Month: May 2013

creativity, decision-making, technology

Beautiful: Computer Programming Teaches Us How to Solve Every Problem

Christa Avampato

“Divide each difficulty into as many parts as is feasible and necessary to resolve it.” ~ Rene Descartes, French mathematician and philosopher

Problems trip us up because they typically have many layers. We get so caught up in their tangled webs that we can’t see our way clear of them. We try to solve the whole thing at once. If we can break a problem down into pieces and then address each piece individually, we gain confidence by removing each roadblock and eventually the light at the end of the tunnel begins to shine through.

Learning to program has taught me this lesson at every turn. In programming, we have a goal – the thing we’re trying to build. To get there, we have to break the problem down into pieces and address each small piece line by line. The collection of all of those lines yield our desired result.

The same is true for any problem in our lives. They’re all made of tiny problems stacked on top of one another. Start where you are, see where you want to go, and chart all of the small steps to get from here to there. It’s a sure path to unraveling any challenge that ails us. And while you’re at it, why not learn to code?

career, creativity, entrepreneurship, philanthropy, product, product development, yoga

Beautiful: One Fine Yogi, My Latest Creation, Is Starting Up to Support Compass Yoga

Christa Avampato

“Yoga is skill in action.” ~ Bhagavad Gita

As a way to build a sustainable revenue source for Compass Yoga, I’m creating a line of yoga-inspired fashions for you and your home as well as personal care products under the brand One Fine Yogi. Proceeds from this line of products will support Compass’s work to get more yoga to more people in more places. If you want to be notified about the launch this summer, please visit http://onefineyogi.com and add your name to the mailing list.

Right now I am in the midst of the design / test phase. The launch timeline is as follows:

Late June: I’ll launch the first t-shirt design. I’m working with Teespring, a start-up based in Rhode Island, to create an exclusive line of original short sale t-shirts. T-shirts will be ladies cut and made from super soft material. Short sale designs are limited editions sold for a limited amount of time. Designs will be available for 3 weeks starting in late June and you place your orders for that design during that window of time. Every 3 weeks a new design will launch. Once each design session closes, the t-shirts ordered during that window will be created as limited editions and sent directly to your mailing address. Pretty cool, eh?

Late Summer: To kick off the home fashion line, I’m creating a line of limited edition yoga-inspired wall decals and prints.

Fall: We encounter a lot of stressors in our lives so we could all use a little more pampering, right? One Fine Yogi has you covered with a line of heavenly scented bath salts and sugar scrubs to ease tension, calm the mind, and lift your spirits. Our therapeutic blends of herbs, spices, and oils infuse the highest quality salts and sugars to help bring out your glow, inside and out. Also, if you have a specific fragrance or benefit you’d like to receive from our bath salts and sugar scrubs, we can create a custom blend just for you.

I’m tremendously excited to create and share my first line of original products and to build out this brand with a mission that takes its inspiration from a practice that has brought me so many gifts. I hope you’ll share in the journey!

action, community, time, work

Beautiful: The One Reason Why You Need to Quit a Job You Hate

Christa Avampato

“Put your good where it will do the most.” ~ Wavy Gravy

There are all kinds of reasons we stay at a job we hate – benefits, paycheck, commitment, loyalty, guilt, fear. Every job has its ups and downs. But there is one big, fat reason why you just can’t maintain staying at a job that isn’t going to get better – you are wasting your time. You have to put your goodness in the place where it will do the most good for the world. When you look at it this way, staying at a job you hate is not only damaging to you, but to everyone.

We’ve got piles of problems in this world that need fixing and we are the only ones who can do that fixing. A magical fairy is not going to descend from the Heavens, wave her magic wand, and make it all better. It’s up to us.

A lot of people tell me they’re staying at jobs they hate until they come up with a good business idea. That should take them all of 5 minutes. If you want a good business idea, take yourself for a walk around your neighborhood, and find a pain point that people are experiencing. Fix that. That’s the only inspiration you need – put your goodness to good use and do work that rids the world of some amount of pain.

children, family, New York City, writing

Beautiful: My First Article on igokids.com is Live and Features the Museum of Mathematics

Christa Avampato

About a month ago I started writing for igokids.com, a site with the mission to be the go-to resource for parents, families, and caregivers about everything kid-related in New York City and beyond. I’ll be covering all kinds of activities from museum exhibitions to theater shows to family-friendly restaurants and events for the young and young-at-heart. My first post is now live and highlights the Museum of Mathematics, a one-of-a-kind place where kids and adults alike can play with numbers. Check it out by clicking here. If you have ideas of places and events in NYC that you think I should review, please let me know!

choices, creativity, love, work

Beautiful: Get Back to What You Love

Christa Avampato
Maybe the best piece of career advice you could get…

“Forgetting about what you love to do can be a form of self-sabotage – get back to what you love.” ~ Madisyn Taylor for DailyOm

In yoga, the principle of ahimsa (do no harm) is a cornerstone of the practice on and off the mat. Many forms of harm are obvious. Some forms of harm are much more subtle, and I’ve found that those forms are the ones we really need to consciously keep in check. Moving away from what we love is one of those.

I completely understand that we may need to take a job that we don’t love because we need to pay the rent and put food on the table. I’ve been there. Some days, I’m still there. In the past year, I have made a very clear and conscious effort to bring more work I love into my life, work I love so much that it feels strange to even call it work. Now I write, teach, and do more to support good works through my consulting practice than I did a year ago.

This shift of getting back to what I love by starting my own business has improved my mental and physical health in ways I never imagined. I was so bogged down when I was solely working for a check on projects that I didn’t care about. It was scary to leap off that cliff but I knew I needed to do it for my own well-being.

Magical things happened once I committed to a path paved with more of the things I love. Doors opened and they let the light in. It didn’t happen overnight and didn’t happen in any ways I expected, but that doesn’t matter. It all worked out much better than I had planned.

The root of this good fortune lies in a conscious and unrelenting choice to be in love with my life. It took me a long time to learn that truth, a long time to trust it. Do yourself a favor – don’t let another day go by without getting back to what you love.

government, social media, technology

Beautiful: The White House Hangs Out with Geeks – Today at 2pm EDT

Christa Avampato

Today I’m heading back to the White House with 3,000 of my closest geek friends.

Rather than donning a suit in the East Room, I’ll be on my comfy couch at 2:00 EDT in my yoga clothes with my pup, Phin, right next to me. That’s right – geeks of the world, we have arrived! The White House has created a Google Hangout, cleverly entitled “We the Geeks”, in our honor and the first one is today. The event is open to geeks far and near to “highlight the future of science, technology, and innovation here in the United States. Topics such as commercial space exploration, science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education, turning science fiction to science fact, and others will be discussed with Administration officials and key private sector contributors.”

The event is free and open to the public, and you’ll have the pleasure of hanging with yours truly. Or rather, I’ll have the pleasure of hanging with you! The full press release with all the geeky details is below. Hope to “see” you there!

White House Press Release
Note: Watch the first ‘We the Geeks” Hangout on Thursday, May 16, at 2:00 p.m. EDT on WhiteHouse.gov and on the White House Google+ page. You can join the conversation on Twitter with the hashtag #WeTheGeeks.

On May 16th, the White House is kicking off “We the Geeks,” a new series of Google+ Hangouts to highlight the future of science, technology, and innovation here in the United States. Topics such as commercial space exploration, science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education, turning science fiction to science fact, and others will be discussed with Administration officials and key private sector contributors.

The first “We the Geeks” Hangout will focus on Grand Challenges, ambitious goals on a national or global scale that capture the imagination and demand advances in innovation and breakthroughs in science and technology. Grand Challenges are an important element of President Obama’s Strategy for American Innovation. On April 2nd, the President called on companies, research universities, foundations, and philanthropists to join with him in identifying and pursuing the Grand Challenges of the 21st century.

An example of a past Grand Challenge was the sequencing of the entire human genome that, according to one recent study, has contributed to the U.S. economy more than $140 for every $1 invested by the Federal government. President Obama just announced the BRAIN Initiative, a bold new research effort to revolutionize our understanding of the human mind and uncover new ways to treat, prevent, and cure brain disorders like Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia, autism, epilepsy, and traumatic brain injury.  The Department of Energy is leading the way in Clean Energy Grand Challenges with SunShot, an initiative to make solar energy as cheap as coal, and EV Everywhere, an initiative announced by President Obama to make electric vehicles as affordable and convenient to own as today’s gasoline-powered vehicles.

The Obama Administration supports the identification and pursuit of Grand Challenges because the approach can:

  • help solve important economic and societal problems;
  • serve as a “North Star” for high-impact, multi-disciplinary collaborations among government, industry, universities, non-profits, and philanthropists;
  • create a foundation for industries and jobs of the future;
  • capture public imagination and increase support for public policies that foster science, technology, and innovation; and
  • inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs.

In addition to Federal investments, there are a growing number of companies, foundations, philanthropists, and research universities that are interested in pursuing Grand Challenges. During this Thursday’s “We the Geeks” Hangout, I’ll join White House Office of Science and Technology Policy’s Deputy Director for Technology and Innovation Tom Kalil and an extraordinary panel of innovators from around the country to discuss the elements of an “all hands on deck” effort to pursue Grand Challenges. Participants include:

  • Matt Grob, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., to discuss the Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE and other bold research initiatives at Qualcomm
  • Rob High, IBM Fellow, Vice President, and Chief Technology Officer, IBM Watson Solutions, to discuss what’s next for Watson and the field of cognitive computing
  • Kathryn Latham, recent graduate from Duke University with a degree in engineering and participant in the National Academy of Engineering Grand Challenge Scholars Program
  • Sebastian Thrun, a research professor at Stanford, a Google Fellow, and a co-founder of Udacity, to discuss Google’s self-driving car and Google X

So tune in Thursday, May 16, at 2:00 p.m. EDT on WhiteHouse.gov and on the White House Google+ page, as we begin a new series of future-focused Hangouts from the White House.

family, friendship

Beautiful: Find the Magic in Others

Christa Avampato

This picture reminds me of fireflies, those glorious heralds of summertime. I grew up in a rural area and during the summer, fireflies were everywhere. Even now I still find them comforting, with their bright behinds that help them perform their “now you see me, now you don’t” routine. They remind me that magic is everywhere, even in the most unlikely of places, even though we can’t see it all the time.

Just like this photo shows, the magic is most often found in the people around us. If ever you need to see its glimmer, look your friends and family in the eyes. Listen to their dreams. Know their hearts. That’s all the magic you’ll ever need to inspire your own pursuits.

beauty, stress, yoga

Beautiful: Yoga is for Everyone – Sarah Shaffer’s Story on Yoga with Down Syndrome

Christa Avampato
Sarah Shaffer practicing yoga

Too much of the media circus around yoga leads people to believe that it is a practice exclusively for super models and contortionists. Nothing could be further from the truth. U.S. News & World Report ran a story about Sarah Shaffer, a high school student who practices yoga to relax and improve her running.

The full story is below but the last line is the one that got me choked up. It perfectly illustrates why we focus Compass Yoga‘s mission on getting yoga to people who wouldn’t otherwise practice it. The reporter asked her if she had any advice for people new to yoga. Sarah says, “Keep doing yoga, even if it’s hard. It gets better the more you work at it. And you will feel so good after you’re done.”

Now that is beautiful.

Full article by Laura McMullen

Have you ever tried yoga? It’s not just for the thin, fit and athletically-built. Just about anyone who can breathe can practice yoga to some extent and reap its many benefits. We’ll prove it. In this series, U.S. News talks with people who are changing the face of yoga.

Sarah Schaffer is a senior at Free State High School in Lawrence, Kan. When she’s not playing the cymbals and triangle in the concert band, she’s sprinting and shot-putting on the school’s green and silver Firebirds track team. Sarah is a fan of country music – especially songs by Blake Shelton – and she also has Down syndrome.

Sarah is one of more than 400,000 people in the United States living with Down syndrome, according to the National Down Syndrome Society. Individuals with the condition have an extra full or partial copy of chromosome 21, which alters development and can result in mild to moderate cognitive delays. While every person with Down syndrome has unique traits and degrees of abilities, a few of the condition’s common physical characteristics include smaller stature, slightly upward-slanting eyes and low muscle tone, according to NDSS.

This low muscle tone is part of what prompted Sarah’s mom, Rose, a nurse with a degree in exercise science, to introduce her daughter to yoga. Rose felt yoga would help develop core strength, which would in turn boost Sarah’s coordination and ability to breathe deeply – a practice that would circulate more oxygen to her brain, Rose says. She soon discovered that yoga before bedtime also helped Sarah relax and sleep better.

Now, Sarah practices yoga regularly – even the “sculpting” variety with hand weights. She practices at after-school classes and at home with DVDs. (Her favorite DVDs are those hosted by fitness instructor Denise Austin because they’re fun, calm and relaxing, her mother says.) Sarah tells U.S. News more about her yoga practice. Her responses have been edited.

What’s your favorite part about yoga?

I like the music in the background, and I like the stretching because it’s fun, and it feels relaxing. The stretching helps with my running because I’m more stretched out.

Do you have a favorite stretch?

I like the bridge, and I like doing child’s pose at the end.

What’s been your biggest challenge with yoga?

I have a hard time balancing on one leg sometimes, but I’ve gotten better.

Do you have any advice for people new to yoga?

Do the same video every day until you get good at it. Keep doing yoga, even if it’s hard. It gets better the more you work at it. And you will feel so good after you’re done.

creativity, happiness, work, yoga, youth

Beautiful: Interesting Work is the Fountain of Youth

Christa Avampato

“Find something you‘re passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it.“ ~ Julia Child

There is no better feeling than being fully engaged. Energy zings right through your veins. Your heart, mind, and spirit are perfectly aligned in your pursuit. It keeps us young, active, and curious.

That’s exactly how I felt as I started working on designs for a personal and home fashion line that will benefit Compass Yoga. The first campaign will begin at the end of June. As I was working on the designs this weekend, I felt all of my skills snyc together in pursuit of this larger goal to build a self-sustaining organization that gets more yoga to more people in more places.

I’m with you, Julia. This is all it takes to generate a joyful life – do work you love that holds your interest and then find a way to do this work as often as possible.

family, grandmother, holiday, mother

Beautiful: Happy Mother’s Day, Yoga-style

Christa Avampato

To all the mothers everywhere, whether your kids have 2 legs or 4:
the light that is in me honors the light that is in each one of you.
Namaste.