Month: June 2012

creativity, education, teaching

Leap: The Making of a Teacher

Christa Avampato
Image from mrsashie.tumblr.com

“Anyone can be an instructor; what you need to work on is being someone’s teacher.” ~ Mel Brasier, ISHTA Yoga Senior Teacher

“I don’t teach what I own. I own what I teach.” ~ Mona Anand, ISHTA Yoga Senior Teacher

Today, I’m halfway through my advanced yoga teacher training program at ISHTA. I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about what makes a teacher. Anyone can learn material and the words to communicate it to someone else. Anyone can stand at the front of the room and give directions from memory. But that doesn’t make someone a teacher.

A teacher can take what she knows, discover what her students need, and then find a way to dynamically marry the two.

There’s a lot to be said for preparation, for planning out a safe and purposeful class. It requires a tremendous amount of knowledge and practice. But it doesn’t make someone a teacher.

A teacher is someone who is prepared as much as he is aware. He has the courage to take everything he planned to do and throw it away for the sake of serving his students and their needs in the moment. He can bravely change course when he sees that there is a better way forward.

Teaching has very little to do with the teacher and everything to do with the student. Teaching is service. It requires that we show up, tune in, and give freely to those around us.

health

Leap: 10 Ways to Be Healthier

Christa Avampato

I love simple directions.

future, meditation

Leap: Mind to Body, Body to Mind

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

“Connecting the mind and body is not just a health strategy. It is a movement of consciousness that can change the world.” ~ Matthew Sanford

This morning I read several news stories about the latest medical news on annual physicals. A number of doctors are now saying that annual physicals below age 50 are a waste of time and money, for individuals and for the entire healthcare system. I paused when I heard this information as I have been going for annual physicals my entire adult life. These medical professionals aren’t saying don’t go to the doctor nor are they saying don’t get recommended routine exams. They’re just balking at going to the doctor for the simple sake of going to the doctor. If you aren’t feeling well, get checked. If you’re feeling good, you’re fine.

Just after reading these articles, I came across Matthew Sanford’s quote. I’ve been a fan of Matthew’s since reading his book Waking a few years ago. He changed my yoga practice and informed my teaching through his words and experiences. The connection between mind and body, and it goes evenly in both directions, is critical to our health and happiness and has a tremendous impact on the world around us.

When we’re tapped into our essence, when we’re on our path, the world rises up to meet us. It supports us in our pursuits. We come into contact with exactly the people we are supposed to meet. We end up being in the right place at exactly the right time to learn exactly the lessons we are meant to learn.

When considering this pursuit, the question I most often hear is “How will I know when I’m on the right path?” I can only tell you how I knew. I knew it in my bones. My body could sense when I was going in the right direction. I overrode its wisdom for a long time until I was finally so tired and worn down that I had to sit still and listen. My mind was so good at covering up my tracks on the wrong road that I didn’t even know I was tired. I thought I was fine. And I wasn’t.

As I sat and listened, I could hear a whispering way off in the distant. It had an urgency but not the clarity I needed to hear its message. Over the course of several years, I had to keep sitting and listening. I had to keep getting quiet to get another small piece of the puzzle. I would hear that small bit of wisdom and then try it out to see how it felt. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it worked for only a short time, and sometimes it didn’t work at all. And still I would listen; I would wait for more information; I would tap in.

I offer to you the same opportunity. It’s there for all of us. All it requires is patience, curiosity, and perseverance. Your road is out there, too. It will call to you and when it does, you’ll be ready.

career, change, creativity, work

Leap: Here Comes the Sun

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

“Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.” ~ Arundhati Roy via Daily Good

Do you hear that? It’s the sound of change whispering in your ear and it’s not taking no for an answer.

One unexpected consequence of taking a leap into the new future of a career by my own design is that I now want to take everyone I know right along with me. Since giving my notice at work, the overwhelming number of responses have fallen into the following 2 categories:

1.) “I wish I could do that.”
2.) “I want to do that, too. Can you help me figure out how? I need some inspiration.”

My answer to #1 is, you can. My answer to #2 is, yes of course I’ll help you. I’ve also been so pleased to hear that so many others are planning their own leaps and are on the path to launch in the not-too-distant future. I couldn’t be happier for them because I know what awaits and while that carries its own risks and stresses, it’s pretty damn amazing to feel the flood of creativity that follows the leap.

The new world of how to merge our greatest passions with how we earn a living has been around for a long time but she is gaining steam now thanks to technology and our own evolution. She’s heading your way. Be ready. (HINT: Chris Guillebeau‘s new book $100 Startup will help you prepare for this brave new world of work. Review coming soon…)

change, clarity, courage, meditation, yoga

Leap: When the Going Gets Tough, The Tough Keep Breathing

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

“Sometimes when things are falling apart, they may actually be falling into place.” ~ Marilyn Monroe

I went to meditation class on Monday night and settled in to my seat as I’ve done many times before. Nothing seemed unusual about the beginning of my practice but I was in for a roller coaster of surprises. This is a short story about riding the wave, never giving in, and committing to the long haul.

In a couple of weeks I’m meeting with an accountant to get myself set up as a corporation as I transition into doing more freelance work. I need to come up with a name for my company and I’ve been running up against a wall because of some underlying angst. Since making the leap last week, I’ve been wrestling with how to reconcile my professional interests in product development, writing, and teaching yoga under one corporate roof. I hoped that my meditation class would bring about some inspiration.

As soon as I settled down and closed my eyes, I knew something was wrong. In less than a minute my eyes were tearing up and tears were rolling down my face. My whole body began to feel very heavy and weak, my legs were falling asleep, and I started to feel dizzy. I stretched my legs out in front of me and pins and needles started firing from my feet to my knees. I took a long forward bend in hopes of re-grounding myself. It helped a bit, but not much. I contemplated leaving the class but decided to try to breathe through it. And I’m so glad I did.

With each breath, I felt myself releasing something that was old and stale, something that needed to be sent out to pasture and never heard from again. I’m not even quite sure what it was. Maybe old perceptions of myself or the world, maybe fear and anxiety, maybe a hard shell that had outlived its protective purpose. Underneath, I could feel the green sprouts shooting up, struggling to break new ground, reaching for some air and sunlight. A new day was dawning.

Change is hard. It hurts. It’s scary ad int’s uncomfortable. But if we are willing to hang in there and do the work to cross the chasm, something amazing is waiting for us on the other side and that something is us. We are making our way to exactly who we are meant to be and once we arrive home to our own authenticity, we will look back and realize that all of that work was worthwhile. The journey is long and arduous. It’s full of surprises, good and bad. Don’t turn back. Breathe, and keep going.

creativity

Leap: The Next Stop on My Career Path

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest

Once people find out I’ve given notice at my corporate job, the next question is always, “So, now what will you do?” Those who know me as a yoga teacher assume I will plow myself into that career full-time. Those who know me as a writer assume that will be my singular pursuit. And those who have worked with me as a product developer figure I’m heading off to the freelance world. My answer: I’m doing all of it.

My leap from my current job had very little to do with that job and a whole lot to do with the kind of life I’m designing. I want the freedom to work out my passions every single day. My singular passion is to help people live extraordinary lives and I do that in a few ways:

1.) I teach yoga to help people cultivate a sense of well-being that they can take into their lives every day

2.) I write stories that inspire and ignite people’s imaginations

3.) I develop useful products and services that people love

Those are my goals, every day, everywhere I go, in everything I do.

So, now what will I do? Exactly what I’ve always done, but now it always will be on my own terms.

adventure, India, travel

India Takes It To the Limit, Everytime

Christa Avampato
The store where people who live along the backwaters of Alleppey buy just about everything they need.

I’m not sure why I have Eagles songs running through my head as I’m re-reading my India journal. I’m sure there’s a cosmic reason for that but it has yet to strike me. I’ll get back to you on that.

India is a land of contradictions. It is at once limitless in its diversity and possibility and yet it tested my personal limits every moment of every day. Just when I thought I had it all figured out, or at least had figured out the tiny footprint of ground I happened to be standing on at any one time, it would flip head over heels into a different realization.

One concept of limits that India revealed to me was the idea that every object has a full life.

“In India,” Jose said, “we use everything until the end of its life.”

Indians don’t run out and get everything bright, shiny, and new because there’s a sale or just because they feel like it. They replace items when they need replacing, and not a moment sooner. In the mainstream throw-away American culture, we’re more likely to toss something away because we’re tired of looking at it than we are to use it until it’s used up. We’re changing our ways, some more quickly than others, but we’re a long way off from collectively using everything we have until it’s no longer useful.

I love the idea of honoring everything we have for the lifespan it’s intended to have. It’s caused me to think and re-think my own buying and tossing habits. In actuality, we don’t need much in the way of possessions to get by and what we do have we should use to its full extent.

This is the thing that stunned me more than anything else about India: in the smallest of moments lie the greatest of lessons.

adventure, generosity, India

Hotel India: You Can Check Out Anytime You Like But You Will Never Be Asked to Leave

Christa Avampato
View from my hotel room in Munnar, India, at sunrise

” ‘Get out’ is not a phrase in any of our languages. Indians don’t know that term,” Jose said.

Rob laughed loudly. “Well come to the U.S. and you’ll learn that phrase quickly. We use it a lot.”

“That’s a shame,” Jose replied. “If you are in a restaurant here, no one would ever tell you they’re closed and it’s time to leave. It would never happen.”

And I thought Southerners had cornered the market on hospitality. I was skeptical of Jose’s reply. Actually, I thought he was flat-out lying. Every one has a closing time and India couldn’t be an exception to that universal truth.

In Munnar, Jose took us to an authentic shop to get Ayurvedic massages.

“You can come by any time you like,” said the shop owner.

“What time do you close?” I asked.

The shop owner just stared at me and blinked.

“We can come by later on tonight after our tours?” I asked. A bit more staring and blinking followed. Ha! I knew I’d find a closing time in India.

“Sure, whatever is good for you,” he said.

“7:30?” asked Jose.

“Sure. 7:30 is perfect.”

“Done.”

Jose took us up the mountain to the hotel so we could check in. After they upgraded us to one of the private cottages (just because they could and wanted to), we learned we were going to miss the last dinner slot there due to our massages. (For the record, I felt like a complete jackass for having such a touristy excuse.) The proprietor said it was not a problem. They would hold a separate seating just for us.

“Yeah, right,” I thought to myself. Thank goodness I still had some chocolate chip cookies in my bag for dinner later on tonight.

When we returned from the massages (and that will be a separate post in and of itself!), sure enough dinner and the staff were all waiting for us with a delicious several course meal. I was floored. How could this be happening?

But this kind of scenario kept happening everywhere we went. Once again, India made a fool out of me, or rather I made a fool out of myself, to myself, by doubting her. Jose was right to an alarming degree. In India, they will always leave the light on for you. I wonder what the Eagles would think of that.

adventure, community, India

India Proves That We Can All Just Get Along

Christa Avampato
An example of the diversity of India

With the election season fast approaching, we’re already hearing the painful cries of what divides us. Religion, race, political party, ideology, money or lack there of. Anyone from the outside looking in on our politics would think that what divides us will split us apart.

Enter, India.

This photo is one of my favorite snapshots from my trip to India, not because the sign itself is aesthetically pleasing in any way. However, the principle it embodies is a thing of beauty. India is everything. If ever we wanted to see an incredible melting pot, India is it. Its multiple layers of diversity in every aspect of human life are overwhelming. If you are looking for your pack, it is somewhere here in India. You will have to root it out of the quagmire, but rest assured your efforts will be rewarded with like minds who invariably know other like minds. Seek and eventually you will find.

When I asked Jose how so much diversity can exist in relative peace, he was a bit confused by the question. “We don’t judge the opinions of others. We may not like them. We may not agree with them. But we recognize that they have a right to exist. I believe what I want to believe and so can others. All others.”

Not a bad principle to live by. Not bad at all.

adventure, change, choices, courage, creativity

Leap: The Day After

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest

“What saves us is to take a step. Then another step.” ~ C. S. Lewis

A lot of people take about the day they made a change, a big decision, a new commitment.

But what about the day after? Do they wake up panicked by what they’ve done? Does their conviction grow each day after? Here is how I felt: just fine. Oddly fine.

Sometimes people fear staying too long in a situation that no longer suits them. I believe in my case I stayed just the right amount of time. I got my finances in order, my direction became clear and focused, and then leaping was the next logical step.

There were certainly moments of trepidation and fear. I’m sure there will continue to be these moments. They do pass. I just take another step, and keep going. Today is that second step, the second step on a new path. Of course it will feel rocky and of course I will feel unsure. It is new. It doesn’t know me. And I don’t know it. Yet. But we will grow together.