So here it is – I’m unveiling the details of one of the big projects I’m working on during my creative break in LA this summer. For about a year, I’ve been kicking around the idea of building a therapeutic yoga app. I’m now actively searching for a front-end designer and a programmer for this project. If you have either of these skill sets, please let me know. If you know someone who might be interested, please send them my way.
Details about the project are available on CollabFinder. Click here to view my project page.
I love to open doors, for myself and others. It’s what I do in my teaching, writing, and consulting. I work hard to help others find new opportunities within themselves and in the world around them. Every day I tunnel into my imagination and discover new ways of seeing, new ways of doing, and new ways of being. Sharing these insights with others is a great honor.
I’m a firm believer in opening the doors that scare us most. What lies behind them are circumstances that will become our greatest teachers. As we open doors, we open our hearts. And as we open our hearts, we find that we are more full of compassion, understanding, and kindness than we ever thought possible. Once we open up to the world within, we can be in communion with the world around us.
Let’s plug in to what really matters. Let’s get connected.
I have heard this statement over and over again. I’ve done the research. I almost pulled the trigger and got a car for the remaining 6 weeks that I’ll be in LA. Then a few incidents happened that caused me to reconsider:
1.) My dear friend, Amy, who shares my love for public transit, sent me an article from AFAR entitled Another Angle on LA by Aimee Bender. In it, she skeptically explores the world of public transit in LA.
2.) Traveling back from Lake Tahoe, I got caught in all of the confusion in SFO after the horrific plane crash there. To get back to LA from San Francisco, I ended up having to rent and drive a car. The traffic wasn’t bad, but I found myself reaffirming what I’ve known all along: I don’t enjoy driving. At all. It’s one thing to rent a Zipcar here and there for specific reasons. It’s another thing entirely to depend on one to get from every point A to every point B.
3.) It’s also quite synchronistic that the people I swapped houses with this summer also prefer public transit and walking to driving. They’ve left me numerous resources on how to navigate LA via bus, subway, and my own two little feet.
So I’m listening to the signs and taking an adventure: I am going to attempt to navigate LA, and enjoy everything it has to offer, sans car as much as possible. I’m excited for the road ahead – especially since I won’t be driving on it. I promise to share all of my transit adventures here.
Stress may be all around us, but it doesn’t need to consume us. Someone else’s drama, bitterness, and unhappiness doesn’t need to affect our mood and outlook. Arturo Peal, one of my yoga teachers, describes the need for a personal Teflon shield. My friend, Moya, imagines difficulties caused by others as water than can roll right off her back.
I love both of these images and used them recently in the midst of discomfort and disappointment. They worked like a charm. I hope they help you, too.
“We must understand that out of community and dialogue, the answers will arrive in their own time and way.” – Bryant McGill
I came to California to get away from it all, to tap in so that I can clearly see what’s around the bend. That’s a more poetic way of saying that I came here to find these answers:
Where do I go from here?
And why?
And how?
And with whom?
Slowly those answers are rising up as I engage deeply and fully with the world around me and the world within. It is the best and hardest journey I’ve ever taken. And it is so worth it!
“When you follow your bliss… doors will open where you would not have thought there would be doors, and where there wouldn’t be a door for anyone else.” ~ Joseph Campbell via my friend, Marita
My beautiful friend, Marita, sent me this quote to help me along my summer of discovery. We worry so much that we won’t be able to create the lives we want or find the opportunities we seek. There’s so much competition. How will we ever be able to stack up against so many others who have the same dream?
The truth is that the road to those opportunities is already available. It’s waiting for us to hop on the path, the path that is made just for us and aligns with our deepest desires. The secret to finding the road is to tap in, to get really clear on what brings us joy, and then choose it. Thank you, Marita, for this needed and appreciated reminder.
“We believe what we see most often.” ~ Bryan Kest, yoga teacher
My friend, Dheepa, took me to a yoga class here in Santa Monica taught by Bryan Kest, the founder of Power Yoga. During our meditation he discussed the shape of our belief system and the factors that influence it. We believe what we see. And it’s also true that what we believe is what we see.
If we choose to see beauty, love, compassion, kindness, and hope, even in situations that seem dire, then we are more likely to see those things. The lives we have are the lives we will into being. So why not focus on goodness? After all, we only find what we seek.
Today I stopped thinking of loss as something that has been taken away from me and instead see it as something (or someone) that wasn’t meant for me. Same coin, two sides. This side is better.
So here it is – I’m unveiling the details of one of the big projects I’m working on during my creative break in LA this summer. For about a year, I’ve been kicking around the idea of building a therapeutic yoga app. I’m now actively searching for a front-end designer and a programmer for this project. If you have either of these skill sets, please let me know. If you know someone who might be interested, please send them my way.
Christa Avampato 