“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
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
“We are born into this world and all we’re really trying to do is find our way home.” ~ Lauren, my yoga teacher
Christa Avampato 
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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