Why is it that when I wear my hair in a throwback hairstyle similar to the one I wore in high school in the early aughts, I look silly as hell? But when Jennifer Lopez pulls out the Y2K hair, she looks cool. It’s the magic of J.Lo. Late last month, Lopez performed at the 36th Annual Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame Induction Ceremony in celebration of her friend LL Cool J’s induction at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland, Ohio. The duo hit the stage and it truly felt like 2002 again.

J.Lo and LL Cool J performed their 2002 hit song “All I Have” on stage. Lopez wore a sparkly bra top and low-rise pants. (Yes, they’re really back! And yes, you can ignore them.) She also wore her bronde — the perfect combination of blonde and brown — hair up in two high ponytails with the ends curled. It reminds me of the beginning of the “All I Have” music video.

Our mission at STYLECASTER is to bring style to the people, and we only feature products we think you’ll love as much as we do. Please note that if you purchase something by clicking on a link within this story, we may receive a small commission of the sale.

YouTube.

Lopez didn’t go all Y2K with her makeup though, so she left the frosty nude lips and heavy smoky eye at home. To be honest, her current makeup routine is really just a modern update from that same look. She knows what works for her and she sticks to it.

AP Images.

Hairstylist Lorenzo Martin is responsible for the throwback pigtails, while Mary Phillips did her glam and Tom Bachik did her nails. You can tell Lopez was feeling herself and loving the 2002-era styles.

Source: Instagram

Somehow she pulls it all off without looking costume-y. Can we get an “I’m Real” reunion with Ja Rule next?

Why is it that when I wear my hair in a throwback hairstyle similar to the one I wore in high school in the early aughts, I look silly as hell? But when Jennifer Lopez pulls out the Y2K hair, she looks cool. It’s the magic of J.Lo. Late last month, Lopez performed at the 36th Annual Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame Induction Ceremony in celebration of her friend LL Cool J’s induction at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland, Ohio. The duo hit the stage and it truly felt like 2002 again.

J.Lo and LL Cool J performed their 2002 hit song “All I Have” on stage. Lopez wore a sparkly bra top and low-rise pants. (Yes, they’re really back! And yes, you can ignore them.) She also wore her bronde — the perfect combination of blonde and brown — hair up in two high ponytails with the ends curled. It reminds me of the beginning of the “All I Have” music video.

Our mission at STYLECASTER is to bring style to the people, and we only feature products we think you’ll love as much as we do. Please note that if you purchase something by clicking on a link within this story, we may receive a small commission of the sale.

YouTube.

Lopez didn’t go all Y2K with her makeup though, so she left the frosty nude lips and heavy smoky eye at home. To be honest, her current makeup routine is really just a modern update from that same look. She knows what works for her and she sticks to it.

AP Images.

Hairstylist Lorenzo Martin is responsible for the throwback pigtails, while Mary Phillips did her glam and Tom Bachik did her nails. You can tell Lopez was feeling herself and loving the 2002-era styles.

Source: Instagram

Somehow she pulls it all off without looking costume-y. Can we get an “I’m Real” reunion with Ja Rule next?

“May the gratitude in my heart kiss all the universe.”

—Hafiz

I’ve always considered November to be the month of gratitude. This is not to say that gratitude shouldn’t be practiced every month of the year, but during this month, I believe it’s particularly important to make it a priority.

Those closest to me know that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, likely because it is a secular holiday and one that reflects a sense of interconnectedness among people and cultures. Now in my 60s, and having a broad perspective on life, I believe we need to honor and celebrate this day more than ever.

Each year, my children, grandchildren, and often an additional invited guest or two, join us at our family home for a Thanksgiving celebration. We all help to prepare the food, rejoicing that we are together. Some years, we have a memorable honoring, where each person at the table says something special about everyone else. It’s a way to give thanks for those we cherish.

From Celebrating Harvest to Gathering Together

Originally celebrated as a day to give thanks for the previous year’s harvest, Thanksgiving has evolved into a holiday for gathering together and expressing gratitude for our blessings.

For me, Thanksgiving is a reminder to appreciate all the good in life. This can include beloved family, friends, and colleagues as well as fruitful lifestyles, good health, and wellness. The most wonderful aspect about this holiday is how it tends to focus us onto all things positive and away from gift-giving for materialistic motivations.

Thanksgiving is a holiday that reminds me that there’s more to be thankful for than be sad about. My beloved father taught me the power of positive thinking – specifically, to look at the glass as half-full rather than half-empty. After nearly two years of pandemic living, it will be a welcomed relief to gather with our loved ones to celebrate.

We need to continually remind ourselves of the importance of incorporating gratitude into our stream of consciousness. Remember, even if it seems as if we’ve hit rock bottom, there is always hope that we will come out on the other side.

For those who have experienced a recent loss, feeling gratitude might be more difficult. However, there is always something to be grateful for, even when feeling alone and lonely. You may want to be by yourself and that’s okay.

If there might be someone to share the holiday with, maybe you’d consider reaching out to that person. Just know that whatever type of Thanksgiving you decide to celebrate, it will be just right for you.

What Are We Thankful for?

Thanksgiving might also be a good time to jot down all that we’re thankful for. Expressing gratitude through writing produces a sense of appreciation, and also reduces stress and strengthens emotional resilience.

In my book, Writing for Bliss: The Companion Journal, there are a few pages of journaling prompts pertaining to gratitude. Here are a few to consider:

Feeling Thankful: Write about what you are grateful for, even on difficult days.

New-Found Gratitude: Write about something you are grateful for now that you once thought you didn’t need.

Feeling Lucky: Write about one privilege that you’ve taken for granted.

If you’re into poetry, you can find lots of poems online to help you celebrate Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

Do you celebrate Thanksgiving? How do you celebrate usually? What will Thanksgiving look like for you this year?

Being 60 has a lot of perks. We get to experience retirement, stronger friendships, second act opportunities, no more periods, and an appreciation of our time. Each moment we get to decide our state of mind, decode our perceptions, and seize the day.

We can take on new endeavors, plan our days to our liking, and get to do those dreams if we choose to. We can continue or begin new practices to give us support. We each have our preferences. We can start our day with a meditation, intention, prayer, journal, or an early morning walk. We can combine, switch it up, or decide to sleep late. The point is to connect to some inner quiet.

Facing the Many Stressors in Life

But what about the infinite stressors we face like health changes, needing to move, divorces, financial stressors, adult children drama, and aging parents?

As you know, sometimes these may hit one after another and combine with our internal condition. It can feel like a bombardment of negative happenings. What then? Difficult times can feel like the rug has been pulled out from under us.

Meditation can indeed be a powerful antidote to anxious feelings in a pinch. Meditation is so much more. I thought for years that meditation required me to sit still in a lotus position. I could not have been more wrong. I’ve meditated on walks, waiting to board a plane, and now mostly lying down.

My journey began to help me combat the bodily effects of intense life stressors. My dad’s passing, a seriously ill teenager, menopausal symptoms, and more took their toll. My acupuncturist suggested meditation would actively help me to lessen stress. It gave me a sense of control over my mental and physical health.

Here are my 5 reasons for meditating and why you should try it too.

#1: Meditation Can Increase Your Confidence

My meditation practice began by using short YouTube videos or applications of guided meditations. I did feel immediately calmer. In time, my focus and clarity increased and so did my confidence. I became more aware that my smallest daily choices were as relevant as those trying to rock me.

As my options improved, I noticed I was making more intelligent choices. I chose to pause more often so that I didn’t need all my ducks in a row to feel good.

#2: Meditation Grows Our Self-Compassion and Self-Kindness

Meditation taught me that self-judgment is like an annoying itch. The more we scratch, the worse the itch gets. When I first began, I took the bait and would linger into the abyss of “why can’t you stay focused?” As soon as I recognized the thought for what it was and went back to the breath day after day, the self-judgment itch began to fade.

The daily exercise of allowing my mind to wander off and kindly remind myself it was ok to go back led me to self-compassion. Self-judgment unchecked can only show you down a path of negative feelings. I was alert to the trap of not being good enough and thinking of needing to do more.

On the other hand, the kindness you extend during meditation leeks into your day. Self-kindness helps us to be gentle, brings us closer to our most intimate relationship, with ourselves. When stressful experiences come up, and we know they always will, we can accept our imperfections and mistakes.

#3: Meditation Encourages Us to Pause

Meditation in a subtle, gentle manner helped me to tame my reactions and empower me to respond. It gave me the power to pause. In that pause, it’s as though I get to watch from behind a camera lens and decide what to do next. Since I am a novice, it encourages me to hear others’ meditation journeys and learn more about how meditation has been a quiet force for good.

After all, left to my own uninhibited devices, I get into trouble. I say stuff I wish I could rewind and do over, make choices I regret, and fall into a self-critical rabbit hole. A steady diet of daily practices has not been a panacea for guaranteeing I don’t get into trouble. It has empowered me to learn the power of the pause.

Pausing makes room for insight and noticing how I am thinking. The impulse to act quickly undoubtedly has resulted in heaps of tangled messes. Knowing I have choices, combined with self-compassion, the ability to pause helps me to live better. I’ve learned that saying no to the stuff that distracts me from what matters most is a beautiful thing.

#4: Meditation Encourages Balance

Life is short and time is my most precious commodity. I’d rather sit on the floor with my grandchildren than clean the attic. I resist the temptation to choose busy projects over human connections. Being mindful about my time and priorities improves my balancing skill. I get to be productive without missing the treasures.

Meditation itself is a treasure. Within the compassion, pause and balance live serenity. It’s the place I get to feel a state of safety and repose. Mostly, I am safe from my negative thinking and judgments. It’s a place that allows me to feel a connection to myself. If I’m genuinely me, I can be genuine with other people and fully engage.

#5: Meditation Can Be Your Storm Buffer

Meditation can be as a new friend we get to visit daily. It also provides a buffer to stressful situations. Most days, I start with a Yoga Nidra meditation and linger in the delight of the relaxing benefits. The daily ritual has become a shelter where I get to hang out.

Also, it has made me so much more alert to my bodily sensations and stress signals. The accumulated effect has been to slow me down to a keener awareness of my skills to choose rest and recover.

During the last and worst storm ever, I am grateful I had this practice to find refuge. I am also thankful for prayer. My youngest son suffers from bipolar disorder that has episodes of either deep depression or mania. In his manic state, he made such horrific choices that nearly broke my heart in two. It was stress on steroids.

Ultimately, it was primarily all out of my control. My usual response is to fix it and find solutions. Meditation and prayer helped me recognize I could not fix my son’s life, but I did not need to go down with the ship. I did my very best to find places of refuge by talking to my closest friend and doing self-care. I kept my daily routine for the most part and meditated.

Yoga Nidra, mindfulness, guided meditations, and prayer allowed me to feel the experience with awareness. I understood my powerlessness and accepted what was. I knew my limitations, and it had to be ok. What can we do when stress gets the best of us and clutches our best intentions? We learn to meditate.

YOU HAVE TO BE STRONG ENOUGH TO BE WEAK

“Allow yourself to feel whatever you are feeling. Notice any labels you attach to crying or feeling vulnerable. Let go of the labels. Just feel what you are feeling, all the while cultivating moment-to-moment awareness, riding the waves of ‘up’ and ‘down’, ‘good’ and ‘bad’, ‘weak’ and ‘strong’, until you see that they are all inadequate to fully describe your experience. Be with the experience itself. Trust in your deepest strength of all: to be present, to be wakeful.”

―Jon Kabat-Zinn, Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life

Meditation Techniques for Beginners

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is paying attention to what is happening in our thinking and feeling by staying in the moment. Simply, it allows us not to get caught in the anxiety of uncertainty and the problems of the past. We become more focused, attentive to experience, which helps us to calm. Mindfulness improves our confidence gained by making better choices because we’ve slowed down to respond and not react.

Yoga Nidra

Yoga Nidra is a guided meditation, or yogic sleep, providing deep relaxation by body scan. Staying awake during the average 20-minute practice will bring you to enter a state between wakefulness and sleep.

Some of my clients use Yoga Nidra to help with insomnia and are finding it works! It is a lovely practice that fosters self-discipline while benefitting from improved sleep and lessening stress, anxiety, and depression.

Guided Meditation

Guided meditation is a meditation technique led by another person, either recorded or in person. It can be as short as five minutes or longer if you like. Your guide will lead you to different images or places using your senses to experience this meditation technique. It can be incredibly restorative, emotionally healing, and stress-reducing.

Meditation with Breath Work

Combining breath with meditation makes it an active practice where the focus of your breath and sensations is the deliverer of lower stress, deep relaxation, focus, confidence, improved sleep, increased alertness, and lower blood pressure. Beginners can start with five minutes and grow their practice gradually.

What do you think about adding meditation to your day? Have you tried and found it difficult to continue? What are your thoughts on how meditation can improve your stress level, confidence, balance, and ability to respond better?

TikTok is truly the gift that keeps on giving when it comes to beauty hacks. This week alone, users on the social media app pointed us in the direction of these wildly effective wrinkle-erasing patches that work overnight, and now, we’re being shown how to get salon-quality curls with absolutely no heat involved. How is this app free?!

It seems like overnight practically every single influencer and beauty obsessive on our FYP started reviewing these headband-like things that lead to voluminous curls you’d see on the catwalk of your favorite fashion show. Users like @kayli.boyle demonstrated just how easy it is to achieve these perfect waves when using the flexible headband. In her video that’s garnered nearly a million likes since being posted, you can see how she wraps her hair around the flexible rod and unveils the finished product to be that of what dreams are made. If you search #curlinghack or #heatlesscurls, you’ll find pages upon pages of accounts using the same method.

RELATED: TikTok Users Just Found a $20 Botox Alternative That Works Overnight: ‘Buy Them Now’

It goes as follows: You take the flexible rod headband and place it on top of your head. Then, you wrap your hair towards the headband working from your roots to the bottom layer, each time adding more hair to the process. You’ll be left with pigtails of sorts that slightly resemble the wigs that the Founding Fathers used to rock, but hey, nobody’s gonna see you looking like this. Even better, you might not need to add product to this process. If you have hair that maintains curls easily, you can probably go without hair spray. If your hair flattens easily, spray it up while it’s wrapped around the headband. This will help with volume and hold.

Courtesy: TikTok.

There are a few different ways to achieve these heatless curls. Some TikTok users advise wrapping your hair around the band when it’s damp, but others, like @gillianxgrace, say that they can achieve the look on dry hair, and without any products. “I wrapped it on third-day hair,” she said, meaning three days since she washed her locks. “I’m going to add a bit of dry shampoo to my roots, and I’m ready to go!” she said as she unveiled some eye-catching curls.

Our take? Test it out a few times and see what works best before you come to a conclusion on this hack.

Along with doing less damage to your hair by opting out of styling that relies on hot tools, this innovative hair hack is a major time-saver. Imagine how much easier your mornings before work will be when you don’t have to spend a half-hour curling your hair. With this process, your hair can be done in and look as good as new simply by unwrapping it in under a minute. It’s almost too good to be true.

Below, we found a few of these popular tools on Amazon that seem to have shoppers’ hearts. Each of them is around $12, so you can feel good knowing that no banks will be breaking when you buy these hair tools.

Our mission at STYLECASTER is to bring style to the people, and we only feature products we think you’ll love as much as we do. Please note that if you purchase something by clicking on a link within this story, we may receive a small commission of the sale.

Courtesy: Ivyu.

Ivyu Hair Rollers

Get a curling rod, a holder clip, and a sleek storage bag all in this set. You can choose from black, pink, and leopard color options, too.

Courtesy: Amazon.

Heatless Curling Rod Headband

Achieve the waves of your dreams with this all-in-one headband. It comes with built-in scrunchies toward the bottom of the flexible tool so that you can secure your hair in place while it dries. Usually $15, you can shop it on sale now for under $12.

Courtesy: Amazon.

Tifara Beauty Hair Rollers

Want tighter curls, or twisted locks that go in different directions? These best-selling flexible hair rollers will do the trick. Each pack comes with seven rods in seven different sizes, so you can customize your hair style easier. They work the same—wrap damp hair around the tool and let your hair air dry. Once you unwind your locks, you’ll be left looking like you just got back from the salon.