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.
career, dreams, writing

Beginning: My First Blog Circa 2004 And How I Haven’t Changed

Christa Avampato

This post is also available as a podcast. Click here to listen.

I joined Blogger in 2004 with a tiny collection of writing before I even really knew what blogging meant. I guess that was before anyone knew what blogging meant. There are exactly 26 posts on my first blog, which I titled “Eyes and Ears Wide Open”. I made it private because I was afraid someone would read it. Ha! Silly, and hilarious when now I live so much of my life online for anyone in the world to see.

There are still a few things I keep to myself. Or at least I used to. I used to moderate comments on this blog. I’m not doing that any more. Any one who puts a comment on my blog will see it published immediately. [Mom, please refrain from any gushing in the comments section. Just send me an email telling me how awesome I am. :)] Another thing I used to do a lot of was poetry writing. I won some very tiny poetry contests when I was a teenager and in my early twenties. There are a few of my poems out there published in anthologies, though I don’t own a single copy of any of them. Most of what’s on my first blog is poetry, deeply personal narratives that I never intended for any other soul to read.

Until now. In this year of new beginnings, I’m working on an illustrated book of those poems and a few others I’m writing, sprinkled with my doodles on my new Wacom Bamboo, a drawing tablet that connects to my Mac. My brother-in-law is a genius with his drawing tablet; me – I’m purely an amateur. I thought in looking back at my first blog that I’d see so much progress, that I’d changed so much as a person. I actually laughed out loud when I saw how similar I am to my 27-year old self. Outwardly, my life may be very different. On the inside, I’m still the same gal, but now with more real confidence.

To give a flavor of just how similar I am, and just how out-of-whack some aspects of my life are with how I’d like them to be, here is a post from December 2004 about cubicles. Despite my distaste for them, I work in one. I’m part of the legion of cubicles dwellers that I promised myself 7 years ago that I’d never be again. Life makes me laugh, and then shake my head, and then get up and make some serious changes. By December 31, 2011, I’m bound and determined to finally live up to the promise I made in the post below many years ago.

Saturday, December 11, 2004
Cubicles

I will never understand the human desire to set up boundaries and divisions, to seal themselves off from one another. Why is it important for people to say, “I am this and you are that. I sit here and you sit there”? I hate the cubicle culture and I fear it’s growing at a furious pace. I am getting off the train here – no more cubicles for me. And when I’m running my own operations, I will refuse to have cubicles. I’m actually going to business school on a quest to get rid of cubicles. To make them as obsolete as slide rules.

I recently saw a photo of an office that didn’t have walls between desks, but had gigantic tropical fish tanks winding through the office. You can see the person on the other side of you. You can take a boat and send it “down tank” with a message for a colleague. If we must have boundaries, then can we at least make them transparent and filled with color and life?

The image above is the one that inspired my post back in 2004. Not as inspiring as I remember it. I would make my office fish tank much more colorful.

This blog is part of the 2011 WordPress Post Every Day Challenge.

dreams, music

Beginning: Save Some Time To Dream

Christa Avampato

Listen to a podcast of this post (song included!) on Cinch.

“Save some time to dream ’cause your dream could save us all.” ~ John Mellencamp

I was watching the David Letterman show last week and John Mellencamp was a guest on the show. He sang the song Save Some Time to Dream from his most recent album No Better Than This. His performance alone was powerful – if you’ve never seen him perform I highly recommend it. He’s a performer who puts his whole heart out there all the time. He lives his life with wild abandon, which is to say he is someone who truly embraces and basks in freedom. Couple a performance like his with the words of this song and there’s no way you’re not acting on the urge to run out into the world and live it up.

Our obligations, or perceived obligations, can sometimes get the best of us. We can feel selfish for dreaming, and even more selfish for acting on our dreams, especially when our dreams require disappointing others so we can be true to ourselves. John Mellencamp turns that idea on its head. The world needs you, me, and every dream we can muster. Keeping the best of ourselves hidden behind a veil doesn’t serve anyone, and actually can really generate harm. Your dream, the one you’ve got right now germinating in your mind’s eye, could really save us all.

We owe it to ourselves and everyone else to dream, and then act on that dream. In the process of changing our own lives, we’re going to change the lives of others, too.

My dream right now is to try anything new that catches my eye. If I can do that, then I’m living my dream. So tell me, what is your greatest dream, right now, at this very moment?

Full lyrics of Save Some Time to Dream
Save some time to dream
Save some time for yourself
Don’t let your time slip away
Or be stolen by somebody else

Save some time for those you love
For they’ll remember what you gave
Save some time for the songs you sing
And the music that you’ve made

Could it be that this is all there is?
Could it be there’s nothing more at all?
Save some time to dream
‘Cause your dream could save us all

Save some time for sorrow
‘Cause it will surely come your way
Prepare yourself for failure
It will give you strength some day

Try to keep your mind open
And accept your mistakes
Save some time for living
And always question your faith

Could it be that this is all there is?
Could it be there’s nothing more at all?
Save some time to dream
‘Cause your dream might save us all

Cast your eyes up to heaven
Oh what does that mean to you
Try not to be too judgmental
So others will not judge you

Save some time to think
Oh before you speak your mind
Many will not understand
And to them you must to be kind

Could it be that this is all there is?
Could it be there’s nothing more at all?
Save some time to dream
‘Cause your dream might save us all

Oh yeah
Your dream might save us all

This blog is part of the 2011 WordPress Post Every Day Challenge.

change, experience, psychology

Beginning: This Year, Change Your Mind

Christa Avampato

Listen to a podcast of this post on Cinch.

On New Year’s Day I spent the morning happily curled up on my couch with Phineas (he was a little under the weather due to an allergy to all the rock salt they slather NYC sidewalks with), my computer on my lap, Anthony Bourdain on my TV traveling and eating his way through exotic lands, and a cup of Bengali Spice tea. I was having a perfect start to the new year.

I was flipping through the New York Times on my computer and came across an op-ed by Oliver Sacks, an author and scientist who was very influential during my undergrad years at Penn. The way he looked at cognitive psychology and its implications on culture and understanding the human condition, really struck a cord with me so I was thrilled to read about his latest ideas.

In the article, he talks about how New Year’s resolutions tend to be things like lose weight or go to the gym, wonderful resolutions that are good for the body. He asks us to consider making a resolution to grow and strength our minds, and suggests that one of the very best ways to do that is to try something new, which could mean brushing your teeth with your weaker hand, traveling to a new destination, or taking up a new instrument. Giving ourselves over to the beginner’s experiences does for our mind what working out does for our bodies. How wonderful since I just pledged to be a beginner for the entire year of 2011!

Here’s to stronger, more open mind in 2011. What new adventure are you taking up?

The gorgeous image above appeared with Dr. Sacks’s op-ed and was created by Valero Doval.

This blog is part of the 2011 WordPress Post Every Day Challenge.

choices, dogs, experience

Beginning: A Lesson Along the Snowy Path

Christa Avampato

Listen to a podcast of this post on Cinch.

Phineas and I took our first walk in the snow last week. He’s pretty psyched about snow and not at all psyched about slush and wet pavement. For some reason, the snow really agrees with him and because he’s only 6 inches at the shoulder, it wears him out, too. (Imagine how tired we’d be if we always had to walk in snow up to our waists!)

Over at Riverside Park, you can frequently find us frolicking in the meadows, hanging out with other dogs and dog owners, and taking in the view. We love that park, maybe even more than we love Central Park. Its slow pace, river-facing views, and arching trees make us happy in every season.

On our first snowy walk together, I chose the safe path, the one shoveled and cleared by others because I thought it would be easier for Phin. He, however, chose the snowy path because it was more fun. He dove right into that snow with wild abandon, made little snow angels (more appropriately snow dachshunds), and tossed the snow up in the air with his ample nose. It was glorious to watch him living so fully. And inspired me to do the same.

The heck with the well-traveled path. Like Phin in the snow, I want to carve my own. (And then after all that work, a nap is in order!)

The photos in this post are, respectively, Phin dashing around in the snow (tough to catch on camera – he’s a fast little guy!) and then coming home and promptly finding his blanket to settle in for his afternoon nap.

This blog is part of the 2011 WordPress Post Every Day Challenge.

choices, decision-making

Beginning: My Non-Resolutions – What I Won’t Do in 2011

Christa Avampato

Listen to a podcast of this post on Cinch.

Last week I spoke with Drew Allen over at Scoutmob NYC. Scoutmob NYC is an amazing resource to give New Yorkers local deals without asking them to make an upfront payment. Good for us. Good for local businesses.

During our conversation, Drew and I talked about New Year’s resolutions. I’m not sure how we got on that subject but it was a wonderful, enlightening conversation. “Even more important than New Year’s Resolutions,” Drew said, “are our non-resolutions. What will be decide not to do in 2011?” That got me thinking, which always leads me to list-making. How I love, love, love lists.

Here are my non-resolutions for 2011:
1.) I will not beat myself up for trying something new, either before I try it or if it turns out to be less-than-a-great experience
2.) I will not focus on success – mine or that of others. Instead, I will focus on value.
3.) I will not pack my schedule at a dizzying rate.
4.) I will not forget to breath deeply, especially when I feel stress creeping in.
5.) I will not dwell on dreams and forget to live. (Thank you Albus Dumbledore for that bit of wisdom.) I will live, truly live, every moment with mindfulness.

This blog is part of the 2011 WordPress Post Every Day Challenge.

yoga

Beginning: Yoga Passbook

Christa Avampato

Listen to a podcast of this post on Cinch.

Yoga in New York City is an expensive hobby, too expensive in my opinion. That’s why I started Compass Yoga and developed a business model of donating 20% of the class fees to the nonprofit of the student’s choice and giving the student the tax-deduction. Good for students. Good for nonprofits. Good for me. Win-win-win. I’m not going to get rich from Compass Yoga; I started it because I really want to give people a way to have the benefits of yoga without a pain to their finances.

Even though I’m a yoga instructor, I love going to class. Going to class gives me so many ideas and it really inspires me to try new sequences, intentions, adjustments, and even new ways of phrasing my explanations of different yoga postures. My friend Courtney (an amazing yogi and founder of Moonshine Yoga) told me about an amazing resource for people who want to try different types of yoga at an incredible price – the Yoga Passbook. Available for New York City, Chicago, Houston, and LA, the Yoga Passbook provides 425 passes to yoga, pilates, and dance studios for $75. The Passbook is good from January 1st through December 31st.

Give it a whirl – you might just find the practice you’ve been looking for!

This blog is part of the 2011 WordPress Post Every Day Challenge.

experience, writing

Beginning: New Writing Intention for 2011

Christa Avampato

Listen to a podcast of this post on Cinch.

“We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day.” ~ Edith Lovejoy Pierce

As I moved closer to my goal of Step 365 on my path to extraordinary living, I started to worry about what I would set as my writing intention for 2011. In 2009, I set out to write a post every day that discussed something that made me feel more hopeful. In 2010, I wrote a daily post that described one more step I was taking to live an extraordinary life. I learned so much in those 2 years, and it felt like a streak that would be tough to maintain in 2011.

And then my friend, Amanda, sent me a lovely email and asked me to write a guest post for her blog ZENyc, which focuses on how to maintain balance in the crazy place we know and love as New York City. Of course I said yes and I asked her if she had a specific topic she wanted me to address. She didn’t have anything particular in mind, just a post about how I stay sane in New York.

The mere suggestion of my sanity was very flattering. Sometimes I feel totally off-kilter but apparently I am holding it together well for a majority of the time. New York keeps us on our toes – we grow comfortable with being uncomfortable from time to time. You’ve gotta be a little nuts to live here, and a little more nuts to stay for a while. Thankfully, I’m a lot nuts – gratitude to my upbringing by a very bohemian mother and an austere, psychoanalyst father – so not only do I choose to stay in New York, but I also choose to call it home.

For Amanda’s guest post, I batted around the idea of writing about yoga, having a dog, my amazing friends, my writing, having a quiet home – all topics that I write about all the time. I wanted to do something really unique for Amanda, offer something up to her readers that would be new and helpful. I wrote, re-wrote, and tossed away a number of posts. None seemed quite right.

About the same time that Amanda asked me to write the guest post, one of my co-workers told me about his New Year’s Resolution to be open to new experiences. He said it worked well for him in 2010 and he was thinking of taking it up again in 2011. That sounded like a good idea to me, and inspired me to write a guest post for Amanda’s blog about the topic of beginning. It takes courage to try something new. To have a beginner’s mind seems to me to be the best way to stay balanced. If we’re always beginners, always learning, always energized, always bold and courageous, then it’s possible to achieve great things while keeping our humility. We don’t know what we don’t know, so as beginners we experiment and explore and try, and then try again without beating ourselves up or second-guessing ourselves.

Just writing that post on the beginner’s mind was invigorating, and it got me jazzed to head out into the world and try all sorts of new, cool things. It put more fun and laughter into my writing and my life. Calling myself a beginner, I was able to look at everything with new, fresh eyes. And before I knew it, I had my writing intention for 2011. (Thank you, Amanda!)

In 2011, you’ll find all of my beginnings recorded here. All of my bumbling, fumbling, and shenanigans as I try these new beginner shoes on for size will be exhibited daily for your reading pleasure. Sometimes it will be a story of some experience I had or person I met or place I went. It may just be a cartoon or a quote or a picture. I’ll write about my new business, Compass Yoga, and how it’s going. I hope you’ll come along for the ride with me, take in the sights and sounds of a new writing journey, and tell me about your new adventures, too.

Let’s get going – as an old Levi’s ad once said, “the frontier is all around us.” Our frontiers are waiting.

The image above cracks me up. I hope it makes you laugh, too. Find it here.

This blog is part of the 2011 WordPress Post Every Day Challenge.

adventure, books, career, celebration, change, choices, creativity, discovery, experience, family, friendship, grateful, gratitude, growth, happiness, ideas, meditation, New York City, story, writing, yoga

Step 365: What’s Possible? A 2010 Wrap-up.

Christa Avampato

“I am neither an optimist nor pessimist, but a possibilist.” ~ Max Lerner

As I cross over the finish line of 365 days of living and writing about an extraordinary life, I marvel at the passing of another year. On December 31, 2009, I wrote a post explaining that in 2010 I wanted to record something every day that put me one step closer to an extraordinary life.

This December 31st post is always fun to write because it’s a chance for me to reflect on the past year and realize how much has happened. Just like flipping through the New York Times’s Year in Pictures helps us remember what’s happened in the world around us, flipping through my posts from the last year lets me remember all the tiny steps that brought me to do this day.

My road to recovery from my apartment building fire:
I was in denial about the true effect it had on me and that brought me to Brian, my coach and therapist, who has helped my life grow in leaps and bounds. By June, I finally felt safe in my home again and could make my apartment feel like a peaceful space.

Stepping into the writing life:
I moved my blog over to WordPress and for the first time in the 3 years since I seriously began to contemplate living a writer’s life, earned enough money to be a freelance writer for hire. This year I connected with so many talented writers – Josh, Laura, Amanda, Erica, Sharni, Will, Sara, the Wordcount Blogathon writers, Katherine, the fab team at Owning Pink, Elephant Journal, and Michael.

I wrote and published my first e-book, Hope in Progress: 27 Entrepreneurs Who Inspired Me During the Great Recessions, a compilation of 27 of my interviews that I conducted with entrepreneurs through my Examiner column.

Yoga at the forefront of my life:
I completed my 200 hour yoga teacher training at Sonicstarted Compass Yoga, my own small teaching company, and will begin teaching a regular Sunday night yoga class at Pearl Studios NYC. Through Sonic I was inspired by the incredible teachers and the 23 amazing women in my class whom I hold so dear after our journey together. My yoga teacher training helped me to establish a regular meditation practice and cured the insomnia I’ve lived with all of my life. I found the joyful noise of kirtan, which re-ignited my interest in music. Yoga led me toward a true contemplation of my faith and spirituality that continues down a very healthy, peaceful path. There are not words enough to thank the people at Sonic for how much joy they brought to my life, but I gave it a shot in this post about our last class and the closing ritual of the training. I am forever and happily indebted to them.

Some wrong turns, too:
I studied for my GRE and despite doing well on the exam, Columbia sent me an email that began “we regret to inform you that you have not been accepted” [into a PhD program in education]. I wrote a curriculum for LIM College that I was tremendously excited about, and then the class was canceled at the 11th hour for reasons that still make me shake my head. I was so excited to be selected to serve on a jury and sadly realized just how imperfect our system is. I still think about the case on a regular basis.

Making peace with New York living:
In 2010 I fell in love with New York City, again and again and again. It became my home. Our love hate relationship ended its many years of turmoil and now we’re living together in a general state of bliss, with an occasional side dish of annoyance, just for good measure and because, well, it’s a very New York thing to do.

A few unexpected journeys:
I conquered my fear of swimming in open water while on a yoga retreat in Greece. I found that mistakes can be joyful.

Wonderful new additions to my family:
We happily welcomed my new little niece Aubree and after years of wondering whether or not I should get a dog, Phineas, a sweet little dachshund, has graced my life via the Humane Society and New York dachshund rescue.

And 10 valuable life lessons that I’m grateful for:
1.) Goodness is created and remembered by sharing what we have with others.
2.) Shouting dreams helps bring them into being.
3.) Stubborness can be a beautiful thing.
4.) We get what we settle for.
5.) Obstacles in our lives are valuable.
6.) We never have to wait to live the life we want.
7.) Letting go is sometimes the bravest and best thing to do
8.) Trusting our gut is the best way to get to get to the decision that’s right for us.
9.) Be thankful for less.

My favorite and most treasured discovery of 2010:
10.) Truly extraordinary living is found in very ordinary moments.

Wishing you a very happy start to 2011. Thanks so much for being with me on this journey that was 2010.

The image above makes me feel free. Find it here.

food, meditation, silence, simplicity, yoga

Step 364: The Secret We Know

Christa Avampato

“We dance around in a ring and suppose but the secret sits in the middle and knows.” ~ Robert Frost

This quote was sent to me by Archan, a very loyal and supportive reader and commenter on this blog. He is constantly feeding me with encouragement and sending along resources, books, and quotes to inspire me. It’s been the very best thing about taking this adventure to write every day and click the button “publish” – I’ve been able to connect with and be inspired by so many people that I may not have met otherwise. A sacred and precious reward.

Over the Christmas week I read The Story of Tea: A Cultural History and Drinking Guide by Mary Lou Heiss and Robert J. Heiss, proprietors of Cooks Shop Here. It’s a gorgeous book that takes readers through so much interesting history and cultural influence wielded by tea, the second most popular beverage on the planet. I was inspired to pick it up after I went to a tea date with my pal, Amanda, at a beautiful little spot in midtown called Radiance, a place I highly recommend, especially if you need some comforting shelter from a monsoon like Amanda and I did that day. My interest in tea has been growing steadily over many years, not surprising since Alice in Wonderland is my favorite book and because it’s a symbol of far off lands, adventure, and intrigue. I love that it is something simple and something so complex at the same time. Dichotomies, you can’t beat ’em for keeping us endlessly entertained.

In The Story of Tea, the Heisses include a section about chanoyu, the Japanese Tea ceremony or “Way of Tea”. It is a sacred art that is part performance, part culinary masterpiece and tea masters study it for years. Sen no Rikyu is the most famous of all Japanese tea masters and said to have been the most important historical figure in the development of chanoyu. His students would ask him how he learned so much about chanoyu, how it became a part of him. He always replied, “boil water and drink it.”

Ha ha, I thought. How flippant. Boil water and drink. Very funny. What else? How did he really gain his vast knowledge? And then I realized that tea, like yoga, like meditation, is really very simple. To know it, we must practice it. There is no other way. For it to sink into our bones, we have to make it a part of our every day lives. Practice – that is the only way. We can read books, study with masters, go to every conceivable workshop or class, but what it really comes down to is Sadhana, personal practice. (I silently apologized for my “ha ha” at Sen no Rikyu.)

My yoga teacher, Jeffrey, told me that during yoga teacher training but in applying the concept to tea, I realized how true that is of everything we want to really know. Practice, practice, practice. We have to sit with that practice and let it reveal itself to us. How right Robert Frost was. The secrets that we want so much to know are already known, we just have to be with them long enough to hear them.

The image above can be found here.

change, meditation, New Years Eve, yoga

Step 363: 4 Ways to Bring About A Transformation

Christa Avampato

“What we think determines what happens to us, so if we want to change our lives, we need to stretch our minds.” ~ Wayne Dyer

On Monday I wrote about caterpillars. Yesterday I wrote about focusing on goals of value rather than success. Some people get Spring fever. I’ve got New Year’s fever! As we take a look toward 2011 just days away from now, we’re reflecting on the lives we had, the lives we have now, and the lives we’d like to have going forward. We’re setting goals, making resolutions, and positioning ourselves to hit that big ol’ restart button when the clock strikes midnight on the 31st.

And if we are to be successful. if we are to really make lasting, meaningful changes, writing it down, finding buddies to help us keep up our resolutions, or any other mechanism to keep us on the straight and narrow won’t do the trick unless we are really willing to take Wayne Dyer’s counsel. To change our lives, we need to change our minds. And that’s no small feat.

I’ve got some ideas to help you expand your mind if you’re a resolution-making kind of person – I certainly am.

1.) Meditation will help – even just 5 minutes a day. Take a comfortable seat, close your eyes, and just breath for 5 minutes.

2.) Yoga will help, particularly if practiced consistently in small doses.

3.) Certainly I believe in writing down goals and getting buddies who have the same ones. There is strength in reminders and numbers.

4.) Getting some good rest and eating well helps just about everything, including the noble and difficult task of expanding our minds.

5.) Pick up a book by someone who has a very different viewpoint on a topic you are passionate about. Nothing expands the mind by having to see a subject through someone else’s eyes. For example, I completely disagree with Condoleezza Rice’s politics but her story fascinates me so I’m going to pick up her new book about her upbringing. Coincidentally, it’s called Extraordinary, Ordinary People – the subject I’ve been writing about every day for the past year. I love synchronicity!)

Now stand in the center of your world as it currently exists, take in the view, and then decide what it is you’d really like to see change in the year ahead, and how you’re willing to change your mind to get that to happen. I promise to share my journey and I hope you will, too!

The image above can be found here.