Last night, I went to listen to my friend, Dan’s, DJ mix at the Time Out New York Lounge at New World Stages. His show, Lush & Lively, features a fabulous mix of groovy re-creations of old standards. The music really just makes me smile. I hadn’t seen Dan in over a month – a travesty as I am used to seeing about once a week. Times gets away from us too easily. This started me down the road to thinking about how much our busy lives actually effect the state of our minds.
I came across a quote today by Charlotte Bronte that could be the mantra for all of us that suffer from time to time, or all the time as the case may be, from insomnia. “A ruffled mind makes a restless pillow.” A large part of my sleeping problems are self-induced. My mind is working so fast so often that it has a hard time going to sleep. It is stubborn about turning off.
Meditation helps. Yoga helps even more because it pairs meditation with physical activity. I’ve been known to run simply to exhaust myself as much as possible. What really helps is slowing down and I am growing more conscious of my ability to slow down my life despite the world’s efforts to continuously speed it up.
Yesterday, I was meeting Dan at 6, precisely, so that way I could get somewhere else by 7:30, and be home by exactly 10 to finish up some work before going to bed. Fine to do on occasion. Ludicrous to think that kind of rigid planning in my social life is sustainable. So I moved my 7:30 back half an hour, and lengthened by then-8:00 by half an hour. I gave myself some room to breathe, and I was able to get a better night’s sleep because I hadn’t felt rushed all evening long to get here, there, and everywhere.
To be sure, valuing your time as the most precious resource on the planet is a difficult task because demands are placed upon you by external sources. However, giving myself the permission to control the impact of those outside sources, even if just for one evening, yields such good results that I’m having difficulty valuing my time as anything less than precious. Could that one decision be the key to calming down our ruffled minds?
The image above can be found at: http://startupblog.files.wordpress.com/2007/09/salvador-dali-clock.jpg
Published by Christa Avampato
The short of it:
Writer. Health, education, and art advocate. Theater and film producer. Visual artist. Product geek. Proud alumnae of the University of Pennsylvania (BA) and the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia (MBA). Inspired by ancient wisdom & modern tech. Proliferator of goodness. Opener of doors. Friend to animals. Fan of creative work in all its wondrous forms. I use my business skills to create passion projects that build a better world. I’ve been called the happiest New Yorker, and I try hard to live up to that title every day.
The long of it:
My career has stretched across Capitol Hill, Broadway theatre, education, nonprofit fundraising, health and wellness, and Fortune 500 companies in retail, media, entertainment, technology, and financial services. I’ve been a product developer and product manager, theater manager, strategic consultant, marketer, voice over artist, , teacher, and fundraiser. I use my business and storytelling to support and sustain passion projects that build a better world. In every experience, I’ve used my sense of and respect for elegant design to develop meaningful products, services, programs, and events.
While building a business career, I also built a strong portfolio as a journalist, novelist, freelance writer, interviewer, presenter, and public speaker. My writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, PBS.org, Boston.com, Royal Media Partners publications, and The Motley Fool on a wide range of topics including business, technology, science, health, education, culture, and lifestyle. I have also been an invited speaker at SXSW, Teach for America, Avon headquarters, Games for Change, NYU, Columbia University, Hunter College, and the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America. The first book in my young adult book series, Emerson Page and Where the Light Enters, was acquired by a publisher and launched in November 2017. I’m currently working on the second book in the series.
A recovering multi-tasker, I’m equally at home in front of my Mac, on my yoga mat, walking my rescue dog, Phineas, traveling with a purpose, or practicing the high-art of people watching. I also cut up small bits of paper and put them back together as a collage artist.
My company:
I’m bringing together all of my business and creative career paths as the Founder of Double or Nothing Media:
• I craft products, programs, and projects that make a difference;
• I build the business plans that make what I craft financially sustainable;
• I tell the stories that matter about the people, places, and products that inspire me.
Follow my adventures on Twitter at https://twitter.com/christanyc and Instagram at https://instagram.com/christarosenyc.
View all posts by Christa Avampato
Last night, I went to listen to my friend, Dan’s, DJ mix at the Time Out New York Lounge at New World Stages. His show, Lush & Lively, features a fabulous mix of groovy re-creations of old standards. The music really just makes me smile. I hadn’t seen Dan in over a month – a travesty as I am used to seeing about once a week. Times gets away from us too easily. This started me down the road to thinking about how much our busy lives actually effect the state of our minds. 
Christa Avampato 
I am excited to be mentioned in the same post as Charlotte Bronte. I knew it would happen some day – I just wasn’t sure when and where.
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Dan,Birds of a feather…. 🙂
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