Morning After Dread: Understanding Hanxiety and What Helps
Wellness, Entertaining Amanda Kotiesen Wellness, Entertaining Amanda Kotiesen

Morning After Dread: Understanding Hanxiety and What Helps

A clear guide to navigating post-drinking anxiety, body signals, science-backed coping tools and the products that can help

By: The Lace Ledger Staff

Your pounding headache and rising nausea jolt you awake long before your alarm.

Your chest feels tight, a knot of dread coils in your gut and a single thought crawls in: did I say or do something embarrassing last night? Is it as bad as I think?

This experience — a signature blend of hangover and anxiety, now lovingly referred to as hanxiety — is familiar to many, especially after nights of heavy drinking, when physical and psychological distress overlap.

Hangxiety symptoms can include the obligatory nausea, shakiness, headaches, etc. paired with racing thoughts, shame, regret and fixation on what could have gone wrong the night before, often worsening as blood alcohol drops and brain chemistry rebalance begins.

It doesn’t help that, even on a good day, anxiety disorders are common with over 359M people worldwide affected and counting according to the World Health Organization. Adding stressors such as sleep loss and dehydration to a possibly already-anxious foundation can be challenging.

If you find the morning after harder than the night before, you are far from alone — here is what to do next.

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House of Steam: Inside Canada’s Most Haunting Winter Hydro Spas
Travel, Wellness, January Issue Amanda Kotiesen Travel, Wellness, January Issue Amanda Kotiesen

House of Steam: Inside Canada’s Most Haunting Winter Hydro Spas

The Canadian winter is a creature of contrast: frozen air that bites, trees stripped to bone, stillness that feels older than snow.

Step into steam rising against that cold, and the world realigns — warmth unfurls muscle tension and settles thought like a cathedral organ.

Outdoor hydrotherapy in the depth of winter feels mythical. Water that heats the skin becomes a balm, cold plunges elicit a sharp intake of breath and the virgin white surroundings focus every sensory moment.

This is not mere relaxation; it is a pilgrimage into sensation, a communion with heat and ice that feels sacred.

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The Mind, Reframed: A Watchlist Inside the Psyche on Screen
Watchlist, Film, Wellness, January Issue Amanda Kotiesen Watchlist, Film, Wellness, January Issue Amanda Kotiesen

The Mind, Reframed: A Watchlist Inside the Psyche on Screen

How 26 films portray mental health, harm and healing

By: The Lace Ledger Staff

Film has long been fascinated with the complicated workings of our inner selves. The portrayal of mental health on screen ranges from being cast as mirror for our deepest fears to empathetically-driven epilogs or funhouse distortions, depending on who is telling the story.

Some narratives offer care and complexity, while others lean into spectacle at the expense of truth.

This watchlist examines how mental health is framed across genres, decades and tones, from compassion to controversy.

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End the Year with Grace: A Conversation with a Modern Mystic, Molly Zancanaro
Culture, Wellness, Spirituality, Interviews Amanda Kotiesen Culture, Wellness, Spirituality, Interviews Amanda Kotiesen

End the Year with Grace: A Conversation with a Modern Mystic, Molly Zancanaro

Reflections on revelation, Reiki and the rituals that bridge one year to the next

By: The Lace Ledger Staff

The year ends softly for those who know how to listen. The light thins, and time seems to breathe between hours.

We spoke with a modern mystic, Molly Zancanaro, about the quiet work of closing the year with grace and intention. Her practice blends spiritual intuition with energy work. Specializing in Reiki healing and tarot, she reminds others that ending the year doesn’t mean that we have to resolve the past to move forward; but simply release carrying what no longer belongs with us.

In this conversation, she shares her story of self discovery and finding her online community, and then invites us to peak behind the curtain of a session to gain a deeper understanding of the energy and intuitive work she does. She also shares a simple ritual we can each use to welcome the new year as 2025 comes to a close.

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