A Fresh Slate

For more than two decades, the entire Experience Life team has met multiple times each year to imagine, plan, and develop the concepts for the magazines that end up in your mailbox. Discussing current healthy-living topics and sometimes even drawing on the real-life experiences of our own family and friends, we’ve produced hundreds of issues and thousands of articles.

I often describe our process as a well-oiled machine — one that’s maintained thanks to the care and attention of an extraordinary team of passionate individuals. Each issue takes about seven months to execute, from ideation to delivery; four issues are in progress at any given time.

You might think this process would get tiresome and repetitive. Yet because of the fresh slate that each issue offers, it almost always feels new and exciting. As we move through each year, we learn and discover new things: what’s resonating with you, our readers; what’s new and updated in research; what our trusted experts are researching, practicing, and focusing on; and what’s trending in the broader culture, as well as in fitness, nutrition, personal development, and more.

It’s in that spirit and in keeping with this issue’s theme, ‘Begin Again,’ that I’m proud to share what’s new in these pages for 2023.”

Keeping all these elements in mind, we annually revisit the editorial content and visual design of the magazine, much like many of us reflect on our own achievements and ambitions at the New Year. So, it’s in that spirit and in keeping with this issue’s theme, “Begin Again,” that I’m proud to share what’s new in these pages for 2023:

• One Healthy Habit: This at-a-glance article offers quick tips for consistently embracing one healthy habit each month — and building from there. Additional digital resources delve deeper into the why and how, so you can make sustainable change, one day at a time (see the new column here).
• Expert Answers: Senior fitness editor Maggie Fazeli Fard gets so many questions about movement and fitness. She’s tapping into her own and others’ expertise to answer your queries about exercise and its effects. This month’s focus: muscle soreness.
• Something Simple: Healthy cooking doesn’t have to be complicated, maintains senior editor Kaelyn Riley. And each featured recipe is proof that with a handful of ingredients and a willingness to try, you can have a tasty, balanced meal on the table in well under an hour (see page 43).
• Joy Lab: This evolution of the Natural Mental Health column by integrative psychiatrist Henry Emmons, MD, shares highlights from his latest work — a podcast and program he created with Aimee Prasek, PhD, that’s focused on “connecting science and soul to help you uncover your joy”.
• Renewal: Making a return to our pages after a few years away, this section offers a straightforward take on common sources of stress in our lives, along with strategies for stress management and recovery (read this month’s piece on asking for help).
• Natural Healing: Features editor Courtney Helgoe is at the helm of this new department that covers energy medicine, a branch of complementary and alternative medicine that’s often misunderstood and misrepresented but has a growing body of research behind it. She’ll explain individual healing modalities in each issue.

And finally, I hope you enjoy the striking design updates, cover treatment, and fonts delivered by our amazing art team. Their ability to bring all these stories to life, from the cover to the very last page, ties each issue together beautifully.

As we begin another year, I hope you’ll explore the opportunities for updates and change in your own life and work — and make the shifts that feel right and fresh for you. Cheers!