Breathe deeper
If you’re looking for a way to manage the stress of all your resolutions, try penciling yoga or meditation into your shiny new day planner. According to Elliott Brown, the executive director of sliding-scale mindfulness studio Common Ground Healing Arts, 92 percent of participants reported lower levels of anxiety and 70 percent reported lower levels of depression in her team’s recent research project that treats those issues with a blend of meditation, yoga, acupuncture, massage and counseling. People with hypertension even had reduction in their blood pressure.
In short, she said, “Both [yoga and mediation] have dozens of health benefits for body and mind, and their impact is so powerful the brain actually undergoes visible structural changes—making this a new year’s resolution that truly lasts.” Class schedules are plentiful online (common-groundcville.org), or you can call Common Ground for suggestions on which class is right for you.
Start a business
If you’re gainfully employed but harboring dreams of starting your own business, you’re not alone. Sixty-seven percent of Millennial workers and 45 percent of employees aged 35 and up want to start their own companies. Luckily, Charlottesville has a “shop local” ethos and a variety of entrepreneur education and networking resources, from Darden’s iLab to HackCville to the Central Virginia Small Business Development Center (CVSBDC), a non-profit organization that offers free one-on-one business consulting, training and information resources to aspiring and existing business owners. We spoke with Betty Hodge, the director of the CVSBDC, who shared her top tips for getting your big idea off the ground.
Pinpoint your niche—and your competition. “Folks need to know what their concept is and what they hope to accomplish, but they also need to know who their customers and their competitors are. If there’s no competition, there’s no market,” Hodge said.
Find a mentor. “Find someone who is running a similar business, not a competitor, but someone in a similar field, and talk with them. Small business owners tend to love talking about their small businesses, and it’s a great way to decide whether or not your idea has traction.”
Understand the big picture. When you write your business plan, you’ll need to outline the many facets of your idea. The CVSBDC offers a class called “How to Start a Business” that “provides a big picture of all the different things they need to think about: licensing and regulation, marketing, financial projections, getting an attorney,” Hoge said. “Then we can meet one on one to give advice and ask lots of questions.”
In fact, getting to work while you still have a job is a great decision. Get ready for long nights and weekends, but you’ll have the chance to develop a plan, conduct market research and test your ideas and process with actual clients without financial stress.
Become a bookworm
Break out the reading glasses and find your best life in books this new year. Whether you want to explore easy escapes, inspiring true stories or your
own inner landscape, a few of our local booksellers offer their top picks for keeping you well-read and happy.
The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells by Andrew Sean Greer. “If the New Year brings thoughts of reinventing your life, pick this one up,” said Anne DeVault, owner of Over the Moon Bookstore in Crozet. “This intricately plotted novel asks to what extent we invent ourselves, and to what extent are we invented by time?”
Gray Mountain by John Grisham. Carol Troxell of downtown’s New Dominion Bookshop recommends the latest release from Charlottesville’s well-loved thriller writer, a novel about a Manhattan lawyer entangled in deadly Appalachian coal mining litigation.
This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate by Naomi Klein. Award-winning journalist Klein “posits that responding to climate change could be transformative in all areas of society,” DeVault said.
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. Set in France during WWII, Troxell’s choice for historical fiction follows the choices of a 14-year-old blind Parisian girl and a German teenager recruited to the Hitler Youth.
Starting Today: a Journal of Intention and Change by Chronicle Books. If achieving personal growth is your thing, “this compact journal makes it easy to set daily intentions,” DeVault said.
Recycle more
Tired of feeling like you toss too much? If you can buy it, you can probably recycle it locally. Crutchfield will take that ancient fax machine, the UPS store will accept your old packing peanuts and Charlottesville Dental Health Partners will even collect your old toothbrushes and send them off to a specialty plastics recycler. There’s nobody better to ask about keeping your stuff out of the landfill than Better World Betty, aka Teri Kent, Charlottesville’s less-waste maven. She runs an extensive, searchable recycling directory with contact information at betterworldbetty.org. Go forth and be green!
Take in a show
Why wait until 2015 to add one more musical act to your list of shows seen in 2014? Count down to midnight with local favorite Love Canon at the Jefferson Theater on December 31 as it retools ’80s hits. Then, once we reach the new year, there’s a little something for everyone.
Classical buff? Take in the symphony at Old Cabell Hall on Valentine’s Day, the Richmond Ballet at PVCC on March 4 or Les Misérables at Live Arts through January 17. Country lover? American Idol Scotty McCreery struts his stuff across the Paramount’s stage on January 23. Child of the ’60s? On March 15, John Paul Jones Arena welcomes legendary rockers Fleetwood Mac. After something more avant-garde? ArcAttack hits the Paramount on February 22 with its world-famous singing Tesla coils. Rock on, music lovers.