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.
apartment, home

Beautiful: Letting Go, Goodbye, and Hello

Christa Avampato

“I suppose in the end, the whole of life becomes an act of letting go. But what always hurts the most is not taking a moment to say goodbye.” ~ Life of Pi

The move is complete. I left my apartment of 3 and half years to move down the road to a new home. After my movers left, I went back over to my old place with Phin to return my keys. I went upstairs to have one last look around. I knew I hadn’t left anything material behind, but I wanted to just see it one more time in its original state.

When I moved in there, I had lost almost all of my belongings 6 days earlier due to a building fire. I was lucky to be alive and I knew it. I made my way into this sunny new home wearing simple closes and carrying a plastic bag and a friend’s borrowed air mattress. It seemed fitting that I take one last look around this place, empty, exactly the way I remember it being when I first arrived.

I twirled around in the sunlit space, pressed my cheek to the warm window, and drew a long, deep, grateful breath. Phin took a spin around the place, bobbed his head, and then headed for the door as if to say, “Okay, I’m ready.” I said a heartfelt, quiet thank you, and then left. The cycle was complete and whole, and so am I thanks to this place. It deserved a proper goodbye after all we’d been through together. We both earned it and needed it. Now it’s ready for a new story, and so am I. And so, I let go.

hope

Beautiful: A Prayer and Promise for Boston

Christa Avampato

Dear Boston,
My heart broke for you yesterday. Your marathon runners trained for months to complete an act that is largely governed by sheer will and determination. Running the Chicago Marathon in 2001, shortly after September 11th, was one of the proudest and happiest days of my life. It was an affirmation of life, a clear communication to the world that we will not shrink away from adversity because of fear. I am sick that your runners have been robbed of this same feeling. The whole of this country is with you now to make this same affirmation. You are alone in your grief and sorrow. We stand with you, shoulder to shoulder.

I understand that these types of behaviors can’t be rationalized, but here’s something that can be: when people seek to harm the innocent, to take a stand for their “principles” by inflicting pain upon others, you better believe that the goodness that lies within the rest of us will rise up strong, fearless, and unrelenting. We will be damned if we will ever take this kind of horrendous behavior lying down. We will not be intimidated and we will not accept this kind of tragedy as par for the course in our ever-more complex and complicated world.

Justice will be served. In the end, it always is. Karma is a perfect accounting system and it always keeps its promises. Here’s our promise to you: we will not rest until we bind up these wounds in the hearts, minds, and bodies of your people. We will see you through this.

Love,
Everyone

apartment, home

Beautiful: Leaving Home to Find Home

Christa Avampato

Home is such a complex word. At its simplest, it is some sort of structure that protects those who live within it. But there is so much more to it. Home is a feeling, a place where we are most comfortable, where we can truly be who we are without putting on airs and without shrinking away from our essence. It is a place where we can dream.

Today I am trading one home for another, letting go of a structure that has helped to protect me while I have gone about building a new life over the last 3 and a half years. It has been good to me. It has kept me safe. It has been a teacher to me. It has renewed my faith that from tough circumstances, beautiful things can and do arise if we keep at this game of life. As long as we don’t give up, a home will incubate the very best that is within us until we are ready to take that goodness someplace new.

Now I am ready to do just that.

beauty, nature, yoga

Beautiful: How Compass Yoga Is Like a River

Christa Avampato

“We must begin thinking like a river if we are to leave a legacy of beauty and life for future generations.” ~ David Brower

After a long day of cleaning my apartment and packing up the last of my boxes, Phin and I took advantage of the late afternoon sunshine to stroll along the banks of the Hudson River. I was reminded of this quote by David Brower as I took in the scene. Rivers welcome everyone to relax and enjoy the view. They offer time for reflection. They give us the opportunity to take a deep breath, and then let it go.

That’s what we’re attempting to do with Compass Yoga. We are an organization that builds space for everyone to just be, a place where people can sit with their joy and their sorrow and recognize the wonder and beauty in all of it. We will hold a space for them to be safe, to let their minds power down for a while so that they can step out into the world fully revived. Like a river that flows and flows, we will be here for our students no matter what life has in store for them.

time

Beautiful: The Patterns of Our Lives

Christa Avampato

“Pay attention to the intricate patterns of your existence that you take for granted.” ~ Doug Dillon

Good and not-so-good, patterns hold knowledge. We experience this during those wonderful times when we’re “on a roll”, when we’re tapped in and things seem to fall right into their own perfect places. We also become all too-aware of patterns when we find ourselves on a rough jag when nothing seems to go our way. In both types of circumstances, I’ve found that if I focus on finding the pattern then I feel much more empowered. It takes the emotion out of it. My confidence and outlook are buoyed. Then, I can put my energy toward healthy patterns and release those that don’t serve.

For a long time, I was stuck in a pattern of jobs that would begin well and then quickly unravel. As it turned out, I wasn’t meant to work for anyone else. I was meant to work for me. Once I made that switch, and clearly articulated that to myself and to others, a lot of opportunities revealed themselves. To bring those opportunities to light, I needed to be clear about what I wanted and why. And I’ve had to become very adept at walking away from what seem like good opportunities because they are not the right fit for me. (I recently learned this lesson again, and will recount that story in a later post.)

In my personal life, I used to date guys who “needed” me in the very broad sense of the world. And while that felt great at the start, all of those relationships eventually ended because I was exhausted by that dance. Now I realize what I need is someone who needs me but is also just fine on his own, too. “Better together” is the more compatible match for me. I have a busy life full of things I love and I need someone else who feels the same way about his own life and work.

These epiphanies were there all along. I just needed to take the time to look for the patterns of behavior and motivation that made them so. And these discoveries were well worth the time and effort it took to realize them; they’ve lead to more joy and less stress. What more could I ask for?

change, home, moving, nature, season, Spring

Beautiful: Spring Helps Us Move On

Christa Avampato

“Despite the forecast, live like it’s Spring.” ~ Lilly Pulitzer

My apartment is now at the weird point when it feels like a home, but it no longer feels like my home. I packed all my belongings in boxes. I took my art down off the walls. I’m wiping the slate clean and beginning again. It’s so appropriate to make a move in the Spring, when everything in the natural world is blossoming and blooming, stretching its wings and slowly coming back to life after a long winter’s nap.

My friend, Cyndie, also pointed out that this week is a New Moon. In astronomy, the New Moon is the phase of the Moon when it lies closest to the Sun in the sky as seen from the Earth. I feel the light pouring into my own life this week, too. I hope this light, and the feeling of renewal, will continue to follow me from season to season.

change, home, moving

Beautiful: Packing and Moving

Christa Avampato
My reusable moving bins from Jugglebox

“Leave the door open to the unknown, the door into the dark. That’s where the most important things come from, where you yourself came from, and where you will go.” ~ Rebecca Solnit

This is my delivery from Jugglebox, a green moving company that delivers and picks up reusable plastic crates, eliminating the need for those cardboard boxes that we so often hunt for when we’re making a move. And so it begins….the process of sorting, packing, and cleaning as I trade one home in for another. A new beginning.

In my current home, I healed after my apartment building fire. I picked myself up, dusted myself off, and started all over again. I rebuilt my life, literally, one tiny piece at a time. I let go of past disappointments. I became stronger, bolder, and more courageous. I started Compass Yoga here. I started my consulting practice here. This was Phin’s first forever home.

It was a wonderful home for what I needed then. And now I need something new and different and fresh. The start of a new chapter needs a blank page. To create the next masterpiece, we need an empty canvas.

So it’s with so much gratitude and a tiny bit of sadness that I release the familiar in favor of what comes next. Whatever it is, I’m ready for it.

strengths, teaching, yoga

Beautiful: A Yoga Practice Saves and Serves

Christa Avampato

“It’s amazing how strong we are. Just when we think we can’t do anymore, when we can’t try any harder. When life is really tough, somehow within us we find this extra reserve of strength. It’s the beauty of this yoga practice. It both saves and serves.” ~ Douglass Stewart, Yoga Teacher

“Well, there you are!” Douglass said to me in class yesterday. “I’ve been telepathing you. I was worried I hadn’t seen you and hoped you were okay. Actually, I hoped you were in some exotic location teaching your fabulous yoga, but I am so glad to see you.”

Douglass is one of the greatest treasures of my life. He is the first person I ever considered to be my yoga teacher and just being in his presence is a salve for any injury and illness I have. He is my example, my hero, and my inspiration.

It’s been a rough couple of weeks. I came back from a trip and jumped right into a busy work schedule, promptly got the stomach flu, and looked for, found, almost lost, and then secured a new apartment. Now I’m packing. All this lead me to skip Douglass’s class for a few weeks. I was feeling a little low yesterday and wondered if I should just head home, but something told me I needed to be in Douglass’s class. So, I steeled myself up with a Ben & Jerry’s free cone day ice cream cone, grabbed my mat, and headed for the studio.

The moment I saw him and hugged him, I knew this was where I needed to be. Though the class was a bit tough for me – I’ve been practicing restorative yoga almost exclusively the past few weeks – I could feel every cell of my body shouting “thank you!” My mind cleared, my heart opened, and off I went out into the world, renewed.

Douglass is right. This practice does save and serve, every single time. What a gift. What would we do with out it?

career, success, work

Beautiful: Focus Your Vision of Success So That Others Can Help You Make It Happen

Christa Avampato

c596868fa70d40b9f9014790c616de8eYesterday one of my mentors scheduled coffee with me for one clear reason – to help me. He wants to know how I see my career unfolding in the next 3 – 5 years so that he can help me figure out how to get there. I understand how lucky I am to have a mentor who is this generous and invested in my future. It makes me grateful beyond measure.

As I walked home from my meeting, I thought about his question. Where do I want my career go? Am I doing the right things to help me get there? It’s so easy to get in the cycle of doing: to-do lists, meetings, emails. It’s easy to waste time getting no where. It’s much harder to discriminate between opportunities that keep us on track and those that take us off-track. There is no end to the amount of work that others want you to do to help them. But as a freelancer, you have to be careful. The work you do to help others also has to help you, too.

At the moment, I’m doing a lot of things that are advancing my career in the direction I want it to go. I’m also doing a few things that are distractions. It will be difficult for me to cut those things loose, but I know that’s what’s needed. Focus is the path toward and the tool to generate success. It’s also the best way to help others help you.

hope

Beautiful: There is Power in Hoping for and Expecting the Best Outcome

Christa Avampato

Are you waiting for the other shoe to drop? Does the dream of your life seem within reach and yet you are certain something will swoop in and snatch it from you? I was like that, too. And then my friend, Bobby, helped me see that I was selling myself short.

I was recounting my philosophy that I always hope for the best and expect the worst. For 36 years, this worked responsibly well. Or at least it kept me alive. Bobby responded, “Christy (he is the only one who calls me that), how about you hope for and expect the best? If it doesn’t go that way, then you just trust that you’re smart enough and strong enough to figure out what to do next.”

In that moment I was certain that Bobby was channeling the greater Universe and delivering the wisest life philosophy I’d ever heard. And with that, I packed up that nagging voice of self-doubt in the back of my mind and sent it to the far reaches of the Earth, never to be heard from again. Life is sweeter without it.