This will sound truly Pollyanna, but smile.

Even if you’re all by yourself walking down the street, standing at an elevator or in line in a store. Sitting in your office or driving in your car. A smile can change your disposition in ways a piece of chocolate or new shoes never could.

Try it. You’ll be surprised.

 Thanks for the informative article.

Carolyn Dean, MD, ND, author of numerous books including “The Magnesium Miracle” and Medical Director of the non-profit,  Nutritional Magnesium Association http://www.nutritionalmagnesium.org has this additional information to share that I thought you and your readers may find useful.

1. Calcium works with magnesium. Magnesium regulates the proper amount of calcium in a child’s  body and ensures it is directed toward building stronger bones. Unregulated, calcium ends up depositing in a child’s kidneys, coronary arteries and cartilage not in a child’s bones where they need it most. 

2. Adequate levels of magnesium are essential for the absorption and metabolism of calcium.  Magnesium keeps calcium dissolved in the blood.

3. Magnesium stimulates a particular hormone, calcitonin, that helps to preserve bone structure and draws calcium out of the blood and soft tissues including cartilage back into the bones, preventing osteoarthritis and osteoporosis in later life.

4. One of the more absorbable forms of magnesium is a magensium citrate powder that can be mixed with hot or cold water.

Hi Goddess,

As always, I found your article to be wise and true! 

Yes, as you mentioned, doing all those things do make us feel and look good. It in turn, raises our self-esteem to a new level.

What I find interesting is how only women feel like this and so few men. I have never heard a man I know want to "polish his look".  Is it because they are naturally more confident no matter what they look like or it is simply because they don’t care?  Hum…

Yet another fasinating difference in our relationships with men, right? 

What are your thoughts, goddess?

I know that Twilight Zone feeling of looking in the mirror, thinking "When did I change?  Why didn’t I notice it happening?", knowing that one’s looks have faded, eyebrows speckled with white hairs, an extra 20 pounds that resists exercise—it all seems so unfair.

I look at old pictures of friends and family and then into the eyes of those same people and I see them as they were, not their so-called flaws, not their older selves.  My eyes have changed too; but maybe that is a blessing.  Even with total strangers, I can see a good heart, a warm soul.  Maybe I’m not as nearsighted as I thought.

The long-term effects of injecting chemicals into our faces has not been shown.  FDA-approved procedures have been dead wrong before—why do women (maybe a few men, but mostly women) feel it is okay to be a guinea pig for these companies? 

This is an extreme example, but I am reminded of the 1960s when women had silicone injected directly into their breasts by "doctors" who saw dollar signs instead of the potential for the silicone to leak into their client’s bloodstream, giving them a death sentence.  Improvements have been made since then, if implants can be seen as an improvement, but the hubris of those days still amazes.  

A needle in my face for purely cosmetic reasons?  No thank you. 

Hi all,

I have known men who want to ‘polish their look’  but unfortunately, it is usually women. Not too surprising though, when the magazine racks at all stores scream out "Better buns!" or "How to get sexy thighs!". As a mother of sons, it’s hard enough teaching boys not to only fixate on a girl’s appearance when I read these … I can’t imagine how hard it would be to raise girls to value their real appearance.