“We are born into this world and all we’re really trying to do is find our way home.” ~ Lauren, my yoga teacher
This weekend has been another set of hours in yoga teacher training that has provided me with a lifetime of learning. The idea of finding home that my teacher, Lauren, said struck me so deeply. We struggle to find the right job, relationship, place to live, friends, purpose, and what it boils down to is very simply wanting to be at home in our lives.
Certainly, the idea of the purpose of our lives being to find home could take on a religious bent, though it could just as easily mean just finding our way. Not someone else’s way. Our way. We’ve got this life full of days and we’re all trying to sort out what the heck to do with our time here. How can we be most useful? How should we connect and with whom? Where are we needed and wanted and loved? Simple questions that can be so tough to answer.
Sometimes, I really wish life was a game of hot and cold: as we move closer to where we should be we hear a tiny whisper that says “warmer” and when we move too far away from our true purpose we should hear a tiny whisper that says “colder”. And maybe we can make that happen. I’d like to believe that as I move closer to where I should be in any given moment that I’ll feel a warmth from knowing that says “yes, this is exactly where I needed to be right now.” On occasion that’s happened; I just wish I felt it with more regularity. I wish I had a giant compass that always pointed to home.
In class with Lauren, I started to think about how I might do this, tune my inner compass. Here’s what I came up with:
1.) Check in. Often. I sit in meditation for 18 minutes a day. I make myself do it, even if I’m tired and busy. Afterward I am always able to think a little more clearly.
2.) Record powerful dreams. It sounds cliche, but our minds do make connections when we are sleeping that our conscious minds cannot make. There are a number of scientific studies that support this idea. So I’m taking notes and seeing where that leads.
3.) Use past experience. There are definitely times in my life when I feel I’m on to something, that I am in the flow, and that everything is swimming along perfectly. I try to find the patterns that are common among those times. I’ve found that when I stop worrying about money and trust myself implicitly, somehow the world catches me when I leap. I don’t know how this happens; it just does. So I’m trying to look around for just a moment, make a decision from my gut, and leap more often.
I’d love to hear the ways you’re finding home, wherever that may be.
Published by Christa Avampato
IN BRIEF
Author, journalist, digital product manager, and licensed New York City tour guide. Creator and host of NYC's Secrets and Lies. Alumna of the University of Pennsylvania (BA), the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia (MBA), Arizona State University (Biomimicry), and the University of Cambridge (MSt in Sustainability Leadership).
I build digital media platforms, report on urban climate resilience and biodiversity, and produce live narrative experiences that connect communities to history, nature, and place.
THE DEEP DIVE
My work centers on a single thread: building systems and stories that foster deep connection to our shared world. Across digital streaming, environmental reporting, and live civic storytelling, I design experiences that help people understand complex ideas and the environments around them.
DIGITAL PRODUCT STRATEGY & MEDIA LEADERSHIP
At Carnegie Hall, I serve as Digital Product Manager, leading product strategy, operations, and technical delivery for the video streaming platform Carnegie Hall+. I translate artistic mission into scalable, high-performance streaming architecture that reaches audiences globally. Previously, I led agile product and delivery teams across operations and compliance at American Express, managed Broadway theatrical productions and national tours, and guided strategic initiatives across cultural institutions.
ENVIRONMENTAL JOURNALISM & AUTHORSHIP
As a freelance journalist, I investigate how living systems, urban infrastructure, and human culture intersect. My reported features on urban decarbonization, biodiversity, coastal resilience, and biomimicry appear in publications including Smithsonian Magazine, The Washington Post, Mongabay, Natural History Magazine, and Foreign Policy Magazine. In fiction, I write the Emerson Page young adult novel series, alongside upcoming historical fiction and nonfiction works on New York history, mythology, and human resilience. I also write Togetherhood, a LinkedIn newsletter focused on urban ecology and community restoration, and co-host the podcast Frameworks in the Wild.
LIVE EXPERIENCE & CIVIC STORYTELLING
As a licensed New York City tour guide and live event producer, I transform urban landscapes into shared narrative encounters. I created, produce, and host NYC's Secrets and Lies, an interactive live storytelling series staged across cultural landmarks including the New York Transit Museum, the South Street Seaport Museum, and the historic tall ship Wavertree. I also design and lead site-specific walking tours exploring coastal ecology, food history, and neighborhood evolution, often with partners at Climate Week NYC and the Natural Areas Conservancy.
DOUBLE OR NOTHING MEDIA
Through my independent production studio, Double or Nothing Media, I develop ventures across media, ecology, and public history:
Digital Products & Strategy: Architecting scalable digital platforms, streaming experiences, and operational models for mission-driven institutions.
Environmental Reporting & Publications: Delivering long-form reporting, books, and newsletters grounded in climate resilience and regenerative design.
Site-Specific Live Storytelling: Producing immersive live shows and educational walking tours that engage public audiences in community history.
CONNECT
Website & Production Hub: doubleornothingmedia.com and christaavampato.com
Newsletter: Togetherhood on LinkedIn - linkedin.com/newsletters/togetherhood-7273771832221089792/
Instagram & Threads: @christarosenyc
Emerson Page Novels: emersonpagebook.wordpress.com/
View all posts by Christa Avampato
“We are born into this world and all we’re really trying to do is find our way home.” ~ Lauren, my yoga teacher
There are many different ways to define “home” aren’t there?
I liked your idea of the game of hot and cold nudging us closer.
I interpret your yoga teacher as referring to the spiritual realm.
I would not have said this four years ago, but then I home-cared my 97-year-old mom and listened to her experiences as she tried to “go home” and she was not referring to a house or even the town where she was born …
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What an amazing story, Alexandra. Thank you so much for sharing your experience with you mom – so beautiful. I am certain she is in an incredible place now.
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I really like this idea of life as a journey back home. Maybe intuition = those moments where we recognize home on some level, and it calls out to us? (This is cheesy, but I’m thinking of the current season of Lost – the way the characters are developing consciousness that spans the Island world and the Sideways world…)
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I really think I need to get on the Lost bandwagon. Late, I know. I hear there are some amazing parallels between yoga and Lost. Have you found that to be true?
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Christa:
I feel happy for you. After all, you have been able to continue with your daily practice of meditation for 18 minutes. That is an encouraging sign. Please make meditation a daily habit. It will help you in so many ways.
I can’t tell you how challenging it was for me at the start. Meditation and I were the strangest bedfellows, so to say.
I felt really odd, because of my lack of exposure and apprehension about “sitting still and doing nothing at all.”
Now, however, I cannot imagine my life without the daily meditation session. I am glad you are discovering the benefits of this practice. Meditation is your home.
No matter how many times you try to find your home outside, the inner journey is your one and only true home. This has been my discovery too. Every time I read about your progress, I feel like saying, “congratulations.” Cheers.
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Hi Archan,
There is a great article in Yoga Journal this month about the science of meditation and how well it conditions your brain. Totally thought of you! If you get the chance, pick up a copy. I tried to find a link to the story, but I guess Yoga Journal doesn’t put them up on their website.
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