Category: yoga

animals, books, dogs, story, writing, yoga

Beginning: Until Tuesday: A Wounded Warrior and the Golden Retriever Who Saved Him

Christa Avampato

“I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can’t see from the center.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut as quoted by Fmr. Captain Luis Carlos Montalván

I have read a handful of books in my life that have reached down into my soul and taken root. Fmr. Captain Luis Carlos Montalván’s book, Until Tuesday: A Wounded Warrior and the Golden Retriever Who Saved Him, is one of those books. Exquisitely written, Montalván and his beloved service dog, Tuesday, made me laugh, cry, and slam my fists on the table. I read much of it with Phineas, my own canine pal, in my lap, and the book made me hug Phineas even tighter than I usually do.

I  picked up the book after seeing Montalván and Tuesday on Letterman. I usually miss the show because it’s on past my bedtime, but for some reason I was awake that night with the TV on. Montalván’s story is tremendously important to me on a number of levels, and so immediately went out the next day and got the book.

Helping returning vets
With Compass Yoga, I am very focused on helping returning veterans, their families, and caregivers. Montalván taught me so much about war and the toll it takes on a person. His story is at points devastating and my heart felt crushed for all he endured, in Iraq and then once he returned from his tours of duty. The challenges of vets and those who are care for them are complex and messy, and Montalván writes about them in such searing detail that I sometimes felt myself right beside him. It’s a situation I very much need to understand if I am going to be of service to vets when they return home. The book reaffirmed my commitment to them.

Championing the healing power of animals
Tuesday is clearly an exquisite animal, inside and out. Though I’ve never met him, I certainly fell in love with him and his story over the course of the 252-page book. I have been a dog lover all my life. Our family dogs were an enormous part of my childhood – the very best part of it. I adopted my rescue pup, Phineas, a year ago and rehabilitating him has been one of the proudest and happiest achievement of my life. Even on my saddest days, he is a little ray of light in my life and to everyone who meets him. He is not without his challenges, though he has now become so engrained in my life that I can’t imagine being without him. That is the magic of animals, and dogs in particular – just by showing up they teach us about commitment, devotion, love, loyalty, and empathy – all of the things that make us human. They bring out the very best in all of us. I decided to enroll us in therapy dog training this Fall so I can bring him to schools and hospitals to visit. Goodness like Phin’s needs to be shared with the world – Tuesday taught me that.We need more Tuesdays, especially for veterans.

Writing honestly to achieve understanding
Montalván is a master storyteller, and what I so respect and admire most about him is his ability to write so candidly about painful and joyful parts of his life. It took great courage to put pen to page to write this story. He is not a perfect man, and in his honest writing he teaches us that we can’t expect ourselves to be perfect either. He writes about forgiveness and authenticity. He speaks with confidence, grace, wisdom, and strength. He inspired me to continue my own personal writing, particularly about my father, which is a painful and tragic part of my past. Montalván taught me that there is so much redemption available to us through honest and thoughtful writing. He taught me just how mighty the pen can be, and just how capable we are of forgiving ourselves and others.

Until Tuesday is a truly beautiful book, a great gift that I am so grateful to receive. And so I pass the recommendation on to you – let Tuesday into your heart and he will change the way you see the world.

career, dreams, learning, work, yoga

Beginning: Wounds Can Be Made Into Wisdom

Christa Avampato

“Turn your wounds into wisdom.” ~ Oprah Winfrey

Opposites are a blessing. We gain new insight into joy through sorrow, love through heartbreak, health through sickness, success through failure. In this way, not getting what we want is a reason to be grateful.

A blessing wrapped in disappointment
When I graduated from business school, I wanted to get a job in media. I had been out of the entertainment industry for a few years and I wanted to get to it more than anything. I interviewed at NBC and it proved to be a day of horrible experiences. I didn’t get the job, and even if I did I wouldn’t have taken it. The day of interviews was that bad, and I was horribly disappointed and hurt by the process. I have been a huge fan of NBC since I was a kid, and this was a dream job for me for as long as I can remember. With this opportunity gone, I had to get a new dream. And I did through Compass Yoga. NBC did me a huge favor in the long-run, even if I didn’t know that at the time.

A chance to show what you know
As life often does, I got another chance to enter the world of television. I recently interviewed for another large TV network whose work I greatly admire. This time I didn’t go into the situation with rose-colored glasses like I did with NBC. I was clear about who I am, how I like to work, and what I’m meant to do. This opportunity just wasn’t what I wanted, and so I opted out of the process despite the network’s strong plea for me to see it through.

That wound from my NBC interview provided me with a great amount of wisdom and the confidence to take control of my own career. It felt good to turn toward a path of my own making.

career, nonprofit, story, yoga

Beginning: Compass Yoga’s Story Resonates with Lawyers to Secure Pro Bono Legal Counsel

Christa Avampato

“Stories can conquer fear, you know. They can make the heart bigger.” ~ Ben Okri

This week I learned an enormous amount about the power of authentic storytelling. I founded Compass Yoga to provide yoga and wellness programming to populations dealing with specific health concerns. Given the incredible need, we are focusing our efforts on helping returning veterans, their families, and their caregivers, particularly those who are challenged with PTSD and other stress- and anxiety-induced illnesses. For some people, this is a difficult mission to imagine. They can’t see how veterans will ever take to yoga and other therapeutic treatments outside of traditional Western medicine. I understand their concern, and so storytelling has become a major focus for us.

On Tuesday, I presented to Lawyers Alliance, an amazing nonprofit who mission is to assist existing and would-be nonprofit organizations with legal matters. I requested their help in filing for nonprofit incorporation and 501(c)(3) status. To begin the process, I applied, had a phone interview, and then presented my case to them in-person. I was acutely aware of the my presentation’s dual-purpose – first, I needed to demonstrate the practical need for the organization and the logistics I would put in place to deliver on the mission. Then, they needed to see if I was passionate about the idea; they needed to hear my personal story. In short, they to know why this organization matters – to the world and to me.

I am so happy and grateful to report that on Friday I learned that Lawyers Alliance has agreed to take Compass Yoga on as a client. For a small retainer fee and necessary government filing fees, they will help us through the process of incorporation, set-up, tax-exemption filing, and other associated needs. Now the match-making process begins and they will contract with a pro bono attorney from a firm to work with me and the Compass Yoga Board on these actions.

When I received the notification, I literally started jumping around my apartment. I couldn’t believe this incredible good fortune. Wins like this make me want to work even harder to realize all of the potential for healing we have brewing with Compass Yoga.

A million thanks to so many of you who have sent your good wishes, resources, ideas, suggestions, links, and general goodness in this effort. None of this would be possible without all of you. It takes a village to grow and spread a good story, and I’m honored and humbled to be among you on this road. Today, my heart is full of gladness and sincere appreciation. Through my teaching, I’ll pay it all forward many times over.

choices, decision-making, fate, future, work, writing, yoga

Beginning: Protecting the Crossroads

Christa Avampato

“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry I could not travel both, and be one traveler long I stood, and looked down one as far as I could…knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back…Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” ~ Robert Frost

While on vacation I started and finished reading the book Hanuman: The Devotion and Power of the Monkey God. Since beginning a deep study of yoga philosophy about a year and a half ago, I have felt very close to Hanuman. A tiny monkey, he is the most loyal servant of Lord Rama. The child’s version of the story of Hanuman is that he leapt across the world to rescue Sita, Lord Rama’s wife, when she was captured by the enemy during a long and brutal war. The truth is a bit more complicated, as truths tend to be.

In incredible detail, the book elaborates on the story of Hanuman, his dual-characteristics of great devotion and great might, his ability to be a fierce warrior and to lay in wait when that is what’s needed, and his dark and light sides. I had envisioned him as an adorable and adoring little monkey. He is so much more.

I won’t spoil the story for you – you should read the beautiful prose that author Vanamali lays out in exquisite detail. What I do want to share in this post is a role that Hanuman plays that i never knew before reading this book. He is the protector of the crossroads, those places in-between in our lives, the transitions. Ironic (or perhaps just synchronous) that I would learn this now when I feel that I am at such a huge junction in both my personal and professional lives, as I craft a living and a life with Compass Yoga.

In my daily meditations for the past few months, I have felt change arriving slowly, like a light slowly rising, like a clearer vision coming into focus that honors my experience and celebrates my potential offering to humanity. While I am crafting an extraordinary life, I am fully aware that I am also lovingly building a legacy. This is my soul’s work.

In my meditations I have heard a faint and distant voice conveying what I know is very important, though I cannot yet decipher its exact words. I think maybe it has been Hanuman unrolling the map of the decisions I must make, laying out the carpet that takes two directions of which I must choose one.

Joseph Campbell is famous for elucidating the hero’s journey, a choice between two roads that is never easy. Both roads contain trade-offs, good and bad experiences, joy and sorrow, pain and freedom, light and dark. Our goal is not to choose the “right” road, but to choose the “right road for us”. I am at the crossroads, but Hanuman is here with me and so I don’t have to be alone or afraid in my choosing. He will protect and defend while I decide. He will do the same for you, too, and you should take great comfort in that. A bit of help makes the choosing easier, right?

meditation, presentation, speaking, story, yoga

Beginning: How to Tell Your Story

Christa Avampato

“Have something to say, and say it as clearly as you can. That is the only secret.” ~ Matthew Arnold via Quotes4Writers

On Tuesday, I’m speaking and giving a short presentation at Jericho Project, a nonprofit whose mission is to “catalyze change that enables homeless individuals to discover their strengths and lead remarkable lives.” They are having a health fair for male vets and asked if I could explain how yoga and meditation could be a benefit to them.

I was procrastinating on preparing this presentation – this is a new population for me and I want so much to help them understand how valuable this practice can be for them. I had several false starts and then found this quote from Quotes4Writers as I was toddling through Twitter. I was letting my desired outcome for the presentation get in the way of the process of preparing it. As I written about before, we are entitled to our actions and efforts, not the results. What I needed to do was just take Matthew Arnold’s advice: decided what I wanted to say and then say it as clearly, and succinctly, as possible. It made the whole journey of preparing this presentation easier.

The finished product: Jericho Project Presentation

I’ll let you know how Tuesday goes!

courage, growth, yoga

Beginning: Standing on My Head

Christa Avampato

At some point, you just have to decide you are capable and that you have all the tools you need. For several years I’ve been working on more intense and challenging asanas, not because I think they are the be all end all, nor that their accomplishment has anything to do with how deeply I understand and live my practice. To be honest, they just look like fun and I thought they would give me a new perspective.

What dreams may come
I told you a bit about the interesting dreams I had while in Florida. One was an affirmation that I’m ready to take the reigns of my professional life. The other let me know that I have far more options that I think I do in terms of my independence. Where did these dreams come from? Was it vacation that brought them on? A change of scene, creating a change of self? Maybe.

A new way of seeing the world is closer than we think
What may also be at play here is that my body’s long-standing belief that I cannot stand on my hands or my head in challenging asanas has been put to bed. A few weeks ago I went to Yoga Vida with my pal, Sara, and we took an arm balance workshop. The mechanics that the instructor, Alex Schatzberg, explained clicked for me. He layers simple postures on top of one another to build out arm balances. Easy to say, harder to do, but with practice it makes so much sense. Then One night at my sister Weez’s house in Florida, I just decided I was going to do my arm balances and my headstand in the middle of the living room, no wall. It was just time. I felt an overwhelming amount of confidence and went for it. And it was there, as if it was waiting for me.

This literally new perspective may have done more than just give me a few more asanas to play around with. It may have tipped my perspective of my life upside down, too, as well as released some kind of block in my body that had been there for so long. We are so much more amazing than we give ourselves credit for, in body, mind, and spirit.

opportunity, passion, patience, yoga

Beginning: Progress Requires Patience

Christa Avampato

“The most amazing thing about biz dev work: the more you do, the more you realize that opportunity is under every stone. Turn ’em over!” ~ ME

For the past two weeks I have been sending an insane amount of emails and making an equally insane amount of phone class related to Compass Yoga. I’m getting down all of the steps in the hopes that some day I will have the time to reflect back on all of this work and on all of the amazing, talented, incredible people who helped me through their own kindness, talents, and generosity.

Business development work is what I’ve been trained to do. By nature, I’m relentless, and this natural tendency and endurance was only further bolstered by my undergraduate and graduate school education. Once I really believe in an idea and have dedicated myself to it, I will work and work and work until I make progress. I’ll experiment, take a new approach, or try something completely off-the-wall if I think it will make a difference.

Business development is a long-term bet
I’m making progress. On June 19th I’ll be giving a presentation on the benefits of yoga for veterans, at Jehrico Project, an organization that serves homeless veterans in New York City, and I’ve started the long paperwork process to teach yoga at the Manhattan VA Hospital for the medical staff. These are two developments that I’m incredibly grateful for, and I think it’s important to share that I didn’t just waltz in and have these wonderful opportunities handed to me. Of the hundreds of contacts I’ve tried to make, most were never returned, a few kindly declined my offer, and these two took some convincing – first by me and then by people at these organizations who believed in the power of this work.

When you don’t know what to do, keep going
I’m sharing this truth because there’s an important lesson in this for you and me. You might be working on a project at this very moment and you may feel like all of your efforts are yielding a blessed thing. You might feel like you’re beating your head against the wall, wringing your hands, and wasting your time. The truth is that you are laying a foundation, and foundation building takes a lot of effort. We want to jump to the decorating, “the fun stuff”, of a project as soon as possible, but trust me, that won’t work. You have to make sure your base is solid and build from that. It’s slow in the beginning but if you training properly and do the appropriate groundwork, you’ll be so much better off in the long run. Cultivate patience as you pursue progress.

discovery, dreams, story, teaching, writing, yoga

Beginning: Thinking Your Dreams Into Being

Christa Avampato

“You are what you think.” ~ Dr. Lu

I saw this image yesterday when I went searching for information on the image I posted yesterday about how to live your life by your own design. This poem by Frank Outlaw reminded me of this quote from Dr. Lu, a doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Who we become begins with our thoughts on our purpose. You can think the life you want into being. Frank Outlaw just handed us a map of 31 words.

As a writer, the second step of the journey – turning thoughts into words – is where I spend a considerable amount of time. Our words are the first pathways to our personal transformation. As a yoga teacher and yoga therapist, I help students find their own words by working through their own barriers in the body. Our past challenges, mental and physical, store physically in different parts of the body. Through yoga, we can remove the blocks in our bodies that then allow us to articulate our stories.

Once we can articulate our stories, we begin to heal and we become the rulers of our thoughts rather than our thoughts ruling us. It’s this combination of writing and yoga that is so powerful for me as a student and as a teacher. This is where it all comes together. I’m not here to impart any wisdom; I’m here to guide others to their own wisdom that they already have within them.

health, healthcare, meditation, science, self-help, yoga

Beginning: The Road Back to Balance is Paved by the Breath

Christa Avampato

“The path from imbalance back to balance is a labyrinth.” ~ Dr. Bhaswati Bhattacharya

I arrived in Florida yesterday after a too-long flight and after too many months without a vacation. I didn’t realize just how tired I was until I was on the bus to the airport. I felt out of balance; the past few months have been emotional and my schedule has been packed to the gills. It’s time to decompress and release.

The long and winding road
The labyrinth back to balance that Dr. Bhaswati speaks about hit me full force once we were airborne. My thoughts were jumbled, and I could feel my body racing despite the fact that I was sitting down. Since my therapeutic yoga teacher training, I’ve been very aware of the effects of the stress response, aka fight or flight, on my body. Stress triggers a number of changes in the body that we can actually feel if we tune into them: our muscles tense, our blood pressure rises, and our digestive system slows down.

In the last few months when I feel these changes kicking in, I stop and breathe as deeply as possible into my belly. It’s been a conscious, constant effort, though entirely worth it. I feel more in tune with the changes my body makes involuntarily in response to stress and I voluntarily make changes to counteract these responses. It is give and take, a long and winding labyrinth.

Stress doesn’t discriminate
We can’t control the initial reactions of our bodies to stress. Much of it is regulated by our sympathetic (involuntary) nervous system and there is a good reason for that. The fight or flight response is meant to keep us safe; however, it’s not meant to be turned on all the time as happens with today’s society of constant stress and so with constant stress we run into big trouble. Our body has only one set of responses to stress – whether our stress is caused by a deadline at work, a traffic jam, or a tiger who’s on our tail. What I’m learning through yoga and meditation is that we have the ability to talk our bodies down off the ledge. We can tell ourselves, “Look, I know you’re freaking out right now, but it really is going to be okay. Just breathe.” That breath – deep into the belly, even inhales and exhales – is our guide, our guru. It takes us up and away from where we feel trapped and scared into a space that feels open and safe.

All I really have to do is breathe?
It sounds so simple, and it really is. When everything else falls away, our breath is always with us. So get some bright-colored paper, grab a sharpy, and write out the simple word “BREATHE” in big, bold letters. Post it around your home, your office, in your wallet, and in your car. Type it up as a to-do in your calendar on your phone and set a reminder every hour or two. Breathe, and find your way back to balance. Let me know how it goes.

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.