratives around the Saturn Return?

6 to 7.

What house is your natal Saturn in? How did these themes play out during this period?

My natal Saturn is retrograde in Pisces in the 5th house of play, creativity, kids, sex, and dating. These themes became the focal point of the last three years. Since that’s a long period, here are some milestones:

• I moved to the city of my dreams less than a month after the transit began. Within the first month, I realized I needed to stop a brief nomad-ing stint and focus on leaving a job of nearly a decade that provided security, reputation, and opportunity to play the corporate game — but at the expense of my creativity and life force.

• Several dating experiences catalyzed my move to shed the job. I went on a date with my one and only celebrity crush, who almost immediately mirrored how unhappy I was in my job (embarrassing!!). Later that year, I had a brief relationship with a man who believed in me so much that it expanded me into greater self-belief. Within a month or so of our relationship ending, along with other supportive events, I put in my notice.

• Soon after quitting, I launched several of my own business ventures, posted to nearly every social media platform after being chronically offline, started an Artist’s Way cohort, took over a local writing club, and more.

• I also met and was pursued by a ton of viable suitors within the span of a couple of weeks. They ended up being catalysts for revisiting, and really having a reckoning with, my dating history.

• It felt like a cosmic clearing of a karmic deck that’s left me much clearer and with more compassion for the inner child (mine and others’). It also forced me to own the role I’ve played in manifesting many incompatible and hurtful dating and sexual experiences in my 20s. What a gift!

• I also underwent a deep sexual and somatic healing journey, which has only opened my channel to receive more inspiration and energy to create. The interplay between play, somatics, sexuality, and creativity has never felt more clear.

  

What were some of the most unexpected or surprising moments?

Before this transit, I didn’t think I was creative! Realizing I was, and launching so much in such a short time, has been one of the most unexpected and fulfilling parts of this period. Now I believe that every human is creative. That making something, really anything, no matter how “good”or “bad”; is simply good energetic hygiene. I am so grateful to have been simultaneously stripped down and expanded into my own creator-hood.

Restructuring your life for the better is actually kind of hot.

Being gobsmacked by numerous karmic dating opportunities. Being pursued en masse expanded me to see it was possible despite a core wound of rejection. That said, the process of healing the related wounds has been long and arduous. I overcame several rapidly and festered in a few for far too long.

Having initiatory experiences into the divine feminine, which goes hand in hand with all of the themes of the 5th house.

Meeting several of my creative heroes in person.

What advice would you give to someone newly entering their Saturn Return?

I’m sharing this gently: you are not going to figure out how your Saturn RX will affect you until it plays out — plain and simple.

Astrologers may not really be able to predict anything that actually happens (they didn’t for me anyway), but you can learn more about the themes of Saturn, Aries, and your affected house and placements. That will give you a sense of the life areas that may come into play. That knowledge was enough to raise my awareness amidst destabilizing experiences so I could actually see the lessons. Perhaps that’s all there is to know.

At the end of the day, this transit is said to earthquake whatever does not serve our evolution. That is something that must be lived. Metamorphosis cannot be expedited. Let Saturn work you.

This transit is said to earthquake whatever does not serve our evolution. That is something that must be lived.

In the process, invest in yourself on every level so you’re resourced — so that you can self-source. My go-to practices: daily morning journaling followed by meditation and/or breathwork. Thoughtful diet and fitness choices. Near-daily earthing, prayer, time in nature, good sleep. More time in resonance — with people, environments, routines, studies. Quicker ego-checking and pruning of people and things that do not vibe. Investment in select coaches and programs to support specific goals. Then just trust the process and that you’ll make it through, higher than ever. Restructuring your life for the better is actually kind of hot.

Shelbi Jones

is a Brooklyn-based writer and the creator of Hi! I’m Here, a publication and community exploring what it means to stay true to ourselves and each other.

What were your expectations going into your Saturn Return? On a scale of 1–10, how invested were you in Western astrology or narratives around the Saturn Return?

Probably an 8. A group of my college friends all have Saturn in Aquarius, so they started their Saturn Return during the pandemic. I watched them make major life shifts. People bought houses, got married, moved cities, started jobs, and left jobs. There was a lot of visible change. So I was expecting that my life would probably shift in a big way, too.

What house is your natal Saturn in? How did these themes play out during this period?

My Saturn is in the 6th house, which covers work, routines, and health. That showed up very directly. I was laid off for the first time in my career in March 2023, as my Saturn Return was beginning. I took another job in August 2023, then quit in February 2024 to start my own company. I also started lifting weights and focusing more on how I want to feel as I age. Not just aesthetically, but physically and energetically. It felt like rebuilding my life with purpose rather than expectations and societal pressures.

I’m much less attached to institutions and much more committed to living my purpose.

What were some of the most unexpected or surprising moments?

Getting laid off was surprising. How much fun I had that summer without a job was also surprising. I thought I would be much more anxious, but honestly, Severance Girl Spring/Summer was exactly what I needed. I was also surprised to find the courage to quit my job at Adobe. It was a very stable tech job during mass layoffs, and I knew how rare that was. But I also knew I wanted something different for my career. I also lost a few long-term friendships during this time. They were no longer aligned, but letting go was still hard. There’s this idea that it’s a success story to keep friends from childhood into adulthood. Sometimes that’s true, and sometimes you outgrow each other. I had to accept that shared history is not the same as shared values.

What were some of your biggest takeaways? How has your life changed?

I’m much less attached to institutions and much more committed to living my purpose. It’s still nice to be recognized by notable names or organizations, but I don’t need that validation to feel grounded in my work. I feel deeply connected to my mission and values, regardless of who acknowledges them.

What advice would you give to someone newly entering their Saturn Return?

Let go. For me, it felt like being pushed into reality and alignment at the same time. I think it would have been much harder if I had tried to resist the changes. Feel your feelings about what is changing, but stay open to who you’re becoming. I feel much more aligned with my life now than I did before. Also, find a friend who is going through it. One of my best friends, who is going through his Saturn return at the same time as me, quit his tech job and started a company months before I did. It was lovely to commiserate together as our lives shifted so much.

Any other reflections or insights?

I grew up going to church twice a week. Most of what I knew about astrology came from horoscopes in Seventeen magazine. I don’t treat astrology as the only truth, but I do see it as another modality that gives me information about myself. I also have strong pattern recognition, so I like seeing how themes show up across signs, transits, and life stages. I don’t see Saturn Return as negative. It will remove anything that isn’t structurally sound. That can be uncomfortable, but it’s also honest.

Sofia D.

Sofia is a Health Gossip reader living in London.

What house is your natal Saturn in? How did these themes play out during this period?

My natal Saturn is in 4 house (family, home, roots). My family is fragmented because of the [Russo-Ukrainian] war; my parents are divided by borders. There were attempts to reunite in another country, but they didn’t work out (perhaps for the best). I personally have no stable sense of home: not where I was born, not where I grew up, not where I’m registered, not where I rent now. Since Saturn is about pressure, I feel it physically in the flat where I live with five people and no living room. The search for comfort had to be postponed, because all my focus went into survival in a foreign country where you can rely only on yourself. There were painful situations within our immediate family, and within our extended family too, where ideological and worldview ruptures were happening. My parents and I managed to remain a family, not to turn away from one another despite all these trials.

What were some of the most unexpected or surprising moments?

It was unexpected to realize that I had an incredible level of naive illusions about life. The way I imagined life at 27 (and by then I already knew quite a lot of hardship) now feels almost like a joke compared to how I see it at 31. The surprise lies in the paradox: in some sense, after such heavy years, you begin to feel lighter. And wiser!

What were some of your biggest takeaways? How has your life changed?

Learning discipline. Setting priorities.

I once heard that Saturn gives you an extremely difficult task so that you build a lasting foundation you can grow from. If you complete this task, Saturn rewards you with an even more difficult one (hehe). At the beginning of my Saturn Return, I was working for minimum wage, standing on my feet 8–10 hours a day, while dedicating my weekends to academic work. I stopped looking for another job because I devoted that time to academia instead. For a period, I survived on £20 a week. But my article went through peer review, and I was also invited to write a book review. So by the end of my Saturn Return, I will have two academic publications. That feels like a foundation.

I think it’s important to cultivate the courage to have your own experience.

Through this came the realization that the situations I went through took enormous strength and energy from me but they also trained me to take myself seriously. That understanding had to be suffered into being. Life throws difficulties harshly, and fighting yourself does not make it easier. Escapism won’t help.

What advice would you give to someone newly entering their Saturn Return?

I think it’s important to cultivate the courage to have your own experience. Whatever happens during this return, even if life doesn’t come together the way you hoped, not like other people’s lives that may seem better, this is still your life, and it is only like this for a short period of time. It will change.

A lot of the useful and practical advice I learned came from this astrological video. I’m especially drawn to one idea: that under Saturn’s influence, we sometimes feel we can choose between depression and tiredness, and if a person doesn’t want to feel miserable and useless, it’s better to choose tiredness more often.

Other advice…

Amanda says to give yourself permission to depart from distractions if you see one aspect of your life desperately knocking at your door. Reed got really into film, which will pull you out of yourself for a while, take the ground out from under you. (You need that.) Hate your friends? Make some new ones, says Veronika, who also recommends a chi machine, acupressure mat, and one of this lady’s videos.1

Katie adopted the following schools of thought:

One is whenever I’m witnessing a situation where I feel rejected and powerless, I say to myself, “this is the absolute perfect version of what could be happening.” And it calms me because I believe that sometimes my own negative feelings can be in service to the greater good. It is a chance to learn and expand. God works in mysterious ways…

The other is for when I’m feeling stuck. It’s the idea that any desire has an answer that already exists somewhere in the ether (or maybe even closer than that). I think of the answer like I think of gathering the ingredients for a recipe. I believe that once I have the desire, my subconscious goes to work on collecting the ingredients for me. After that my only job is to put in the work of following any whim that pops into my head, and being vigilant about staying healthy and mentally and physically strong.

Note: some of these responses have been edited and condensed for clarity.

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is a writer in New York City and the author of some of Substack’s most beloved pieces, including “Everyone is numbing out” and this guide to your 20s. She is currently working on her first novel.

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What does health, or being healthy, mean to you?

Treating myself with respect: body, mind, soul.

How would you describe your current lifestyle?

Work and joy. When it comes to my health, I am focused exclusively on the fundamentals: strength training a few times a week at home, cooking almost all of my meals, sleep, walking, writing, reading, socializing, prayer. I played the “margin game” quite a bit in my twenties — you know, debating the merits of one serum or supplement over another — but getting the big things done is far more deserving of my time and energy, and so much more important. If I can do those things even somewhat consistently, I feel great.

Generally, I am trying to be more present in my day-to-day life, to give myself permission to be happy and to go slower than is comfortable. I am trying to find joy in female embodiment, which has, surprisingly, been easier for me as a new mother than it was before I had a child. I grew my son inside my body, delivered him through my body, and nourished him with my body. How can I needlessly criticize myself, punish myself? It is a crime. So I am trying to shift my perspective, and see exercise, healthy diet, hydration, etc., not as “stuff to be done,” but ways to respect myself.

There’s this mistaken idea, that I fully believed as a college athlete and pre-baby, that in order for something to be “healthy” it must involve a lot of pain or suffering — the more the better. I realize now how misguided this is. Yes, it’s good to push through a tough workout, for instance, but I notice that when I am warm and kind with myself — meaning I feed myself nourishing foods (good food tastes delicious), take warm baths, do fewer reps with better form, and do not pick at my flaws in the mirror — my whole being responds.

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Welcome back to Health Gossip Top Shelfies, a series peeking into the medicine cabinets, vitamin shelves, and beauty rituals of our dear community.

Today’s guest is Cali Strauhs, a New York City-based esthetician and the founder of Strauhs Studios. With an integrative approach that blends holistic skincare with clinical precision, her studio has quickly become a go-to for beauty editors, models, and women in the know. Below, a closer look at her skincare philosophy and daily routines.

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Top Shelfie: Cali Strauhs

Who are you?

Cali Strauhs (@calistrauhs @strauhstudios). Based in NY, I like to spend my time decompressing in many different ways, one of which is traveling to Brighton Beach to go to the Russian bathhouse, taking milk baths, expanding my mind and heart, and finding ways to do good in the world. I gift treatments to people who really need them and are going through hardship in their lives, rather than making it some big announcement or giveaway. I like that stuff to happen naturally; it’s what makes me feel alive. Ever since I was little, my family thought I was nuts. I remember getting into conversations with people living on the street and just talking for hours. Very much in my Scorpio nature.

How would you describe your approach to beauty and wellness?

I have always been a maximalist. Not so much a diva, but someone who truly enjoys finding ways to take better care of ourselves, mentally and physically. I’m a sensitive, empathic girl, so I energetically have to decompress every day.

Having acne-prone skin is what drew me to become a practitioner myself. My approach has shifted over the years because acne taught me how to take better care of myself beyond just topical treatments. There is no quick fix (well, sometimes we get lucky) without taking a proper scan of our overall nervous systems. Skin helps us come back to ourselves.

I have so many people come in with the healthiest, cleanest diets, yet they’re in fight-or-flight mode and their hormones are out of whack.

What are some of your must-haves?

I’ve been testing out a new product coming out that I’m absolutely loving called True Tone 2.0. It’s quite active, but that’s what I like — and that’s how I’ve been able to achieve real results and skin transformations in my practice.

True Tone contains retinyl propionate (non-negotiable — vitamin A in general), mandelic acid, kojic acid, lactic acid, and more. Why is using a form of vitamin A non-negotiable for me? We are constantly getting depleted of vitamin A daily. Regular use of vitamin A helps restore barrier function. It’s not about strong doses, but rather gentle amounts that you can tolerate and use regularly for daily cell turnover.

(Though, if you have an impaired barrier, you’ll want to start with healing your barrier first before introducing actives.)

Another product I’m drooling over is this form of collagen induction therapy we offer, which I named “BioLift,” also known as bio modulation or bio needling. It was originally used in nose surgery and was created by a surgeon in the EU. We use microscopic spongilla spicules to create a cascade of natural function in the skin that is completely regenerative and stimulates new cell growth. Amazing for pigment.

Any health or beauty secrets you swear by?

Microcurrent on the neck and traps for pain! The Big 6 Method and trampoline every single day to move lymph. Sauna regularly to live a long and prosperous life. Trust that your unique nature is what makes you perfect. Trust that life never runs out of good things for you to experience.

What’s on your wishlist?

My ultimate wish list item is a wood-fired sauna, which isn’t really possible in New York City. Infrared saunas don’t cut it for me; there’s something about an almost unbearable heat that makes you want to jump into the snow.

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Related reading:

Kiki (@kikimancy) is a health researcher with a current focus on the Primal Diet, lymph + fascia work, and electromagnetic frequency awareness. In 2022, she hosted the Slow Beauty Immersion — a month-long private community event for women, dedicated to daily health, wellness and beauty rituals. If you’d like to be notified of similar events, join the waitlist here.

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What does health, or being healthy, mean to you?

Having enough energy to be creative — whether on an individual spiritual level or in the biological sense of being able to birth healthy babies — and be in service to others (giving from overflow).

How would you describe your current lifestyle?

I swing wildly between traveling and being a homebody. I lived abroad as a “digital nomad” for years and returned to the US late 2024. I am now something of a “digital homebody,” working on various marketing/media projects, homemaking, and hobbies.

Health wise, my lifestyle is suboptimal (by my own standards anyway, everyone who knows me in real life thinks I’m a health nut). I really just need to figure out how to not be tied to my computer all day. That’s my current biggest obstacle. I have big plans for 2026 to change that.

How do you start and end your days?

Wake up and pray first thing.

I take my CIAS vial out of its magnetic charging station and keep it on me throughout the day. The CIAS is an invention of Canadian naturopath Dr. Tim Goyetche. It converts EMF radiation (from devices, dirty electricity, WiFi, 5G etc) into cellular energy. Its benefits are particularly noticeable to me in hectic indoor public spaces like malls or airports, which I previously always found draining.

Next, I rinse my face, brush my teeth — lately with my homemade toothpaste,1 but I also love NOBS. After brushing my teeth, I splash my face, neck, hands and legs with blessed water, made according to the method shared in Ngolo Tesla’s latest book.

Blessed water changed my life. I mentioned earlier that I returned to the US in 2024 after years living abroad in Indonesia. Even though I moved a lot my whole life and spent my childhood split between the US and Japan, returning to the US, especially post-plandemic, was a culture shock I was genuinely not expecting. There were also several back-to-back challenges outside of my control, beyond the culture shock, and the stress took a huge toll on me health-wise. Honestly, by the end of 2025, I was the most drained and stressed out I’d been in years.

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Hi everyone, I hope you’re doing well. I surveyed my paid subscribers this week, and my mom said she wanted to see more of my own writing. So I’m excited to formally launch a monthly favorites + Q&A column (read last month’s here).

Yesterday, I spoke to a reporter about the root cause of women’s obsession with optimizing their health and wellness (her words, not mine), and what it’s all for. This morning, I’m typing this from my new vibration plate, which I have conveniently set up in my bathroom next to my red light, while using my micro-current device and listening to Gregorian chants all at the same time. (I know, this is a lot...paging !)

And, to be honest, I’m not consciously thinking about what it’s for, only that I’m feeling good doing it.

🔍 Quick Explainer: Vibration Plates & Red Light Therapy

Vibration plates and red light therapy are having a moment online, with many users calling it “Shake ‘n Bake.” But what do they actually do?

Vibration Plate: Your Full-Body “Tune-Up”

The rapid muscle contractions act like a little internal pump, moving blood and lymphatic fluid, boosting circulation and lymphatic drainage, and reflexively activating muscles. Think of it as a full‑body “tune‑up” that wakes up your body while helping flush out fluid and toxins. I love doing it after a warm bath or shower, as my body is already in a parasympathetic state and the vibration is less jarring. (The warmth of the bath/shower also “primes” your lymphatic system and circulation.)

Red Light Therapy: The Skin Savior!

Red light therapy has a growing body of clinical evidence behind it — especially when you stay consistent with your sessions. Research shows it can support skin health and anti‑aging, promote hair growth, reduce inflammation and pain, and improve sleep quality when timed appropriately.1 I have been bullish on it for years, and am often told I look like I’m in my early 20s (I’m 28)…take from that what you will. I use my red light device daily, and am also in the process of testing Current Body’s Red Light Mask (10% off with code HEALTHGOSSIP)…more on that soon.

In a way, women have always been like this — primed for ritual. Cleopatra famously maintained a detailed beauty routine, regularly bathing in rose petals, honey, and donkey milk (she owned 700 donkeys just for this purpose). Others, like Empress Joséphine and Catherine de’ Medici, were big on oil massage and herbal infusions.

To say we’re only doing these things to meet external expectations strips us of our agency entirely.

And frankly, in an era of uninspiring architecture and relentless tech-bro optimization, prioritizing beauty in all areas is certainly not a narcissistic pursuit. The “War on Beauty” is real!

I also think we need to live a bit alternatively to be “healthy” in our current moment. Beyond just looking better, these practices help counteract screen time, environmental stress, and the general wear-and-tear of modern life.

(Personally, I’m focused on optimizing my fertility — arguably our most accurate health marker, a sign of a body with enough resources to function as it was designed to.)

Anyway, rant over!

Below: everything I’ve been enjoying this month, plus answers to your questions on Peating, entering the wellness industry, the finitude of personal change, and more.

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