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You Are Enough

by Ellen Vora, MD on Mar 5, 2020 / Share

Enough

It used to be you could arrive at a state of “enough” and feel content. These days, there is no enough. Never rich enough, thin enough, working enough, optimizing, scaling, outsmarting, anticipating, stockpiling masks for coronavirus, prepared enough for the apocalypse. I believe this relates to venture capital and startups. These days, a business can’t just be profitable and stay that way. It has to scale. It can’t coast at the same good speed; it needs to accelerate. Which means you could always be doing more. I think this has created untold amounts of burnout at work, and it has trickled down into our mental health and the way we lead our lives. There is no more enough. As in: I worked hard enough today, and now I can rest and relax. We’re all on a treadmill where the speed is slowly increasing, and we’re constantly trying to “optimize.”

Try instead to take inventory of all the ways things are enough right now. You have enough material possessions, you’ve worked enough for the day, you’ve done the best you could (within reason), your body is perfectly enough, and, most importantly, you are enough.

You. Are. Enough. Already. Right now. And maybe you don’t need to be optimized or scaled. I believe this is the antidote to venture-capital-induced workism, burnout, and excessive anxiety. Recognize the enoughness of it all right now.

Gut Health, Inflammation & Mood

by Ellen Vora, MD on Feb 6, 2020 / Share

Gut Health

If you’re feeling down, anxious, or just “off,” think of this as a gut and inflammatory issue until proven otherwise. Avoid foods that compromise your gut health and inflame your body (gluten, +/- dairy, sugar, industrial vegetable oils), aim to eat more gut healing foods (ghee, bone broth, fermented foods), and fill your plate with nutrient-dense, anti-inflammatory foods (vegetables, pate, egg yolks, fresh herbs, spices). Believe it or not, these changes will improve your mood.

20 Little Changes You Can Make Throughout The Day To Boost Your Mental Health

by Ellen Vora, MD on Jun 11, 2019 / Share

Originally published in mindbodygreen

In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, I’d love to shed some light on the fact that you are in control of your mental well-being. We’ve been taught that mental health conditions are a genetic chemical imbalance and therefore destiny, but it’s simply not so. Often, it’s all those little decisions we make throughout the day that have the biggest cumulative impact. As a holistic psychiatrist, I can confidently say that the ways you eat, move, and think are far bigger determinants of your mental health than your genes.

Here are 20 steps you can take to empower yourself and elevate your mental wellness. 

Read more

Sleep Like A Caveman

by Ellen Vora, MD on Jun 11, 2019 / Share

Sleep issues are epidemic. When you pay attention to the ways we slept for millennia, you can figure out how to correct the modern causes of insomnia.

How Do You Actually Make Cooking Realistic?

by Ellen Vora, MD on Jun 11, 2019 / Share

Eating real food is the key to wellbeing, and cooking is the key to eating real food. But cooking can be a relentless, time-consuming, exhausting pursuit. Here are some hacks to make it at least a bit easier.

Dance Therapy

by Ellen Vora, MD on Jun 11, 2019 / Share

Today will be a departure from my usual. This is a clip from my birthday party, which was a sweaty throwback dance party. Here are some of my takeaways:

  1. When it’s your birthday, let yourself be celebrated. Can we move past the societal conditioning that we all need to be so modest as to practically hate ourselves? What I’ve learned from years of seeing patients is that we’re in a crisis of self-love and self-acceptance. When I was in Brazil in March, I was struck by how we celebrated birthdays there. We stood around singing not one but 9 back-to-back happy birthday songs while the woman whose birthday it was smiled, clapped, and jumped up and down with glee. In the US, we sing one dinky song, while the birthday person sits there awkward and sheepish, wanting to recede into the background, and willing the whole thing to be over with as soon as possible. I decided to try on for size letting myself be celebrated. It felt amazing.
  2. When it’s your birthday, think about what lights YOU up, and make it happen. The default birthday for my circle is dinner and drinks. That’s all well and good, except that’s not what lights ME up. I want to DANCE! To Whitney Houston, and a micromanaged playlist of my choosing, heavy on Beyonce. There’s pretty much only one day of the year I can impose this on people. This year my dancing dreams came true. If you like bowling, or making music, or baking cupcakes and watching Jane the Virgin, or getting tea with one person, then drop any expectation to do the standard thing and DO THAT for your birthday. Do the thing that lights you up.
  3. I’m equal parts proud and feeling vulnerable about this video. I don’t typically wear pleather tube tops. I showed up to this party in athleisure and was promptly re-styled by someone with more pizazz (thank you Maryellis Bunn). As a mom/doctor/not-a-model, I felt like I couldn’t pull this off. Then the music came on, and I just let it go. I let EVERYTHING go and joyously danced for 4 straight hours. It was therapy.

Let yourself be celebrated, pick what lights YOU up and do it. Tube top optional.

Stop Seeing Yourself As A Victim

by Ellen Vora, MD on Jun 10, 2019 / Share

Letting go of the narrative of yourself as a victim is an essential step in allowing yourself to feel empowered, well, and free.

One Step For Self Love

by Ellen Vora, MD on Jun 9, 2019 / Share

Self love requires that you behave in a way that earns your own respect. Remember that you’re always witnessing yourself.

6 Ways To Optimize The Time You Have With Your Kids & Create Lasting Memories

by Ellen Vora, MD on Jun 9, 2019 / Share

Originally published in mindbodygreen

Ten minutes ago I was sitting here writing this when my 3-year-old daughter climbed onto my lap. My goal was to have this article done yesterday, so my initial reaction was that she was getting in my way. And then the irony dawned on me—this is l-i-t-e-r-a-l-l-y an article about spending quality time with your kids—and I closed the laptop and devoted my full attention to snuggling her.

Even though work and our other adult responsibilities feel weighty, overwhelming, and important, once you have children, there are even more significant deadlines and milestones in your life…

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How To Get On Your Path

by Ellen Vora, MD on Jun 9, 2019 / Share

So many people struggle with this process. There’s an art to hearing that little Moana voice inside you.

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Dr. Ellen Vora

About Me.

Dr. Vora takes a functional medicine approach to mental health–considering the whole person and addressing the problem at the root, rather than reflexively prescribing medication to suppress symptoms.

She specializes in depression, anxiety, insomnia, adult ADHD, bipolar and digestive issues.

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