Feminine Essentials

What better time to share the gift of health with the women in your life. Or to stop and take inventory to address your own needs. Put a bow on these ideas for enhancing physical and emotional health:

• Purchase a membership. Give yourself a gift that keeps on giving by joining a gym. If you’re a man, help your favorite woman open doors to better health by funding the dues to a local fitness club. Or try a stand–alone facility that offers specialized classes like yoga or even ballroom dancing. You can buy a series of sessions that will get you and/or that special lady moving toward a fitter lifestyle.
• Subscribe to health. Order a magazine that caters to women’s health. Or wrap up a new cookbook on nutritious cuisines. Sign up for an online wellness program, where you can chat with others, track your progress, and get tips.
• Provide healing touch. Massage therapy works out the kinks, but research shows it may have benefits that go deeper than the deepest tissue rub. Several studies suggest that massage boosts immunity by lowering cortisol levels, decreases blood pressure by stimulating regulatory nerves, and tempers pain associated with everything from premenstrual cramps to arthritis to burns to fibromyalgia.