Amy Maclin
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Articles by Amy Maclin
10 Mood-Boosting “Microadventures” for When You Don’t Have Time for a Vacation
Researchers say novelty is good for our mental health. Here are 10 small-but-powerful ideas to try. Amy Maclin Thu, October 22, 2026 at 7:30 AM EDT Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Add Yahoo on Google Trusty routines are comforting, but making time for a little adventure is equally essential for our mental health.
5 Low-Maintenance Houseplants That Are Almost Impossible to Kill Original
Credit: Ashley-Belle Burns/Getty Images There are those of us who, like earthly fairies, can cultivate bowers of lush, green houseplants that are the envy of #PlantTok. And then there are those of us who bring home a single potted succulent every six months or so and set it hopefully on the windowsill, where it spends the next six months slowly losing the will to go on.
How Gen Z Is Embracing the Analog Movement in Westchester
If you regularly find yourself sitting down to enjoy a couple of Instagram reels, only to crawl out of a wormhole two hours later feeling bleary-eyed and regretful, this may be the internet trend you’ve been waiting for.
Struggling With Perimenopause? Health Experts Share How They Manage These Common Symptoms Original
Credit: Illustration by Emanuela Carnevale Experts—they’re just like us! In the spirit of camaraderie and crowdsourcing, we asked specialists to share how they’re handling their most troublesome perimenopause symptoms. Invest in Cooling Bed Sheets “I was exhausted all the time, and I’m a sleep doctor. I started having night sweats, waking up a hot, sticky mess. My gynecologist just gave me a prescription for antidepressants and a pat on the back.
Is It Perimenopause or Something Else? Experts Answer 9 Questions Every Woman Over 40 Wants to Know Original
Credit: Illustration by Emanuela Carnevale Hormonal changes can cause mysterious symptoms that make you wonder WTF is going on? Below, experts offer their no-nonsense answers to some common perimenopausal questions. Is it perimenopause or something else? If you have to ask, it’s probably perimenopause. “The average woman has her final period around age 51 and a half,” says Sameena Rahman, MD, an ob-gyn and menopause specialist in Chicago.
How to Pick the Perfect Sauna for Your Westchester Home
If you’ve ever longed to step inside a pod and retreat to a healing space where you can rest your body and mind, good news: A backyard sauna might do the trick. Just ask the people of Finland, the global center of sauna culture, where an estimated 90 percent of the population indulges at least once a week. The 2026 World Happiness Report recently named Finland the Happiest Country in the World, a title the Nordic nation has held for nine consecutive years. Coincidence?
Key Takeaways It will take work across different fields — biology, genetics, epidemiology, and more — to improve breast cancer outcomes. Knowing your own personal risk is critical, and new technologies are revolutionizing what we can find out. BCRF’s work on the Precision Prevention Initiative is bringing about personalized, next-generation cancer prevention. A breast cancer diagnosis can bring uncertainty and fear—but there’s also reason to feel hope.
Abby’s Metastatic Breast Cancer Story
After she was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer, Abby Pastyrnak was determined to live her life fully. Because of research, she has done just that. When Abby Pastyrnak found a lump in her breast in December 2017, her gynecologist told her it wasn’t a cause for concern but to keep an eye on it. She went for a second opinion, and that doctor said the same. Abby was only 37.
5 “Unkillable” Houseplants That Practically Take Care of Themselves Original
Credit: Ashley-Belle Burns/Getty Images There are those of us who, like earthly fairies, can cultivate bowers of lush, green houseplants that are the envy of #PlantTok. And then there are those of us who bring home a single potted succulent every six months or so and set it hopefully on the windowsill, where it spends the next six months slowly losing the will to go on.
8 Small Changes for Breast Health
Do these eight things to help lower your risk of breast cancer—and share them with someone you care about to ignite a critical conversation Key Takeaways There are many small ways you can reduce your risk of breast cancer. Choosing a plant-based diet, minimizing alcohol, and exercising can all help. Learn your dad’s family history — not just your mom’s. Know your breasts and keep up with your screenings.
10 Mood-Boosting "Microadventures" You Can Do to Shake Up Your Daily Routine
Credit: Marie Doazan Trusty routines are comforting, but making time for a little adventure is equally essential for our mental health. Humans are wired to seek new experiences, which reward us with a burst of the feel-good chemical dopamine—and according to research, novelty yields all kinds of psychological benefits, enhancing our mood, motivation, and memory. That said, adventure doesn't have to mean far-flung feats of derring-do.
Research Is the Reason I Could Become a Mom and a Doctor
Rana Fowlkes’ breast cancer diagnosis came as a complete shock. But thanks to research, she was able to achieve two of her biggest dreams Rana Fowlkes has always been a planner, and in November 2019 she had big plans indeed. She was in her last year at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York and thinking about her next step: a residency in obstetrics and gynecology. Her wedding was in three months. She and her fiancé, John, were excited to start a family in the near future.
About Breast Cancer Side Effects
Every person’s experience with breast cancer is as individual as they are—but whatever your diagnosis, breast cancer will almost certainly affect more than your breasts. The disease, treatment, and aftermath can cause a wide range of symptoms, both physical and psychological.
This Morning Ritual Will Set You Up for a More Peaceful Day Ahead Original
For all too many of us, our morning ritual consists of gulping some caffeine, spritzing on a little dry shampoo, and sprinting out the door in a mild panic—which may get us to work on time, but doesn’t exactly set us up to be our most contented, creative, cordial (and non-cranky) selves. But what if you could turn that morning ritual into something more … ritualized? That is, a regular practice that fills your cup before the day ahead instead of draining it?
Cold Comfort
IF THE WORD “winter” fills you with dread—the icy roads, the darkness, the freezing temps—Kari Leibowitz, PhD, can relate. The author of the new book How to Winter: Harness Your Mindset to Thrive on Cold, Dark, or Difficult Days always preferred summer sun. “I grew up on the Jersey Shore, a confirmed winter hater,” Leibowitz says.
5 Houseplants You (Probably) Can't Kill
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Got the September Scaries? Here's How to Kick the End-of-Summer Blues Original
Photo: the_burtons/Getty Images Even when it’s still 90 degrees outside, something about seeing September on the calendar can feel like a big WOMP-WOMP deep down in your soul. Summer’s winding down, the good cherries are gone, and now it’s time to sharpen your pencils and get back to routine. How can the season of hot-weather frolicking be over already? If you’re feeling an end-of-summer psychological sag (aka the September Scaries), you’re not the only one.
Got the September Scaries? Here's How to Kick the End-of-Summer Blues
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10 "Microadventures" You Can Take When You Need a Quick Happiness Boost
Welcome to NewsBreak, an open platform where diverse perspectives converge. Most of our content comes from established publications and journalists, as well as from our extensive network of tens of thousands of creators who contribute to our platform. We empower individuals to share insightful viewpoints through short posts and comments.
Adventure Awaits
When we think of adventure, we probably imagine daring feats, faraway places, and fearless people who aren’t saddled with desk jobs. Maybe someone like Isabella Bird, the Victorian-era explorer who climbed the Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii and slept in a tent in Tibet on a carpet made of yak hair. But in fact, every one of us is wired to seek new experiences—even those of us with lower back pain ill suited for tent living.
The Ripple Effect
HERE’S THE BEAUTY of a water workout: You can get the cardiovascular benefits of a sweaty gym session, but it feels like play. Plus, it works for just about everyone—runners who want to cross-train; people with chronic conditions, such as diabetes; breast cancer survivors recovering from surgery; the bad-back crowd.
Appointment Pointers
IF YOU’VE BEEN putting off routine medical appointments, you have company. According to a 2023 poll commissioned by the Alliance for Women’s Health and Prevention, 45% of U.S. women reported that within the past year, they’d skipped preventive checkups, screenings, or vaccines. The longer you delay, the easier it is to kick that can down the road, says Taylor M. Ham, author of The Health Anxiety Workbook.
8 Realistic Ways to Get Better Sleep Tonight
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8 Realistic Ways to Get Better Sleep Tonight Original
Trending Videos We know what we’re supposed to do at bedtime: Draw the blackout curtains. Meditate. Avoid wine, screens, the fridge, and other fun stuff. Thing is, those classic bits of advice can be impractical for our overextended, underrested nation. Don’t (night) sweat it! What you actually need is advice for the real world—little tweaks to the standard strategies that can improve your rest without stressing you out. And here it is. Tired: Set boundaries around your bedtime.
What’s Your Sleep Style?
On Your Back Can reduce lower back, shoulder, and neck pain. “This position helps keep the back and neck in alignment,” says Devin Burke, author of The Sleep Advantage. For more back pain relief, try placing a pillow under your knees. May soothe dry eyes. Lying on your back means less pressure on the glands that help make tears. Could help prevent wrinkles. This is more of a vanity issue, but still: When we lie on our backs, our skin is smooth.
The Realistic Guide to Getting a Good Night’s Sleep
TIRED Set Boundaries Around Your Bedtime. INSPIRED Add More Self-care to Your Day. Ever feel personally offended that a long day is over and you haven’t had one minute just for you? So you blow off bedtime, then wake up exhausted? You may be a “revenge bedtime procrastinator,” delaying sleep to carve out time for yourself. In one study of Chinese nursing students, researchers found that bedtime procrastinators were more likely to experience self-regulatory fatigue.
The Best Sleeping Positions for Your Specific Sleep Issues, According to Experts
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The Best Sleeping Positions for Your Specific Sleep Issues, According to Experts Original
Trending Videos Whether you like to starfish in the middle of the bed or face-plant in a pillow, your go-to sleeping position is deeply personal—but it's not just a quirk. Research indicates that the way you spend those 7 to 8 hours a night could have a 24/7 impact on your health. Here, sleep specialists weigh in on various positions and the potential benefits of each.
How to Feel Your Feelings
Think of Being Emotional As a Strength, Not a Weakness. SARA KUBURIC, INSTAGRAM’S @MILLENNIAL.THERAPIST AND AUTHOR OF IT’S ON ME I used to be told I was too emotional all the time, and I felt shame and brokenness when people pointed it out. With time, I came to understand that this sensitivity made me a better therapist, friend, sister, daughter, and partner. Many people are uncomfortable with others’ emotions because they don’t know how to deal with their own.
Baby Got Back…Trouble
IT IS A TRUTH universally acknowledged (by most spine specialists, anyway) that if you’re an adult, you either have had back trouble, will have back trouble, or are having back trouble right this minute. According to a study in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine, an estimated 80 percent of people in the United States will experience lower back pain at least once—but Brett A.
Do Posture Correctors Really Work-and Do You Need One? We Asked Experts
Slouchers, take note. Good posture is like a superpower. It can increase our energy, reduce strain on our muscles and joints, improve our digestion, boost our mood, and make us look more commanding and statuesque. But chronic slouching is a hard habit to break, as you know if you constantly catch yourself hunching over your laptop like a teddy bear who’s losing its stuffing. Posture correctors promise to lift us out of our slump.
Rest, Recharge & Reset
Explore the Real-Life Twitterverse Bird-watching is trending! Discover the newly cool way to get back to nature. BIRDING WAS ONCE pigeonholed as a kind of geeky pastime, enjoyed by the safari-vested few who know the difference between a downy woodpecker and a hairy one. Lately, though, it’s become a hot hobby, says Christian Cooper, author of Better Living Through Birding and host of the National Geographic TV series Extraordinary Birder.
You Can't Actually 'Balance' Your Hormones-But You Can Help Manage Their Natural Ups and Downs
Learn ways to temper the effects of hormonal shifts, from your 30s through menopause, and beyond. Yulia Reznikov/Getty Images When we say someone is “hormonal,” that person is typically a woman, and she's usually having an outsize emotional reaction—sobbing over a lost-dog post or engulfed in a white-hot rage because no one else in her household can load the *$&#ing dishwasher correctly.
You Can't Actually 'Balance' Your Hormones-But You Can Help Manage Their Natural Ups and Downs
Learn ways to temper the effects of hormonal shifts, from your 30s through menopause, and beyond. Yulia Reznikov/Getty Images When we say someone is “hormonal,” that person is typically a woman, and she's usually having an outsize emotional reaction—sobbing over a lost-dog post or engulfed in a white-hot rage because no one else in her household can load the *$&#ing dishwasher correctly.
Hormones Gone Wild
ADVICE, INSPIRATION & A LITTLE PEACE OF MIND WHEN WE SAY someone is “hormonal,” that person is typically a woman, and she is usually having an outsize emotional reaction—sobbing over a lost-dog post or engulfed in a white-hot rage because no one else in her household can load the *$&#ing dishwasher correctly.
How to Talk to Your Doctor
WE’RE GRATEFUL FOR THE advancements of 21st-century medicine, but when it comes to doctor visits, it’s easy to long for the good old days of cozy chats with kindly, bespectacled family practitioners who asked about your mom’s sciatica. Now a trip to the doctor can feel about as personal as an oil change, and probably even faster.
One-Minute Mantras
“Courage Is the Choice to Leap” When you’re taking a big leap into the life you desire, you’re allowed to be scared. Courage is about being afraid and choosing to leap anyway, nerves and all. In moments of fear, psych yourself up with soothing self-talk: “I am doing a good job.
In Like a Lion, Out Like a Light
IN NO TIME AT ALL, spring will have sprung, giving us extra hours of light at the end of the day, warmer temps, green shoots poking from the ground—reminders that we can cast off our parkas and rejoice in the season of renewal. Or at least we could, if we weren’t so tired. As any posthibernation bear would tell you, spring is not the best for rest.
Matters of the Heart (and Brain)
ADVICE, INSPIRATION & A LITTLE PEACE OF MIND STEPHANIE CACIOPPO, PHD, studies what happens to the brain when we fall in love. But her knowledge of romance was mostly scientific until, at age 37, she attended a work conference and sat down next to John Cacioppo, PhD, a fellow researcher who, poetically enough, specialized in loneliness. That rom-com-worthy meet-cute led “Dr. Love” and “Dr. Loneliness” into a whirlwind courtship, a wedding, and a seven-year partnership in life and on the job.
The Dish on Awkward Dinner Convos
ADVICE, INSPIRATION & A LITTLE PEACE OF MIND WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT, it’s time to gather with your nearest and dearest to share food, fellowship, and conversation. You’ll likely talk about all sorts of things: current events, parenting styles, Harry Styles, how much garlic is too much, and why your niece felt compelled to get those new violet hair streaks, for example.
All Together Now
THERESA DERSE-NOSACEK did not expect that, at age 30, she’d be having nightly dinners with her mom and dad at the same table where she used to eat with her four siblings. And her parents, Gary and Elaine Nosacek, did not expect to spend their retirement surrounded by the toy tornadoes of three grandkids under the age of 4. But for the past four years, they’ve been living under one roof in the Nosaceks’ Victorian house in Milwaukee—happily, by all accounts.
Color Your World
Neutrals may be classic, but color is magic: When Dorothy opens her farmhouse door in Oz, that brilliant Technicolor makes it clear we’re not in Kansas anymore. What would The Wizard of Oz be without the Yellow Brick Road, the ruby slippers, the Emerald City? (Fun fact: L. Frank Baum, author of the Oz books, was also a window-dressing expert. Fun rumor: He chose green for the decadent city because it’s the color of money.) Color enchants our lives too. It can evoke memories and affect our moods.
OMG, Is This ADHD?
YOU’RE AT YOUR DESK, surrounded by sticky notes, each with a reminder: deadlines, dry cleaning, your (still unpaid) credit card bill. It’s the only way you can keep stuff from slipping out of your brain. You can’t manage to write one simple email, so you pick up your phone to check—wait, your sister tagged you on Instagram. You have a textathon and then go back to…what were you doing? How can it be 6 p.m.? Can the kids eat cereal for dinner? Do you have cereal?
Genie in a Bottle
IF YOU’VE EVER wished for a power potion, this may be your lucky day: Confidence is now available in a can. Sold in minimalist black-and-white packaging, Confidence is part of a growing trend of so-called functional beverages—drinks with supposed health and mood benefits.
The Friends Next Door
A Neighbor in Need Of… THE BIGGER PICTURE DENVER When Charlo Garcia moved to the Colorado capital with his husband in the fall of 2019, he was looking forward to meeting new friends—but the pandemic had other plans. “I’m very outgoing, and I thought, ‘Oh no, this is not gonna be good,’” says the artist, who began searching for a project to channel his energy.
An Alphabet of Ways to Protect Your Heart
A ASPIRIN For more than 30 years, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommended taking a daily low dose of aspirin, because it serves as a blood thinner and has been linked to lower rates of heart disease (long the number one killer of women). But recently, the panel walked back that advice, due to the risk of internal bleeding, which gets higher as you age. Whether you’re just considering an aspirin regimen or you’ve been popping a daily pill for a while, talk with your doctor.
The Time of Your Life
FOR JUST ABOUT EVERY MOMENT of our adult lives, we’re acutely aware of time—how we can maximize it, savor it, finagle more of it by multitasking. But during the pandemic, time got…weird. It stretched into eternity, as one Groundhog Day looped into another. It sped forward, as we forgot what life was like in the Great Before, when we could freely breathe on each other in elevators. It flattened, as our lives turned into one scheduleless, sometimes showerless limbo.
How Bygones Become Bygones
IT’S THE TIME OF YEAR when we’re reminded to draw the people we love ever closer, to spread peace and good cheer and goodwill, to forgive whatever wrongs have been done to us. But forgiveness can be a complicated net, full of seemingly impossibly tangled emotional knots. How can we unravel our deep-seated feelings about those who have profoundly hurt or angered us, those who still leave us with a bitter taste—whether it’s a close friend years estranged, a longtime rival, or our own parents?
Health Benefits of Living a Spiritual Life
AS A SOCIETY, we’re becoming more aware that mental health is just as important as physical health. But spiritual health is still absent from the conversation, says Lisa Miller, PhD, a psychologist and Columbia University professor who has spent 20 years studying the relationship between spirituality and depression. Miller believes that when we ignore our spiritual lives, we shut ourselves off from a world of connection, guidance, and mystery.
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