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.
finance, guest blogger, money, yoga

Beginning: Yoga and Personal Finance Come Together in My Guest Post on Glassheel.com

Christa Avampato

My friend, Phyllis Neill (CEO of Buzz12), recently sent me a link to Glassheel.com, “a career, lifestyle and networking site for professional women. Glass Heel is an online community of bloggers, experts and professional women of all ages — with room for thousands more. This site was designed to connect you with networks, individuals, events and other useful information to help you succeed professionally and build relationships.  More importantly, through the network of learning, communication, and support, Glass Heel aims to see its members reach new heights in the professional world — breaking through the proverbial glass ceiling.”

I loved the site at first look and wrote to them to see if I could contribute my writing to the cause. Happily, my first guest piece, Yoga, Meet Finance: Applying Ancient Teaching to a Modern World, posted yesterday. It is an excerpt from the introduction of a book project I’m working on that uses the principles of yoga to develop solid personal finance habits. Hop over to Glass Heel, have a read, leave a comment, and share!

My thanks to Molly Cain and the outstanding Glass Heel community for including me in their movement to break through this glass ceiling once and for all! I’m already at work on my next post. More to read shortly…

animals, eating, food, nature, work

Beginning: Be Here Like a Duck in the Ocean

Christa Avampato

“The little duck is at ease in the heaving Atlantic because it is in the Atlantic. Rest in the immediate as though it were infinity.” – Edward Espe Brown, Buddhist monk , chef, and star of the documentary How to Cook Your Life, reading from a poem written by his mother as she was preparing for the end of her life

The kitchen holds an abundance of wisdom and life lessons if we choose to show up in it day after day with an open mind and heart. As I have recommitted to cooking more and teaching myself to bake, I find myself growing more and more present in my own life, in and out of the kitchen. I have long thought of myself as a recovering multi-tasker, trying again and again to foster a life of consciousness and presence. Too often this is the moment we miss, and knowing the preciousness and fleeting nature of life, I don’t want to miss any more moments.

I also try to be conscious of when I am fighting life, when I am plotting, planning, and charting my actions toward a specific outcome with little regard for present circumstances. I don’t believe in the road of least resistance. Every road has its hardships, every path its detours, and every life its suffering. I have never actually felt the easy way break open as some people have. Everything I’ve ever done has taken effort so I am quite used to and comfortable with work that feels like work. I’ve grown to enjoy it so long as it’s work that feels worth my time.

As for the little duck in the ocean, he is not just bobbing along carefree. Beneath the surface of the ocean, his little duck feet and legs are churning. Rather than having his efforts fight the ocean, they are working in tandem to the rhythm. It still takes energy and effort and attention. He isn’t floating along; he’s paddling and taking his directional cue from the ocean. He’s present and realizes the awesomeness of the ocean’s power. He channels that power in his own work below the surface. He is there, in that moment, and nowhere else. I try to follow his example.

change, environment, food, New York Times

Beginning: The People’s Republic of Food

Christa Avampato

“There’s plenty of good work to do. With food it can really have an impact, not only on your life but on everyone’s.” ~ Mark Bittman, New York Times Magazine

This weekend the New York Times Magazine revolves around one of my very favorite subjects – food. A few weeks ago I posted about my most recent obsession with food documentaries and my continued growing interest in sustainable agriculture. I’ve always loved to cook and have been rather dismayed that I can’t really bake that well. (I’m working on remedying the later.) Now I am putting a great priority on this activity.

Bittman’s interest in food extends not only from his interest and passion in personal health, but also public health and activism. A world that is increasingly interconnected and complex can leave us feeling paralyzed by the pace and degree of change. one person can and does make a difference. We are what we eat, and our world is also what we eat. Our food choices and how we consume our food has countless implications on the world at large. It’s an act in which we participate every day, several times per day, and it extends to all demographics. Change the way you eat, and you have the ability to change the world in a very tangible way.

The world of food is a true democracy – every person can and does make a difference.

discovery, education, learning, politics

Beginning: The Opportunity of Us

Christa Avampato
From johnpicacio.com

“Two things awe me most, the starry sky above me and the moral law within me.” ~ Immanuel Kant

A couple of years ago, I took Michael Sandel’s online class Justice. (See also wrote a book by the same name, and it takes the basic principles discussed in his class and applies them to today’s economic, social, political, and spiritual debates.) Dr. Sandel is a Political Philosophy professor within Harvard Department of Government and his class is among the most famous in the world and one of the largest and most popular in Harvard’s history. The class is free and open to all.

Sandel is a master lecturer. He opens each class with a provocative and polarizing moral dilemma. Perhaps not surprising to any of you, I immediately have an opinion. Then somehow in the most elegant and subtle of ways, Dr. Sandel has me on the fence and in each class I am reminded that the opinions I think I am the most sure of are actually the ones I am not sure of at all. Suddenly, he has me questioning every moral decision I have made. Of course, this is his objective. As my 9th grade English teacher, Mr. Warren, once said, “Judgement stops thought.” Sandel’s trick is to get us to think again after we’ve judged – a mighty difficult feat.

It’s been such an interesting exercise to take the class again and see how my opinions and ideas have been changed by the last couple of years of experience. The one lessons that he continues to alight in me more than any other is that our minds have such an incredible capacity, a capacity beyond our own comprehension. In his lectures, I can actually feel the physical and metaphysical aspects of my brain stretching, reaching, and ultimately growing. As Kant, the subject of Dr. Sandel’s dissertation at Oxford, alludes to in the quote above, we are in awe of the stars above. Who or what made them, and why are they placed just so? And if their placement, and even their very existence, is all a random and perfect accident, then what triggered it and how sustainable is this situation? What’s the meaning of it all? Big, heady questions.

But there is another chance accident that is just as intriguing, personal, knowable, and close-to-home: the ability to change our minds. Yes, to change our opinions and points-of-view, but also to literally change our minds – the biochemistry, the actually wiring that makes our daily activities possible. We have an extraordinary capacity to believe and then alter our beliefs based upon new information, new experiences.

When we take a step back, we really must recognize that we are remarkable beings with unlimited potential, this vibrating mass of possibility. Just to think of this and begin to approach the full comprehension of the miracle that is us, I choke up. It gives me so much hope to understand that whatever ills we face today can all be changed tomorrow if we are willing to change. The state of the world very much depends upon the state of us, each and every one of us. A new beginning is only a thought away.   

books

Beginning: My First Literary Agent Rejection

Christa Avampato

The hunt for a literary agent begins! I am currently working on a book project that focuses on financial wellness, bridging my MBA and corporate work experience with my work as a yoga teacher and practitioner. With this project, I decided to take a look around for an agent. I read blog and books by writers on the craft of writing and I’m always surprised that they only talk about their triumph in finding an agent and not the long journey they took to find one. It’s important to write in the moment, to share stumbles and wrong turns, to write in midst of action. We learn so much  in the middle of it all and that learning should be shared.

I purchased  copy of The Writer’s Guide to Queries, Pitches & Proposals by Moira Allen. It’s loaded with examples, practical advice, and action plans. It doesn’t romanticize writing or the search for an agent. Allen shoots straight from the hip and makes no apologies. Just the kind of advice I’m looking for.

Then I took myself to my bookshelf and started to note down books that I love in my same genre. I flipped to the acknowledgements sections and looked up their agents. Luckily most agents now have full websites where you can query right through the site after researching the genres that agents represent. Many agent bios also state if they’re looking for new clients and if they accept queries from new authors.

I put together the body of my query letter specific to my genre, personalized for each agent who interested me, and began to send off the emails. 12 hours later, I received my first rejection from a large agency. It read simply, “Thank you for your query. I’m afraid your project is not right for my list, but I do wish you the best of luck. It’s a wonderful idea.” I was overjoyed.

In my book that is a win for several reasons:

1.) Most of the agents I researched clearly state on their websites that you will only hear from them if they’re interested.This agent wrote back even though she wasn’t interested and was encouraging of the project.

2.) If they’re going to respond to you, they give you a specific time frame in which you should hear from them. Usually it’s 4-12 weeks. Even though the response was no, I heard back in 12 hours.

3.) Writing this first set of query letters got me over the fear of writing queries. I discovered that it’s actually a fun process in and of itself, regardless of the outcome. And I’ve got the body of the letter ready to go for round 2. It took me 6 months to get over the fear of writing them and it feels good to release the fear.

So here we go, off on this new adventure. If you’ve got additional pointers and advice, I’m all ears!

business, leader, leadership

Beginning: Leading from the Middle

Christa Avampato

Middle Management is a dreaded term in the business world. It’s taken on a connotation of someone trapped in the middle executing a lot of actions that were defined by some Senior Leader. I am one of those people in the middle but here’s what I’m learning: being in the middle can be a curse or a blessing depending upon our attitudes.

In the middle, everything is happening. It’s where products and services get built and also where the big decisions are communicated. Someone in the middle has the unique position of translating between strategic objectives and tactical actions. To be effective in the middle, someone needs a wide variety of skills sets and the ability to build relationships up and down the corporate ladder. Middle management must have the ability to dream big and act upon small details. It’s art and science in equal proportion.

And while it is a position in which everyone could blame you for something going wrong, it’s also a position in which everyone can also celebrate you for things going well. And that celebration or blame has a lot to do with you. Can you trust your gut and drive a team forward with a vision while working side-by-side with them at all levels?

I believe you can.

education, learning, teaching, yoga

Beginning: Is It Time for Yoga University?

Christa Avampato

New York is blessed with a lot of wonderful yoga teacher training programs. It’s also home to some yoga teacher training programs that are put in place with the intention of helping studio owners pay the rent. The trouble is that it can be difficult to discern between these two groups. In the past, I’ve posted some advice on how to choose a yoga teacher training program and I think that advice is valid now more than ever.

A hunting we will go…
As I’ve gone hunting for programs to complete my 500-hour certification, I’ve become even more skeptical about the claims made on fancy brochures and websites. I start asking questions of some studio owners and I can literally feel their nervousness rise into their faces. I’m sure that they’d just prefer I choose to pay the fee (or not) and just go with it. This is yoga, right? Aren’t we training to go with the flow and the best of a situation? Well, yes, but this next phase of my teacher training situation is going to cost me something to the tune of $4K. That’s a lot of money and I want to make sure I’m getting as much value as I can and the right value for me. I’m asking as many questions as I’d like to ask. I’ve found two programs that were overjoyed with the number of questions I’ve asked and they’re extremely responsive so they are the ones I’m considering: ISHTA and Yoga Sutra.

What training do I really want?
In the last couple of weeks I’ve been tossing around some ideas of the kind of teacher training program I really want rather than just comparing the options to one another. Truthfully, what I really want is a masters degree in yoga, particularly because my interest is in using yoga in the medical field. I’m not trying to teach at my fancy neighborhood studio; I’m focused on getting yoga to people who aren’t going to walk into studios, people with critical illnesses. And to top it off, I want to be part of a team of healthcare professionals who collaborate and provide a patient / student with a holistic plan that includes yoga. I’m not sure a 500-hour teacher training program can completely prepare me for that kind of work.

LYT (Licensed Yoga Teacher)?
A few years ago there was a push in New York State to license all yoga teachers and studios. Right now, all we have are fairly flimsy certifications from the Yoga Alliance which basically amounts to us sending in a check, Yoga Alliance sending us a cardboard card with our name on it, and then making sure they have our address right so they can mail us a renewal notice a year later. In other words, if you can pay, you can play. (See Yogadork’s excellent article entitled, “Make Up or Break up: Yoga Alliance What Have You Done for Us Lately?” for more info on this subject.)

For the yoga instructor who wants to teach students who are in relatively good mental and physical health and who go to traditional shiny studios, licensing seems a bit excessive. Does NYS license sports coaches or personal trainers? No. The State’s argument is that yoga borders on physical therapy and physical therapists are most certainly licensed. I sort of understand that argument, but I question their ability to put true standards in place at shiny yoga studios. The state can barely attend to the workload they have now. And to be honest, I think it was just a play by the state to get more tax money rather than a real concern for people practicing yoga.

The State Has a Case In Me
Here’s where I think the state has a very strong case for licensing: instructors like me who want to be part of the healthcare network of providers. I would be more than happy, thrilled actually, to sit for a licensing exam if it meant that my students’ yoga classes would be covered by their insurance. I’ll prepare reports, stay in touch with their PCP, and secure their personal info in my systems. That’s the trade-off I’m willing to make. Give my students a way to be covered and I’ll do whatever I have to do on my end to make that coverage possible.

Insurance Is Going to Have Its Say
This leads me to my next conundrum – now insurance companies are going to weigh in on the kind of training that a teacher needs to have to legitimately qualify as a healthcare provider just as they do with therapists, acupuncturists, etc. Now things get really interesting. They don’t cover doctors, nurse practitioners, therapists, or social workers who get a few months of training and a flimsy certification. Licenses are the result of rigorous, multi-year study at accredited schools and then the students sit for licensing exams (often a series of them). If yoga teachers like me want to play in the healthcare space, why would they let us lower those standards? And if they did lower the standards for us, why would medical professionals see us as equals?

MY (Masters of Yoga)?
Maybe what some brave university needs to do is create a yoga curriculum within their existing graduate school structure. Some of you might cringe reading that. There’s been a lot of talk about the traditional education system going by the wayside in favor of more innovative forms of learning made possible by better technology. I don’t agree with that line of argument for medical professionals. I can’t yet imagine a world where a doctor does all of his or her learning remotely from an iPad. I feel the same way about learning to be a yoga instructor. It’s important to be in a class and working with students face-to-face because so much of yoga teaching is about a one-on-one connection. It can’t be engineered; it needs to be fully experienced.

There are so many pros and cons of this formal education in yoga; many times they’re one and the same. The oversight from a university could be both a blessing and a curse. Yoga programs may become even more expensive at a university, though there would be the opportunity of financial aid. A university could put the muscle behind more robust yoga research, perhaps heightening the controversy over its benefits and perhaps legitimizing it as a viable form of treatment.

Still, I think this idea has potential for teachers like me. I’m going to kick the tires a bit and reach out to my own alma maters to see if there’s interest in exploring the topic. The time and effort it would take would be  worth it if I could be a part of building the kind of program I’d like to have and if more people (teachers and students) would benefit.

animals, dogs

Beginning: Phineas and I Share Our Adoption Story with “From Alone to Home”

Christa Avampato

My mom snapped this picture of Phin & I about 10 minutes after we met. It was our first picture together.
From Alone to Home is a site lovingly curated by Kate Antoniades that promote pet adoption. Kate reached out to me last week after reading about Phineas and asked if I’d share our adoption story. Of course I jumped at the chance and the post is now up on Kate’s site. Click here to read our story.

Also, if you have adopted a pet and would like to share your story on From Alone to Home, please email Kate.

encouragement, yoga

Beginning: The Human Factor of Yoga

Christa Avampato

I’ve been known to have a fiery side of my personality. I’m a deeply passionate, committed person, I don’t take no for answer (or at least I don’t take it well), and I fully believe in the way of the will. Wherever I go, I go with all my heart. No one who has ever met me would describe me as passive. Couple this with a petite frame, and some people walk away from a first meeting with me completely perplexed, or if I’m lucky, intrigued. “How does so much fire live in one small body?” they might ask themselves. “And wait, she practices yoga? How can THAT be?” My answer, as it is so often: my yoga is the reason.

Too often yoga is equated with peace and love and butterflies. It is all of those things, and it’s something more, too. Yoga is about authenticity. Yoga is about feeling everything, even the things that don’t feel so great. As practitioners, and particularly as yoga teachers, we sit with a lot of suffering, anguish, fear, and anxiety. We feel envy, jealousy, anger, disappointment, sadness, loneliness, isolation, fear, and betrayal. All of the ugly emotions of life that we wish there were less of. Yoga doesn’t eradicate those emotions from our lives. If anything, it heightens them. We free them more profoundly than many other people.

And here’s the magic of it all: because we feel those emotions so profoundly, we learn lessons on the deepest of levels and then we can move on. Yoga doesn’t prevent discomfort; it gives us tool to confront discomfort head on and work through it with grace and strength. It helps us to hold our heads high during painful moments and appreciate joy, love, gratitude, and all the beautiful emotions of life all the more. Yoga helps us to carry on.

learning, yoga

Beginning: Practice Makes Better

Christa Avampato

“Practice is the best of all instructors.” ~ Publilius Syrus, Roman author, 1st century B.C.

I recently went to Paula Lynch’s class at Yoga Works. The class was beautifully sequenced and I learned so much about alignment in the process. She spent a good deal of time prepping our arms and backs because the class culminated in practicing our form in handstand and headstand, two asanas I very much need to practice and that few classes ever attempt. Some yogis can lift up into these postures with both legs at the same time. I cannot. I need to use one leg to gently kick into the postures, and my right leg is my dominant leg.

Paula asked us to practice with our non-dominant or vacation leg. This was very challenging for me. I could easily get into handstand with my right leg. When I used my left leg I struggled to even been in the posture for a moment. As Paula made her rounds through the class, I flagged her over and asked if she could help me figure out why I had so much trouble using my left leg to kick up.

“Do you practice with your vacation leg?” she asked me.

“Well, no, but I was just…,” I stuttered.

“Then go home and practice with that leg.”

“But I’m thinking maybe it’s my form with that leg…”

“No. You just don’t practice with it.”

“So I should practice with both legs equally?”

Now she was getting annoyed. “No. Practice with your vacation left every day until you get it. It’s kind of like driving a car. When you get in a car for the first time, you aren’t going to be able to drive. You need to practice. Yoga’s no different.“ And she promptly turned around and walked off to the next student.

I left the class a little annoyed with her. She didn’t have to be rude. I was just asking a question. There was a nicer way to say what she was saying, though the lesson was not lost on me. I heard it loud and clear, and it makes perfect sense.

We expect so much from ourselves. In Paula’s curt words, she was telling me to be kinder to myself, to understand that we never learn to do anything without practice. This is particularly important when we are just starting out on the road to a new skill, or in this case a new way of getting into an asana. It takes time, patience, and work.