Survive The Age of Anxiety With Our 2018 Health And Wellness Issue

We're living in the age of anxiety.

We won't repeat the reasons here. You know why—and if not, we can't help you.

You're not alone.

The most recent "Stress in America" study done by the American Psychological Association found that people are more stressed now than in any previously recorded year. Nearly two-thirds of Americans say the future of the nation is a very or somewhat significant source of stress, and that's even higher for us in the Western U.S., where the figure is 70 percent. Existential dread about the failure of the American experiment is suddenly the biggest stressor in the country—more than money, work or health.

Last year, we put together a health and wellness issue about preparing to fight through the Trumpocalypse. This year, we've dedicated the issue to R&R during that fight.

Things will be fine. Or they won't. Either way, you need to take care of yourself.

This wellness issue is focused on how you can do just that, with the minimum amount of movement and effort. Your chillaxing regime could be as simple as buying some stylish new houseplants, which studies show make you happier and healthier. Or you could try sound healing, in which an "intuitive sound healer" uses gongs and bowls to induce a therapeutic slumber. Maybe the problem is your forever-blip-blooping smartphone, in which case you may want to consider ditching it for an old flip phone as one contributor did for her digital cleanse. Or you could try a new yoga practice like nidra, in which you lie as still as possible and use visualizations to enter a restful trance. If that all sounds a little too sober, you could do what one of our writers did, and what European monks do, and attempt to reach a state of peace and purpose through a fast in which you subsist only on beer for a full week. Then again, maybe you just need a new candle.

Admittedly, some of these practices are of unverifiable benefit. But in an angry, anxious world that seems to have stopped making sense, we've all got to do what we can to find a moment of refreshing stillness.

Six trending houseplants that thrive in Portland.

Sound healing is a deeper way to meditate.

7 months ago, I traded my smartphone for a brick phone. Here's what happened. 

What I learned from yoga nidra, a movement-free practice of entering a restful trance. 

I lived on nothing but beer for a week, and survived. 

Our 8 favorite wellness products right now.