Month: March 2012

personality, success, SXSW

Leap: My Introvert Confessional

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest member http://pinterest.com/tia_firefly/

In our culture, snails are not considered valiant animals — we are constantly exhorting people to “come out of their shells” — but there’s a lot to be said for taking your home with you wherever you go.” ~ Susan Cain

There’s a big to-do going on in the media about having a solo life. Though I love people, I appreciate the solitude, peace, and balance of my independence. In all this reading about the virtues of flying solo, I also happened upon quite a bit of reading about introverts, a group of people I never thought of as my people. Until now.

I have a strong introvert side.

I’m learning is that it’s not the loud, crazy party I crave, but the times I spend with a few people whom I’m close to that mean the most to me. It take a tremendous amount of energy for me to get out there and be a joiner. I do it, but in my own way. I like to ease my way in, choosing my interactions wisely and my general MO is to find a person or two in a crowded room who seem friendly and approachable. Barging my way into a group to be the life of the party just isn’t my style. I always felt a bit badly about that until I recognized the power that a thoughtful, well-tended connection can create.

SXSW 2011 was no exception. This is exactly how I proceeded through the crowd that numbered over 20,000 people. I found my way one person at a time, and in the process met so many people who I’m thrilled to see again this year. I could have gone against my nature and tried to be the extreme extrovert that many festivals like this ask you to be. SXSW made it possible for me to proceed at my own pace, in my own time. Despite all the fanfare around the big parties, there’s a way to personally connect and interact with others around every corner.

On the surface this might sound surprising since the interactive festival is all about technology. On the New York City subway, people into technology are the ones so consumed by their devices that they forget how to act like human beings. At SXSW, it’s different. We love technology. We’re mildly obsessed with it, but mostly as a means to an end, to make a human contact. Here, there’s a way to carve our own path. All we need is the willingness to try.

Introverts welcomed.

creativity

Leap: Progress We Make Together

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest member http://pinterest.com/paytoncwel/

“It’s when we start working together that the real healing takes place… it’s when we start spilling our sweat, and not our blood.” ~ David Hume

This quote by David Hume is a wonderful way to frame up a perspective of SXSW. Down here in Austin, it feels so good to hear from and meet so many inspiring people who are living out their purpose. They encourage, challenge, and push one another for the sake of making the world better. Whether it’s in the name of storytelling, great access to quality healthcare, or improving our education system, speakers and attendees flock down to the land that makes it a point to “keep it weird” each Spring in search of kindred spirits. I feel privileged just to be a part of it.

Much more to come once I return to New York next week. In the meantime, I’m soaking in all the goodness that abound throughout this celebration of great people doing great things.

comedy, gratitude, humor, thankful

Leap: Thank You Notes a la Jimmy Fallon

Christa Avampato

Another leap I’m attempting to make this year is to focus on humor writing. Comedy writing is tough for me – witness my crash and burn sketch writing class at UCB in which only 2 of my 8 sketches were laughable. One of those funny sketches is still kicking around in my head, and it was drawn from real life almost verbatim, so I began to wrestle with the idea of humor essays rather than sketches. An equally tough endeavor, though more my speed.

As practice, I’m trying out this new weekly post format inspired by Jimmy Fallon’s Thank You Notes segment, which is one of my favorite late night bits. One happy side effect of this endeavor is that it’s helping me to see the humor and comedy in everyday life. When possible, I will actually write and send these thank you notes. I’ll let you know if I get any responses. Let’s give it a whirl for a few weeks and see how it goes.

Thank you, Broadway theatre, for whittling down my bank account while staging revivals that remind me of the originals I saw in my youth. I needed a reminder of my age.

Thank you, GOP, for filling the gap that Grandma the Clown left in the wake of his retirement from The Big Apple Circus.

Thank you, Modern Family, for reminding me that my family is not the craziest version of 5 people living under one roof.

Thank you, WordPress.com, for adding a “Pin It” sharing button. I now have one more much-needed way to spend even more time down the social media rabbit hole.

Thank you, Rush Limbaugh, for crossing the line into inappropriate commentary (again) and angering American women. Finally, your sponsors are coming to their senses which may lead to your show being pulled. We can only hope.

Thank you, army of weather predicting groundhogs. Thanks to your inability to agree on how many more weeks of winter we should have, nature gave up altogether and moved on to Spring.

Thank you, corporate America, for being such an insufferable employer that 1.9 million people handed you a pink slip in January and taking the reigns of their own futures. This is being hailed by economists as “good news.” I couldn’t agree more!

And thank you, Sarah Palin, for reminding us of the trait that’s more important for a U.S. President. “My preference tonight was for the cheerful one. And that’s Newt Gingrich.” I’m sold on that logic!

art, career, choices, courage, discovery, film, movie

Leap: Thinking of Dustin Hoffman as I Head To SXSW 2012

Christa Avampato
Hoffman was photographed at his home in Los Angeles in January by Hedi Slimane.

“And just how long have we got the magic?” ~ Dustin Hoffman to his cinematographer regarding the last hour of daylight for filming

Today I’m off to SXSW 2012. I’m excited to be teaching and speaking about the benefits of yoga and meditation for the start-up / tech community. This will be my second year attending as a presenter, and I’m so honored to be a part of the celebration. While many people are sent on behalf of their companies, I’ll be there independently and ready to be inspired by anything and anyone who crosses my path. I feel so much excitement and anticipation of good, good things to come from this experience.

And all the while I’ll be thinking about Dustin Hoffman.

The New York Times featured this mammoth film figure last weekend as he hit the beginner button again. At 74, he is making his directorial debut with Quartet. Termed “a joyful movie about old age”, it explores how four once-famous opera singers have one last opening night by putting together a concert at their retirement home. Is Hoffman scared about starting over, taking this kind of turn in his career at 74?

“I do believe in luck myself,” he says, “but also in fate — it’s a duality. They had been working on ‘The Graduate’ for two years or something. They had a script and were casting, and I was at the end of the list. They had been through the Redfords and all those people. So in a sense, it has all been an accident.”

So if it’s all an accident any way, then what is there to lose? It’s like every win is just gravy and every loss is just another way to learn. And this is a wonderful reminder as I head for Austin and SXSW, a gathering of people who are taking on the role of beginner every day, exploring, experimenting, and with every action trying to make the world a little bit better than it was yesterday. This is the Tao of Hoffman in action – the magic is only going to be around for just so long and it’s our responsibility to make the best of it while we have it.

change, choices, faith, fear

Leap: Learn to Float

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest member http://pinterest.com/jhtan/

“In my 61 years of life, I have begun to think that man makes his own stress. When he his stress-free, he goes out and finds some. It is often difficult to live in the moment. There is no stress in being; no tug, no pull, no forward, no back. Floating is so much harder than swimming.” ~ my friend, Adela

Adela is a friend whom I met through another lovely blogging friend, Sharni, and since then she has been an incredibly supportive reader of this blog. A few days ago she posted the comment above on this blog in response to my post on why man’s ability to make himself sick is so confusing to the Dalai Lama. It was pure poetry to me and I had to bring it to everyone’s attention.

What are we so afraid of? Why can’t we let go? Why does gripping at control feel safer than letting life carry us, even though we have so much evidence to the contrary? Why does it take so much confidence and conviction to trust? Why are we so committed to doing rather than be being?

Why? Because we worry that we are not enough. That we aren’t smart enough, kind enough, thoughtful enough, tough enough, ambitious enough, popular enough, attractive enough, successful enough, loved enough. In all our education, we’ve forgotten the most fundamental lesson of all: we, just as we are, right now, in this moment, are magnificent, magical creatures. We are not enough – we are more than enough.

Floating takes practice, but it’s worth it. Trust and reap the rewards.

travel

Leap: Travel Links Us Together

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest member http://pinterest.com/vrogue/

“The person susceptible to “wanderlust” is not so much addicted to movement as committed to transformation.” ~ Pico Iyer

After going to the New York Times Travel Show this past weekend with my travel-loving pal, Jeff, those familiar pangs of wanderlust started acting up. We made our way to the Africa section of the show first and I immediately started to dream of those far-flung places that are still wild and free and untouched by our relentless pursuit of everything bigger, better, and faster. I’m certain that at some point in my life, Africa will be called home for a while. Somehow I think that time is coming sooner rather than later, and that made me wonder if I’m running away from something or toward something. Am I still Peter Pan?

And though the answer to that last question is a decisive, “Yes,” Pico Iyer’s quote made me feel better. I’m not longing for travel because I can’t sit still or I’m afraid of what will arise if I sit still or I have commitment issues. Travel for me means breaking out of our old habits and patterns, it means learning of the highest order, and it means coming to terms with the idea that all of us, all living things regardless of form, are really united into one beautiful, intricate dance called life. It literally forces us to transform, to change shape, inside and out.

The inescapable truth is that though we crave our independence we are all inextricably linked; we are all in this together. In our every day lives we can set this idea aside, narrow our focus, and be concerned with the life that has us at its center. When we travel, we have to let go and see not our reality, but the world’s.

Get out there – there’s so much to explore.

creativity, movie, technology, women, work

Leap: Plan B for Technology’s Unsung Hero, Hedy Lamarr

Christa Avampato
Hedy Lamarr

“All creative people want to do the unexpected.” ~ Hedy Lamarr

We look down on Plan B, as if its accomplishment is not as worthy of our time and attention as Plan A. I’m glad Hedy Lamarr, a stunning actress of the golden age of Hollywood, had a Plan B, and so are you. Of course Hedy Lamarr didn’t need a Plan B to survive and thrive, but she had one and she worked on it diligently, seeing to it that it was as successful than her movie career.

In 1942, with the world immersed in war, Hedy did her part to help the efforts of the Allies. Along with her friend and collaborator, composer George Antheil, she developed and patented frequency-hopping spread-spectrum. In short, it was meant to encrypt communication messages to prevent them from slipping into enemy hands. The technology of the time was not sophisticated enough to take full advantage of Hedy’s invention, but she pushed on. Today, this technology is still hard at work within Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. We use it every day.

Not bad for a Hollywood actress – shaping and transforming the entirety of the tech industry. We need more Plan B’s like that, and more people like Hedy Lamarr.

community, creativity, work

Leap: Do What You Can. It’s Enough.

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest member http://pinterest.com/begeezer/

“Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little.” ~ Edmund Burke

We’ve got problems.

The environment, education, the economy, healthcare, world peace. These are big issues, and they only scratch the surface of all the needs of our community. It’s easy to trick ourselves into thinking we don’t have the power to generate change. It all seems so daunting and it is if we think of them as all or nothing challenges. But if we could do a bit, and perhaps inspire someone else to do another bit, that might be enough of a daisy chain to get us going in the right direction.

I won’t solve the healthcare system’s many ails, but Compass Yoga is helping people feel better in small ways on a day-to-day basis.

I won’t solve the public education complexities, but I’m working with the Joan Ganzy Cooney Center, the educational center of excellence for Sesame Street, as a pro-bono consultant on their STEM (Science, Technology, Education, and Math) video game challenge that encourages students and educators to create and use games as a means of understanding STEM concepts.

I won’t solve the economic conundrum, but I’m starting The Geronimo Project as a way to publicizing incredible work being done by entrepreneurs and people who take big leaps into careers they love.

These are little things but I care about them and the people that they affect, and that’s enough of a reason to keep going bit by bit. What little things are you up to that are making this world a better place? Keep doing them.

nurture, sleep, work

Leap: A Needed Balance Between Working and Resting

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest

“When one foot walks, the other foot rests.” ~ Indian Proverb

I used to look down on the very idea of rest. Who needs rest when there’s living to do?

I do. A few years ago, I put my lifelong case of insomnia to bed and never looked back. On a rare occasion I will have a restless night, but rather than that being the norm, it’s often brought on by some infrequent and specific external stress. 99% of the time, I get at least 7 hours of rest so that I can recharge and be ready for the day ahead.

Rather than harming my productivity, the rest has actually enhanced it. I like the feeling of being able to lay down after a good day of work and know that I’ve earned the rest. It helps me to focus. It helps me to live in the present moment and to appreciate the busy times as much as the slow times. The rest has also made me more mindful of my own energy levels and it’s helped me to recognize when to call it quits. Rather than fight it, I revel in the need and ability to rest.

As I make these big changes in my career and my life, I feel more confident than ever that I can be both productive and nurturing of my body, mind, and spirit. I used to fear burn out. Now, it’s not even up for consideration. At the slightest twinge of discomfort, I’m able to take a breath or two or three.

Recharging isn’t something that needs to be done on week-long vacations, though I highly recommend those. Every day, we have the choice to come back down into our bodies, into the very depths of who we are, and rest there. Quiet. Peaceful. Free.

books, dreams, environment, film, movie

Leap: Advice on the Power of Perseverance from The Lorax

Christa Avampato

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” ~ The Lorax by Dr. Seuss

The Lorax makes its way from children’s book to the big screen today and not a moment too soon.

The end of trees
Its tale of environmental woe is all too familiar; eerily so. Written over 40 years ago, the grim future of the natural world that it lays out in sad, grey detail is the world that is unfolding around us every day.

When echoed back to us by Dr. Seuss, our excuses of the products we “need” and the lengths we are willing to go to get them – the generation of smog, pollution, deforestation, and species – seem so foolish, selfish, and reckless. And yet we continue to make them, and will continue to make them until everything’s lost. Unless…we do something else: care.

It’s always personal
It’s true for the environment, education, healthcare, foreign relations, and any other humanitarian effort imaginable. It all starts with one person who sees something they don’t like and cares enough to change it. These are enormous issues that need armies of minds and hearts to solve them, but every movement starts within one person who gets angry, just like the Lorax, and decides to do something about it rather than just sit there and let it happen.

At the very end of the book the curious child who wanted to hear the story of the Lorax is given the very last seed from the very last tree. He’s told to water it, nurture it, and see to it that its survival was not in vain. He’s told to go make good of what little hope the world, and the trees, have left.

What’s your tree?
You have a seed, too. You have within you something right now that needs nurturing. An idea, a passion, that wants so much to make its way to the surface. Don’t let it languish without getting to see the light of day. You are the only one who can breathe life into it, who can help us understand why it’s so powerful and why we should all care about its future.“Speak for the trees” as the Lorax did, whatever your trees may be, and don’t back down. Make some noise.

The world is counting on you.