Category: hope

books, children, creativity, dreams, encouragement, hope

Beginning: Push Through In Spite of the Chatter

Christa Avampato
Shel Silverstein

“Listen to the mustn’ts, child. Listen to the don’ts. Listen to the shouldn’ts, the impossibles, the won’ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me … Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.” ~ Shel Silverstein from Where The Sidewalk Ends via Dailygood

My friends Leah and Peter are having their first baby in January. (That lucky little one has two of the most amazing people in the world as parents!) I recently went to their baby shower and instead of a card we were asked to bring books to get their baby’s library started. I went to the bookstore near my office and by the end of it found myself with not a book but a stack of books after a solid hour in the children’s book section. (I finally settled on Goodnight, Moon and several Dr. Seuss books for Leah and Peter.)

I find this genre incredibly inspiring because it reminds me of a time when I fully believed that anything was possible – I could be an astronaut, a paleontologist (which was my childhood occupation of choice), or a brain surgeon. I could travel the world, live on top of a cloud, or discover an underwater civilization. There were no boundaries and books were my way of traveling across the universe. They still are.

Shel Silverstein remains one of my favorites for his optimism and eternal belief that we all have something to give. As we turn the page to 2012 and I turn much more of my attention to the work my life was meant for, his words will be comforting in the low moments and encouraging as I make my way up this “great big hill of hope.” And isn’t that what all our best adventures come down to – pushing on and pushing through despite all the mustnt’s, don’ts, shouldn’ts, impossibles, won’ts, and never haves? We have to continue to have faith in the idea that anything, absolutely anything, can be if it’s what we truly want and what the world truly needs.

Those words – push through, push through – will be ringing in my mind over and over again every step of the way in 2012.

blog, business, celebration, economy, hope, inspiration, writing, yoga

Beginning: My Features on Sour to Sweet, a Blog Focused on People Defying the Great Recession

Christa Avampato

Lauren Murray is striking back against the idea that our economy has ruined all of us.

Her blog, Sour to Sweet, is “my attempt to counterbalance the doom and gloom that’s already out there. Let’s celebrate the successes that, seemingly against all odds, have occurred despite the economic downturn.” Lauren reached out to me a few weeks ago after reading my book Hope in Progress: 27 Entrepreneurs Who Inspired Me During the Great Recession. She asked if I would be willing to share my own story through an interview (Not the Same Old Yoga) and if I’d write a guest post on the topic of inspiration (How to Survive the Uh-Oh Moment). I was both honored and thrilled by the offer.

I hope you’ll stop by Sour to Sweet and support Lauren in helping her to get the word out that it’s not all darkness out there!

Easter, holiday, hope

Beginning: Easter for All of Us

Christa Avampato

When I was a child, Easter was my favorite holiday. I would get more excited for Easter than I would for Christmas. I got wear a pretty dress and pretty shoes. We’d pack into the car and be to my grandmother’s house in Connecticut by noon. Some of my relatives would meet us there. We’d have a meal and then could dive into our over-sized Easter baskets made up for each of us by my Grammy.

I remember Easter as a time when the flowers were out, the grass was green, and the promise of summer was nearby. Though at the time I didn’t truly understand the religious significance of Easter, I certainly understood the energetic significance. For me, as for so many, it was a time of healing. A time when we could equally hold great sorrow and much rejoicing. We could look disappointment in the eye knowing that there was a promise of redemption and rebirth not too far behind. Easter taught me that for everything there is a season.

Though I no longer formally celebrate Easter, I always keep its lessons close to my heart. No matter where we are, no matter what’s happening to us, there is always a hope that tomorrow will shine brighter than today. That’s the promise of Easter, no matter what religion we place our faith in. Happy Easter to all!

happiness, home, hope, meditation, yoga

Beginning: Finding Your Way

Christa Avampato

San Marino Island, Croatia. http://www.find-croatia.com
“Blessed is the person who finds what she’s meant to do with her life.” ~ Sonia, one of my meditation students at NY Methodist Hospital and a caregiver

I met Sonia at NY Methodist Hospital this past week during one of my meditation sessions in the Physical Rehab Unit. She is from Croatia and is now caring for her elderly mother. Her journey as a child refugee out of Croatia ultimately landed her in Park Slope Brooklyn, where she has lived ever since. That evening we took a traveling meditation in which we focused on a specific place as a point of concentration. Sonia emerged from the meditation with teary eyes and a peaceful heart. Though she has been in Brooklyn for so long, she misses her Croatia even now. Its beauty, its history, its people. “If you go through this life and never see Croatia, you are missing out,” she said. With that kind of endorsement, I dutifully added it to my list for future vacations.

We also got to talking about my work at the hospital. I told her about the transition I’m hoping to make, and surprised myself when I freely said, “I wish I could be doing the work I do here every day.” For some reason that statement made me both sad and glad. Glad that I had that kind of clarity, and sad that it is not yet my reality. Maybe Sonia sensed that wistfulness in me, because she offered up the simple quote at the top of this post. I may have offered her a meditation that night that allowed her to go home for a few moments, but she gave me much more of a lesson. To someone who’s lived a life of struggle, it seemed to her that my clarity of purpose was more than enough of a reason to be happy, to feel whole.

dreams, hope

Beginning: What We Have and Hope For

Christa Avampato

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

“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.” ~ Epicurus

My sister, Weez, posted this quote on her Facebook wall a few weeks ago, and it just happened to be one of those days when I was working on my personal finances, looking at how to chip away at my student debt more quickly. It was one of those moments when I felt particularly poor, which is truly ridiculous since financially I am more than on solid ground. Though no matter how much we have, those moments of not having enough sneak up on us when we least expect them.

This quote had me take a look around my adorable apartment, at my equally adorable dog, and remember just how much wealth I have in family, friends, and projects. I’m so wealthy in these respects that my life can barely hold all of them. I am insanely blessed.

I remember being an undergraduate at Penn, when I truly was poor, putting myself through school with several jobs and a heavy course load. I didn’t want to be rich. I just wanted to have enough to not worry, to not live hand to mouth all the time. It took a lot of faith to keep traveling that road. There really wasn’t a way for me to hop off or turn around. I had committed to this education and I had to see it through, despite the debt (which I now realize is quite minimal in the grand scheme of things thanks to Penn’s incredible financial aid policies.) Education was the only way I could see to build a more comfortable, fearless life. So I trudged along through college, mostly uncomfortable and very scared.

If someone had told me then that I’d have the life I have now, be the person I am now, I wouldn’t have believed them. In the back of my mind I thought this life of so much freedom and independence and possibility would be largely out of reach for me for a very long time. It was only a hope, and not all that long ago. And that memory makes me count my blessings all the more.

What aspects of your life did you once think were only dreams?

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

government, hope, politics

Step 308: A Letter to President Obama

Christa Avampato

Dear President Obama,

While last night’s election results may seem like a referendum on the policies you’ve advocated for over the last two years, I think they are a greater reflection of the fear that so many people feel about this new economic level setting. It can be tempting to voters to think a change of power will bring a change of scene. People want the good ol’ times again, or at least what we thought were good ol’ times.

I graduated from the Darden business school in May 2007 into what my classmates and I thought was an unstoppable economy. 6 months later it was all-to-clear to us that we had built our short-term career aspirations on a tremendously unstable house of cards. We had to rethink those dreams, at least in the short-term. Maybe even delay them a bit or alter them.

But our underlying confidence in our abilities to make positive contributions to the world around us did not waver, and your confidence shouldn’t either. We needed you to take up the seemingly insurmountable challenge of the Presidency two years ago, and we need you now more than ever.

Change worth having takes time to build. There are a lot of people in this country who haven’t lost heart. I haven’t, and I hope you don’t either.

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, creativity, design, hope

Step 89: Glimmer Moments

Christa Avampato

On Bruce Nussbaum‘s recommendation, I just started reading Glimmer: How Design Can Change Your Life and Maybe Even the World by Warren Berger. I’m only a few pages into the introduction and already my mind is reeling with ideas and inspiration. Thinking and learning about design gives me more energy than a gallon of coffee.

In the introduction, Berger defines ‘glimmer moments’ – the point when a life-changing idea crystallizes in the mind. I’ve been having a number of glimmer moments at work, in yoga teacher training, and in my sessions with Brian. Call it destiny, synergy, coincidence, Kismet, serendipity. Or prana. Or dharma. Glimmer moments are aha’s. Times in our lives when everything just falls perfectly in to place. So perfectly that we wonder why we didn’t see all along what now seems so obvious.

We talk a lot about timing in terms of relationships or jobs. In actuality it’s all in the timing, everything, every aspect of our lives. The stars align exactly when they are supposed to align, not when we want them to, not when we think that they should. Sometimes I imagine that up there somewhere there’s a great puppet master who’s arranging and re-arranging circumstances based upon the choices that human hands make in their attempt to control human destiny.

So let go. Do what gives you energy, what makes you whole and happy. Make a plan or a rule, but be prepared to do an about-face at any moment because you have new information today that you didn’t have yesterday. Life is like that – we change, the world changes, and we all have to keep plodding forward, doing the very best we can with what we’ve got. Recognize that the glimmer is always there; our only job is make sure we take the time to stop, look up, and recognize it.

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

dreams, hope, inspiration, nature, writing

My Year of Hopefulness – Castles in the Air

Christa Avampato

“Do not worry if you have built your castles in the air. They are where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

This is my 365th day of actively seeking out and writing about hope. This was my one New Year’s Resolution for 2009: to feel more hopeful and record what I found here on this blog to help others feel more hopeful, too.

On this day last year, I had no idea that my life would look as it does today, in any respect. I can say with great confidence that this has been a year filled with more change than any other year I have had. Part of me wonders if that is actually my doing: did I precipitate all of this change or did the change just happen to me? I suspect it’s a mix of the two. I can also say with great confidence that today I feel exponentially more hopeful than I did one year ago. And I hope that these 365 blog posts have made others a little more hopeful, too. If so, then I achieved what I set out to do in my writing in 2009.

There are so many reflections I have on this year of writing about hope, so many things I’ve learned about myself, about others, about my community, and about the world as a whole. However, one revelation stands far above the others: when I actively, passionately search for something, I will inevitably find it because I will not give up until my task is done. And the truly remarkable thing is that yes, if I span the globe I can find millions of pieces of hope “out there”, though the pieces of hope that mean the most to me are with me all the time. I carry them inside of me.

Now what will I do next? I’ve got overflowing buckets of hope; how can they be put to the best use? My pal, Laura, asked me this question about two months ago while we were at dinner. Without missing a beat, I told her that for the next year I’d do one thing every day that used all that hope to build an extraordinary life. The answer just sprang from my mouth, no thought required. It was a wish my heart made.

So here we go: beginning tomorrow, I will write a post every day in 2010 that will describe the one thing I did that day that put me one tiny step (or one great leap) closer to living an extraordinary life. The wheels of change are well greased from the events of 2009, so I expect more big changes in 2010. My friend, Kelly, has had a mantra all year of “begin again in 2010.” She’s a wise woman, someone who is both a friend and a mentor, and I’m taking her advice.

The final thought I have as I close out this year relates to nature, a topic from which I’ve drawn a lot of hopeful examples. It’s a butterfly analogy, though not the stereotypical one of beautiful re-birth. When a tiny caterpillar wraps itself up in a cocoon, it purposely constructs the cocoon to be very tight so that the butterfly has to struggle to emerge. It has to wiggle and turn and twist, completing exhausting itself inside the too-tight casing. There are oils on the inside of the cocoon and when the butterfly struggles the oils are distributed over its wings. It will not be able to free itself until the oils are distributed evenly over its wings. Those oils build a layer over the butterfly’s wings that keep the wings from breaking apart when it flies. Without the oil coating on its wings, the butterfly would break apart the moment it tried to fly.

I think about my own struggles, and the struggles of the world, through the lens of the butterfly. The twisting and turning is a painful process. It wears me out, and yet that struggle is so necessary to my development and success. I would never be able to fly without the distribution of its lessons throughout my life. I have struggled long enough and my struggles have done an excellent job of building up the foundation of my life. So let the flight begin toward my castles in the air.

dreams, faith, hope, vision

My Year of Hopefulness – Visions and Plans

Christa Avampato

“How could a vision ever be given to someone to harbor if that person could not be trusted to carry it out? The message is simple: commitment precedes vision.” High Eagle

In San Jose, we stopped at an artisan market to buy gifts for family and friends back home. The market was filled with stalls that contained crafts of all kinds from coffee mugs to home goods to jewelry. I found some things for my family and purchased a journal for myself, of course, handmade from materials from a coffee plant. I am using it to write down my dreams for each part of my life. On this trip, a number of paths rolled out before me and I wanted to make sure to capture them as they revealed their many details.

In Costa Rica I found the space to breath and dream, the space to craft visions of what I want my life to be going forward. Bringing these dreams to life will take some short-term sacrifices, financially and personally, though the long-term pay off is well worth it. Realizing what I can live without has given me so much freedom. I don’t feel weighted down by needs and wants. I feel lighter and feel that my life is both full and fulfilling. Many of the volunteers I worked with have taken this similar path, simplifying and downsizing their lives, taking a chance on big dreams. It was very inspiring and encouraging to be among them and to hear their stories. Like me, they were a little hesitant and a little scared, and they kept going anyway.

On the plane back to the U.S., I allowed my mind to wander. I didn’t multi-task the way I have on every other flight I’ve ever been on. I simply started down one vision, turning over every stone, concentrating on all of the beautiful little details, and recording them in my coffee plant book. Within the pages of this book, I have put fear aside and written down my wildest aspirations without judging them in any way. I let the visions show up, knowing that High Eagle was absolutely right – of course I have the ability to bring them to life. If I’m committed to building a better life for myself and for others, then visions and the ability to make them my reality will follow. It is invigorating to be grounded in so much faith.