Category: yoga

health, invention, make, maker, meditation, yoga

Beautiful: Vote for my 1st invention on Quirky – a temporary web-enabled health tattoo to reduce stress and anxiety

Christa Avampato
An epidermal electronics tattoo

For a few months, I’ve been working on ideas to combine my love of technology with my passion for health and wellness. I posted my first invention idea on Quirky to accomplish this: a temporary web-enabled health tattoo to reduce stress and anxiety. I’d love it if you’d hop on over to the page where it’s posted and like it if you’re so inclined: click here.

What this invention does:
This invention utilizes temporary tattoo technology currently available to monitor muscle tension, temperature, and blood pressure, all early indicators of stress and rising anxiety. Connected to a mobile app, the user would receive a ping from his or her mobile device and be led through brief meditation and breathing exercise to help reduce his or her stress level. The user can then chart stress level over time for personal reference and review with healthcare providers. This invention raises awareness of our stress level while also giving us empowering tools to manage it when we need it most.

A few different circumstances inspired this idea:
1.) At Advertising Week I learned about epidermal electronics tattoos that are temporary films applied to the skin to monitor vitals signs like temperature and blood pressure
2.) My sister, Weez, had such a tough day last week that she got a backache for two days from the stress
3.) While I love there are so many e-health apps that are now on the market, many of them require us to manually input a lot of information, making them cumbersome and time-consuming to use
4.) Some scientific studies have shown that stress is one if the root causes of as much as 90% of all disease

What the heck is Quirky?:
Quirky is an online platform that gives independent product developers like me (and you!) the opportunity to put their ideas out into the world and have the crowd vote on the ones that they find most useful. To date, they have enabled the development of 398 of these ideas with a community of 544,000 inventors.

How you can help bring this product into being:
My idea will be live for 28 more days and needs 198 more votes to be put into the Quirky production consideration phase. I would love love love if you would vote for it by following this link: http://www.quirky.com/invent/685515/action/vote/query/sort=ending_soon&categories=all

Thank you so much! Let’s make something awesome together to help us all be healthier.

art, grateful, gratitude, writer, writing, yoga

Beautiful: A Writer’s Life is Never Boring – File This Fact Under “Grateful”

Christa Avampato

f9bdc961f153ce2076950743a7595f1aFile this one under things that make me immensely grateful. I looked at my slate of writing for this week and it includes:

1.) Making 9/11 a national holiday
2.) How to ask for help when in the midst of personal crisis
3.) Yoga
4.) Apartment Hunting in NYC
5.) How to maintain top website load times
6.) Health-supportive cooking
7.) Yoga
8.) Doggie daycare and boarding
9.) The value of digital marketing for start-ups
10.) Drones for journalism
11.) Pest control
12.) Voice-controlled image editing
13.) Book reviews – how to get press for your start-up, how computer programmers maintain a healthy lifestyle, and learn to program by building video games
14.) A fundraising appeal letter for an animal shelter

And then I’m going to wrap up the next edits for my first full-length play and work on Your Second Step. This is the life and career I’ve always dreamed of. Gratitude doesn’t even begin to explain how I feel. I wish for everyone, everywhere to have a heart this full.

Have something you want me to write about? I’d love to hear from you!

creative process, creativity, product, product development, yoga

Beautiful: My First T-Shirt Designs Inspired by The Wizard of Oz and Jerry Maguire Will Go on Sale September 9th

Christa Avampato
What will my first t-shirt design be? Find out at http://www.facebook.com/onefineyogi

And now for a mad idea: my first two inspired t-shirt designs, inspired by The Wizard of Oz and Jerry Maguire, will go on sale on Monday, September 9th. (To get an email when the sale starts, add your contact info by clicking here). The sale will last for 3 weeks and then the orders will be filled if I sell a minimum of 20 of each design at $18 each. Profits will be donated to Compass Yoga and will be tax-deductible for you. If I don’t sell 20 shirts, you won’t be charged and I’ll go back to the drawing board to create some different designs. Think of it as Kickstarter for t-shirts – what gets funded, gets built. There will be 5 different t-shirt styles of each design to choose from – different cuts, colors, and types of fabric.

These are the first products for sale through One Fine Yogi, a new brand I’m building of yoga-inspired products. Being both a product developer and a yoga and meditation teacher, I wanted to combine those two passions to create yoga-inspired products that are good for you, good for the planet, and inspire others around you. Stay tuned for more details as we approach September 9th. In the meantime, join the One Fine Yogi Facebook page and get a sneak peek at one of the designs.

community service, yoga

Beautiful: Compass Yoga Featured in The Huffington Post

Christa Avampato

healthy-livingI am thrilled and honored to have my nonprofit, Compass Yoga, featured in The Huffington Post. Rob Schware, the author of the piece, Executive Director of Give Back Yoga Foundation, and President of Yoga Service Council uses his column to highlight yoga teachers and organizations that use yoga as a way to serve communities. Click here to read the full article.

job, teaching, technology, yoga

Beautiful: Programmer and Front-End Designer Needed for a Therapeutic Mobile App for Compass Yoga

Christa Avampato

CollabFinder_Block_logoSo here it is – I’m unveiling the details of one of the big projects I’m working on during my creative break in LA this summer. For about a year, I’ve been kicking around the idea of building a therapeutic yoga app. I’m now actively searching for a front-end designer and a programmer for this project. If you have either of these skill sets, please let me know. If you know someone who might be interested, please send them my way.

Details about the project are available on CollabFinder. Click here to view my project page.

vision, yoga

Beautiful: What We See Matters

Christa Avampato

22e6aca1d3ddaef6ed74dfe4e53edcb1“We believe what we see most often.” ~ Bryan Kest, yoga teacher

My friend, Dheepa, took me to a yoga class here in Santa Monica taught by Bryan Kest, the founder of Power Yoga. During our meditation he discussed the shape of our belief system and the factors that influence it. We believe what we see. And it’s also true that what we believe is what we see.

If we choose to see beauty, love, compassion, kindness, and hope, even in situations that seem dire, then we are more likely to see those things. The lives we have are the lives we will into being. So why not focus on goodness? After all, we only find what we seek.

California, fear, health, meditation, teaching, yoga

Beautiful: How Meditation Helped Me Through a Bout of PTSD Triggered By the Santa Monica Shooting

Christa Avampato
Crowds on June 10, 2013, make their way to a campus memorial for the five killed in a shooting rampage on June 7 at Santa Monica College. The gunman was also killed. (Andy Holzman/Los Angeles Daily News)

I thought I was through with it. I don’t panic anymore when I hear fire engine sirens. I’m not afraid to be in my home. My nightmares have disappeared. I don’t end up crying on the street wondering how I got there after forgetting where I’m going. These were all symptoms I had after my apartment building fire almost 4 years ago. At the time, I didn’t know what was wrong with me. I just felt crazy. Then after I started going to therapy shortly after the fire, I realized I had PTSD.

Brian, my wizard of a therapist, and I worked through decades of issues that my PTSD triggered and after almost 3 years of hard work, I found my way to stability and confidence. That was a year ago. Last week the Santa Monica shootings sent me into a spell. I’ll be staying near there all summer on a house swap. How could this be happening to me? I felt dizzy with the what if scenarios. What if I had been there already? What if I was driving and I had been the car that was hijacked? What if I was out walking Phineas and I had been hit by a stray bullet? What if. What if. What if. I started crying. And shaking.

I used my tools. I closed by eyes, placed one hand on the heart, one hand on the belly, and started to breathe. Body into the hands on the inhale. Body into the back of the chair on the exhale. I kept my attention at the third eye. I replaced those racing what ifs with this truth: “You are safe.” I began to wind down, slowly and with a lot of effort. It worked. I was safe, and then I felt safe.

This is what meditation can do for you. It can take you from panic to peace. I can take also take you from helpless to helpful. After I calmed down, I had the most incredible thought. What happened in Santa Monica is awful. There are people there who might be scared, people who might need the gift I have to give. Maybe there’s a way for me to teach what I know. After all, I’ve lived with those what if thoughts for a long time. I learned how to chase them away. I learned how to have power over them rather than the other way around. Maybe the people of Santa Monica need that gift, too. Maybe this summer I will be in just the right place at just the right time for people who need me.

creativity, writing, yoga

Beautiful: My Interview on Moving With Grace – Writing, Yoga, and the Creative Habit

Christa Avampato

Anna Van FleetAnna Van Fleet is a wonderful and supportive reader of the Christa In New York: Curating a Creative Life community. She was curious about my writing process, yoga teaching practice, and how I use the two of them to support and bolster creativity. Given that this type of discussion is one of my very favorites, I was honored that she asked to interview me on her blog, Moving with Grace.

Below are a couple of the questions and responses. To read the full story, click here.

Q: You are a prolific and talented writer, on many topics.  You have self-published books, and are collaborating with others.  You also have a great blog and a lot going on!  Can you tell me about your practice of writing?

Christa: I do have a daily writing practice. I sit down every day at some point and write. I’ve been doing that for 6 years. I wanted to become a solid writer and I felt the only way that I could do that is to practice every single day. Sometimes it’s for my blog (which has a daily post) and other times it’s for freelance pieces or personal writing projects I’m working on. It’s become such a ritual now that I actually don’t feel right if I don’t write every day. For me, writing is like brushing my teeth. I see and experience the world as a writer and it makes sense of me to get those observations down in some way.

Q: You are interested in yoga and meditation used as tools for creativity.  Have you developed a philosophy on what works in the practice of yoga and meditation specifically with regards to creativity?

Christa: I’ve taught yoga for creativity classes at places such as SXSW (ed. note: The South by Southwest® (SXSW®) Conferences & Festivals (March 8-17, 2013)) and NYU. A number of my students are professionals in creative fields. Yoga is a tremendous support to me as a writer and product developer. My yoga teacher, Douglass Stewart, says that our practice both saves and serves. That’s definitely true for me.

Creativity needs boundaries. A painter’s canvas is only so big. A book can only be so long. A songwriter’s tune can only last so many minutes. It’s these boundaries, these guideposts that hone and focus our creativity. We eliminate the unnecessary so the necessary can speak. Discipline and determination are wonderful, useful tools for artists of all varieties. Without them, our creative muscle just becomes one big blob. Organizing our creativity is what gives it impact and that’s what I try to impart in all of my work and my teaching.

commitment, community, creativity, philanthropy, yoga

Beautiful: How Compass Yoga Can Spread the Love to People in Need After Natural Disasters

Christa Avampato

photoI’m doing a lot of thinking about Compass Yoga‘s direction these days. I’m proud of what we’ve built. I’m overjoyed that we help over 200 people every week thanks to a band of dedicated and loving teachers. However, I’m never satisfied. I always want to do more. I want to reach more people, provide more healing, and expand our capabilities.

I am deeply affected by the aftermath of the natural disasters our nation has faced in the past few years. I’ve daydreamed about a way for Compass Yoga to help. I’ve toyed with yoga fundraisers and donation-based classes to benefit victims, though that impact seems miniscule compared to the need that these disasters create. Additionally, there are so many other ways to give that are more efficient and have wider reach. The innovation to text a donation via our cell phones is brilliant, and I use it often.

When President Obama gave his remarks just after the Oklahoma tornado last week, a lightbulb went off. He said, “So the people of Moore should know that their country will remain on the ground, there for them, beside them as long as it takes. For there are homes and schools to rebuild, businesses and hospitals to reopen, there are parents to console, first responders to comfort, and, of course, frightened children who will need our continued love and attention.”

His words reignited an idea I had when a deadly tornado hit Joplin, Missouri in 2011. I didn’t want to provide yoga to people in Joplin. That’s not what they immediately needed. They needed the love, care, compassion, and concern that shines in the heart of every yogi everywhere. What we need is a way to harness that love, distill it, and provide it as comfort for people who have lost so much in these disasters. I know that feeling and it is terrifying and isolating.

We have a lot of wonderful organizations that provide basic needs – food, shelter, healthcare. In addition to that work, they also need to be the emotional support for the people they help. This latter responsibility could use assistance from other groups, providing the compassion for these people, giving them someone to talk to, someone whose sole role is to stand with them until they can stand on their own again. Who could do that work? Who could own that mission?

And there it was in President Obama’s quote. We need to do it, to provide comfort to first responders, love, attention, and consolation to those who are frightened. With technology, Compass Yoga could do it. We could live up to our name and guide people along their personal paths to recovery. Yogis are everywhere, in every community. They want to help. Let’s give them a way to put their hearts where the need is. Let’s solve this. 

product, product development, yoga

Beautiful: Love Bath Products? Be a Tester for One Fine Yogi.

Christa Avampato

b8c4e85a4708be368aaa0bf88beefdd3Last week, I wrote a post about One Fine Yogi, a new line of yoga-inspired personal and home fashions and personal care products that I’m creating to generate a sustainable income stream for Compass Yoga. In my tiny New York City kitchen, I’m cooking up and testing the “recipes” for our sugar scrubs and bath salts. Now I need testers – people who will test the products and provide feedback on them. You’ll get complimentary samples and the feedback process will be painless and fun. Want to be a tester? Send me an email at onefineyogi@gmail.com or join the mailing list by clicking here. Anyone, anywhere can be a tester!