Category: yoga

health, inspiration, yoga

Leap: I am Manduka’s Yogi of the Week

Christa Avampato

I am so honored and excited to share the news that Manduka, a sustainable yoga products company, made me their yogi of the week. My yoga story is posted on their website and Facebook page header. I shared my yoga story of healing with Manduka to inspire others and to explain how that healing story provided the impetus for the start of Compass Yoga, the nonprofit I founded to bring the therapeutic benefits of yoga to more people in more places, regardless of their financial and socioeconomic circumstances.

Here is the text of my yoga story as it appears on the Manduka site:

Meet Christa.

Christa used to manage Broadway shows for a living. That’s how she found yoga.

A musician working on one of the shows also happened to teach Iyengar yoga, and could sense the stress and pressure that Christa was under. He ended up offering her private instruction for close to 6 months – all he asked in return was that she ‘pay it forward’ to someone else in need.

Christa took that request and ran with it. She has opened a non-profit organization called Compass Yoga, teaching free yoga classes in New York City to people who don’t otherwise have the opportunity, or the funds, to begin a yoga practice.

This past spring, Christa went on her first trip to India. It was an experience that broke her down and built her back up completely new, and more powerful. She now refers to her life in two eras: her life before India, and now her life after India. She returned home with a new-found gratitude for all of the opportunities she has available to her, and feels more determined in her purpose to spread the benefits of yoga and meditation to more people.

Yoga has truly been therapeutic for Christa. It has helped her to work through her father’s passing, and to let go of the guilt she still carried from their rocky relationship. Yoga taught her that we don’t have to wait for healing, it is within us and available to us all the time. We have all the answers and all the knowledge we need; we just need to tap into it.

We loved learning about Christa.

Practice On.

–Manduka

charity, nonprofit, yoga

Leap: Quoth the IRS, “Compass Yoga, it’s official. You are a 501(c)3 charitable organization!”

Christa Avampato
From http://www.yoganonymous.com/

Okay, so they actually said, “We are pleased to inform you that upon review of your application for tax exempt status we have determined that you are exempt from Federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Contributions to you are deductible under section 170 of the Code. You are also qualified to receive tax-deductible bequests, devises, transfers or gifts under section 2055, 2106 or 2522 of the Code.” But doesn’t my title for this post sound much more celebratory, aptly reflecting this enormous milestone?!

I couldn’t be happier with this recent turn of events for Compass Yoga. Actually, the moment I got the email from our attorneys I started doing a little victory dance to the song “Everybody Talks” by Neon Trees. How fitting!

This tax-exempt status sets in motion our opportunity to get the healing benefits of yoga to more people in more places. Great things are happening, and I can’t wait to share the progress with you. Now, the work really begins. If you want to be involved in this journey in any way, please contact me. We’d love to have you climb aboard our ship. There’s room for everyone who wants to be a warrior of wellness.

home, yoga

Leap: My 300 Hour Yoga Teacher Training Is Complete

Christa Avampato

I finished up the last of my requirements for my 300 hour teacher training program at ISHTA Yoga. In the aftermath of the intense number of hours, I feel relieved but not in the way you might think. It’s nice to have more time back on my calendar. It’s nice to feel such a sense of pride and accomplishment in completing a program I spent years thinking about. My relief doesn’t come from either of those sources.

I am relieved that there is a little space on East 11th Street that feels like a spiritual home. A place I can go that always makes me feel better no matter what kind of day I’ve had, no matter what pressures or stresses weigh on me. A place where I can go to heal, where there’s always a friendly face, where I always feel like the very best version of myself.

This certificate means much more to me than the completion of a set of training hours. It’s a map. In that handful of words on a page, I found a way forward even when I’m not exactly sure where I’m trying to go. In that tiny space on East 11th Street there is a bit of magic sprinkled in every corner that welcomes every guest who wishes to sit and learn and be. I am proud to be among them.

art, entrepreneurship, photographs, pictures, yoga

Leap: My Yoga Photo Shoot with Photographer Michael Vito of Third Place Media

Christa Avampato
Washington Square Park, New York City. Photo by Michael Vito.

Michael Vito, photographer and Founder of Third Place Media, recently did a yoga photo shoot with me in Washington Square Park in New York City. We had a blast together and I wanted to share the results with you a) because I love them and b) because you should get on Michael’s calendar if you’re looking for top notch photos, yoga or otherwise. Click here to view the album.

In the coming weeks, Michael will be putting together a guest post for this blog to explain how he, too, recently made the leap into a freelance life. Let’s hear it for another brave soul who said, “Geronimo!”, and never looked back.

teaching, yoga

Leap: I Gave My First Mini Yoga Therapeutics Teacher Training

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest

For the past year, I’ve focused much of my yoga teaching on therapeutics with most of my students having some form of physical or mental health challenge. It’s been such a gratifying experience to work with these students that I’ve thought a lot about how to leverage my skills to get these teachings to a wider audience. Two ideas have emerged: I could teach therapeutics to yoga teachers and I could teach the staff at hospitals, healthcare agencies, assisted living facilities, etc. to provide yoga to the people they work with.

This week, I took my first step with the first option and taught a mini yoga therapeutics class to a teacher from Italy who wants to teach therapeutic yoga in her home city of Torino. She reached out to me online during the Spring after finding my website and asked if I could teach her what I know about teaching therapeutic yoga. Her boyfriend came to New York City for a month-long cinematography course at NYU and she took the trip as well with the intent of enhancing her yoga teaching. She spent 9 hours of one-on-one time with me to learn therapeutics and then spent a half day for four weeks at the Sivananda Yoga Center. This was my first time teaching a teacher how to teach.

It’s a vastly different skill to teach teachers about teaching than it is to teach a traditional class. The depth of knowledge must be deeper because the teachers are going to ask very specific questions; their curiosity takes the content to a whole new level. You know exactly how you’re doing because they tell you. And with the desire to train the trainer, the responsibility is heavier as well. You need to keep the teachers safe and you also need to help them keep their students safe. The stakes are high but the potential for impact is high as well.

I’m really proud to say that she loved the training and that I thoroughly enjoyed the time spent teaching a teacher. She is bright, eager, and passionate about healing. I am so excited to hear how everything unfolds for her when she returns to Torino and starts to use this training with her students. I have a feeling this won’t be the last time I share this practice that I love so much with a teacher who cares about it as much as I do. Another door opens.

change, courage, creative process, meditation, time, yoga

Leap: Only Actions Create The Future

Christa Avampato

“Actions are the seed of fate. Deeds grow into destiny.” ~ Harry S Truman

There’s a pesky saying that travels around the yoga world from time to time. There’s a call to stop doing. The seed of this sentiment comes from a good place. There’s a lot of value in stillness, in quietude. When we get quiet, our mind’s eye sees more clearly. When the chatter subsides, we’re able to solve challenges with more confidence and insight. In peace, we gain direction.

This place of stillness can feel so good that we are reluctant to come back down. Wouldn’t it be lovely if we could just stay in that meditative state for a good long while? Yes, and no. The power of yoga and its many benefits make little difference on that 12 square feet of sticky surface. Their value comes to bear when we leave our mats, when we go out there into that great big world and actually do something with our clear minds and renewed sense of purpose. It’s good to stop doing for a bit, but eventually doing is what life is about. To have an impact, we have to take action with a clear sense of focus and direction.

Think of all of the historical figures whom you admire. My list is topped by people like Nelson Mandela and Mother Teresa. It’s filled with people who are writers, artists, musicians, innovators, inventors, and scientists. I admire them because of what they did. Their actions inspire me every day to show up in this world in the best way that I can so that I have a hand in crafting a world I want to live in.

I’m all for rest and relaxation, but I’m also all for making that rest and relaxation purposeful. Purpose is found in the actions we take with our hearts, minds, and spirits united. We can’t think, nor meditate or yoga, our way into a better and brighter future. Ultimately, we have to do something with the peace that comes from what we practice on our mats.

creativity, inspiration, meditation, yoga

Leap: Inspiration is Closer Than You Think

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest

I spent yesterday morning at United Cerebral Palsy of NY to observe their adapted karate program. I knew it would help me craft the adapted yoga program I’m working on for them. The experience gave me a chance to see another teacher in action as he trained teachers and to see the range of a class of students. I walked away from the sessions with piles of notes, a lot of ideas, and a big task ahead of me. How could this all come together?

I spent the day turning over different options in my mind as I ran errands, walked Phineas, interviewed for several writing roles, and taught yoga. I let the task ahead with UCP sit at the back of mind. Eventually I took pen to paper and blanketed it with a lot of mediocre ideas. And then something amazing happened.

I closed my eyes and asked for help. Everything went quiet. All the chatter fell away, my mind went completely still, and up out of that stillness rose the hint of an idea. I looked closer and found another piece of the idea. And then the gates opened. I scribbled out an entire system of how the program could play out for the students and teachers. To top it all off, I had a very clear image of me teaching the class – what I would say, how students would respond, and how I could adapt the knowledge I have to suit their needs.

I thought it would take weeks to put all of this information together and I was prepared to dedicate that time. However, the answer was there all along. I knew what I needed to do but I couldn’t hear the answer until I dedicated myself to listening for its call. The inspiration we seek isn’t outside; its inside. It’s there right now. Tap in.

change, commitment, determination, work, yoga

Leap: There is Always a Path of Less Resistance

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest

Have you ever felt like you’re drowning in tiny tasks that somehow grew out-of-control overnight?

That’s how I recently felt with Compass Yoga teacher scheduling. Almost a year ago, I started to get requests from more library branches that wanted a regular yoga class in their programming. They had heard about the wonderful classes at the Bloomingdale Branch and once the word spread to one branch, many others piled on.

Of course, I was thrilled by the requests and wanted to fill them all. At the time, I thought the best idea was to find a lot of teachers who would be willing to teach these free classes to get experience. In New York City, there is no shortage of new teachers who need and want experience. So that people wouldn’t feel too overwhelmed by a regular weekly class, I decided to put together rotating rosters of teachers who would share the load at each branch. I also thought this would give the students a variety of teaching styles to keep them engaged in the practice.

These are really nice ideas and they kind of worked, but I completely underestimated the challenges. First, I did a very good job of driving myself crazy as I coordinated the schedules of 17 (!) teachers and then often hunted for last-minute subs. Second, teachers wanted to feel more connected with the students on a regular basis and having a regular weekly class helped them schedule their own lives more efficiently. Third, students wanted to get to know a teacher better rather than seeing 3 or 4 different teachers per month.

I was well aware of the first challenge but didn’t know about the other two. As a result, I began to wonder if we’d have to scale back the library program altogether in an effort to restore my sanity. I wrestled with this idea for weeks, changing my mind every other day. Then a really interesting idea surfaced once I found out about the second and third challenges described above: each branch of the library could have a lead teacher. That teacher may not be able to teach every week and may need to sub out occasionally, but the relative consistency would help me tremendously and would be more helpful to the teachers and students.

In the end, we didn’t need to scale back the library program. We just needed to find a smarter way to manage it. And now with this simpler teacher scheduling structure, we can grow to more branches to help more people. Every challenge has a solution and many times it’s far simpler than we realize. Once we have the will to make something happen (or change), the way opens.

books, India, writing, yoga

Leap: My Book and Photos About My Trip to India

Christa Avampato

In the 2 months since I returned from India, I’ve thought about it everyday. It has a hold on me unlike any other place I’ve ever been. It is in my bones.

Over these past two months, I revisited my journal and pictures from the trip. My memories are multi-sensory. I don’t just remember what something looked like. I also remember the scent, the feeling, the emotion, the sound. It was a hard journey. Much harder than I expected. And it was beautiful, too – sometimes in ways that I didn’t appreciate at the time.

To sum up as much reflection as I’ve done to-date, I wrote an eBook – In Search of the OM in Everything: 8 Days in India. I struggled to get it all down on paper. I cried through much of the writing because I changed so much during the trip and change is hard.

Had I just set out to write this book for myself, I’m not sure I would have finished it in two months. But I wrote it for a group of people whom I admire, love, and respect – my teacher training group at ISHTA Yoga and all of our beautiful teachers. The book was my final project for the program, which we completed yesterday. In order to graduate, I needed to finish this project so I pushed through the tears and get it all down on paper. The experience of the training and the experience of writing this book are just two of the countless gifts given to me by this amazing group of people who lent their support, love, energy, and time to one another.

So here it is – the link to my book, In Search of the OM in Everything: 8 Days in India, and my photo album from the trip. I’d love to know what you think.

India, writer, yoga

Leap: “The End” – the Two Sweetest Words for a Writer

Christa Avampato

Yesterday I finished my ebook about my trip to India. In Search of the OM in Everything: 8 Days in India will be available for download from the iBookstore for iPhone and iPad on Monday and as a high resolution PDF from this blog. The moment I finished it, I felt an enormous sense of relief. I didn’t realize how much energy the project took to sustain. Now that I can release it out into the world, I feel a lightness. I have more room. Finally those stories will be out of my head and in the world.

I’ll publish the links on Monday once I complete my final practicum and presentation of the book as my research project on the last day of my 300-hour yoga teacher training at ISHTA Yoga this weekend. Until then, I’ll be basking in the glow of “The End.”