One drink to remember, another to forget. And the next thing you know, you’re waking up on a floor somewhere at 2 p.m., with a crinkled Taco Bell wrapper in your pocket and no recollection of how it or you got there.
Articles by Maria Grusauskas
Feng Shui For Spring
I had barely finished plucking wayward clothing items, shoes and books off my floor and jamming them into my closet when Jen Casey arrived on my doorstep. A certified feng shui consultant who specializes in green living, Casey had come to assess my tiny studio apartment, and the garden that surrounds it, from a feng shui perspective.
Kids’ Yoga Catching On
On a recent Friday afternoon, I sat inside Luma Yoga in downtown Santa Cruz, waiting for a busload of six to nine-year-olds to arrive from Santa Cruz Montessori school; a field trip to practice mindfulness through yoga.
Biochemist Pushes for New Approach to Autism
By asking the question ‘what are we eating?,’ Reid claims she’s been able to completely manage her daughter Brooke’s autism.
How to Combat Chronic Inflammation
Chronic inflammation is strongly correlated with a myriad of health problems, from allergies and depression to the three main killers of Western society: cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. It may sound overwhelming, but according to licensed naturopathic doctor Aimee Shunney, there’s a lot we can do about the chronic inflammation problem.
How Safe is Santa Cruz’s Water?
What are we drinking in our H20? How much filtration do we really need? And is bottle water really the “pure” alternative its marketers claim that it is?
The Joy of Zumba
It all started by accident. Alberto “Beto” Perez showed up to teach an aerobics class in Cali, Columbia, and forgot his traditional aerobics music. So he improvised with some mix tapes of salsa and merengue music he had in his backpack. The class went wild for the resulting workout, and Zumba was born.
How Fermented Foods Keep Us Healthy
Fermented foods have been part of the human diet since long before we discovered the microscopic bacteria responsible for their production. But just how crucial is incorporating fermented food into our diets?
Going Gluten-Free
I’ve never been one to ignore the bread basket. On the contrary, I’m usually the first to dive, shamelessly, to uncover the warm and satisfying lumps swaddled inside. The height of irresistibility, for me, lies in the chewy, dark-crusted loaves of New York City’s East Village restaurants—sliced, steaming, into thick and spongey slabs to be dabbed with butter or pushed through a drizzle of olive oil.
Essential Oil Therapy Can Reduce Stress
The philosophy of Christine Nickell’s practice, Botanical Reflexology, grounds itself in the fact that, in some estimations, 75 percent of diseases are caused by stress. She uses a harmonious blend of two healing modalities—essential oil therapy, or plant medicine, and reflexology, which can be traced as far back as 2033 B.C.
