Category: meditation

meditation, yoga

Beginning: The 21-day Yoga Challenge with Yoga Journal

Christa Avampato

Yoga Journal is getting better and better with every issue, or maybe I’m just becoming a better reader of the publication. The last few months of issues have reinvigorated my practice and teaching. The depth of the articles and the deeply moving stories have helped me to re-discover the transformative power of yoga in my life.

Did you make a resolution to do more yoga in 2011? Worried about how to get keep that promise to yourself? Help has arrived and it won’t cost you a dime. Starting tomorrow, January 10th, Yoga Journal and 4 talented yoga teachers – Jason Crandell, Kate Holcombe, Elise Lorimer, and Rebecca Urban – are helping to jump-start our home practices by hosting the 21-day Yoga Challenge. Online, there will be daily practices as well as pranayama and meditation audio instruction. There is also a daily newsletter and the opportunity to share the experience of the 21-day challenge with other participants via an open blog.

It’s all free so we have nothing to lose and a home practice to gain. How do you join, you ask? Just visit http://yogajournal.com/21daychallenge and enter your email address. That’s it. I hope you’ll join me. See you on the mat!

The inspiring image above can be found 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.

meditation

Step 357: Listening for Answers

Christa Avampato

“Put very simply, prayer is when we ask the universe for something, and meditation is when we stop and listen.” ~ DailyOm

At this time of year, people are offering up a lot of prayers. We are looking toward the new year to start fresh, to create and work toward new goals and dreams. We ask for signs to tell us we’re on the right track, that we’re heading in the right direction to actualize our potential, to find our calling. It’s tough work; no wonder we want some reassurance along the way.

But how often do we play the game of asking for assistance and reassurance only to get going as fast as our legs will carry us. When we ask for help, we have to slow down enough to receive it. Putting our questions out into the universe is very important; it helps us to crystallize what we really want out of our lives. It’s equally as important to then close our eyes, breath, and go within to listen for the universe’s response. Meditation, something as simple as just breathing with intention, can help to raise our awareness and recognize the signs that we’re seeking.

Listening intently takes more effort and offers more rewards that we give it credit for.

The image above can be found here.

choices, clarity, meditation, wellness, work, yoga

Step 345: A Meditation to Find Purpose By Following Energy

Christa Avampato

“From the spiritual perspective, all disease is undiscovered purpose.” ~ Nan Lu

I’m wrestling now with purpose. At 34, I thought that piece would be figured out and that I could then turn my attention toward working for that purpose. What I’m learning is that like happiness and balance and peace, purpose seems to be less of a destination and more of a daily trip we’re taking. I’ve been going too small with my idea of purpose. Maybe it isn’t a certain career or activity or population I’d like to help but a broader, less specific concept. “Make ’em laugh” sounds like a worthy purpose. “Inspire storytelling” would be another. Maybe that’s a better, more achievable direction for purpose – a flexible structure.

This week I talked to Brian about my continued quest for purpose. “What am I supposed to be doing?” I asked him. And in his very-Brian way, he took me toward point B so I could learn something that would help me get myself to point A. He helped me frame up my own question by asking me to focus on a friend of mine who is going through the same cycle I am to find his own purpose. It was amazing that when I thought about the advice I’d give my friend, I found my own answers, too. “You have to follow the work that gives you energy and ditch the activities that drain you. Your body already knows how your heart should spend its time.”

Sometimes we think about the body as this very superficial structure that is merely meant to house the spirit, maybe because the body won’t last forever and we are really hoping that the spirit will. The greatest lesson that yoga has taught me is that the two work together. The body is so much wiser than we give it credit for. It knows what it needs. When we are doing an activity we aren’t meant to do, our body will grow tired no matter how much sleep we’ve gotten. When we are on the right path, the body moves with ease. If we follow our energy, will it lead us to our purpose?

Meditation technique to find purpose
Take a comfortable seat. Deep gorgeous inhales. Deep calming exhales. Scan the body and wherever you feel tightness or pain, focus the breath there, one area at a time, until those muscles relax. And then once you’ve focused the breath on each stressed area of the body, allow your lips to take the faintest smile, maybe just turning up the corners of your mouth slightly. Focus only on what it feels like to have your entire body relaxed. After a few minutes, gently open the eyes and take that feeling with you out into the world.

Focus on finding activities that allow the body to feel as relaxed as they do in meditation, even when we’re in motion. Those activities, I believe, will lead us to our purpose, one day at a time. I’m going to give it a shot. Will you join me and let me know how it goes? I promise to do the same.

The image above is from thebuddhagarden.com

goals, meditation, writing, yoga

Step 324: Find New Pathways

Christa Avampato

“I like to think of meditation methods as portals, entry points into the spaciousness that underlies the mind.” ~ Swami Durgananda (Sally Kempton)

As I prepare my plans for 2011, I’m focusing a lot of my energy on the how, or in other words, the doors to my dreams as opposed to the dreams themselves. This passage by Swami Durgananda made me look at my goals in a new way. There are a lot of paths to a dream, and I’m not sure that the path is as critical as I’ve made it out to be.

The analogy of meditation is helpful to me. When I first started meditating as part of my yoga teacher training, I was so focused on the process. Do I leave my eyes open or do I close them? Do I sit, lie down, or walk? Can I listen to music? Should I do pranayama first? After a few months, I found what worked for me – I sit in a comfortable seat, I close my eyes, bring my hands to heart center, and count my breaths. I stopped trying to memorize complex processes because I realized my focus was just to relax and release.

My goal with my yoga classes isn’t to pack the house and make money; it’s to show people what an incredible effect yoga can have on their lives. I don’t write for money or to get tons of clicks, page views, and comments. I write to share my experiences and inspire other people to live fully, and even if I do that for just one person, that’s enough for me. My life isn’t about doing more good in this world than everyone else; it’s about doing as much good as I can possibly do with the resources I have.

When we’re facing roadblocks along our path, it’s easy to get hung up on breaking through. Swami Durgananda has some advice for us on this front: “In approaching the Self, it helps to have a doorway we can comfortably walk through, rather than having to break through the wall of thoughts separating us from our inner space.” It’s not the goal that’s the problem; it’s the approach. Where we begin has very little do with where we end up; what matters more is that we keep trying. So when one road to a dream seems too difficult, there’s no need to let it die on the vine. Just look for another way forward.

The image above can be found here.

meditation, time, wellness, yoga

Step 304: Souls and Grocery Stores

Christa Avampato

“What is a soul? It’s like electricity – we don’t really know what it is, but it’s a force that can light a room.” ~ Ray Charles

It’s easier to know the soul of others than it is to know our own. We can look at other people’s actions, the people they surround themselves with, and the issues that ignite their energy and understand where their souls are rooted. The difficulty of knowing our own souls is akin to being able to rise up above our lives and observe from an outsider perspective. It is tough work.

We can, and often do, run through life. We fill up our schedules, load up our to-do lists, and dart from place to place, hoping that somewhere along the way we’ll find the path we’re supposed to be on. What I’m finding in my meditation practice is that the only way to know our souls, our light, is to sit still, close the eyes, and breath. We won’t find our souls, our purpose, out there. We will gather ideas from the world, options, and possibilities. But the only way to know which path is the right one for us is to look around inside. If we’re looking inside and moving about, chances are we’ll get a blurry image just like a camera gets when it’s shaken while snapping a photo. The image becomes clear in the stillness.

I will be the first to admit that I hate to sit still. I run through all the things I should be doing, rather than just sitting there. I feel like I’m losing time. And then I think about the grocery store. If I sit down and make a list of what I need to get, my trip is faster and more efficient. If I just run out the door without a list, I find I wander around the store for far too long, all because taking the time to make a list felt like time wasted. The journey to know our souls is the same as our journey around Whole Foods. Take some time to be still and collect our thoughts, and it becomes an easier process to get where and what we want. Below is my favorite meditation, the one that actually expands the time in my day and the knowledge of who I am and who I mean to be.

My favorite still meditation:
Sit in a comfortable cross-legged position
Deepen the breath
Lengthen the spine
Imagine with each inhale we grow a little taller and with each exhale we grow a little wider
Relax the face and jaw
Smile slightly and envision a tiny light right in the middle of the chest that gets a little brighter with every breath cycle. It’s that small light that will reveal our souls as it strengthens

The photo above can be found here.

commitment, meditation, yoga

Step 115: Making Time

Christa Avampato

“I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.” ~ Martin Luther

I have so many ideas for blog posts from this weekend of yoga teacher training. Most of our work this weekend was about Eastern philosophy. Some of it I agree with. Some of it I don’t agree with. Some of it I’ll keep with me, and I’ll let go of the pieces that don’t serve. I find all of it useful to stimulate conversation and consideration.

Will, our philosophy teacher, gave us this quote by Martin Luther when we talked about how to balance our practice with the rest of our lives. It helped me. In the past, I have said to myself that I don’t have time to meditate or to do yoga on some days. Tonight was one of those nights. I wanted to get a lot of writing done, to catch up with friends on the phone, to clean my apartment, to make dinner, to get myself organized for the week. Every minute of teacher training that ticked by gave me another item for my after-yoga to-do list.

When I went to the store Scent Elate to get my little statues of Nataraj and Ganesha for my home altar, Mo, the owner gave me some sage and incense matches, without me even asking. “Make sure to burn some sage first before placing these on your altar.” This small gesture stopped me in my tracks, asking me to see my “gallopy” nature, recognize it, and tell it to be quiet down. ” Despite all of my to-do’s, I have time for practice,” I said to myself. “All I have is time.” Maybe Mo was channeling Martin Luther. Maybe the Universe needed me to hear the message a bit more loudly, and so it used Mo’s voice to give me exactly the learning I needed exactly when I needed it. Maybe it was just coincidence. Regardless, the message was heard loud and clear. “This practice is important. Make time for it.”

So I came home, burned a little sage, placed the statues, and did my 18 minutes of meditation. And you know what? The pathway to my writing opened. I made a delicious, simple meal, I got myself ready for my week. I caught up with some friends. There was time for all of it. But first, I had to take care of my own spirit, my own heart, through my meditation. Now, I can see. Really see. Now, I can do. Really do.

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

meditation, yoga

Step 104: The Obstacles We Need

Christa Avampato

I’ve been thinking a lot about obstacles this week. Mostly because my bum and legs are sore from all of the yoga this past weekend, and my body is requiring an unusual amount of sleep to recover. This need for more sleep is slowing down the progress on my too-long to-do list this week. I’ve been focusing on Ganesha, the remover of obstacles, in my meditations. I really needed Ganesha to get some stuff out of my way. I needed to need less sleep, work faster on all of my projects at work, and get up and down the stairs without thinking about my sore bum and legs. He’s not helping. Or at least I didn’t think he was helping me.

About a month ago I went to the kirtan at Sonic Yoga and one of the song we did was a chant to Ganesha. One of the cantors talked about Ganesha as the remover of obstacles, or the one who carefully places obstacles in our way when we need them. I didn’t understand this explanation at the time so naturally I ignored it. But it’s been nagging at the back of my mind. What obstacles could I possibly need, and why would I need them? What good does another obstacles do? I have enough, thank you, Ganesha. Take your obstacles elsewhere. What about the path of the least resistance? How about opening up that way for me?

Then yesterday in my session with Brian, I got it. And it was such a simple explanation that I felt silly for not seeing it sooner. My biggest obstacles have nothing to do with anyone else, anywhere else. They don’t even reside in my own body. They aren’t put upon me; I put my biggest obstacles on myself. My biggest obstacles lie in my mind and my heart and my spirit, and I like to avoid them at all costs. So Ganesha, in his wisdom, forces me to deal with my obstacles by placing other obstacles in my way that I must respond to, ones that I cannot turn away from. I need to slow down, to learn how to make and stick to boundaries, to find my edge and live there – mentally and physically – so he handed me a sore bum and the need for more sleep. I have to slow down this week and deal with that obstacle. I don’t have a choice.

Simple. Wise. Effective. Exactly what I would expect from an enlightened elephant.

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