Life

We’ve all felt intimidated walking into a doctor’s office. It’s a vulnerable experience, fraught with expense and sometimes discomfort and fear. It can be smoother and more successful when we have clear expectations before we even make the appointment. Here are nine things we can do to make healthcare experiences more comfortable and less nerve-racking….

Prepare to be inspired as Amy Cohen Epstein engages in a captivating conversation with Shaney Jo Darden, the visionary behind the Keep A Breast Foundation. In this interview, Shaney Jo shares her deeply personal connection to breast cancer, revealing how it all began with a heartfelt mission to help just one person…

As an expectant mother, the moment you hear your baby’s heartbeat for the very first time is truly indescribable! Your own heart meets the rhythm of your little one’s as feelings of joy, disbelief, gratitude, and amazement overwhelm you….

“We found a mass in your esophagus,” my GI doctor said as I woke up after an endoscopy. My heart sank, and my stomach lurched, as I tried to absorb the shocking news. What does this mean? Is it cancerous? After an agonizing five days I got confirmation. It was a malignant tumor––esophageal cancer….

I was mad at my husband all the time. I knew he was a kind person, and he meant well, but it felt like he was, at best, my bumbling assistant, freeloading off my hard work. I felt like I was parenting my partner and he was incapable or uninterested in changing…

Balancing hormones can be a tricky task, especially for those assigned female at birth who experience monthly hormonal cycles that impact their mood, thoughts, and physical well-being. In this article, we'll explore how to use food to balance hormones and optimize our health during the different phases of the hormonal cycle, providing tips and insight into how to live a more balanced life…

Tayler LaBellarte is a member of the Orangetheory team and an advocate for previvors who are taking charge of their health and wellness. LaBellarte's journey with pre-viving began when her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer while LaBellarte was in college. This experience motivated her to learn as much as she could about breast cancer and its relationship to other cancers. After some navigation with her insurance, LaBellarte eventually underwent genetic testing and learned that she carried the BRCA2 genetic mutation, which puts her at an increased risk for breast and ovarian cancer. LaBellarte has since become an advocate for genetic testing and reviving by sharing her story and helping others to take control of their own health. Read on for more information about LaBellarte’s experience getting insurance to cover genetic testing, the options available to her at that time, and the emotional journey afterward…

Stress is a normal part of life that we all deal with – and can even be a good thing. Stress can lead to true transformation, motivating us to make change. Short-term stress, that is. Long-term, chronic stress, however, is the kind of stress we need to watch out for and manage – because it is chronic, long-term stress that affects us mentally and physically – especially in accelerating the aging process, both inwardly and outwardly….

What kind of outreach can we do to help people be more mindful of their sun exposure? We partnered with advocate Celine Mactaggart of Shine Safe, a non-profit and advocacy movement that is setting the sun on skin cancer to find out…

You trust your healthcare provider to help with your medical concerns. You rely on their experience and expertise to manage your symptoms. And you expect them to offer answers to your questions. But what happens when your questions go unanswered? Or worse, your provider dismisses your symptoms or tells you that you are fine — but you know something is wrong…

I have always been conscious of my own healing journey, dealing with severe health challenges in childhood, mainly affecting the lungs. As a sick child left largely to her own devices, I was able to master the ability to drop into deep meditative states and eventually, instead of struggling for breath, become quiet and peaceful. Not being able to join in with many games and sports, particularly in the cold, English winters, gave me the opportunity to sit on the sidelines and observe, which is something that I attribute now to my ability to meditate and ask big-picture questions…

“As long as I can remember I have never liked Mother’s Day,” says Alison Hunsicker, a full-time homemaker and caregiver to her disabled husband, with four children, ages seventeen to thirty-two. “Even when I communicate my expectations to my partner and our children, the day falls short. The worst year resulted in me yelling, “I hate this f’ing family!“ and leaving in my car to be by myself for hours. I wonder why it is so difficult to just acknowledge the huge contribution I make as a wife and mother?”…

Most of us who hit puberty in America in the 1990s and early 2000s never got a real sex talk. If we did, it was threatening and scary, focusing on purity and infections. We were told not to have sex because it could result in pregnancy. We were not taught about sexuality as a crucial part of being human or about how to navigate sexual relationships, including consent and how to control if/when we got pregnant…

When the concept of self-care first emerged, it meant long baths, pedicures, and wine — lots of wine. But, gradually, the concept has evolved into something more akin to self-compassion and genuine, healthy habits for protecting and providing for our mental and physical health…

Whether or not to gather with family over the holidays has never been a harder decision. Not only do we have to navigate the usual stressful family dynamics, but for these past two seasons, we’ve had to worry that we might be passing more than gravy and mashed potatoes over the dinner table. COVID-19 has dominated our thoughts, fears, and newsfeeds since March 2020, making it even more complicated to celebrate the holidays….

We sat down with the inspiring Gloria Feldt, the Former CEO and President of Planned Parenthood, to discuss the world of working women, burnout, empowerment, and her new book "INTENTIONING: Sex, Power, Pandemics, & How Women Will Take the Lead for (Everyone’s) Good.” In addition to her extensive resume in women’s health, Gloria is also the co-founder of Take The Lead, a nonprofit initiative with a goal to propel women to leadership parity by 2025. Take a listen.

It has been well-documented that COVID has only increased the weight women in families carry. On author and activist Glennon Doyle’s popular podcast, “We Can Do Hard Things,” she and her cohost and sister, Amanda Doyle, recently discussed women’s Overwhelm. They describe having a ticker of things to do, to worry about, to fix, to anticipate and oversee, always running through their heads, and how carrying the burden of their family members and colleagues’ comfort, safety, health, and success on their backs is flattening them…

All the new research shows how incredibly connected all these elements are. You simply cannot heal a physical ailment without addressing the emotional underbody. You have to find peace within to be whole without….

If empathetic professionals can experience compassion fatigue due to regular access to human suffering, it stands to reason that so too can the average consumer of news and information…

Jenny Galluzzo is an agent for change. Her company, The Second Shift, empowers women through work — by connecting them with meaningful, ethical, and diverse jobs.. The company tagline “making work, work for women” is an apt one because it is precisely what Jenny is all about: cultivating careers while advocating for equality in the workplace. In this interview, this inspiring entrepreneur sits down with SEAM founder Amy Cohen Epstein to discuss her experience cultivating this important network as well as her previous life as a journalist.

Jenna Grosfeld is the founder and creative iconoclast behind Jenna Blake, a bespoke jewelry design studio based in California. She has been making jewelry for 15 years, creating modernized renditions of classic designs which reference the past while bringing them into the 21st century. Here she is on creativity, entrepreneurship, and more — exclusively for The Seam

On Tuesday, May 3rd, The Lynne Cohen Foundation hosted their very first live webinar q+a featuring LCF Clinic Patient, Playwright, Sophia Heinecke. Here, Sophia unpacks her experience at LCF’s preventive care clinic located at Bellevue Hospital as well as her work with the Creative Center at University Settlement, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing the creative arts to people with cancer, chronic illnesses, and through all stages of life.

I have been searching for vibrant health, inner peace, and self-love for all of my adult life. As a shorthand, let’s call this magical trifecta “wellness.” And I can tell you, firsthand, that this kind of wellness is not easy to achieve. It is certainly not something that ever came naturally to me. I do not say this to discourage anyone from seeking it out – in fact, I am here to tell you quite the opposite…

Marcia Cross is perhaps best known for her role on Desperate Housewives but her work educating men and women about HPV has become a crucial force in the cancer prevention community. We sat down with the actress, activist, and and all-around inspiration to discuss her experience with anal cancer, its stigmas, and how the medical community needs to evolve in order to save lives

The Seam founder, Amy Cohen Epstein, sits down with breast cancer, Ali Bartman to talk about her unique experience, including risk, survival, and the importance of “knowing your normal”…

ShineSafe founder, Celine Mactaggart, impressed us with her millennial-friendly design sensibilities. But it's her foundation's science-backed, friendly approach to skin cancer education that keeps us coming back for more.

Amy Cohen Epstein sits down with Linnea to talk about starting a business in the age of COVID and using tragedy as an impetus to build a better future…

Like many business owners, Whitney Rosenson had to adapt her company post-shut-down — and fast. So she directed her energies online, not only to benefit her business but also those most vulnerable among us…

Beyond Yoga makes the softest, most durable yoga and loungewear, but it is the inclusive, spiritual focus that founder, Jodi Guber Brufsky, brings to her business that we find most inspiring…

We can't think of a better role model for entrepreneurs than Amanda Freeman. In this inaugural interview for The Seam Podcast, our founder, Amy Cohen Epstein, sits down with Amanda to talk business, fitness, and survival in the age of Covid-19…