Jenni Gritters

Those supportive DMs and niche Facebook groups can have a positive impact on your well-being.

We’re on video chat all day long. Here’s what it’s doing to our brains.

Welcome to the new world of brain-sensing and brain-training devices.

When a woman gets pregnant, she can expect a bevy of physical changes to sweep through her body: morning sickness, exhaustion, quickly growing breasts, loosening joints, swelling hands and feet, hair and skin changes, dry eyes and more.
But what happens to her brain? Nobody really knows. Researchers across the world have begun to chip away at this perennial question.

Salomon’s Quest 4D 3 GTX hiking boots (which come in men’s and women’s models) are the best boots for most people who want to day hike or go on short backpacking trips on most terrains. This is a versatile, comfortable pair of boots that will fit many different kinds of feet. They’re lighter than most of the other boots we tested, but they still provide essential features such as foot protection, a gusseted tongue, and a nice lacing system. We also like that these Salomon boots are both breat...

More than 40 years ago, three Seattle researchers launched an international nonprofit.
They called it PIACT, or the Program for the Introduction and Adaptation of Contraceptive Technology. As PIACT, they bridged partnerships between companies and governments around the world, creating access to the latest contraceptives and sexual health solutions that weren’t available outside of the world’s wealthiest countries at the time. Their work was revolutionary, groundbreaking, and important.
Over t...

here’s a new trend on dating apps like Tinder and Bumble: People have started listing their Myers-Briggs types on their profiles, so prospective dates can get a tiny glimpse into a match’s personality before setting up an IRL meetup. As an MBTI nerd and a generally analytical person with an affinity for a couple types in particular (ENTPs are my weakness), I looooooove that this is happening.
While I would not recommend making dating decisions exclusively based on someone’s Myers-Briggs type ...

Imagine you're working at a school and one of the kids is starting to act up. What do you do?
Traditionally, the answer would be to give the unruly kid detention or suspension.
But in my memory, detention tended to involve staring at walls, bored out of my mind, trying to either surreptitiously talk to the kids around me without getting caught or trying to read a book. If it was designed to make me think about my actions, it didn't really work. It just made everything feel stupid and unfair.
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Healthy sleep has more to do with quality of rest than quantity of hours. Sleep meditations help create the inner conditions needed for a truly restful night. Because when we settle the mind, we rest the body—and that restfulness is what makes it easier to wind down and drift off.
What is meditation for sleep?
Meditation trains us to be less in our head and more aware of the present moment. The mind’s tendency to get caught up in thoughts is perhaps strongest at bedtime, when we suddenly stop...

This is the same great jacket as the men’s model, but in different colors and sizes.
After spending dozens of miles hiking, cycling, and running, we think the Outdoor Research Tantrum Hooded Jacket for both men and women is the best lightweight windbreaker for most people. The Tantrum weighs next to nothing, packs down easily, fits true to size, and offers a variety of useful features like well-placed pockets and a hood that stays on in high winds. It’s also solidly windproof while remaining ...

Unlike a traditional suitcase, a versatile duffel bag can expand or contract based on the amount of gear you need to bring with you. You can stuff a duffel with both hard and soft goods, which makes it well-suited for everything from weekend travel to camping, from stowing gear to moving across town.
We looked for duffel bags that were easy to carry, durable and well-organized. First, we sorted through hundreds of REI customer reviews to discover the top-rated duffels. Each duffel on our list...

If scrolling through social media makes your brain feel fuzzy, you’re not alone.
Social media sites are designed to show us exchanges between our friends that don’t involve us—exchanges we might not see if social media didn’t exist. As we scroll through our feeds, we’re often privy to conversations between our friends, photos of them hanging out together, and even inside jokes. These observations can cause feelings of social exclusion and isolation, and according to a new study from the Socia...

Thailand has it all: pristine beaches, gorgeous mountains, relatively cheap costs, friendly locals and fantastic food. What’s not to like? For American travelers especially, Thailand is a hot-ticket destination right now because it doesn’t require a visa and the exchange rates are friendly on the wallet.
According to Amy Hardie, REI Adventures’ travel program coordinator for Asia, Thailand is a great gateway country for people who are new to traveling in Asia. “It has an amazing infrastructur...