Mental Health Awareness Month is in May. But every day is an opportunity for wellness and mental health awareness for everyday people.
Mental health disorders and anxiety run rampant for people in our lives. In keeping wellness up, we can only do our part and be supportive of others and ensuring our own mental health is in order.
Mental Health Awareness Month is one of the several recognized events throughout the year to keep a reminder going.
And we can all check in on how we’re doing these days.
And others have strayed away from natural growth and becoming better and healthier, into less productive habits that lead to their self-inflicted destructive behavior patterns.
In some cases, this has led to a growing anxiety medication epidemic crisis in America. Too many people are taking them willingly like popping candy without questioning their doctor’s recommendation, and for longer than prescribed.
In college when I didn’t know any better, I took OTC sleeping pills for a semester. When I got off of them, I felt like I was drowning.
That was the wake up call that was needed to get me up and out of looking for a med crutch, when there is a choice to self-medicate and seek inner peace.
We’re all here to evolve and get better, but that’s up to each of us.
And some of the best remedies any of us can apply in Mental Health Awareness Month is wellness practices.
This can be in yoga, meditation, nature walks, and all of the above. Wellness and self-care is the best mind-body answer.
You’re the only one who can choose and do your better life. So for Mental Health Awareness Month (with emphasis on awareness), these are some ideas that you can implement for your healthy wellness lifestyle changes:
Healthy Wellness Lifestyle Changes You Can Make (For Mental Health Awareness Month)
And in your practice, you can get to the root of discovering the healthy you!
Through mind-body connection, maintaining both mental and physical health plays a big role.
When you’re aware that the mind-body directly communicate with each other, you can make positive changes to your life.
Let’s look at mental health (mind) and physical health (body) that we can influence in our wellness.
For physical health changes:
Many recurring or chronic flare-ups don’t have to be a regular or seasonal occurrence when you know the source.
With many interruptive symptoms, you can avoid them with better lifestyle choices and making healthy changes like having less stress in your life or purging past memory baggage.
And removing post-trauma that can stay invisible to you today, and be a part of your everyday.
And general symptoms such as eczema, acne, acid reflux, other GI tract, IBS issues, or sinus infections are preventable.
If you make a simple lifestyle adjustment, you can live more enjoyably, and prevent bothersome symptoms that can otherwise leave you worried, stressed, or moody.
Let me show you how simple these lifestyle changes can be.
Eczema – too much sugar can trigger eczema and food allergies, so finding alternatives. When you don’t eat sugar over time, your cravings can disappear as your tastes change. So slowly removing refined sugar and eating plant-based including fruits is a solution.
Acid reflux – a diet such with highly acidic foods and beverages, and wrong combinations of food eaten together can exacerbate. Using ACV with “the mother” as a food as medicine ingredient in your daily or weekly plan could benefit you. And changing up your meals as most of us eat the same categories of food. Adding more alkaline foods can do you good. For example, if we eat cheese, we tend to eat more than we need. Or we lean into tomato sauces when we could alternate with a butternut squash or other healthy alternative.
Sinus infections – we can’t do anything about the air we breathe in around us, but we can use a neti pot to clean out our nasal passages regularly to prevent sinus infections.
The preventative neti pot me saved me, a person who had experienced back to back sinus infections from a work environment that had mold behind the modern-built walls.
And like a magic potion (there’s no magic!), the prevention prescription for these annoying symptoms can be natural. If we can prevent ailments and nip-them-in-the-bud before they grow, then we don’t have to take medicine that hurts our microbiome.
Some of these “grandmother” and “old world” ways that are Ayurvedic ways, come from generations before us where modern medicine didn’t exist and the people then were able to live longer than they would have because they found natural solutions, like these:
A low sugar and balanced diet, apple cider vinegar, and sinus cleansing (neti pot). Those are pretty easy healthy fixes compared to the physical symptoms.
These changes are all healthy and easy to implement with a desire to change small habits.
We can pick up habits easily and unaware we don’t notice what we’re consuming, doing, or not doing. Being sensitive to our body’s “calling out” through imbalanced body symptoms can wake up our awareness.
For happiness-sadness mood swings:
Taking supplements such as the correct amount of daily Vitamin D3 can change your daily happiness.
Had I known this back when I was a teenager and young adult, my SAD (seasonal affective disorder) mood that came up every February (when naturally Vitamin D sunlight was far less) could have been better or non-existent if I took the right amount of Vit D. Proper vitamin and mineral nutrients are essential where some are daily critical.
And getting enough tryptophan from foods helps with your serotonin “happy hormones” where 90% is produced in your gut.
And finally taking the right amount of magnesium that most people don’t usually get enough of absorbed into their system or in their diet, can be helpful to relax a stressed, anxious, or worried mind-body.
For mental health disorders:
Feeling anxious, severe Impostor Syndrome, or prolonged depression can often be naturally altered. For those who are born healthy, we learn behaviors that if kept unaware to us, can turn into mental health disorders that affect daily life.
Getting your heart rate up in exercise, taking a shower, or getting outside to take a walk and appreciating those moments where you can see nature can help you stop wanting what you can’t have right now.
Our brains can be our worst enemies or best friends. You choose. Exercise ignites happy chemicals in your brain.
Challenge your thoughts. They don’t always help so tell the ones that are not helpful, to take a hike! And you take your healthy hike outdoors. 😊
Walking away is better as there’s nothing more dangerous than an ego that’s unleashing thoughts affecting your counterproductive behavior. Catch your ego in the act in observation. And do the opposite. Find the loving and productive thoughts.
And one thought change at a time, changes your mind’s perspectives where you develop your happy, loving, and healthy mind for life.
If you have a situation or trial, find a positive to be gained. There is one if you look hard enough. On the other side of the rainbow, you will gain patience, resilience, self-control, and other traits that you couldn’t have learned otherwise or through other people’s lessons.
If you feel stuck in your current situation, you can try to come up with one step you could take today to change or start exploring a new direction?
In the beginning, a baby step is all it takes. Getting to the shower or your yoga mat even when you don’t feel like it. Do it anyway. And afterwards, you’ll feel much better.
And then you will have trained your mind to “just do it anyway” because it works! And the brain loves when it works, because that’s a sign of accomplishment and success.
Peace and wellness be with you.
A healthy wild cod with Vitamin D with a “3 Sisters” plant-based accompaniment is a good source of Vitamin A, K, protein, and fiber. Drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil and the fat-soluble vitamins will absorb better.
When I was younger I wore contact lenses. For the first few weeks, I had a subconscious fear and phobia, and I struggled to get the soft contact on my eyeball.
When I would try, my eye would blink and my eyelashes would keep the contact out of my eye.
No-contact was what I should have called the daily event that seemed like taking half an hour every day.
Years later, I realized that the reason I couldn’t get the contacts in my eyes was that I had a subconscious fear of the contact (lens) making contact with my eye.
So the blinking was not controlled by me but a body reaction to what my mind was telling my eye (mind-body connection in full swing).
From this puzzling event, I recalled that years before as a child, my eyes would sting when I tried to open them in the pool water.
Some kids could open their eyes completely underwater (I noticed with my underwater goggled protected eyes wide open).
A-ha!… with that, I made the connection to my fear… the goggles acted as eye protection and a contact lens was an intruder like the chlorinated pool water, at least in my subconscious mind (that does most of the thinking).
Knowing that insight, allowed problem-solving consciousness to emerge.
With daily practice, I consistently calmed my mind disabling my protective shell in my brain and re-writing the new story narrative to my fear and phobia that had the bold headline: “contacts are safe.”
Then that mind message was reinforced daily as I went to a 20/20 daily vision world from a framed eyeglass world.
Those subconscious positive reinforcing thoughts cut down the time to insert a contact within seconds.
Wouldn’t that be great if we could reprogram our negative thinking minds in nanoseconds?
Making visible, hidden fears through your actions
Inserting contact lenses can be a frustrating experience for many in the beginning (like it was for me).
Similarly, for so many other starting out defeats, a hidden fear or phobia can be preventing the outcome from happening.
There’s a deeper root cause for your fears.
When you can find the reasons and ways to reprogram your subconscious mind, then you can get over your fear and phobia.
Insecurity is one of those subconscious fears that can show up regularly with a knee-jerk reaction from a fear-based thought.
Another is jealousy or criticism especially if you’ve been wounded or have reason to doubt.
And these get worse if you’re Vata imbalanced. If you’re naturally Vata dominant, anxiety is your natural way that can trigger fear.
Any non-loving thought is fear-based because it comes from the brain’s ego, and if left unattended, can spin wildly out of control.
We can rewrite those subconscious fear thoughts and shadow work can be the way.
Also, others can notice from the words, actions, and reactions that happen, but the person with the ego is often blind…
It’s natural and invisible to the person unless they witness and catch the self-defeating and manipulating thoughts.
So that’s why we all have to be careful and stay aware of our own egos.
At any weak moment, a humble spirit can turn into a prideful act.
The simple act of someone cutting you off on the road can change your calm state to a riled-up one. And that can show up in a myriad of undesirable outward expressions that are unhelpful to everyone involved.
Getting off your chest is healthy and productive after you have a chance to cool down in self-control and you have calmly thought about potential solutions.
Then when you are tested, or you’re cut off the road, you get to decide which road to take.
Choosing the higher road means letting go and that can seem weak to the ego-mind, but self-control is empowered strength.
If you’re conflicted or when you don’t know what to do, don’t do anything yet. Review so you can learn and have discernment next time.
Remember that tidbit of wisdom next time when you hesitate.
Because you can be certain you will be reminded again until the lesson is learned. Life is patient with us.
How To Change Your Deep Rooted Fear and Phobia
Fear and phobia is rooted in the small places we can operate from in limitation and sometimes ugliness.
We all can act saintly-kind if we choose, and the act allows good sides to birth. Love serves all.
With practice over time, ideally, we can even learn to let undesired “meant to protect you” entering thoughts just pass through without putting energy into them.
We don’t have to accept our thoughts as current truth such as an isolated traumatic experience.
We can just reject those non-helpful thoughts that don’t apply to our current situation and send them back to where they came from.
And we can connect the dots to our self-awareness for the next time. We can recognize our self-destructive patterns and question them.
Because when you realize and accept every thought isn’t yours, that’s when you can learn how to optimize and transform your life if you decide.
Maybe you do realize, but you haven’t accepted yet. Because to accept means you give up a part of your control.
Say Goodbye to Your Past Fear and Phobia!
Before my younger contact lens years, I had fear and phobia about the dark, lightning, thunder, and the deep waters just to name a few things.
They came from news stories I heard, scary movies I watched, and almost physically drowning in my backyard lake at 9 years old.
But first I had to get calm and lose the worry.
I conquered the drowning fear eventually by learning how to swim.
When you lose your deep fear, any surface panicking fear and phobia, you can learn to float as you become light and buoyant. And if you can float either on your back or your front, you can learn to swim and save yourself.
That summer I was able to enroll in swim lessons but didn’t successfully learn how to float.
Then one day I was in the shallow end of a neighborhood pool, and I was calm and tried to float. Something clicked and I learned how to float on my belly and my back in the pool water.
It wasn’t pretty as I just laid there like a piece of driftwood letting my feet slowly float from the bottom of the pool.
But that day gave me confidence as I repeated floating again and again until I unintentionally could convince and remind myself (and my mind) that I knew how to float.
Fast forward to my young adulthood… most of my childhood phobias had disappeared or I had learned to swim out of them.
I still had fear and worry about so many real-life situations.
One was I had learned to grow scared of sharing.
I didn’t grow in share vulnerability times so that re-enforced my being a private person.
Writing blog posts like this and sharing on the internet was not something I would have ever done back then.
But instead of letting the fear get to me and grow in me, I slowly one-small step at a time turned those moves into action and transformation.
Since I faced my fear, I got over the hump to the other side and then I could replace my old fears.
When I had the realization opportunity to cross the bridge into knowing there’s a divine source inside you decades later, there was an exchange into believing in more than my ability only.
There was new weightlessness like the thick clouds had lifted. I wasn’t the sole source for my success and I stopped believing in luck as coincidence without meaning.
I became a Believer that applied deeper insight to life, which did the heavy lifting to transform fear. In faith you know there’s another better life coming.
…What if this life were just a test?
And if you’re still wondering what this life is about, testing the waters in your quiet, thoughtful life is a good way to discover. What if there was more, and you were missing out?
This is an individual question, but when you seek, you will find.
“You become what you think about all day long.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
How Faith Can Play a Solution Role
To take one step further, gaining faith can transform your beliefs and mental health, and especially if you have an anxiety disorder or a traumatic stress disorder.
When you believe that all things are possible in a larger context, then you can believe that fear is beyond you and your power.
Fear can feel like an uncontrollable problem. If you can problem-solve with from within then you have a powerful way.
Norman Vincent Peale’s The Power of Positive Thinking was a classic book published in the 1950s.
He was a motivational thinker so ahead of his time because he was already suggesting meditation and mind-body correlation in his works.
There’s a 10-step practical process in the book’s chapter “Power to Solve Personal Problems.”
It includes: believe for every problem there is an answer, pray about your problems, trust in your insight and intuition, and do creative spiritual thinking for amazing power answers.
If Mr. Peale were still alive today, he would be a great forward-thinking influencer with much to say.
Heart and soul is a part of our bodies that we can’t see, but we can feel daily. Pizza is heart and soul food (recipe below for making a heart shaped pizza 🧡).
A daily heart and soul-centering check-in can change your life! You could be an old soul or have an old soul like some of us who remember young life before the internet.
…I remember when I first started out working and ambitiously I thought I wanted to climb the corporate ladder. It didn’t take many years before I shifted my priority to wanting better work-life balance.
And with those intentions, I career pivoted that gave me that outcome. But had I not picked my head up to see what my heart and soul was telling me (and now I know my spirit was helping me), I would’ve missed the message about finding time to work on me. Personal growth was something I had to go outside of work to find in volunteering and discovering myself.
It’s never too early to start checking in. Maybe now is a good time to set this priority in your life as you had to rethink parts of your life in 2020, along with everyone else (so you’re in good company!).
There were many external changes made affecting your life, that you had no control over, and may help you later on in ways you may not see how yet at this moment.
So for now, you can just keep going, growing, and focusing on creating the best that your life offers in abundant possibilities that you put intention to until the next step. There’s always a next step when the timing is right.
It’s better to think this optimistic way and joyfully pivot into your forming newer overall life, including work, relationships, passion, and purpose, so you can enjoy the process with greater ease (and not create unnecessary dis-ease or woes-me feelings).
That doesn’t mean you don’t have varying feelings with so many gray areas and small decisions you need to make, but that you’re finding your happier way now in the process (and possibly then seeing through a different lens than the one you may have been previously looking from).
I provide a lasting impactful way to do a heart and soul check-in, further below. ⬇️
Encouragement: Our Society, You, and Your Gained Ideas
In America, convenience is at our fingertips, and many of us started last year to positively lean into our interests, curiosities, and skills development.
You may have learned how to grocery shop differently, cook meals, bake your own bread, and learn new digital skills as a way to communicate with the rest of our virtual world and the local community.
You picked up other life skills that everyone needs so you could stay relevant.
You may have even discovered or rediscovered a few passions and hobbies, and read more books than you sought out originally to do. Those were some of the common gains for many of us.
All was not lost in our home life, and more has been gained (and is being gained) in our overall lives if we choose to focus on the higher lens way of living.
It’s helpful for you to reflect and personally remind yourself of the progress over perfection you’ve made, so you can stay feeling uplifted in your spirit. It’s too easy to get sourly influenced in our culture.
You can be less on guard, open up to your authentic self and reap the benefits in a new era where we’re all finding our way in many ways.
Over the past year especially, you may have changed some lifestyle habits or behaviors that you like, that work better, and that you decide to keep forever.
And you may have gained clarity about what you want in the next chapter of your life. Even though you wouldn’t have done this if you weren’t challenged to do so. But you can use your situation to your good advantage!
You may even have found the better way, and experienced that good changes in your life can show up as a combination of thinking, doing, and feeling what is right for you. You get internal clues and they can help you find your second or next act.
If you took or take your connect-the-dot lessons one step further, you can reflect on how you felt about what you first thought about specific ideas. You can then take another brave leap of action so you can try and replicate best practices and discover even more new ways, as our world is evolving. This creates innovation and gives you a better way of doing things.
For example, you’re inspired to try a new recipe and that seemed to work out and made you happy, so the next time you tweak the recipe and create something new and different that you enjoy. This works the same with a new workout, new route, or a new passion project you’re developing. Variety and innovation keep you making progress!
And that’s how personal growth attitudes and creative progress are fed and can seep into every fiber of your life if you’re open to new ways and ideas.
New ideas can take time to form in the process and as you start dabbling with curiosity, you can become less intimidated to make mistakes. That’s how you grow and learn.
In this forming introspective way of life, you can also dig deeper into yourself to find what gives you more meaning and joy than what you previously found made you happy, as you become more of who you are and will become.
You can also reach higher levels of contentment and then feel fewer emotional ups and downs.
Many positive changes can be happening all at once in this complex life, with yourself and your life.
You may have even re-thought your life’s retirement plans and this year’s optimistic and realistic plans. And you’ve probably learned to be more grounded in reality and to get back to simple basics, focusing on what actually is happening to you and around you.
As a global society, we’re still not able to freely travel and create safe, live events. From these changes, new ways have been born and are birthing, such as the newer apps where you’re entering live global event conversations safely and without travel hassles.
You could use the saved travel time and energy to work on your life, to double down on a new purposeful trajectory, or seek a new mission in your life.
Just one idea can change your life and if you have an extra few minutes, that could be the difference-maker in your life.
So where would you spend those extra minutes? Here’s what I do and what I suggest.
Prioritize a Daily Heart and Soul Check-in
Especially as we’re all distracted, prioritizing a heart and soul check-in can be the best way to (re)focus on your life.
Washington DC metro is area is a unique place. I know because I grew up there with the Washington Monument as a backdrop.
The Washington Monument is one of the most iconic Washington DC monuments you can see standing on rooftops across the river. It’s in the middle of the downtown mall (closer to the newer MLK and WW2 Memorials) and sandwiched in between The US Capitol and The Lincoln Memorial. Lincoln Memorial is open year round as an open monument.
It’s a transition area where many come and go. And tons of tourists during spring and summer tourist season that starts around the Cherry Blossom festivities near the downtown DC mall that starts at the Lincoln Memorial (and Thomas Jeffereson Memorial is also close by).
I held many work career positions downtown in DC and also surrounding Alexandria, Tysons Corner, and Reston in the DC metro area known as Northern Virginia.
I grew up there as a toddler and lived there until I was an adult.
And if the DC metro area is new to you or you’re moving to the area, DC is as safe as any big city to move to and has cleaned up considerably over the years.
14th Street corridor when I was growing up was not just seedy but you avoided. It’s now a revival part of the city that’s hip to visit.
Nearby residents are moving back into the city to be closer to their work and a more exciting city lifestyle that the downtown offers. City Center and The Wharf today were not attractive areas decades ago.
Then just across the bridge by metro or car, the accessible suburban areas are filled with calm shopping and small livable communities.
That makes the DC metro area a great place to live and work! …and with all the new companies like Amazon coming to town creating buzz.
I was living a stone’s throw away from the building during the pandemic so I could see the progression.
From an inside view, I became aware of the transient-ness vibe of the metro city area early on when I kept seeing an influx of people move in and out for a government job, other career, or friends and family.
The local residents who have grown up in the area (or lived in the area for most of their lives) are mostly friendly, helpful, educated, and cultured.
You’ll find that many in the area are well-educated, have traveled overseas, and are savvy on many subjects.
Like me, some have gone to school locally. I received my first degree there and attended 3 local universities.
What to Expect At Work In The Washington DC Metro Area
If you’re a new transplant adapting to the DC metro area, work-life balance can be tricky as you find your groove.
Most people may not be as relaxed as you may be accustomed to depending on where you moved from.
And that shows in the competitive driving style. You will know if you’re in the wrong lane driving the wrong speed.
If you moved here for work, your employer will have high expectations in a competitive city and maybe higher than where you came from.
When I was growing up, the nation’s top public schools based on school grades were in the Washington DC metro area. And yes, I was in those counties.
You can expect stressful demands from employers, and coming up with tactful and smart ways to address complex decision-making areas.
Just remember, you gain experiences each time. And tomorrow is always a brand new chance for something new and changes.
I worked in corporate management jobs so I lived and breathed this for decades.
Work weeks had long hours.
So expect to embrace those ways if that’s part of the industry you’re in and want to be promoted. You always have the opportunity to step out and into other work growth areas and careers.
And in most career jobs, even if you didn’t specialize in learning how to teach or do digital marketing tasks, unless you’re a scientist or removed from working with people, expect to use those skills in general administrative and presentation skills. They will help you in the future.
Likely, your companies you work for will expect you to run Zoom and the like-meetings, train others, and use digital communication tools at the very least.
The positive is you’ll be learning a lot, building skills, and gaining experience for whatever your next steps are.
Wearing many hats that may or may not fit you at the time helps you to be adaptable and you will use that in your life, so that helps you better build resilience and perserverance.
Speeding up your learning curve can play on your overall health and emotions, but on the other side you’ll be grateful you got over the toughest parts.
Also, expect high ego bosses and pressure in the area. Understand that they may not have done shadow work for their past, so all their weaknesses show up in their high pressure cooker position that comes from the top down and being in the Washington DC metro air.
For your healthy and happy, find ways to relax, handle stress, and find work-life balance, especially if you’re planning to stay long term.
You want to stay connected to your core values and what your boundaries are. Expect that what you signed up for may not be the agenda you signed up for. But again, you’re gaining experiences and making new connections.
There are political agendas in most organizations, and especially in the ones in the Washington DC metro area even if you’re not working in the government.
And another area that adds up is work day food and beverage costs.
It can get costly to go out and eat around this town. $5 coffees and $15 lunches add up daily, so having easy recipes at your fingertips to prepare at home can save you.
You can make an easy calzone that you stuff with your favorites that’s a no-mess eating, no-clean up lunch meal. Recipe is below. 🧡
….And so that you don’t wonder where all your rainy day fund went.
Like living in most cities, the Washington DC metro area has plenty of convenient delivery options and services that can help make your life easier when you need to save time and have service options.
There isn’t one good hairstylist, burger joint, or dry cleaner in town. There are many to choose from that’s a benefit of living in a big city.
Keep re-centering. It’s easy to forget your own goals and get off-balance when most jobs require more than working 9-5, or 8 hours per day. It’s easy to focus on busy culture that cities like the Washington DC metro area is centered on.
And if you work remote, balancing your life and digital life can be the positive difference for your well-being and success.
And you’re here for a reason.
One reason could be that the large DC metro area attracts many go-getters (…maybe you?) with a larger pool of jobs and work opportunities that other cities may not have as much to offer.
These are just a few industries in the area worth checking out if you’re looking for a good work-life balance:
You can find sustainable jobs that do fall in work life blend categories.
Associations – most people don’t know that the DC metro area is one of the largest association towns in the U.S. Old Town Alexandria and downtown DC houses many of the nation’s largest and well-known associations.
While the U.S. does have a reputation for a work-to-play lifestyle, many locals think to work hard now and relax at retirement age around 65.
Taking breaks and getting work freedom isn’t the path norm, but this is changing as people pivot and have second and third careers, or choose the side hustle lifestyle.
Many associations have more traditional office organization structures, and turnover is relatively lower. It’s not uncommon to see an employee at one association for most of their career even in today’s standards.
Associations can be attractive because most offer a work-life balance with a reasonable 9-5 working hours and 5 weeks of vacation starting out your first year, as an industry practice.
In many associations and non-profits, most aren’t expected to work past 5 pm.
Many other work industries expect you to burn the midnight oil as they want to get as much value out of you as they can.
Working for an association isn’t the overworked lifestyle that most people think of as the overworked American work lifestyle.
But just like choosing to work for a federal government position, you have to decide if you can handle the political side or the Board who often makes the decisions.
Overall, associations offer good health benefits and lifestyle perks, as some offer yoga and other classes during the workday and hour-long lunches which is a longer lunch in America.
Those were my experiences working for 3 different non-profits and associations.
So, any downsides to the job you have, you can make up with stress-relieving meditation or free time to clear your mind while on your break.
In general, for many industries, U.S. employees usually choose when they want to vacation giving enough vacation notice.
Compared to European countries, like say Italy where they have set vacation holidays, such as the annual Ferragosto in August that can last for over a month (and where the country and retail businesses shut down), and again in December during Advent Season.
Americans can choose time off dates with approval from employers.
Often, a worker who is raising a family chooses vacation time based on their children’s school breaks that peak in the mid-summer (July/August) and winter holiday breaks in December/January.
Technology companies – the Washington DC metro area is a high-tech area. Next to Silicon Valley out on the west coast, DC on the east coast is probably the next largest tech hub.
The technology worker lifestyle is a good one.
Starting pay for many DC metro tech job workers is higher than the highest-paid employee in some industries.
Besides being compensated well, tech employees usually have flex-time schedules (good work-life balance).
They can choose to work certain days and times in a schedule that works for them and their employer.
Unlike emergency and front-line worker jobs, there are few tech emergencies that can’t wait until the next day.
Tech workers often can do work remotely and is a common way to work.
And many have customers and team members in other time zones around the country and world, so they can adjust their schedules further based on those needs.
You can expect to do travel for work, attending meetings and conferences.
That can be a plus if you like that idea or are single, but if you have a family or pets to care for or are tired of traveling that lifestyle can be additional wear and tear.
But overall I think the tech job’s daily wear-and-tear stress is less than in other industries (at least the ones I worked in).
The good work-life balance and higher pay outweigh the traditional standard job vacation time, which can be around 2 weeks per year for the starting employee.
As with many larger U.S. employers, tech and larger companies offer perks like gym benefits and discounts to favorite stores and services.
Hospitality – there are many restaurant and hotel opportunities that are usually long hours.
But, you can find more work-life balance in niched event planning and conference centers. There are many entertainment venues and wineries in the area.
Amazon – is coming to the area. The second headquarters to Amazon was announced as the Washington DC area, and they’ve broken ground. In 2021, the new tech and business office buildings went under construction.
This is the newest, exciting business news in the area since the tech companies started cropping up post-Dot-com in the Dulles Corridor area closer to Washington Dulles Airport (that I remember well).
The DC metro system has near-future plans to build out further along where the Dulles Toll Road already exists, to expand commuting options eventually to Dulles Airport.
Federal/government – it’s obvious that many migrate from around the country to the DC area to work on The Hill. If you want to learn how lawmaking is done, DC is the city to be in.
In high school as a senior, we were required to take a Government semester class and pass to graduate that most people I know didn’t have to do. We took a photo in front of the Capitol Building.
Full of movers and shaker politicians, the Washington DC area is also a popular legal town full of attorneys.
Education – The area has plenty of higher-education opportunities. Besides working for some of the larger universities in the areas such as Georgetown, George Washington, George Mason, and American University, there are many opportunities for those in the area to add certifications and higher learning specialization skills to resumes.
The Washington DC metro area is different in that getting specialized certifications or earning higher education degrees is a common norm as most do at some point on a work career route.
Those who do, usually go to school at night or on weekends. Learning in a graduate master’s program is optimized because what is learned in school is applied in their current job place and work (and not as theory).
Enjoying Life-Balance On Weekends
You’ll know it’s the weekend because the traffic pattern changes. You can drive into DC without traffic unless there’s a major game like a Nationals baseball game ⚾️ or during the Cherry Blossoms Festival. 🌸
The Washington DC metro area is so much more than the tourist attraction of Presidential monuments and history museums on the downtown mall that thousands from around the world annually come to tour and see.
The area is dynamic with new indoor and outdoor museums and interesting memorials and exhibitions, so it’s interesting for locals to take day-field trips to see what’s new.
When the colorful row of DC lunch food trucks grew near downtown L’Enfant Plaza, that caught some buzz and attracted nearby museums workers and tourists.
Weekends will be significantly less busy for a commute in and around the city. On weekdays, when commuting, you should be aware of rush-hour patterns as drivers can sit in traffic for hours if there’s an accident. In the suburbs when schools are busy in session, there are noticeable traffic pattern changes, and school buses have the right of way.
Washington DC is a multi-cultural metro area and a good representation of the “melting pot” that America is known for.
There are many opportunities to learn about other countries and cultures from the opportunities to attend Embassy events and visit the various districts downtown. There are many large and small entertaining festivities and parades that happen in and around the city.
In the backdrop of the famous historic monuments, the still Potomac River makes the area less city-like and year-round livable.
The GW Parkway and W&OD are scenic paths for bicycles, runners, and pedestrians that connect DC to parts of the suburbs.
Then there are amazing wonders, one that’s well known is the Great Falls waterfalls park. And the many parks and other well-groomed Meadowlark Gardens.
The best time of the year is year-round as Washingtonians rarely see snow or hot extremes in mild temperatures. You also get to see the gradual changing of the leaves in the fall, cherry trees in the spring, and pops of bright colors from flowers in the summer against many historic architectural styles and newer buildings.
And when you’ve had enough of nature, then you can appreciate all the retail opportunities, in indoor and outdoor shopping malls.
Tysons Corner Mall is the largest mall on the east coast and now has 3 built-in metro stops in that bustling heart center of Northern Virginia where NoVa actually began.
So, DC is easily accessible. Then on top of many area malls, there are 3 mega retail outlet malls in the area in National Harbor, Leesburg, and Woodbridge that you can get to with a car.
So no matter what end of the metro area you live in, you have access to local town centers and the best lifestyle shopping from Anthropologie to Zara.
You don’t have to go far to find places to hang out or do work.
Music – You can find free outdoor concerts in Tysons and in summer months when towns have their own celebrations near and around Independence Day, not to mention the Capitol Fireworks that you can see from miles away.
You can also listen to your favorite bands and music genres in indoor and outdoor large concert halls, at Wolftrap, Capitol One Center (formerly Verizon Center), Jiffy Lube Live, and newer and smaller venues like The Anthem on the DC Waterfront or the Theater at MGM Hotel and Casino at National Harbor.
The Kennedy Center is popular for all forms of entertainment plus the theatre district in DC that is near a busy and popular area called Gallery Place in Penn Quarter (where the Caps and large concerts come to play).
Food – There are many foodie fast food places like Shake Shack and healthy options to choose from. If you want to get healthy, you can find many choices from grocery stores, delivery services, restaurants, and cafes.
You can find a Starbucks just about everywhere and in Giant or Safeway grocery stores.
You can always take an Uber that’s a popular way to get around if you don’t have a car or metro access.
Many visit nearby Whole Foods and Harris Teeter grocery stores, where during normal times and hours, they have prepared foods sections that include many cold and warm selections from crab cakes and comfort foods, to salads and everything in between.
The Washington DC metro area is home to world-famous World Kitchen chef Jose Andres who’s always in the news. He became a household name earlier on when he started his Think Food Group, a group of foodie restaurants that include the longer-standing Jaleo, Zatinya, and Oyamel restaurants in the Penn Quarter district.
Besides many upscale casual, fine dining, famous chains, and ethnic family restaurant options, there are many convenient grocery store options including food delivery services. And many farmers’ markets in various neighborhoods including a large year-round Eastern Market.
Fitness/Classes – There are also many studios to choose from, sprinkled throughout the area with specialized classes for yoga, cardio, barre, kickboxing… you name it.
You can join a city gym like a Vida, a mega gym like a Sport & Health, YMCA, or anything in between. Many are working off their Pitta edge and enjoying themselves on a court or in a studio.
You can find making outside friends in a fitness community easier in a faster-moving, transient city like the Washington DC metro area.
Divide dough into 4 pieces and roll into 1/4 inch circles. Tip: to make round shape, using the cupping method I learned working as a teenage pizza maker. Cup your hand around the sides of the dough and move circularly around until you get a round shape. You may need to knead back down as you want a level piece.
Add sauce layer.
On one circle end, add cheese.
Add oregano or other spices.
Fold the circle to make a half circle or half moon.
Join the two halves, with the crimping fork method (like you would see in hand pies) or my favorite is the pinch and fold on top crimp method to give a fancy but homemade edge vibe like in the photo.
Sugar cravings don’t have to get the best of you… and the orange scone recipe below may help you get over the worst sugar sweets as it was the healthy start for me, someone who ate way too much daily sugar that many of us do. It’s no one’s fault.
The new dreamy sugar – orange zest! Use in a good orange scone recipe below… 🧡
Oranges and citrus fruits are good for blood sugar levels as citrus fruits have a lower glycemic index as a general indicator for how a food will impact your blood sugar level.
And juicy foods like oranges also have a way of quenching your thirst and hunger. Like water and tea, you can feel less hungry when you consume oranges and lower your food cravings.
Using orange and orange zest are also a good way to avoid artificial sweeteners while brightening your food and day.
Maintaining a healthy blood sugar level is at the heart (pun intended!) of a healthy heart.
I became aware of the American Heart Association when I volunteered for the American Cancer Society in my backyard while I was attending college.
The “Eat Smart” campaign was one of the promoted programs and I remember posters (remember those?) were donated that had healthy fruits and vegetables.
These are now known as anti inflammatory food ideas like oranges that were brightly represented on the poster and I proudly displayed on my wall.
Who knew that anti-inflammatory foods would become so important with all its healthy benefits and in many healthy diet movements like the Mediterranean Diet and plant-based diets?
And we couldn’t have predicted that the role of Vitamin C would grow in highlighted health importance, and that oranges would relatively stay the same while we see more orange varieties on the grocery shelves.
We keep evolving in food, health, and nutrition.
Vitamins stay as a focal point in the anti inflammatory diet. Some are antioxidants that are good body protectors for preventing heart disease, Diabetes 2, certain cancers, and cognitive decline that can start off as harmless brain fog or short memory mental health lapses.
In the beginning of 2020, I created a smart pantry for “just in case,” where I collected processed, longer shelf-life foods in cans and boxes. That’s where I failed in my sugar cravings dilemma and developed an itchy eczema skin rash by mid-summer that came from sugar indulgence.
Luckily I caught on before things got worse. I got aware and my love for sugar got replaced for Ayurveda ways, moderation, and anti-inflammatory foods.
Sugar we know is good for our happy selves, but not our healthy one. They latch onto lectin anti-nutrients in our gut and can destroy our microbiome that we know controls so much of our daily body functions.
My hope is you’re onboard for a healthier new year, new health progress goals, and micro habit changes. Fasting is one way I have deployed in my healthy lifestyle and you can too. You can download my FREE fasting guide that makes it a sustainable way.
And when you’re eating, if you’re like me, you’re a bit choosy and conscious about your food choices.
I love foods, food variety, and enjoy good foods. I planned catered parties in nice hotels and foodie restaurants for a decade, so it’s a part of me that has been weaved into my adult DNA. And healthy eating that I learned early on.
But I have a weakness… a sweet tooth.
Many of us enjoy some sweets in moderation.
Having a sweet tooth is natural but isn’t helpful on a healthy lifestyle mission.
If you regularly eat sugary foods to curb your sweet tooth and sugar cravings, you set yourself up to have more sugar cravings. It’s a vicious cycle.
For entertainment, I had started watching TheGreat British Baking Show, that’sa competition show that started with U.K. bakers… initially, it wasn’t the best thing to watch if you want to curb sugar cravings and stop eating so much sugar.
But I worked through it and can now watch the show without eating a sweet dessert. I’m telling you this because I believe everyone can get there!
In my search, I came across a book called The40 Day Sugar Fast by Wendy Speake.
It reminded me of a sugar fast I set out to do for 3 weeks in 2011 but ended up doing the sugar fast for around 40 days.
How?
When I had my tonsils removed as an adult, the fast was a smooth transition as I mostly had a liquid diet in the beginning.
And if you’re trying to break the sugar habit, finding a time when you’re not dealing with as much stress is your best bet.
Like if you’re a teacher, do your sweet fast after the school year ends and you have the summer off. You usually crave less food in the hot months anyway, so use all those helpful situations to your advantage.
Another helpful situation is when you have support. To keep me encouraged, the church I was attending was doing an annual fast for those who wanted to participate. So, it was perfect timing as I wasn’t doing it alone.
And as I focused on giving up sweets for sweet Jesus, the sugar cravings also miraculously disappeared. The ones I’d had every single day since I was a child.
I didn’t use my own willpower to make changes. That doesn’t usually work.
I focused on my heart and deeper desires. To my surprise, my way of thinking changed. It was supernatural and beyond my small capabilities to overcome sugar on my own.
But that’s just a reminder that you don’t have to do it alone and can encourage the Universe or higher source you turn to, to help you.
I also use maintaining good teeth as motivation. As a child I always had a mouth full of cavities. I wanted to live a better dental life later in life. That same motivation carried me when I quit all sodas years ago. Previously as a young adult, I’d have at least 1-2 sodas by noon.
Do whatever works for you and your healthy motivations.
Another tip is to look at sugar nutrition labels. Most food labels are in grams and 1 gram = about .24 teaspoons or a quarter teaspoon.
We use teaspoons for baking in America so that’s easier to visualize.
It doesn’t take much in a Western diet to go over 20 grams of refined sugar at breakfast alone!
You can try these breakfast plant-based breakfast ideas and tips to stop sugar cravings and craving sweets if you want some suggestions.
And sodas are off the charts starting at 30-40 grams.
I drank diet sodas early on, but those are linked to heart disease and Diabetes 2 so they’re no better and probably worse off
Also, keep in mind no fat is usually linked to higher sugar in foods, so you’re giving up one evil for another.
The better healthy answer is to change your healthy food and beverage habits. And then you will enjoy the healthy foods and especially after you have adjusted. I promise.
If you’ve every shifted from a whole milk to a plant or other milk, you know what I’m talking about.
You no longer go back to the other because 1) your body doesn’t need the same quantity of nutrients it needed before or growing up and 2) you have a decent food or beverage replacement.
Most of are lazy in this area about food fixing. It we have something easy and near us, we’ll grab that instead of go out and forage if we don’t have to.
And for fruit, I still don’t overindulge even though the Food Pyramid I grew up with recommended 2-4 servings of fruit per day. These days, MyPlate says at least 1 piece of medium fruit.
Even natural fruits and dried fruits have a huge dose of natural sugars, the better fructose sugar, but still sugar. I limit myself to an apple, a banana, and an orange if I’m craving fruits and sweet foods.
Foods that you wouldn’t suspect and maybe even classify as healthy food like a Fig Newton or low-fat “healthy” cereal are loaded with sugar. You discover reality when you do package label reading.
I once felt I had to add a puff of white cloud sweetness that finished off almost every dinner dessert, holiday cheesecake, pie, or warm beverage. The nutritional breakdown ingredients of some whipped foods say “hydrogenated oils” or trans fats and high-fructose corn syrup to avoid.
You can always say “no whip, please.”
And you can choose moderation where it’s okay for a happy celebrations, but not for daily healthy consumption. That’s what I do in the balance.
That’s the modern Ayurveda way that is sustainable. Turning to healthy and anti-inflammatory foods that are also good for weight loss and preventing weight gain, so you don’t have to do one more yo-yo diet that never works long-term.
Modern Ayurveda lifestyle people love following natural, doable, and achievable (practical) advice.
So here are 3 actionable Ayurveda creature habits and tips for reducing sugar in your diet and curbing sugar cravings:
Become aware which foods have high sugar, added sugar – fact vs. fiction. Read labels at least until you are familiar with the foods you eat regularly.
Substitute your sweets not for other foods, but for a higher calling or purpose for yourself. Find a motivation that makes you stick to your plan and look forward to maintaining.
Do one daily baby step food choice action you can make to create a healthier micro habit. Reminder: the more you eat sugar, the more you crave sugar.
Maybe that’s substituting an empty calorie sugary dessert with a fortified cereal that at least has some nutrients?
And if you need a replacement for something super sweet, I have a low sugar, Orange Scone recipe below I mentioned above that you can try that’s super easy and you’ll love (or grow to love!).
What I love about this recipe is the orange peel zest you would normally throw away is used as the main sweet ingredient.
Oranges are also good for calming in our parasympathetic nerves, so in the strong orange smells, we experience calmer nerves instead of anxiety. You hear people who like to eat oranges by their bed and this could be a good reason why. They are calmer, better managing worry and anxious thinking hours before sleep o’clock.
This orange recipe has no needed added refined sugars, but you may like the turbinado sugar small packet crunch finish like I do, that has 5 grams of fat total used for the entire 8 scone slices. So you do your daily sugar math and see if that’ll work for you.
I also love that you won’t use all your eggs in one recipe. And, in the easy, it can take less than 10 minutes time to prepare!
It takes about 40 minutes total time (from prep to baking to mouth 😋). That’s something to celebrate!
This can become a regular dessert bread for you that’s healthier than sugary processed breads and pastries. Great for a sweet tooth (or a Vata)!
1 egg
2 cup flour total (can mix gluten and gluten-free flours if you choose)
2 tbsp frozen unsalted butter
1/2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
½ cup plain or vanilla Greek, plus more if needed (this is a good food item to look at sugar labels). Use more solid yogurt parts to bring it together if it gets too crumbly.
Zest of an orange (navel oranges are great)
Cinnamon to liking (and you can purposefully add a little teaspoon of sugar, some tips below)
You omit sugar that normally would be added. Since you’re not using sugar, you don’t need salt either to balance any sugar. NO refined white sugar, yay! 😊
Add flour to a medium bowl. Add butter and cut it into small pieces with a knife. Add the egg and mix with a spoon.
Add yogurt and keep mixing until well mixed. Add baking powder and baking soda. Add orange zest and mix until blended into flour mixture.
Form a ball with the spoon in the bowl. Then place the dough on a baking sheet and flatten it slightly, so it forms into a 6-8” circle.
There will be flour crumbs, just stick them on top of the circle to blend in (like you’re adding clay to pottery before being fired in the kiln).
Sprinkle with cinnamon if you like. Cut 8 slices before placing in the oven.
Optional sweet: if you desire, you can add one brown sugar packet of Sugar in the Raw (turbinado cane sugar) on top of the circle bake before it goes in the oven. These small brown crystals are similar to refined sugar in health terms, but if you add them in moderation, that’s not going to make a big difference. If you’re feeding anyone diabetic, they’re not going to eat it anyway… or if they can eat monk fruit sugar, you can add that.
You can also optionally add ½ tablespoon of dried currants or raisins and blend in the mixture before you form the circle. Or you could do half and half (4 pieces plain and 4 pieces lightly sugar)… then you can please those you’re sharing with who won’t necessarily appreciate your low sugar, healthy scone bread efforts.
Finally, put the baking sheet in the middle of the oven and bake the scones to a golden brown for 25-30 minutes at 350°F/180°C degrees. Let your scones cool, and then you’ll be ready to enjoy.
A daily heart and soul-centering check-in can change your life! You could be an old soul or have an old soul like some of us who remember young life before the internet.
