Vila Mat

Relax your muscles and balance your chi with this Swedish acupressure mat
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Whether you’re looking for a little therapeutic relief after a long day on hill or just need to balance the flow of your inner chi, the Vila Mat aims to help. Created by snowboarders Justin Steinhardt and Hjalmar Hedman, the Vila Mat harnesses the power of acupuncture through its crown-shaped plastic spikes—a remedy known to reduce physical pain, increase circulation and boost mental energy.

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Commonly used in Sweden (the word “vila” translates to repose in Swedish), the mat has developed a cult following around the world by everyone from yoga instructors in LA to Finnish pro snowboarder Jussi Oksanen. I recently put the yoga-sized Vila Mat to the test, and found the spikes incite an almost immediate heat sensation that relaxes the body. After 30 minutes, my back muscles felt looser and my mind felt more at ease. Although the effects of acupressure mats aren’t confirmed by medical doctors, anyone who spends significant time behind a computer will likely benefit from the stimulation that mat provides and the meditative state it inspires.

The Vila Mat comes in three colors—stone gray, ocean blue and royal blue—and sells online for $40.


Someone to Love

Cristina Nuñez turns twenty years of self-portraits into a book and therapy technique
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Photographer Cristina Nuñez began shooting self-portraits more than 20 years ago, unabashedly turning the lens on herself way before webcams and mobile phones with cameras made the format ubiquitous. Today she boldly declares she has a mission: transforming human suffering into art.

Her longtime expertise in photography, as well as experience teaching in prisons, mental health centers, art academies, companies and schools, led her to define a methodology which is now contained in a double book, “Someone To Love,” edited by Private Space Books.

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The first volume tells Cristina’s autobiography through her self-portraits, family pictures and English text. The narrative follows her family history and childhood, her troubled adolescence as a heroin addict, her move from Spain to Italy and the evolution of her self-image, her relationships to her partners and daughters, and finally the discovery of the self-portrait as a tool for self-therapy.

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The second book focuses entirely on the method of the “Self Portrait Experience,” a complete guide to explore one’s life, to stimulate the creative process and get empowered. It includes theory, exercises and numerous images taken by her workshops participants.


The Most Prescribed Psychiatric Drugs

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Rx nation that we are, Good presents an infographic (click for full size) featuring how many and what kind of prescribed meds were downed in 2009 in the U.S. (Click image for detail.)

Depression, anxiety and panic round out the dark side of modern life for Americans. Xanax gets the gold with 44 million prescribed users, all for anxiety. Zoloft, Prozac and Valium all get face time, too.


Xango Mangosteen Juice

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Wellness-focused organization Xango creates healthy products to enhance and balance the modern lifestyle. Their nutritional mangosteen juice taps into the benefits of the fabled Asian mangosteen, an antioxidant-rich tropical fruit.

Unlike many fruits, the mangosteen retains a majority of its healthy benefits in the pericarp (its skin). Full of xanthones, the pericarp helps neutralize free radicals, in turn offering a powerful boost to the immune system. To make the bitter skin palatable, XanGo blends both the skin and the fruit into a juice.

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While still undergoing intense research, the mangosteen could potentially help reduce cholesterol and heart disease and improve joint movement and the intestinal system. Whether Xango is the next miracle fruit or just another false hope, testimonials to its ability to cure chronic problems abound.

XanGo’s mangosteen juice sells from Amazon for a hefty $45 a bottle.