Up until now I have had a distinct disdain for power yoga. The very term power yoga made me shake my head in wonder. Why would anyone practice that?
Now I’m eating a bit of Bakasana (crow.) Mel, One of my mentors and teachers at ISHTA, has a class called Hour of Power. I intended to show my face once and never return. Now I actually look forward to it for a very simple reason – it’s improved my strength dramatically. I feel myself carrying my whole body differently. Lats week Mel had us do something she calls the martian butterfly sequence. Essentially we unfolded and packed up a Sun Salutation, adding one breath and one posture to each cycle. It took about 30 minutes and involved a lot of plank postures, lowering to chaturanga (bottom of a push-up) and then pressing back up. I think she calls it the martian sequence because by the end of it I was so wiped that I felt like I was on another planet.
Mel must have read the expression on my face when she cued our first pressing up. “Don’t tell yourself you can’t do something. Don’t think about it. Just do it.” So I did. Barely but I did it. Over and over and over again.
But here’s the miraculous thing that happened a few days later….
I was in a class and the teacher cued us to push back up from chaturanga and I just did it. I didn’t think about it. I didn’t tell myself I couldn’t do it. It just happened.
And the other miracle of this stronger practice is that I find myself softening off the mat, better able to manage challenges that arise with ease and grace. Maybe there really is something to this power yoga after all…
“You were born with wings. Why prefer to crawl through life?”~ Rumi via MindBodyGreen
For the past few months, I’ve been reading a book of poetry by Rumi. Each day I read a poem right before I go to bed. It’s proving to be a beautiful ritual that closes out each day with grace and peace. Invariably, each poem helps me to appreciate the lessons I’ve learned each day and how they can be used in my life going forward.
If you came over to my apartment, you’d find tiny pictures everywhere that symbolize the idea of leaping. I’ve become rather obsessed with these images. I find that they have so much hope in them. They give meĀ courage as I prepare to make a huge change in my career and by extension, my life. You’ll find most of them on my Photography Pinterest board. There’s one with a quote that reads, “Sometimes you just need to leap and build your wings on the way down.” The line from Rumi above (thanks MindBodyGreen!) made me realize that it should really read “Sometimes you just need to leap and use the wings you’ve already got.”
I already have everything I need to make this jump – experience, purpose, and support – and now I just need the missing ingredient – time – to bring it all together. Lisa, one of the lovely readers of this blog, wrote in a comment on yesterday’s post that she hasn’t yet found the courage to make her leap. The first idea that flooded into my mind was that courage is closer than she thinks. It is for all of us.
There will never be a time when everything falls into place and eliminates all risk. If we are to fly we have to leave the security of the ground for the lightness of the air. We forget that air has heft to it, too. It is able to carry, support, and sustain travelers through long journeys. However, air requires that we work just as hard as it is willing to work. We have to be brave, stretch and reach out far and wide, in order to receive its benefits. It asks a lot of us, and that’s okay because these wings of ours, the ones we have always had, are begging for some wear, for some room, for some time to show what they’re made of and what they have to offer.
Eventually we will have no choice. Those wings won’t be contained for long. They either get used or they atrophy. And if that’s the choice, then why not give them a shot at the prize and go along for the ride? At the very least you’ll have a wonderful adventure and if you’re lucky you may just have the time of your life.
I’m having a great time running contests for all of the wonderful readers and contributors to this blog. The latest one for an invitation to Underground Eats has two winners – In Blue and Sara. Congratulations ladies! Your invites are their way to your inboxes.
“You’re leaving? What are you going to do?” (Said with an exotic mix of terror, awe, and confusion with a hint of frustration and a healthy handful of ‘I’ll-believe-it-when-I-see-it’.)
This is a fairly common response I’m getting as I begin to make my plans for Leap Day known. To be fair, I also have a tremendous number of wonderful people in my life who couldn’t be happier with my decision, and who think it’s about time I finally did this! The questions of what I’m going to do with myself post-leap is entirely valid and it’s high time I answered exactly what I will and won’t be doing in this newly designed life o’ mine.
Things I will be doing:
Finishing my advanced teacher training at ISHTA Yoga to complete my 500-hour teacher certification. There will be a celebration when it’s all wrapped up this summer!
Working on Compass Yoga, the nonprofit I founded a year ago to focus on improving the health of all people by teaching the therapeutic benefits of yoga and meditation through free and low-cost classes and workshops. Given the demand and need in New York City, the programming requiress more of my attention. We’re also eagerly awaiting the approval of our 501(c)3 status to begin fundraising efforts.
Working on my freelance writing and a few personal writing projects like The Geronimo Project. (Know someone who took a leap of faith in their career and wants to share the story? Send them my way!)
Consulting withĀ Sesame Workshop. I have been tremendously lucky to be a consultant this year with the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, the education research arm of the Sesame Workshop, as they set-up their second annual National STEM Video Game Challenge. I’ll be continuing that work this summer and also looking to pick up some additional consulting work if possible. Someone’s got to make sure my pup, Phineas, has a warm bed and a full belly!
Running a pilot of Innovation Station. About 2 years ago I started working on a new product development curriculum for middle and high school students that I named Innovation Station. After a number of iterations, I finally found a format that is worthy of a pilot program. Now that I’ll have time during the school day, I’m going in search of a partner school. (I’m taking suggestions!)
Learning to code. Thanks to Codecademy, I’m fully indulging my inner nerd to learn the basics of coding as a way to grow my skill set while I stretch my mind. “Why does a yoga teacher need to learn how to code?” you ask. With the way our world is going, a knowledge of coding will be as necessary basic computer skills in the coming years.
Things I won’t be doing:
Sitting around eating Pop Tarts and watching TV. Well, that’s not entirely true. I enjoy a good Pop Tart now and then, and I do love TV. My consumption of both will be kept under control.
Doing tedious, menial work that doesn’t take advantage of my full set of interests and skills. (Enough of that!)
Wallowing in regret over the risk I’m taking.
Spending a lot of money. I don’t spend that much money now, but I’ll be making adjustments to do more with less. I’m actually really excited about living in an even thriftier fashion.
It’s going to be exciting to see what comes of this mix. Rest assured it will all be shared here.
Compass Yoga will have a spot on the line-up from 10am – 6pm and we’ll be offering:
mini-private sessions to help you with any ache, pain, or health question that ails you
collecting your gently used yoga mats and props to stock our classrooms
the schedule of all of our weekly classes around the city
information on volunteer and partnership opportunities with Compass Yoga
and free delicious beverages provided by our generous and inspiring partner, Honeydrop Beverages
I’ll be there all day and joined by our incredibly talented teachers, board members, and volunteers. Come by, say hi, and learn more about the benefits of yoga. See you there!
We’re growing! More yoga to more people in more places.
I am so excited to share the news that Compass Yoga is adding 3 new classes to our weekly schedule, all free, open to all levels from beginning to advanced, and all in association with our growing relationship with the New York Public Library.
I’ve enjoyed the last two contests that I’ve run on this blog in recent weeks – the first was for a free 12-week subscription to the digital version of the New York Times (congrats, Trish!) and the second was for a copy of the book Lessons from the Monk I Married by Katherine Jenkins, one of my writerly friends. Those were so much fun that I’ve been hunting around for a third way to share the wealth!
The site Underground Eats has just launched to a small, invite-only audience and I have an invite to give away. I’d like to give it to you! Underground Eats is “the go-to site for exclusive Alternative Dining Experiences.” At the moment, they are only in New York City but they are hoping to expand to other cities shortly so I’m not going to limit this contest to New York City-area residents only. I just want to be clear that at the moment the only experiences available for purchase on the site are in New York City. The experiences are truly exclusive, unique, and can only be purchased through the site.
So what exactly does ‘Alternative Dining Experience’ mean? Here’s a little sampling of what’s on offer at this very moment:
The Truck Stops Here: 5-Course Food Truck + Beer Dinner – $40
No need to keep checking Twitter and chasing food trucks all over the city. For one night only – all your favorite food trucks, under one roof.
Edible presents The Drive-In Dinner at Brooklyn Brewery, hosting the Morris Truck, Bongo Brothers Cuban Food Truck, Red Hook Lobster Pound, Feed Your Hole and Coolhaus for a sit-down, five-course dinner with beer pairings.
Each course comes from a different food truck and is paired with the perfect Brooklyn Brewery beer – even dessert.
A Dinner of Titanic Proportions: 100 Years in the Making – $300
Bon vivants, all aboard.
Heed the call, First Class and VIP passengers: no expense will be spared in this indulgent tribute to the 100th anniversary of the Titanic’s last supper. You will dine amongst an intimate clique of black-tied guests, on a seven-course menu, based on the original, but updated and reinterpreted from carte du jour of April 14, 1912. The galley is keeping the menu top secret for now (but we’ll send you a sneak peak closer to the event).
Drinks will pour, hijinks and other under-wraps surprises are rumored to ensue…and the band will play on.
The Ultimate Foodie Fantasy Camp: The New York Culinary Experience – $1395
You buy their cookbooks, eat at their restaurants, watch their cooking shows.
Now, imagine a whole weekend cooking side-by-side with your favorite star chefs, such as David Bouley, Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Dan Kluger? Pinch yourself, now.
Hosted by The International Culinary Center and New York magazine, The New York Culinary Experience is foodie fantasy camp. Learn how to make pasta sauces with A Voce’s Missy Robbins, Tuscan-style seafood with Cesare Casella, and chocolate desserts with celebrity pĆ¢tissier Jacques Torres. All classes are completely interactive, and you’ll get to enjoy every dish you prepare.
The Michelin star count alone will drive your friends mad with envy.
So how do you enter to win an invite to the site? Like this post, leave a comment, or contact me through Twitter or Facebook. I’ll leave this contest open all weekend and then announce the winner Monday morning. Happy eating and good luck!
In less than a month, I’ll be taking flight to finally visit Incredible India, a destination that has been at the top of my dream travel list for many years. While there I will be completely immersed in the culture, sights, scents, and sounds around me. I imagine that there will be little time for internet access while I’m on the trip so in an uncharacteristic move my social media channels will take a well-needed rest during that time. I’m hoping that here and there I may be able to hop online in the business center of the hotels to at least give a snippet of an update but it will be vastly reduced from my usual chatting.
Below is a glimpse of my itinerary for the adventure ahead courtesy of the amazing tour concierge at Sunshine Travel and what I’ll be riffing on once I return to the States:
India – A living Heritage
“For the avid traveler, India provides an authentic adventure – stimulating, absorbing, daunting, sometimes moving and shocking. Here is one of the world’s great dramas; an ancient, vast, and crowded land committed to the most formidably challenging exercise in mass democracy. It is a spectacle in which hope, pride, paradox and uncertainty mingle and struggle. It is conducted on the whole, and to India’s credit in the open. The lasting memories of the land are hospitality, kindness, good humor and generosity. Here is a society of over a 1000 million people, growing by a million a month, divided and united by language, caste, religion and regional loyalties. It has often been described as a functioning anarchy; and it is in many ways an amiable one, of marvelous fluidity and tolerance. Indeed, the true Indian motif is not the Taj Mahal, the elephant or the patient peasant behind the ox drawn plough. It is the crowd, the ocean of faces in the land of multitudes, endlessly stirring, pushing and moving. It is in this human circulation that one sees India’s color, variety, busyness, and senses also its power, vitality and grandeur. Bon voyage! ~ Sunshine Tours”
May 10th – 11th
In-flight via Dubai (which will be spectacular in and of itself!)
May 12th
Arrive Cochin. Traditional garlanding welcome upon arrival.
Breakfast at hotel. Morning free to get over jetlag. At approx.1330 hrs, guide & driver will meet you at hotel and depart for sightseeing tour of Cochin city. Evening witness Kathkali Dance Performance show at theater.
Cochin, originally built by the Portuguese, has a natural harbour with lagoons and canals and fishing hamlets.Ā One of the three biggest ports on the West Coast, it is also an industrially developed area.Ā The coir industry is of special importance.Ā An excursion by boat through the backwaters is enchanting.
Cochin sightseeing include visit Jew Town, Chinese Fishing nets, St.Francis Church (Closed on Sundays-0830-1330 hrs), Fort Kochi, The Dutch cemetery, Santa Cruz Basilica,Ā Matanchery Palace (The Dutch Palace) etc.
Kathakali dance performance show. Stories from epics are presented in this dance-drama. It is a male bastion with female characters also being performed by men. Costumes are colorful and regal with faces painted like masks using natural colors and make-up. A predominant feature of this dance is the intricate facial mime work and eye movements.
May 13th
Breakfast at hotel. Morning visit Jewish Synagogue (closed on Fridays & Saturdays). After the visit, drive to Munnar and upon arrival, check in at hotel.
Munnar, Known as Kashmir of South India, Munnar is situated in Kerala. Snuggled in the lap of such an alluring terrain, Munnar is one of the most beautiful hill stations in Kerala. Munnar – an idyllic destination is located at an altitude of 6000 feet above sea level. Munnar derives its name from the Tamil word āmunnuā meaning āthreeā and āaarā means āRiverā- spelled as Munnar on combining. After check in, depart for sightseeing of city. The town by itself has little other than the tea plantations and a colonial era CSI Christ Church, built in 1910 AD with some fine stained glass windows. Munnar is the final adventure travel destination. You can trek up the hills and mountain ranges nearby; also visit Tata Tea Museu, Anamudi: highest peak of South India is close to Munnar.
May 14th
After breakfast depart to Alleppey and board Backwater Houseboat. Lunch on board. Cruise through Vembanad Lake enroute visit Church, Temple, paddy fields, narrow lanes etc.
Dinner & overnight on board.
May 15th
After breakfast on board, disembark at Alleppey. Meeting & transfer to Cochin Airport to board flight for Delhi. Meeting & assistance upon arrival and transfer to Hotel Royal Plaza. Rest of the day free for independent activities.
Delhi, the capital of India has a fascinating history and a stimulating present.Ā Delhi has been the seat of a power of a number of dynasties ā the Rajputs, the Muslims invaders from the North, the Afghan dynasties followed by Tughlaqs, Sayyads, the Ladies and the Mughals, who continued the Imperial line, until British days.
The old city, built by Shah Jehan in the 17th century, stands today as an epitome of the whole history of Indo-Islamic architecture.Ā New Delhi, designed and constructed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and Sir Herbert Baker is a mixture of east and west.Ā The public buildings in red sandstone are in the Mughal style.
New Delhi, has a circular Parliament House and an imposing Central Secretariat in two blocks, which stand at the approaches to Rashtrapati Bhavan, the residence of the President of India.Ā Delhi is today the political, economic and cultural capital of the worldās largest democracy and has also become one of the greatest tourist centers of the world.
May 16th
Breakfast at hotel. Full day free for independent activities. Likely taking in the main sights of Delhi.
May 17th
Early morning at approx.0515 hrs, pick up from hotel and transfer to New Delhi Railway station to board train for Agra. (Breakfast is served in the train by railway authority as complimentary, however, you can also carry packed breakfast from hotel). Meeting & depart for sightseeing tour of Taj Mahal, Agra Fort. Afternoon excursion to Fatehpur Sikri. Evening return back to Agra Cantt Railway Station to board train for Delhi (Dinner is served in the train by railway authorities as complimentary). Ā Meeting & transfer to hotel.
Taj Mahal ā the worldās greatest love tribute: the Taj Mahal built by Emperor Shah Jehan for his beloved queen Mumtaz Mahal in 1565 on the bank of the Yamuna River. The exterior is decorated with arabesques and texts of the Koran inlaid with precious stones.Ā The Tomb itself, while pure white marble, consists of an octagonal building with a terrace square, surmounted by a dome 26 meters high, Agra Fort Or Red Fort, the most beautiful 17th century Mughal architecture. In 1565, Akbar began to build the Red Fort with its high red sandstone walls: inside, south, is the Jahangiri Mahal or Palace of Jahangir, built by Akbar to the north, the Pearl Mosque, built by Shah Jahan.Ā The “Khas Mahal” which forms three pavilions, one discovers a beautiful view of the Yamuna and the Taj Mahal
Fatehpur Sikri –Ā the ancient capital built by Mughal Emperor Akbar and whose palace is a fine example of Mughal architecture of the sixteenth century.
These magnificent red sandstone ruins of the middle of the plain are the remains of one of the capitals Akbar.Ā He founded in 1569 by expressing his gratitude for the birth of his son, Selim.Ā The building principal is the great mosque, probably the best in India.Ā The Palace of Jodha Bai, the wife Akbar’s Rajput, includes a courtyard surrounded by a gallery surmounted by buildings and covered with a glazed blue roof.Ā Akbar’s private apartments and exquisite palace Sultan Turkey found in another court, then the Panch Mahal, or palace has five floors, which includes room hearings. Visit the palace and called Bulund Darwaza the largest gateway in the world.
May 18thand May 19th
Breakfast at hotel. Full day free for independent activities. Again, likely taking in more of the main sights of Delhi.
May 20th Returning home at an ungodly early hour that will get us back to the U.S. on the afternoon of the 20th, again via Dubai. These time differences are going to be a little rough, but worth it!
Somewhere in there, I’ll be visiting with friends who live in Delhi who have been the driving encouragement behind me finally taking the plunge and making plans to get to Incredible India. I’m hoping for a yoga class or too and some Ayurvedic treatments. Maybe an elephant ride thrown in for good measure, too!
Whatever India holds for me, I promise I’ll be sharing it all here upon my return. I’m also thinking about crafting a way to bundle up my experiences in a more cohesive way, complete with photos and perhaps some video, too. Maybe it’s time for a second e-book…
“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” ~Virginia Woolf, British writer
You’ve got a lot of living to do – social life, work life, personal life, family life, time to explore new interests, time to keep up with long-time interests, and then just down time to rest, relax, and rejuvenate. How do all the puzzle pieces come together without any of them getting cheated?
I thought about this question a lot last night as I made my way home after a yoga class and another evening meeting immediately after my class. On the subway ride home I continued reading An Everlasting Meal by Tamar Adler. In it she gives advice on cooking, eating, and living simply, elegantly, and gracefully. I have to admit that I’m mildly addicted to trying out her ideas in my own very tiny kitchen. She’s also incredibly budget-conscious, which I’ve also been thinking about a lot as I narrow in on my Leap Day.
Pondering the question of time management, I turned to my kitchen – my tiny refuge. When I don’t know what to do or think or feel, I cook. Somehow the act of preparing food shuts down my mind for a bit, and when I re-emerge into the world I still may not have answers but at least I have something tasty to fuel my thinking. Last night it was a simple meal of buttered toast topped with whipped cottage cheese, tomatoes, and parsley along with a fennel and orange salad. Simple, elegant, graceful. Stomach full. Thinking cap replaced.
Time management at its very core comes down to priorities. I get things done that I care about. Everything else I leave to someone else. I’ve made habits out of things I enjoy, that inspire me, that raise me up no matter how low I feel. I don’t stress over things of little to no consequence, and I’m thoughtful about things of great consequence. Over time, I’ve learned to let go of everything that doesn’t serve me well. Sometimes that letting go is painful and sometimes it’s joyful, but it’s all worthwhile and I always learn something in the process.
Above all, I eat well, sleep well, and I only do things that I can do with my whole heart. That’s the only way I can be assured that my days are worthwhile.
Christa Avampato 