Author: Christa Avampato

The short of it: Writer. Health, education, and art advocate. Theater and film producer. Visual artist. Product geek. Proud alumnae of the University of Pennsylvania (BA) and the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia (MBA). Inspired by ancient wisdom & modern tech. Proliferator of goodness. Opener of doors. Friend to animals. Fan of creative work in all its wondrous forms. I use my business skills to create passion projects that build a better world. I’ve been called the happiest New Yorker, and I try hard to live up to that title every day. The long of it: My career has stretched across Capitol Hill, Broadway theatre, education, nonprofit fundraising, health and wellness, and Fortune 500 companies in retail, media, entertainment, technology, and financial services. I’ve been a product developer and product manager, theater manager, strategic consultant, marketer, voice over artist, , teacher, and fundraiser. I use my business and storytelling to support and sustain passion projects that build a better world. In every experience, I’ve used my sense of and respect for elegant design to develop meaningful products, services, programs, and events. While building a business career, I also built a strong portfolio as a journalist, novelist, freelance writer, interviewer, presenter, and public speaker. My writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, PBS.org, Boston.com, Royal Media Partners publications, and The Motley Fool on a wide range of topics including business, technology, science, health, education, culture, and lifestyle. I have also been an invited speaker at SXSW, Teach for America, Avon headquarters, Games for Change, NYU, Columbia University, Hunter College, and the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America. The first book in my young adult book series, Emerson Page and Where the Light Enters, was acquired by a publisher and launched in November 2017. I’m currently working on the second book in the series. A recovering multi-tasker, I’m equally at home in front of my Mac, on my yoga mat, walking my rescue dog, Phineas, traveling with a purpose, or practicing the high-art of people watching. I also cut up small bits of paper and put them back together as a collage artist. My company: I’m bringing together all of my business and creative career paths as the Founder of Double or Nothing Media: • I craft products, programs, and projects that make a difference; • I build the business plans that make what I craft financially sustainable; • I tell the stories that matter about the people, places, and products that inspire me. Follow my adventures on Twitter at https://twitter.com/christanyc and Instagram at https://instagram.com/christarosenyc.
beauty, choices, decision-making

This just in: What we need is better than what we want

Christa Avampato
What you deserve
What you deserve

Life doesn’t always give us what we want. We strive for something (or someone) only to find we’ll never be able to reach it, fix it, heal it, or save it, try as we might.

This has happened to me several times in the past few months, and I have to be honest: I felt crushed. Confused and beat up. Even unsteady at times. And then I read this: “Sometimes life doesn’t give you what you want, not because you don’t deserve it, but because you deserve more.” And I’m reminded that life isn’t so much about what we want; it’s about what we need. We don’t always know what we need until we look back on our trail of broken dreams and realize they had to break so that something more beautiful could take its place.

Like me, you might be going through some things right now. Things that hurt. Things that make you feel sad, afraid, or angry. You might be asking yourself, “why me? Why is this happening now? How did I get to this point? Where did I go wrong?” I get it. I really do.

Cry it out. Dance it out. Talk it out. Rid yourself of that thing that just didn’t go the way you wanted, secure in the fact that it went the way that it needed to go so that you could live your best life and be your best self. That idea keeps me going, and I hope it will keep you going, too.

 

creativity, environment

This just in: My wanderlust is kicking in

Christa Avampato
Wwoofing
Wwoofing

Maybe it’s the heat. Maybe it’s the humidity. Maybe it’s the fact that summer just isn’t my season and so it always ignites in me a desire to get away. Yesterday my boss told me about “wwoofing“, a travel phenomenon that involves volunteering to work on organic farms all over the world in exchange for room and board. It stands for “World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms”.

I’ve done two volunteer vacations—one in the south of France and one in Costa Rica—and deeply loved those experiences. They made me a different and better person. I came away from them grateful for the blessings and riches in my life, and determined to pay forward all of the goodwill I found in those countries.

This idea of wwoofing has me intrigued. I have a feeling a plan is already in the works.

creativity, love

This just in: How we become who we are

Christa Avampato
We become what we want
What we want determines who we are and who we become.

What we want determines who we are and who we become. Where we want to live. Who we want to be with. What we want to do. That all feeds into our experiences now that will shape who we are tomorrow. Right now, we’re actively shaping who we will be, and that’s worthy of consideration.

change, creativity, love

This just in: We’re all a work in progress

Christa Avampato
Keep calm. Work in progress.
Keep calm. Work in progress.

These last few months have held a lot of change for me and I’m not particularly skilled at giving myself any slack. I expect that I can accept and make the most of change at every turn. This weekend I found myself a little overwhelmed by it all. I had a stressful week and a weekend that, while filled with activity, was also on the stressful side in a number of ways. At one point I was very tired, and also not feeling well, and all of this change hit me like a ton of bricks. Even though many of these changes have been good, all change takes some getting used to.

So today I’m making a pledge to be kinder to myself. To give myself some more time and space to breathe and just be. I’m working on making my life simpler and easier to manage. I’m setting aside specific blocks of time for writing and reflecting. I’m also doubling down on my home meditation and yoga practice. More sleep. More leafy greens. More water.

These sound like simple things. But they’re powerful. I’m learning to accept that I’m a work in progress. I’m not going to get everything just right out of the gate. It’s going to take some iteration. It’s going to take making some mistakes and falling down. And that’s not easy but it’s necessary. Anything worthwhile takes time, and love, and sometimes that love needs to be directed within.

love

This just in: Let the love in

Christa Avampato
Let love in
Let love in

Father’s Day, the summer solstice, international yoga day. Just let yourself be open to the light, love, and care that the world is offering to you today. We don’t always recognize its form. Support can come in ways we least expect. But never doubt that it’s there. Even in our saddest, darkest times, the light and love from the universe are there if we want to find and embrace them.

inspiration, love

This just in: Building ladders

Christa Avampato
Give someone enough rope, and support and help and love, and they will build a ladder.
Give someone enough rope, and support and help and love, and they will build a ladder.

We’ve all heard that saying “give someone enough rope…” What if we gave someone enough rope, and support, feedback, help, and love? Rather than meeting their own demise, would they build a ladder to help themselves up and out of their situation? And could that ladder ultimately lead to their evolution, to them becoming the very best version of themselves? What would happen to the world if we stopped expecting the worst and did everything within our power to help people be and do their best? That’s the world I want to live in.

art, dreams, theatre

This just in: What a difference a year makes

Christa Avampato

Sing After Storms One year ago today what I thought for many years was impossible became possible through the tremendous dedication, love, and talent of an incredible group of people. My play, Sing After Storms opened in New York, and when that final black out happened I cried. A lot. A year later, life is so different, and that play still remains the piece of work that I’m most proud to have ever been a part of.

Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who supported that effort and most especially to Rob, Ellie, Joe, Kate, Jaclynn, Amelia, Brianne, Oheri, Brittany, Mia, Celia, and Marita. Thank you a million times over!

art, creativity

This just in: The reason for art

Christa Avampato
Art is everything
Art is everything

“The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.” ~Aristotle

Art has a way of reaching us in ways that facts can’t. Though it’s composed of fiction, biased perspective, and opinions, it helps us discover truths about ourselves and the world around us. It gives us something to react to, to revel in, to disagree with, to love, and to hate. It makes us uncomfortable and can also bring us solace. We can struggle in it or rest in it. It helps us to know that we aren’t alone, in our joy nor in our sorrow. Art is a shared experience, a way to communicate what we experience and how we feel. It’s a mirror that we never knew we needed until it was right in front of us.

creativity, encouragement, memory

This just in: Spirit of the mind

Christa Avampato
You might be poor, your shoes might be broken, but your mind is a palace. ~Frank McCourt

I believe in the indomitable spirit of the mind. It is incredible how perspective and point-of-view literally change everything. Our image of the world is fragile. It can, and often does, change on a dime.

Difficult things happen to all of us. Joyful things happen to all of us. But how we see and think about those things determines our true experience. Our lives are determined by how we believe them to be, and that belief is in your control. Change your mind, and you change everything.

Life, loss, love

This just in: Live everything

Christa Avampato
Live everything.
Live everything.

“And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.” ~ Rilke

My friend, Marita, sent me this quote a few weeks ago and it’s been lingering at the edge of my mind ever since. Life offers us so many questions. What should we do, go, be, and with whom? What matters most, right now, at this moment, and do we have the courage to pursue it even if it doesn’t go as we hope it will? Can we take chances? Can we let go? Can we allow ourselves to be infused with every emotion when it strikes us and really feel it down to our bones without breaking?

I’m beginning to realize that Rilke was spot on—life is about living everything as it comes. The good and the bad. The painful and joyful. The elation and the disappointment. In this way, there is no wasted time. Just experience.