Category: adventure

adventure, Africa, home, travel

Beginning: Getting Reacquainted with Tanzania, a Place That Still Feels Like Home

Christa Avampato

Today I’m very excited to share a guest post from Nikita Raja. We “met”via this blog over two years ago and since then have kept up a regular correspondence. She’s one of the members of this blog’s community who is constantly encouraging me to continue to share my experience as a way of helping others.

Nikita recently sent me a collection of her photos from her first trip to Tanzania as an adult. She was born in Tanzania and much of her family history is wrapped up in that country. I asked her to share this experience in a guest post as a reminder to all of that new beginnings can be discovered everywhere, even in places from our past. 

This past summer, my sister and I were lucky enough to travel back to Dar-es-Salaam (Dar), Tanzania. Known as my birthplace, and the place I can tie my family’s roots back to – Tanzania is home! Home, because this is where so many of family’s cherished memories and stories have emerged from.

It had been twelve years since I last visited, and my trip ended up being nothing short of an adventure into the wild and a journey back to my roots. Although I was about ten years old when I last visited Dar, it seemed completely unrecognizable to me! But it was refreshing to return to a place that felt both different and familiar and still be able to call it “home”.

While I spent a lot of time bonding with family I hadn’t seen in years and indulging in eating different East African specialities like “Mogo” (Grilled Cassava) and “Kitale” (Coconut filled with potatoes and chillies), I actually got to explore parts of Tanzania that I had never seen before – a two-day safari to the Serengeti National Park, driving through endless running African savannahs and capturing photos of animals in their natural habitat. Simply breathtaking! I also managed to get away for a weekend trip, to the beautiful island of Zanzibar. Known for its paradise style beaches and resorts, spice tours, and rich history.

Through travel, we often gain new layer of wisdom. Wisdom from the experiences we had, the people we met, the food we ate, the stories we heard and the learning we gained made for such an enriching experience. Although life in Tanzania may be worlds apart from life here in North America, it’s through experiences like these that one begins to appreciate travel and cultural realties.

Travel allows us to indulge, learn, and adapt. It was the perfect trip to celebrate my graduation from university and my start into the working world.

Nikita’s photos from Tanzania:

Night time food bazaar known as “Forodhani”, with diverse crowds of tourists
Zanzibar’s Stone Town - a World Heritage Site.
Zanzibar’s Stone Town - a World Heritage Site.
Prison Island, popular beach site in Zanzibar
The Serengeti National Park
The Serengeti National Park
"Kitale” (Coconut filled with potatoes and chillies)
adventure, change, choices

Beginning: The Kind of Woman I Want to Be

Christa Avampato

My friend, Susan, posted this up on Facebook last week and I love it so much I’m having it framed to hang in my apartment. This is exactly the kind of woman I aim to be. There are a lot of things in the world that I’d like to change, fix, and influence. It’s easy to get bogged down by the enormity of tackling even just one of them; quotes like this keep me going.

The only thing crazier than putting all of our efforts toward crafting a better world is leaving things just as they are.

adventure, curiosity, discovery

Beginning: Discover Your World

Christa Avampato

“Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it.” ~Buddha via Tiny Buddha

There is something to be on your dharma, your path. This week I had a number of experiences as I met with potential partners for Compass Yoga where I was conscious of being truly alive, truly living my practice. I came to realize that what I offer as a teacher afford me the opportunity to be a part of everyday miracles. I have the opportunity and the privilege to help people shape their days, their lives.

Brian has been encouraging me to focus not on what I think about my experience but how I feel about it. And when feelings crop up that seem confusing, he’s asked me to go more deeply into them, to use yoga to get at the fear and discomfort that arises from time to time. His hunch is that the yoga will replace any uncertainty or fear I may feel about taking a step away from the crossroads and down a newly imagined road. He’s asked me to consider the idea of willing what I need from the universe and being open to the response.

Discovery is found at that junction between crafting our lives in the image we desire and being open to all of the ways that image can manifest itself. We are lead in different directions for reasons that we think we understand, and yet when we arrive we find that the picture isn’t exactly as we thought it would be. The lessons are different, and what we learn is rarely what we expect and always exactly what we need.

To discover, we need an open heart and a curious mind, a relentless pursuit of the new and unfamiliar. It takes equal amounts of courage and strength. We need to let go of fear, and just sink down into the flow that is all around us. We work so hard to find our way, to find our purpose and calling. When it’s found, we owe to ourselves to give our lives over to it. There’s something really beautiful and really freeing about letting our path guide us. We’ve done the work; we’ve done our part. Now let the universe hold up its end of the deal.

adventure, choices, goals, yoga

Beginning: The Long and Short of Achievement

Christa Avampato

sciencedaily.com
“Your task is not to seek love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” ~ Rumi via Daily Good

By nature, I am a goal driven person. I put a big, audacious, ambitious goal out into the universe and then I work like heck to bring it to life. I love nothing better than progress and the feeling of spending my time on a worthy achievement. I fiercely maintain my abilities to be self-sufficient and independent – it’s why the mindset of veterans makes so much sense to me and why I seek to work with them in my yoga teaching.

Daily Good’s post is a part of my every day regiment. The fine folks who run the site put together a poignant, inspiring post every day. It always resonates with me. Their recent post inspired by Rumi’s quote made me start to think differently of how I work to achieve my goals. Is my focus on the goal itself misplaced? Could I actually be more efficient (which I love to be!) if I focused not on the goal itself, but on the barriers that I need to hurdle over to get to the goal.

The 2-inch picture frame
In college, one of my roommates gave me a 2-inch dual picture frame. One one side, I have a picture of a row-boat – it reminds me of the importance of embarking on new journeys. On the other side, I have a picture of a park bench that has two sitting spots clearly worn through the paint – it reminds me of the importance of having companionship along our journeys.

Whenever I have a very large task ahead of me, that 2-inch picture frame reminds me to break the task apart into small pieces. I just need to work on the masterpiece of my life one 2-inch portion at a time, just as a painter or sculptor does. Each piece feeds into the whole, bit by bit.

Playing pool
A number of years ago I dated a guy who was a master pool player. I liked to play pool though I was pretty bad at it. I focused on the cue ball, and not the ball I was trying to send into a pocket of the table. Once he helped me shift my focus to the long-term ball I wanted to sink, my pool playing improved dramatically. In this case it wasn’t the task at hand (hitting the cue ball) that mattered most, but rather what I hoped that task helped to do for me in the long-run (sinking the ball in the pocket.)

Equal amount of attention on the details and on the grand vision
For a long time I thought the focus on short-term and long-term was an either / or decision, and for the most part I focused on the long-term. I don’t think this was a bad choice; it helped me to make some serious short-term trade-offs so that I could reach goals like putting myself through college and through graduate school, both of which yielded huge benefits on my life overall.

The quote by Rumi reminded me that as I take on bigger life goals, such as working on Compass Yoga full-time, making peace with my dad, and finding the guy who is going to be my partner in life, seeking to remove the barriers to my success is a viable and fruitful way to travel down the path.

adventure, books, inspiration, intelligence, karma, learning, travel, women

Beginning: Mutant Message Down Under by Marlo Morgan

Christa Avampato

“The only way to pass any test is to take the test. It is inevitable.” ~ Elder Regal Black Swan, leader of “the Real People”

My friend, Pam, was a private yoga client of mine. For her Christmas present she wanted more yoga in her life and her lovely mom graciously made that possible. Pam and I have known each other since we were in elementary school and reconnecting with her through yoga was a wonderful treat!

After our last session, Pam sent me the book Mutant Message Down Under, the story of an American woman who travels barefoot on 1,400 mile walk-about through the Australian Outback accompanied by “the Real People”. They are an aboriginal tribe who live off the land for all of their vital needs. Whether the story is true or mythical is one of the most fascinating parts of the book. Marlo Morgan describes the story as truth, though fully acknowledges that the Australian government does not believe the events ever happened because they have no record of “the Real People” and Marlo Morgan refuses to introduce the two parties in an effort to protect “the Real People” and their way of life. The result is an incredibly wise tale so mythical that we also wonder if it is really possible.

To begin the adventure, “the Real People” explain that they have decided to remove themselves and their 50,000-year history from this planet. They believe they have done what they can do to help this world along, and that the time has come for them to leave. They will not create any more offspring so that when the last of their tribe passes away, they will all be gone. They have invited Marlo Morgan to Australia so that she will share their story and their belief system with a wider audience.

Their lessons are so simple and yet so powerful. They show Marlo how there is no separation between their souls – they regularly speak via telepathy. They show her the balance they obtain on a daily basis between courage and compassion, challenge and empathy. They are not beings living on the Earth, but rather a part of a cohesive whole. The wisdom within their own minds and hearts is an extension of the wisdom offered to all of us every day by our natural world. There is no need for them to ask for guidance on anything because guidance is always with them, within them. They teach us that it’s within us, too.

The part of the book that resonates with me most is the quest and fulfillment of purpose. Not what job you’re meant to have, or place you’re meant to live, but real purpose. When you crossover from this existence in this body to the next plane, what handful of words will be used to describe who you are. This is the only work of “the Real People” – to find and live their purpose, to know, understand, and experience their one true gift. To solidify this purpose, they give themselves a new name once their purpose is discovered. Marlo Morgan, in honor of “the Real People”, gives herself the name Traveling Tongue.

It’s a notion worthy of everyone’s contemplation. When we peel away our titles, our belongings, and our accomplishments, who are we? What name would we give ourselves? What is the singular purpose that threads through our existence this time around?

adventure, vacation, yoga

Beginning: DIY Yoga Retreat in 9 Easy Steps

Christa Avampato

Many yogis dream about the luxury of a relaxing yoga retreat. I attended my first retreat last summer, and it was an interesting experience. I learned a lot while I was there, about myself, about the world, and about what to do and not to do when someday I organize my own yoga retreat in some fantastic location.

Take a yoga retreat on a shoestring budget DIY-style:
Like many of you, I’ve got some financial goals I’m trying to hit this year and with my other travel plans it looks a yoga retreat in an exotic location may have to wait until 2011. Yoga retreats typically run $1200+ without airfare. Sometimes meals and lodging are included, though that’s not always the case, and then there are some incidental expenses that pop up as well. All in, a yoga retreat will typically cost $3000+, not a small sum of money. So I started to think about a DIY (do-it-yourself) option. I’m signed up for so many group couponing sites now that all seem to offer just about the same types of deals everyday. Groupon, Bloomspot, Living Social, and Daily Flock are part of the set. They routinely offer deeply discounted (50%+) passes to yoga studios, and many of them are for unlimited use for a certain period of time (typically a week or 2).

Here’s how a DIY yoga retreat in your own hometown might go in 9 easy steps:
1.) Wake up with the sun

2.) Take a few moments for seated meditation and have some warm tea or warm water with lemon. If you’re feeling hungry a small piece of fruit will help to tide you over until after practice.

3.) Step out for a morning yoga class via a fabulous deal you got through one of the group couponing sites

4.) Enjoy a healthy, substantial meal – many yoga retreats offer vegetarian or vegan cuisine. Find some options nearby via a site like Opentable.

5.) Take the afternoon to sightsee in your own town. We all have touristy type destinations in our own cities that we never seem to have time to visit unless we have guests in town. Now’s your chance to take in these sites without the pressure of entertaining others. Be adventurous!

6.) Grab a small healthy snack before heading to a second yoga class, maybe in a different style or with a different teacher than your morning class.

7.) Take yourself out for a delicious, healthy meal that you can really savor and enjoy.

8.) Let your evening be a time to completely relax and unwind. Is a spa treatment of some kind in order? (Again, your group couponing sites will come in handy for some discounted luxury!) Curling up with a good book, taking a long walk, or beginning some creative project you’ve been meaning to get to can also be a wonderful way to enjoy some R&R.

9.) Before settling in for the night, a long, peaceful meditation can help to seal in all of the good energy from the day, lull yourself to sleep, so that you’re fully recharged to start all over again tomorrow.

3 key things to remember to create a luxurious DIY yoga retreat:
1.) You are on vacation. If you were out-of-town you’d likely not return phone calls, not open mail, and not be attached to your gadgets. Take this time to let go even though you’re in your hometown.

2.) Vacation is a time of re-invention, to try something new. Even though you’re in the comfort of your own home, be a little daring. And that can mean trying a cuisine outside your normal routine, taking in some day time activities that you don’t normally do, or going to a brand new yoga studio.

3.) Get rid of that to-do list. If you were going out-of-town on vacation, all your errands and chores would be done before or after vacation. Take that same approach with your DIY yoga retreat. Really pamper yourself and give yourself the break you deserve, at a small fraction of the cost of going on a more traditional yoga retreat.

And there we have a yoga retreat with no travel delays and at a tiny fraction of the cost of an out-of-town retreat. What do you think? Worthwhile? If you give it a try, let me know how it goes!

adventure, career, creativity, guest blogger, health, writing

Beginning: Guest Post by Monica McCarthy of Morning Do

Christa Avampato

Monica McCarthy is one of my favorite Twitter-turned-real-life connections (@MissMcCarthy). She is an actress and holistic health coach living in New York City. Her blog, Morning Do, is a collection of her writings on healthy living. Monica is having a transformative 2011 already and I’m so thrilled that she agreed to write a guest post. She writes here about her love of new beginnings and some of her latest adventures.

When I was in elementary school I won first place in a writing competition for a poem entitled Every Ending Is A New Beginning. Little did I know then how many new beginnings would take place over the years.

I love new beginnings, always have. Maybe that’s because as a kid, I spent my summers jumping from one summer camp to another while both of my parents worked. Every week or two there were new places to explore, new friends to meet, new things to do.

As an adult, I have a similar approach when it comes to career. The results of a personality/career test I took recently stated the most important component of my Ideal Career was Spontaneity. Yep – that sounds about right.

This past year, the pull of New Beginnings strengthened tenfold. I became certified as a Holistic Health Coach after having switched to a vegan lifestyle after having understudied actress and vegan Alicia Silverstone in a Broadway play. In an effort to learn everything I could about the benefits of a plant-based diet, I also interned for the radiant Kris Carr for a bit and assisted the lovely Victoria Moran, both incredibly knowledgeable women in the vegan/health community.

Last October I started the Healthy Living website Morning DO and entered the amazing and fascinating world of blogging and social media where I’ve met some extraordinary people like Christa!

Oh, and I got engaged! So now I’m entering the crazy world of DIY weddings. Oh, I also started taking French classes because I love languages and had never studied French. Oh, and last month I took my first photography class. Oh, and last week I ran in my first New York Road Runners Race. Oh, and at the end of this month I’m taking my first painting class.

I guess you could say I’m a new beginnings fanatic. I believe we learn more about ourselves every time we try something new. The catch, of course, is we can’t do everything at once. There are still only 24 hours in a day. Every new beginning must lead to an end.

Which leaves me with just one question: What’s next?

Monica McCarthy is a certified Holistic Health Coach, writer, and actress living in NYC. She loves helping her clients transform their health and happiness in ways they never even thought possible. Her passion for healthy lifestyle make-overs is the basis for her website MorningDO.com where you can find useful tips and helpful hints along with a daily Morning DO exercise. Monica lives with her fiance and their rescue pup and spends her free time planning for their DIY wedding.

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.

adventure, failure, journey, travel

Step 344: Finding, Losing, and Finding Again

Christa Avampato

“Balance is not something you achieve and hold on to. It’s more ephemeral; it’s a string of temporary successes, held momentarily, lost, and then discovered again…it’s not permanent. When you lose it, you just have to have faith that you’ll come back to it.” ~ Carmel Wroth, Associate Editor for Yoga Journal

“Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process.” ~ President John F. Kennedy

“Happiness is not a station you arrive at, but a manner of traveling.” ~ Margaret Lee Runbeck, Time For Each Other

“Better to have lost at love than never to have loved at all.” ~ Poison

Well there’s a crew that you’ve likely never seen in a blog post before. All week I kept seeing a pattern of encouraging words about finding exactly what it is that we want, losing it, and heading out to find it again. Clear messages of impermanence coupled with the pep talk of “keep going.”

When we lose we think about giving up. We regret the effort and time and heart that our now-gone adventures required. The apparent waste lies heavy on our hearts because what we had, and loved, didn’t last. We’ve equated losing to mourning.

So let’s turn our losing on its head. When we lose our way, let’s think about the excitement of the search ahead and the joy we’ll feel again when we find our new path. If we find ourselves off-balance, let’s close our eyes, breath, and begin to balance again. Can we find just as much happiness in the search as we do in the find? Can we always make our way back to peace no matter how much anger we may feel? And when we separate from a long-time love, can we look forward to falling in love again?

It’s a tall order. Losing and then continuing to try takes a lot of heart and courage. Failure is a worthy opponent, but I will always believe that every failure is something we can rise above and be better for tomorrow. Don’t beat yourself up for losing. From time to time we’re all going to find ourselves there. What really matters is if you can stay in the game with an open mind and an open heart. Be a seeker.

The image above is not my own. It can be found here.

adventure, celebration, friendship, philanthropy, women, writer

Step 343: Celebrate What You Want More Of

Christa Avampato

“Celebrate what you want to see more of.” – Tom Peters

I went to a set of focus groups this week that reaffirmed my belief that most of the time focus groups are useless. I left the event rattling off a million complaints about the session. Mentally complaining about the session was ruining my mood.

On the way to work the next morning, I was flipping through my emails and saw the quote above from Tom Peters. I love Tom Peters because he strikes the perfect balance between optimism and criticism. He doesn’t see everything through rose-colored glasses but he also refuses to say that “this is the way it is because this is the way it’s always been.” He thinks differently. He evolves.

Criticism is easy, which is why almost everyone has the ability to be critical. What’s unique is when someone is critical and wants to be helpful, when someone wants to shine a light on things she loves and cast a shadow on things that she wishes would slunk away. Reward only good behaviors and in time they will prevail over the bad ones – very similar to the training I do with my pup, Phin.

To kick off some celebrating today, I wanted to tell you about my friend, Sharni, and her incredible efforts to support Afghan Women’s Writing Project (AWW). Sharni is a friend I met on Owning Pink and then have gotten to know through an exchange of our blog writing, tweeting, and Facebooking. I think of her as my blogging sister down under and although she makes her home in Australia and I make my home in New York, our brainwaves seem to meet up all the time.

Have a look at the video she created for the Afghan Women Writers project: http://www.sharnanigans.com/2010/12/this-is-a-call/. It’s inspiring. She’s running a 5K to raise money and awareness for AWW. We need more people like Sharni who passionately care about our global community and use their own personal resources to create the change they want to see in the world. Cheers to Sharni, her efforts, and all of the women who will benefit from her work!