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.
art, choices, creativity, decision-making, design

Leap: Curate Your Life

Christa Avampato
Photo from Lifehacker

“Life is your art. An open, aware heart is your camera. A oneness with your world is your film.” ~ Ansel Adams

“Curating a creative life” has been my tagline for this blog for several years. At one point my obsession with change got the best of me and I toyed with changing the tagline as I thought about how I wanted to craft my career and my businesses, Chasing Down the Muse and Compass Yoga. After a couple of days of a new tagline, I changed it back. There’s nothing wrong with sticking with what works and makes us happy. I realized it’s much more than a tagline; it’s my mantra.

It would be easy for a museum curator to just get any pieces of art up on the wall but that’s not the role of a curator. He or she carefully chooses what kind of art to install, and how and why and for what purpose. An art exhibit needs to hang together. It makes a cohesive statement and the pieces support the whole.

Your life is a living, breathing house of art. You are the sole curator of it; you decide what to add, what to toss, and how it comes together. And you are the only one who gets to judge its worth and meaning. You have the best job in the world and it’s the only job you really need to do. Don’t just live your life; craft it by your own design.

choices, friendship, time, to-do lists

Leap: “Busy” is a State You Choose

Christa Avampato
Does your calendar make you feel like this? From Pinterest.

I recently had an odd turn with a friend and her frantically busy calendar.

She wanted to introduce me to someone and thought a brunch was the best way to do it. After tentatively choosing a date to run by the person she wanted me to meet, I didn’t hear back from her for over 2 weeks so when another friend suggested getting together for that same day, I took her up on the offer. I figured something must have gone awry with the brunch. My friend constantly tells me how “busy” she is and her busy-ness must have gotten the best of her this time.

When she finally did get back to me 2 days before the brunch to say it was on, I had to tell her that I made other plans since I didn’t hear from her for 2 weeks. Her response? “I can’t believe you did that! I spent a lot of time organizing this brunch and quite frankly I could have put that time toward something more valuable. I am a very busy person and if you make plans with me you need to be mindful of that!” When I explained my thought process and apologized for not being able to make it, she blew up and several other nastygrams about how busy she is flew into my inbox. The intensity of her angry response was rather disturbing, and to be honest, weird.

That same day, my dear yogi friend Cyndie sent me this brilliant article – The Busy Trap by Tim Kreider. Sychronisity is a beautiful thing. I laughed out loud at his observations about the state of being busy, our simultaneous loathing and pursuit of it. He practically quotes word for word conversations I’ve had with friends about being busy. Tim talks about his decision to choose time over money, to decidedly be less busy for the sake of creating more space in his life. He also talks very honestly of having to give up friendships with people who just didn’t have time for friendship because they chose instead to be busy.

Leading a fulfilling life doesn’t require a calendar that’s filled to capacity. It is possible to be fulfilled without being completely full. And it is possible to be productive without being worn down. Being busy and being free are choices. We make them every day.

My friend relishes her packed calendar and she wants everyone to know it. It increases her self-worth to be constantly busy and rarely available, and that’s okay. It’s just not the way I wish to live, and like Tim, this is not the kind of thinking I value in others. So she went on her (busy) way, and I went mine. And I gained a valuable insight in the process: I’d rather have a life that’s rich with people I love and the time to see them rather than one overrun by to-do lists and back-to-back-to-back appointments. Time to make some room for, well, nothing in particular.

schedule, time, work

Leap: Lessons on Work and Rest from the Common Cold, My Dog, and the Dinner Table

Christa Avampato

“There is virtue in work and there is virtue in rest. Use both and overlook neither.” ~ Alan Cohen

Last week there was a little cold traveling around my social circles. For a few days, I felt very tired. When I need to get work done, I usually just push through until I get my second wind. This time I went against the grain, closed my computer, and headed off to dreamland early for a few nights in a row. I never got the cold that was making its rounds.

My pup, Phineas, is with me most of the day now since I mostly work from my home. He is a model of good, healthy living. He sleeps when he’s tired. He plays when he has energy. He eats when he’s hungry. He doesn’t have anything on his to-do list except to go outside and run around a few times a day. Other than that, he just follows his instincts. He’s quite a little teacher for me; I’m trying to live my own life by his example.

There are a lot of wonderful gifts to be found amidst hard work. There’s also a lot to be said for walking away from work to enjoy the wonderful gifts of rest. When I get up from the dinner table, I want to feel comfortably satisfied but not bloated. I want the same balance in my schedule – just the right amount of work to feel accomplished and gratified, but not so much that I feel drained of every ounce of energy and will.

I’m not so interested in work-life balance. I just want one, cohesive life that feels fully balanced between effort and ease.

memory, running

Leap: Remembering the Chicago Marathon

Christa Avampato

11 years ago this weekend I ran the Chicago marathon. I was working in Chicago on the National Tour of the Full Monty. It was an uncertain time. September 11th happened while I was there and many of us were from New York. We felt like traders being away from our city at a time when it needed us so much. The threat of our show closing and the idea of losing our jobs hung over all of us every day. (These concerns came true just days later.)

It’s funny what we remember during challenging times. My friend and running partner, Mark, was a rock for me during training and during the race. I may have designed all of our training runs for 13 weeks but he was the one who held it all together for both of us, especially when the going got tough. For me, that happened on race day around mile 18. I was really hurting and Mark asked me this simple question, “Tell me about your dad.”

During a training run months before I had mentioned to Mark that the only time I ever thought my dad was really proud of me was when I ran. Mark wanted to know the whole story, and now at mile 18 we had plenty of time. Mark also knew I needed a serious distraction to get to the end of the race.

Running and my history with my dad are deeply entwined. When I was 16, I had a series of injuries that piled up during pre-season training that left me unable to walk for a few months and took me out of the season. 2 months later, my dad passed away suddenly and tragically. I continued to run for the following year, but I gave up any hope or desire to run while in college. The fight just went out of me.

In many ways, I ran that Chicago marathon for him and for the 16-year-old me who missed all those races years before. It was a reminder of my strength and my ability to endure. It was ironic that this would happen at what was such a low point for our nation. I will never forget the warmth, love, and support from the people of Chicago who lined the race route. They were there with cowbells, signs, and happy shouts of encouragement. I vividly remember a young women who had a huge bowl of popcorn for runners to take from as they went by and another young woman who was passing out orange slices from her front yard. It was a good, good day.

When the finish line came into sight, Mark and I had to split because they separate men and women for timing purposes at the end of the race. I took off. I felt like I was flying toward the finish. In that mad, happy dash, I shook off a lot of sadness and regret. I let go of a lot of “what might have been”s in favor of a whole lot more “look what’s up ahead”s. It was a life-affirming moment that I’ll never forget. And I owe it all to Mark and to the beautiful people of Chicago.

Happy race day to all of the runners out there, making their own memories today. I hope it’s as good to you as it was to me.

change, time

Leap: We Can’t Hide From Time

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest

Well, folks, it’s happening. Despite my decision years ago to not age, Mother Nature is refusing to cooperate. How annoying.

Phin and I were out for our morning walk earlier this week and I noticed that my distance vision was not as sharp as I remember it being. For a number of years I’ve had a very mild prescription for glasses to sharpen my distance vision. I didn’t really need them to see, just to reduce strain caused by an astigmatism. Now it seems their necessity may be upon me.

Of course I went home and immediately started Googling to find eye strengthening exercises that I’ve been doing each night before I go to bed. Mother Nature may not be willing to help me out, but she can’t tell me not to help myself.

This week I also began to find a couple of consistent white hairs, not just stray ones few and far between. At first I plucked them and dropped them in the trash convinced that this was just a fluke. My few and far between white hairs obviously just all decided to show up on the same day at the same time, but certainly others would not be joining them any time soon.

Still, I wasn’t taking any chances. And so I started to color my hair, not just to mix up my look, but because it’s now actually needed. Those white hairs are a reminder of the one thing I will never be able to do, no matter how hard I try – stop time from passing.

Why is aging so tough? Why do we fight it every step of the way (with or without Oil of Olay)?

We hang on to what we know, and we know youth. We don’t know old age. We have no idea what it has in store for us, but we’ve heard stories. Scary stories of illness and pain and difficulty. And those stories are enough to make us want to stay right where we are.

I got home yesterday to find the latest copy of Yoga Journal in my mailbox. This month’s theme? Aging, with grace. The Universe has one wicked sense of humor. It’s also supremely skilled at giving us exactly the message we need exactly when we need to hear it. If only we could quiet down long enough to hear it!

I made my way upstairs to my apartment to begin reading the messages the Universe clearly wanted me to understand, but not until after I finished my eye exercises.

communication, community, yoga

Leap: If You Listen, People Will Tell You What They Need

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest

“What comes from the heart, goes to the heart.” ~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge

I’ve been teaching a seniors yoga class for a few weeks and the enrollment is full. One woman in the class recently told me that she has been having terrible insomnia. I asked if she knew why and she told me that her son, her only child, was murdered 2 months ago and so far the investigation hasn’t turned up any leads. My heart broke, and yet I knew I had to be strong for her.

In that moment, I decided to change my class on a dime. I created the class, posture by posture, word by word, for her. By the end of the class, I could feel everyone moving a bit closer to healing. As my teacher, Cheri, always says, we are all healing from something.

I used to think that being a yoga teacher meant to create a sequence of postures, breath work, and meditation techniques. Now I know that my job is to show up, listen, and give the students what they need to be whole. What I give from my heart, goes straight to theirs.

creative, creative process, creativity, productivity, time, work

Leap: A Balance of Work and Play Leads To Our Best Creations

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest

How many times have you churned your mind over and over to come up with a solution to a problem? And how many times have you found that taking your eye off of the proverbial ball, actually helps you to see the ball more clearly so you can hit it out of the park? This happens to me all the time. I read a lot of articles and books about the science behind creativity – it’s one of my favorite subjects to study – and from the research it appears to be true for many people.

So if we know that letting go of a problem will actually help us solve it, why do we hang on so tightly? Why do we have a problem relaxing and trusting in the process in which creativity works most effectively? It could be that we’re worried that while relaxation has helped us solve problems in the past, it will somehow fail us this time. It could also be that we are programmed in this society to believe that hard work equals self-worth. Without working hard, at every moment possible, will we somehow be less worthy?

I actually love to work hard. I love the feeling of accomplishment, of feeling like my effort matters. But here’s what I don’t love – the mania that comes from having a schedule that is so ridiculously packed that I have to remind myself to breathe. To balance this tug-of-war, I break projects apart into phases and give myself what I need in each phase to do my best work.

When I am working on the creative portion of a project, I give myself downtime to solve problems. I do trust the process of creativity, but I also give myself some guidelines. I get a few hours of downtime here and a few there, and I keep checking in with myself regularly to see if any new inspiration has arrived. When I am in the implementation phase and need to get something built, I really focus to give myself more structure and less downtime so I can do a lot of work while I’m in the groove.

Like anything, it comes back to needing balance – give both sides of your brain the opportunity to strut their stuff. They need different fuel because they do different types of work. If you’re taking too much downtime, or not giving yourself enough, try switching it up and see what happens. Creativity is all about experimentation.

books, creative, creative process, creativity, theatre, time

Leap: Learn to Love Your Constraints

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest

“You break out of the box by stepping into shackles.” ~ Jonah Lehrer, Imagine: How Creativity Works

It’s a bit of a morbid visual but Jonah Lehrer’s quote made me pay attention.

Have you ever had the thought that goes something like this: “If only I had (blank), my life would be so much easier?” I have this thought several times a day, and when it pops into my mind I stop, breathe, and keep going. I’m sure somewhere in that breath there is a silent prayer for help to someone somewhere. Most of the time I don’t get that (blank) that I wish for, but to quote the Rolling Stones, I do get what I need. And often what I need is constraints. (No shortage of those lying around!)

Jonah Lehrer, and many other creativity researchers, make the case for loving constraints. Some go so far as to ask us to feel grateful for them. Why? They light a fire under us. If we had all the time, money, and resources in the world, would we really use them wisely? There’s at least the slight possibility that we would squander them to some degree.

I’ve seen this happen in many large companies. We get used to big budgets and flexible launch dates. Too used to them and it’s ultimately a curse.

When I worked in theatre, we were constrained in almost every area, especially by the hard deadlines. If there was going to be an audience on Tuesday at 8:00pm, then there was no way we could launch late. It forced collaboration, cooperation, and dedication from all parties involved. In theatre, the good of the many always outweighs the good of the few or the one so the few or the one had better get on board or exit stage left. That might sound brutal, but the curtain rises. The show goes on because of constraints, not in spite of them.

Maybe you’re working on a project right now that has constraints you wish you didn’t have. Rather than resenting those shackles, take a moment to recognize what they give you rather than focusing on what they take away from you. Creative work is a series of trade-offs. We get something and we give something. It is a sacred exchange.

change, choices, time

Leap: Much-needed Endings

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest

“The wind that causes real change is the wind that consistently blows in the same direction.” ~ The I Ching

Distraction is everywhere. It’s easy to get sidetracked from the things we care about most because the world has a way of encroaching upon our to-do list. All of a sudden we find ourselves invested in things that don’t bring us joy and fulfillment. We go places and do things because we think we should, not because we want to.

I used to be guilty of this behavior more often than not. When I left my job in June, I also made an about-face in a number of other areas of my life. I only invest my time and energy when and where I can give my whole heart. Though this sounds easy, it was difficult to make these changes because a number of things had to come to an end. I let go of some relationships that sapped my energy. I withdrew from activities that felt more like obligations and less like joy.

Saying goodbye and breaking old patterns is not easy. During the times that I feel sad about these endings, I remember how much they’re needed. They create space for the people and activities that really matter. They give us an opportunity for something and someone new that better aligns with who we are.

If we consistently focus on generating more happiness and it will become easy to see what parts of our lives need fixing. Sometimes to get to the fun stuff, we have to go through the tough stuff first. It’s worth the effort.

moving, peace, time

Leap: The Meaning of Stillness

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest

“Being still does not mean don’t move. It means move in peace.” ~ E’yen A. Gardner

So often, especially in yoga, we think stillness means that we must not think or act. We are told that stillness is the gateway toward some sense of enlightenment and connectedness. Truthfully, we can never be fully still. Air will move through our lungs, blood will pump through our veins, and impulses will travel through our nervous system. We are beings of movement.

Stillness is steadiness. It helps us move with intention, purpose, and confidence. When we go somewhere, we go with our whole heart. And once we know the feeling of traveling and moving in this way, then we know that deep peace that no outside circumstance can disrupt.

In stillness, we show up in the world as an open vessel, allowing the energy and knowledge around us to pour into us. We are able to parse what matters and what doesn’t with efficiency, kindness, and the deep wisdom that we are connected to everyone and everything around us.

In stillness there is no separation between us and our environment. Instead, it all weaves together and we begin to find the ways in which we can affect its rhythm and path. Suddenly, as the world converges in stillness, we recognize just how great an impact we can have.