oprahmag.com

As much as the phenomenon does exist, Diller says that for women stereotypically, a midlife crisis is spurred on by seeing the first major physical signs of aging in her body, including graying hair, wrinkles and, most notably, menopause. Diller says this might happen when our children are all grown and have left the house, or if our parents don’t need to be cared for, and we need to find new ways to fill our time. Wilding says her clients often realize that after years of doing the same high-octane work, they’ve begun snapping at coworkers, or feel like they’re banging their head against the proverbial wall at work, and that these behaviors don’t match their true personalities or work styles. Wilding says that if you have more bad days of struggling with these kinds of questions or thoughts than good ones, that’s a strong sign that you may want to seek professional help, be it a life coach, a therapist, or a supportive group of friends.

But romantic love’s less-discussed sidekick, platonic friendship, is equally important, and it’s a key part of maintaining healthy relationships. This type of friendship can exist between many pairs, though it’s most commonly associated with a connection between members of the opposite sex (think: When Harry Met Sally). If you ultimately end up feeling that deep connection, that’s platonic love. It’s normal for your spouse to be jealous of a platonic relationship, says Raab, but communication is crucial to help manage those feelings.

We're Briefly Gorgeous and Bernadine Evaristo's Girl, Woman, Other (which won Britain's prestigious Booker Prize), plus memoirs by Saeed Jones, Tegan and Sara, and Carmen Maria Machado. And not to toot our horn or anything, but in 2019 we launched a new series, Coming Out, in which some of the most outstanding writers working today celebrated how they finally learned to embrace their true queer selves. 2020 seems to continue that wonderful trend, which is entirely fitting given that The L Word, one of the all-time touchstones of gay media, is returning after 10 years away from television screens with its new iteration: There are memoirs coming from Oprah-approved author Glennon Doyle and comedian Cameron Esposito, as well as a slew of dynamic, often very funny essay collections that reckon with our culture's perception of otherness.

The ancient art—which has been well-vetted and considered safe practice by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health—has been used by doctors of integrative medicine and acupuncturists to restore the body to its natural, healthy state, and to help people generally achieve a state of zen. [It’s called] qi in Chinese medicine or prana in ayurvedic, yogic tradition,” says Annie McDonnell, LAc, of New York’s Joy Alchemy Acupuncture. According to the Acupuncture and Massage College in Miami, Florida, it’s best to use qi in the context of restoring balance since that is the “physical or nourishing portion that makes up the air, water, and food we take in,” whereas chi refers to the “vital fluids and the energy itself that flows through our bodies. It’s what “courses through the body along meridians, and it also controls the movement of blood,” says Jason Wells, ND, LAc, a naturopathic physician and acupuncturist at Reconstructed Wellness in Portland, Oregon.