Category: healthcare

community, community service, health, healthcare, meditation, military

Beginning: Operation Warrior Wellness Strives to Bring Transcendental Meditation to 10,000 Veterans

Christa Avampato

“1% of the U.S. population serves in the military; that 1% is protecting the other 99%.” ~ Ed Schloeman, Vietnam Marine Veteran; Co-chair Operation Warrior Wellness

I was invited by Kaitlyn Roberts at Social Radius to attend an event at Urban Zen in honor of Operation Warrior Wellness New York City. Operation Warrior Wellness has one, big, audacious – to teach 10,000 Transcendental Meditation (TM) as a means to treat PTSD. 550,000 troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from PTSD, and it’s estimated that for every one of those vets 10 other people – family members and friends also feel the effects by watching their loved one struggle with this illness. 5,550,000 people – and those are only the ones who have been effected by our most recent wars. There are countless others from previous conflicts who have been suffering from untreated PTSD for decades.

Why our vets need our help
With 1:7 veterans returning from duty with PTSD, the VA is overrun with demands they can’t handle. Medications aren’t working. The suicide rates and divorce rates are through the roof. Drug and alcohol abuse is rampant among returning veterans. 40% of the homeless people in the U.S. are veterans. It is too expensive (approximately $6.2B biannually) and flat-out ineffective to treat veterans with PTSD through traditional Western methods. The VA needs help from another source; it needs a better way forward.

How TM may help
Since the 1950’s people have turned to TM as a form of treatment to reduce a variety of anxiety disorders. Some studies have suggested that TM has reduced symptoms from PTSD by 50%. Further research is needed to explore these initial findings, and The David Lynch Foundation is hoping to conduct larger scale research studies in the coming years. Practitioners have explained that TM provides a way for soldiers to relieve the recall. All these veterans want is an end to the endless noise that replays over and over in their minds. Russell Simmons, an avid supporter of TM and Operation Warrior Wellness, explains, “When the mind is still, the world surrenders. Our vets need meditation, not medication.” Ed Schloeman made a call to action by saying that, “We owe our soldiers their quiet time. They need to feel whole again.”

The David Lynch Foundation and The Urban Zen Foundation, the partners who collaborated to found Operation Warrior Wellness with the inspiration and passionate energy of Jerry Yellin, a World War II Army Fighter Pilot and Co-chair of Operation Warrior Wellness, have taken on an enormous task in beginning this movement. In addition to helping veterans, The David Lynch Foundation also services schools, homeless shelters, American Indians, inmates, and at-risk children in violence ridden regions around the world. Their work is one of the efforts that is turning the tide to join Eastern and Western medicine together into a holistic healing system.

Learn more
For more information on how you can contribute to the cause of Operation Warrior Wellness, please visit http://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/

happiness, healthcare, values, yoga

Beginning: Sustainable Happiness Event at the Urban Zen Center

Christa Avampato

“Figure out your service on this planet. Figure out how that service nourishes the Earth and go do that.” ~ Elena Brower

On Monday night, through a tip from the always-in-the-know Yogadork and by the grace of Mike Kim, I was able to attend the Sustainable Happiness event at the Urban Zen Center. The talk was curated by Dr. Frank Lipman, founder of the Eleven Eleven Wellness Center, and included life coach Lauren Zander, Chairman and Co-founder of the Handel Group, and yoga instructor Elena Brower, founder of Virayoga. The talk was part of Dr. Lipman’s series Conversations on Wellness.

The talk kicked off with Dr. Lipman discussing the emerging field of epigenetics, the premise of which was perfectly described in a 2010 Time Magazine cover story: Your DNA Isn’t Your Destiny. Despite what we’ve been told by many people who practice medicine, epigenetics says that we are able to make profound changes in the way our genes present themselves. We are not victims to our genes; they are just one component of how our overall health and well-being evolves over a lifetime. And that component is only roughly 25% of our wellness story. 50% has to do with our lifestyle – our exercise routine, our stress level, the food we eat, etc. The remaining 25% is influenced by our environment – the air we breathe, the water we drink, etc. The best part? It’s never too late to make positive changes that impact our wellness of body, mind, and spirit.

The most interesting part of the evening involved Elena discussing how her life coaching work with Lauren changed her life in profound, unexpected, and sometimes uncomfortable ways. Elena talked about a struggle we all know too well at some point in our lives – our excuses for why we don’t do what we want with our lives. The only one stopping us is us. An ugly, though honest, truth. Lauren’s method helps her clients tease out their beliefs so that they discover why it is they don’t have what they want in their lives.

Being an enormous fan of life coaching, this talk was right up my alley and brought up so many issues that I work on regularly with my coach / therapist, Brian, whom I’ve been working with for 18 months. I showed up at Brian’s door shortly after my apartment building fire to deal with some PTSD issues. I’ve stayed because quite frankly the fire was a wake up call to get my life moving in a more authentic direction. I suspect if Lauren heard my story, she’d concur.

To bring her method of coaching to life, Lauren described several facets in great detail that I found truly thought-provoking:

Chicken and Brat – purposefully annoying, though accurate, descriptions of the voices that pop into our heads the moment we say we can’t do something. We’re either afraid or being stubborn. No, I can’t go for a run. No, I can’t eat healthy. No, I can’t let that guy know I’m really interested in him. All of our excuses can be traced back to one of these personas. So what’s the remedy? Chicken – make a list of all the things you’re afraid of and then go do them. Brat – just stop whining and DO IT!

Happiness Found – we are running all over the place trying to find it. We prop ourselves up with our many vices when happiness is right here in front of us. It’s on the other side of our fears, and its neighbors are confidence and gratitude.

Further Thoughts on Fear – and these just made me so happy to hear that I grinner from ear to ear. 1.) What you are most proud of in your life involves conquering fears. Seriously, make a list of your proudest accomplishments. I bet many if not all of them came about because you conquered a fear. 2.) If you aren’t scared, you aren’t up to enough. You don’t have any fears, you say? Go get some, and then have some fun conquering them.

Promises and Consequences – have trouble keeping New Year’s Resolutions or promises to yourself? Here’s a trick. Make a promise and then give yourself a consequence. Didn’t exercise like you promised yourself you would? That will be an extra hour of cleaning (if you hate cleaning.) Didn’t feel like meditating even though you promised yourself that you’d take 5 minutes out every day to do it? No dessert for you (if you love dessert.) Lauren stressed that the consequences can be funny, but should certainly be deterrents that help you keep the promises you make to yourself. Elena vows that this method, if you get the promises and consequences right, creates new health habits in 6 weeks.

Parent Traits – you vowed you’d never be your mother. You did everything possible to avoid becoming your father. Lauren asks you to make a list of all your parents traits, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Now go do some digging and detail out, in writing, how each on lives in you. Then find a way to evolve those traits to their enlightened state. It’s difficult and uncomfortable, but worth it. Brian’s put me through the same exercise, and in the process has helped me re-write my story with more authenticity and personal power.

The quote at the top of this post by Elena Brower is one that fills my heart until it’s overflowing. It was the most powerful statement of the evening for me, particularly because my vision for Compass Yoga is becoming so clear. Lauren’s goal with her clients, Elena’s with her students, and Dr. Lipman’s with his patients come from this one universal truth: you get one shot in this life as the beautiful creation that is you. Stop making excuses, inventing stories, and living behind half-truths of why you can’t have what you want. Just go get it.

health, healthcare, meditation, nonprofit, yoga

Beginning: By-donation Yoga Workshop on the 5 Elements of Chinese Medicine and Yin Yoga to Benefit the Nonprofit Blissful Bedrooms

Christa Avampato

I put an ad up on Craig’s List last week looking for volunteer yoga teachers who would like to be matched to nonprofits to offer free yoga classes through the Compass Yoga program Karmi’s Angels. I received a lovely email in response to the add from Joyce Cobb, a Structural Yoga Therapist and committed civic activist. Joyce is on the board of a nonprofit called Blissful Bedrooms which provides bedroom makeovers for homebound, disabled, and economically challenged individuals. Isn’t that awesome? Design aiding service in the community. I love it.

On Monday evening, April 25th, Joyce is offering a by-donation workshop about the 5 elements of Chinese Medicine and Yin Yoga. Donations benefit Blissful Bedrooms. Workshop information below. All levels, from beginner to advanced are welcome.

By-donation Yin Yoga Workshop – Stress Points and the Water Element

In terms of Chinese medicine, Yoga is thought of as a self treatment. Stretching the meridians (pathways of energy in the body) promotes health and longevity, relieves stress and many ailments. The Chinese theory of Yin and Yang and the Five elements marries well with the theory and practice of Yoga. The duality of Yin and Yang is present in us and in all of nature. Yin Yoga can counterbalance the Yang practices on the mat and in our daily lives. At first this slow flowing, long held pose practice may seem boring to the “yangster” but even after the very first class one will experience the challenging nature of Yin Yoga and the quiet calm and overall peace it presents afterwards. The rewarding nature of a Yin practice is that brings with it the ability to be more accepting, more yielding. Facing the aversion that comes with holding a deep stretch longer than we are normally comfortable with helps us to let go of opinions we may have about our own limits and face the aversion in our daily lives, reducing our stress, enhancing our health, well being and peace of mind. It enhances breath work and meditation by preparing us more completely to be in the here and now.

Covered in this 1 ½ hour intensive workshop:

1.) Brief introduction to the theory and practice of the 5 elements in Chinese Medicine and Yin Yoga

2.) Warm up Practice – Pawanmuktasana – Joint freeing series

3.) Yin Yoga Flow for the Kidney Meridian (a powerful way to promote healing and rejuvenate energy)

4.) Pranayama (breath work)

5.) Relaxation and Meditation

6.) Closing

Learn how to add this challenging Yoga practice to your daily life. Join us for a workshop on the Water element and Yin Yoga with Joyce Cobb, Structural Yoga Therapist and Certified Yin Yoga Teacher. All levels, from beginner to advanced are welcome. Payment will be by donation.

Proceeds go to benefit Blissful Bedrooms, whose mission is to transform the bedrooms of homebound and economically challenged young individuals challenged with a variety of disabilities. Find out more about blissful bedrooms here: http://www.blissfulbedrooms.org

Workshop Date:
Monday, April 25th

Location:
TRS Studios – 44 E 32nd Street – 11th Floor – Between Park and Madison Avenues

Time:
6:30 pm – 8:00 pm

Cost:
This is a by-donation workshop. Proceeds will go to benefit blissfulbedrooms.org

experience, healthcare, learning

Beginning: Let New Experiences Be New

Christa Avampato

http://www.sevenof.com
“You can’t use a Western mind to understand Eastern philosophy. To really understand it, you have to change your mind.” ~ Dr. Nan Lu, OMD

Dr. Lu used this quote to close his talk about Traditional Chinese Medicine at the Integrative Healthcare Symposium earlier this month. It reminded me of how often we try to understand a new concept based upon our past learning. Of course, this is entirely logical. Our experience gives us a language and lens by which to process novel ideas. Though just because this pattern is logical, doesn’t mean it always serves. What’s perhaps more powerful, and yet more difficult to do as we get older, is to just take a learning as is without trying to compare it to what we already know.

This is how children learn. They’re little sponges. No prejudices, no judgements, no nagging voice in the back of their minds that is chattering away. They take a new lesson as just that – new and to be appreciated in its own right.

What if we could do that as new situations and experiences come into our lives? What if we could set aside that chattering, monkey mind, and just take in the new information for all the glory it has in its own right? If we could do that then I am confident that there isn’t a single challenge in all the challenges our world now faces that we wouldn’t be able to solve.

art, health, healthcare, music

Beginning: The Music Stays With Us to Our Last Days

Christa Avampato

From http://www.rockandtheology.com
On Saturday morning, I started a busy week of yoga teaching at New York Methodist Hospital. I went to the Geriatric Psychology Unit. Because it is an acute care facility, I always have a different group of patients whom I work with in a small group class. Their cognitive and physical abilities vary widely. This weekend I met a woman, Ruth, who spoke very little and though she could hear me speaking, my questions didn’t register in her mind. Their illnesses are both fascinating and heart breaking to witness. My mind can’t help but go to the thought that some day I and / or the people I know and love may find ourselves in this same situation of loss as the years tick by.

There was a piano in the room where I was teaching the class. Ruth slowly shuffled to it and played a church hymn that she probably learned as a young child. Her shaking that was prevalent throughout the yoga class completely stopped. Color came back to her cheeks and for a moment she seemed aware again as she played the hymn. I was astonished and asked Caroline, the recreational therapist, why Ruth could play the song perfectly but not answer the question, “how are you?” Caroline had a very simple answer, “Music is the very last thing to go from the mind. Cognitive abilities, math skills, and speech can be completely gone but music sticks with us until our very last days.” I had no idea.

I’m certain that there is a very sound, neurological reason for this. Perhaps musical ability is stored in an area of the brain that is not affected by the loss of cognitive ability from aging. The writer and philosopher in me finds this notion to retaining music as a beautiful, powerful justification for making creativity and the arts a very necessary part of our lives at every age. When everything else falls away, and I mean everything, we can take comfort that music will become our final voice to the world.

calm, care, clarity, commitment, community, healthcare, meditation, silence, simplicity, yoga

Beginning: The Moment We Miss

Christa Avampato

“The moment we most often miss is this one.” ~ Robert Chodo Campbell, HHC

My heart is still singing from the Integrative Healthcare Symposium I attended on Friday. It felt so good, so nourishing to be in the company of so many people who think about health and wellness as a spiritual and a physical journey. I found confirmation in my beliefs that have largely been from my gut as medical doctors from the world-class medical facilities such as Beth Israel and top research universities presented their research and advocated for a more holistic approach to heathcare in the US.

We started Monday morning with a presentation by Robert Chodo Campbell and Koshin Pauley Ellison, two Buddhist Monks who co-founded and co-manage the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care. We did some meditation exercises that have given me weeks worth of material for this blog and for ideas for my SXSW session that is coming up in Austin next week. They shared stories about their work as the co-directors of Contemplative Care at Beth Israel Medical Center, where I’m hoping to do some type of volunteer / intern work.

One of the lines that really hit me was Chodo’s quote above. We are constantly trying to get somewhere. This is not a new revelation. They actually joked about the idea that nothing they teach is revolutionary – it’s ancient wisdom. And still, as often as we hear it, we don’t always take the idea into our hearts. There is still so much opportunity to improve our awareness, to cultivate more gratitude.

They counseled us to take a breath, a full, conscious, beautiful breath several times throughout the day. When we finish a phone call, take a breath. When we complete a task we’ve been concentrating on, take a breath. And when our thoughts are racing by us, close the eyes and count 1. No complicated mantra needed. Just focus on counting to 1, over and over again until the racing mind, the monkey mind, calms down.

There’s a lot of beauty, a lot of blessing, right now in this moment. In every moment. Take it in; it’s yours.

I love the beauty and simplicity of the image above. It appears on the NY Zen Center’s website.

This blog is also available as a podcast on Cinch and iTunes.

health, healthcare, hope, hospital, New York City, teaching, yoga

Step 258: Teaching Yoga at New York Methodist Hospital

Christa Avampato

Yoga provides an incredible well-being practice for everyone. There are no physical or mental limitations that prohibit a yoga practice of some variety. If someone can breath, they can do yoga. I began my journey toward becoming a yoga teacher focusing on my classmates at the Darden School at the University of Virginia. They had stress and I knew how to relieve stress through yoga since I had been on a journey of self-study and yoga for close to a decade. A classic case of filling a need in the market.

In May, I made my teaching path “official” and received my 200-hour certification through Sonic Yoga and started Compass Yoga. During my teacher-training process, I turned my attention toward making yoga accessible to people who had few opportunities to experience it, namely people with serious physical and mental health ailments. Almost 4 months to the day after completing my training at Sonic, I will begin offering classes in the pediatric unit at New York Methodist Hospital in Brooklyn to patients, caregivers, and the hospital staff. This is exactly the type of yoga work I set out to do and it feels like such an incredible gift to do the work I know I was meant to do.

I begin on Saturday, September 25th with a trial run at New York Methodist. I will be sure to update this blog as I get further along the path, though wanted to share this wonderful news, for which I am infinitely grateful, as it happens. Where there’s a will there is most certainly always a way. Namaste.

books, health, healthcare

Step 70: Mountains Beyond Mountains

Christa Avampato

“It is so easy, at least for me, to mistake a person’s material resources for his interior ones.” ~ Tracy Kidder, Mountains Beyond Mountains

Today I finished Tracy Kidder’s excellent book about Paul Farmer and his nonprofit, Partners in Health, a global nonprofit organization, started in Haiti, that has changed the perception of basic health care from a privilege to a social justice. Being able to have the tools to heal is a birth right, not something reserved for the wealthy and powerful. Paul Farmer has given his life for this simply articulated belief: every life matters equally.

Biography and autobiography is a fascinating thing. While we hear about someone else’s journey, we cannot help but examine our own. By viewing someone else’s place in the world, their contributions to humanity, we begin to consider and re-consider our place, our contribution.

As I left yoga class today, my head was swimming. I’ve got too much information coming at me a million miles an hour: at work, in yoga class, in my volunteer hours, from my friends and family. I’m trying to date as much as I can, and then also leave some time each day for myself. For my own thoughts and reflections. My life is bursting with, well, life.

And then I finished Mountains Beyond Mountains, and I let out a huge sigh of relief. I’m trying to just manage my own little corner of the world. Paul Farmer is out there actually saving many corners of the Earth – the most desperate, the poorest, the ones that need immediate attention before they decay entirely beyond any recognition. He is Atlas, and he will not shrug.

So give me yoga asanas, Sanskrit, sacred hindu texts, new technology, org chart after org chart, change and then more change, and any and every trouble and triumph of my many beautiful friends and family members. I can take it all in, and still feel whole and complete, still take care of my own heart and body and soul. I’ve got this.

If Paul Farmer can wrap his mind around treating TB, HIV / AIDS, and everything that comes along with that, in Haiti, Peru, Russia, Guatemala, Roxbury, and Lesotho to name just a few of the regions of the world his worked has touched, then surely I can do my fair share. After all, we are all just people, fallible, imperfect, stunning examples of grace. There is always more to do, always. And that is a beautiful realization. The Haitians say it best, “There are always mountains beyond mountains.” Let us hope that our work is never really done, and let’s celebrate that.

The image above is Paul Farmer with a young boy in Haiti at his clinic. It was taken by Maupali Das.

care, change, health, healthcare

My Year of Hopefulness – Good Grief

Christa Avampato

One of the things this year that has brought me so much hope is my new ability to ask and receive help. By nature, I am not good at asking for help, though I am fantastic at providing it. A few weeks ago I told my friend, Rob, about my strong desire to make all of the change I’ve been through this year into a positive experience. I want to look back on 2009 and see that it was a decisive, magical turning point in my life. Enter, Brian.

Early on in my life, I spent a number of years in therapy to acquire tools to help me handle certain aspects of my childhood in a healthy way. They’ve served me well for 33 years and now I need some new tools to help me manage a whole new set of challenges. Brian is a social worker by training who has an incredible gift for helping people to get the most out of the lives they have to help them achieve the lives that they want. He sets about his work with the desire to help people turn their experiences and dreams into action. He is exactly the kind of person I need right now.

I began my weekly sessions with him today and because I am so open about my life’s circumstances, we were able to get to the root of our work together very quickly. It helps that I found Brian based on Rob’s strong recommendation. Because I trust Rob, I immediately trusted Brian. Because I trust myself and know how I want my life to take shape, it was easy to ask someone as knowledgeable as Brian for help. And so, it begins…

Being a forever student, I asked for homework at the end of our session. “I want you to be still and allow the feelings of loss you’ve had this year to surface. You’re so busy getting away from grief that you never really look it in the eye and see how it can actually help you.” True, and scary, and difficult, and necessary. I was so concerned about getting through my losses this year that I didn’t stop to look around and see what they really had to offer me. I just wanted to be done, and in my desire to be done, I forgot to let myself grieve. I took a “well that happened so now get on with it” approach without letting myself say “that was frightening and sad, and I’m going to miss those things and people in my life.”

Grief is difficult; suppressed grief eventually becomes unbearable and makes itself a nuisance and makes us tired. With Brian’s help, I’m going to figure out how to make grief serve me well.

children, health, healthcare, nonprofit, philanthropy

My Year of Hopefulness – Children’s Health Fund

Christa Avampato

Tonight my friend and colleague, Wayne, took me to the annual meeting for Children’s Health Fund (CHF). Knowing my interest in and past experience with nonprofit organizations, he knew I would be interested. What he didn’t know, and frankly what I didn’t know, is that CHF would be a perfect match for my interests on a variety of levels.

Personally and professionally, the mission of CHF to provide and advocate for quality medical care for every child resonates with me. Due to a drastic change in my family situation when I was a young child, my family lived below the poverty line and without health care for a good number of years. As an undergraduate, I did my senior economics thesis on the quality of healthcare for children below the poverty line living in West Philadelphia; the paper was based on my work-study job assisting one of the lead pediatricians at Children’s Seashore House (now a part of The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia). Additionally, I am considering the Public and Urban Policy PhD program at The New School because of my growing interest in inner-city education, and inner-city education requires caring for the whole child, healthcare included. There are certain points in our lives when the stars perfectly align, and tonight felt like one of those nights.

I had the great honor of hearing Karen Redlener, the Executive Director, and her talented staff speak about the 2008 accomplishments of CHF. 70,000 children received medical care through 210,000 patient visits and 613 medical professional received training through CHF’s programs in 25 cities across the country. In a time when so many organizations, for-profit and non-profit, are pulling back and remaining cautious, CHF is stepping up their game.

Jane Pauley, one of CHF’s dedicated board members and someone I greatly admire, explained why CHF is continuing to push forward and grow their goals as opposed to cutting back. In this recession, fear is everywhere. And while it might at first seem inconceivable that any organization could maintain their funding during this recession much less grow it, CHF keeps looking up and reaching higher.

Why, you ask? The sound barrier. Jane Pauley told the story of the first pilot to break the sound barrier. Previously, when pilots came up against the intense shaking caused by approaching speeds close to the sound barrier, they would pull the throttle back. A fatal mistake. Chuck Yeager did something different – when his plane approached the sound barrier, shaking badly, he pushed the throttle forward, went faster, and broke the sound barrier altogether. He is literal proof that if we press on, despite adversity, there are great rewards to be had when we come out the other side. CHF and Chuck Yeager are of the same mind.

Healthcare has been front page news every day this week; it’s been at the top of the Obama agenda for months; it was a major issue in the 2008 Presidential campaign. This is healthcare’s moment; this is CHF’s moment. For over 20 years, Irwin Redlener and Paul Simon, the co-founders, along with their dedicated, passionate team have been working tirelessly on behalf of children and their right to quality healthcare. The debates are raging on Capitol Hill and across this country. The plane is shaking, and we cannot pull the throttle back. We are so close to breaking through, so close to having quality, affordable care for every American. CHF is continuing to stand its ground with dignity and grace, fortified by the simple belief that all children everywhere have a right to be healthy.

We need them to succeed in this mission. By the end of 2009, 1:5 children in the U.S. will be below the poverty line. 1:5. Of all the facts and figures we review every day, that might be the scariest I’ve heard. We can’t afford to have 20% of our nation’s children grow up poor and unhealthy. Think the healthcare of others isn’t your problem? Think again. Their future is our future. And they need us. All of us. Someone has to stand up for them if we are to have any hope at all in the future of our nation. CHF is giving it everything they’ve got, and they need more. They need us. To find out how you can help, visit the Children’s Heath Fund website.