Tag: postaday2011

choices, courage, decision-making, work, yoga

Beginning: No Need For Fear When You’re on the Path

Christa Avampato

“I am not afraid…I was born to do this.” ~ Joan of Arc via @FamousWomen

A few weeks ago, I wrote about a small message I have been starting to hear during my meditations. It seemed to have some sense of urgency though I couldn’t quite interpret the message. I spoke with my life coach, Brian, about it and he assured me that when the message was ready, it would surface. When I needed to act, it would spur me to do what I needed to do.

For some time, I’ve been contemplating some changes in my life, on the career front and on the personal front. In the past few months I’ve been increasingly clear about want to use yoga as a therapeutic practice in situation where yoga is not typically utilized, mainly in hospitals and treatment facilities of one kind or another. On Monday morning, though I woke up with a terribly sore throat, my head was clearer than it’s been in weeks. And that little message I was hearing in my meditation was no longer far away, but right beside me. “Now is the time.”

1.) Yoga – By a wonderful spell of synchronicity, I found two trainings coming up in New York City that I’d like to do.

One at Integral Yoga Institute that focuses on Yoga Therapy, taught by the incredible Cheri Clampett and Arturo Peal. Cheri is the Founder of the White Lotus Foundation in Santa Barbara and a pioneer in using yoga as part of a holistic treatment plan for cancer patients.

It’s time to take the next step in my overall yoga teacher training and pursue my 500-hour qualification. After doing a lot of research and asking a lot of questions, I’m nearly settled on applying to study with Alan Finger at ISHTA, which has a very strong focus on yoga for therapeutic purposes.

I’ll also be attending the Integrative Healthcare Symposium at the New York Hilton on Friday. There I will have the chance to connect with a number of people involved in the integrative healthcare movement, of which yoga plays a very important role.

2.) New professional pursuits – For some time I’ve considered taking some decisive action to take my career in a new direction. After months of teetering between the choice of whether to play it safe or step out of the box, I’ve decided to begin the process of leaving the box behind. More to come as that journey progresses. As soon as I have a solid sense of where that journey leads, you’ll be the first to know!

3.) Be open to a life that’s less structured – This is another message that’s been popping up for me. Increasingly, many of the people I know are breaking out of a traditional work lifestyle. Some going freelance, some becoming consultants, and some taking a variety of contract positions rather than the more traditional day job route. It’s intriguing, a little scary, though I don’t know a single one of them who’s unhappy with this less structured life. Maybe that will be the route for me, too.

There isn’t any fear admist these upcoming changes because I know they’re the right ones for me. Joan of Arc knew what she was talking about.

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

animals, dogs, kindness

Beginning: My Pup, Phineas, and the Homeless

Christa Avampato

Phineas happily rolling around on the grass in Central Park shortly before meeting his new friend
I took Phineas out for two long walks on Saturday and Sunday. The warming effects of Spring are underway and he’s more than happy to get outside for as long as possible and stretch those legs after a long and too-cold winter. He’s felt cooped up for too long; we both have.

One our way back home, Phineas stopped on the sidewalk right in front of a homeless man who was asking for change. I didn’t have any to give him though Phineas was intent on sitting with him for a bit, letting the man stroke his head and even give him a little kiss on the snout. I was surprised for a number of reasons:

1.) Phineas can be a bit skittish around men he doesn’t know upon first meeting them.

2.) This man immediately stroked the top of his head rather than under the chin. Usually Phin likes to sniff out a new person before he’ll let them pet his head.

3.) Kisses on the snout immediately upon meeting someone is a dicey proposition for a dog. I’m not sure anyone has ever done that with Phin except for me. He more than happily took the affection.

As Phin and I said good-bye to the man and headed for home, I wondered how long it had been since the man had someone to show affection toward. Social services focus on feeding and clothing the homeless, getting them into shelter and providing them with medical care and job skills, but rarely considers the value of basic kindness: a touch, a hug, a smile.

Phineas offered his affection and time to this man without any hesitation, even when I was a bit nervous about the endeavor. He wasn’t nervous at all; he was confident and calm and glad to sit with him for a while. I learned a lot about the role of kindness and concern in that moment, and plan to carry it forward. We have so much to learn from animals.

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

creativity, learning, mistakes

Beginning: Mistakes Pave the Way to Wisdom

Christa Avampato

“Mistakes are the usual bridge between inexperience and wisdom.” ~ Phyllis Theroux

In this year of new beginnings I’ve been thinking a lot about eradicating fear. The most wonderful thing about having a beginner’s mind is that it gives us the space and the freedom to experiment. We aren’t trying to be perfectionists or people who get it right. We’re playing, and in play, mistakes are welcome and expected.

The idea behind Phyllis Theroux’s quote concentrates on the utility and prevalence of mistakes. They take us from a place of ignorance to a place of knowledge. Last week I heard someone give a presentation in which one of his team’s annual goals is to “build a culture intolerant of defects.” My gut reaction to that language made me want to hide under the table or run out of the room. “That’s what’s wrong with his company,” I thought to myself. “Mistakes are not expected, accepted, or even allowed. No wonder there’s very little innovation here! People are too scared of being cast out to even try to do anything new.” And as a side note, there’s also very little wisdom in his company.

I thought about writing the speaker an anonymous note with Theroux’s quote on it and sending it off to him. The sad part is I really feel that once someone is that far gone down the path to perfection, there’s very little hope of pulling him back to reality until there is a burning platform underneath him. Instead, I’m going to show by example that if we can have even a hint of acceptance, or dare I say celebration!, of mistakes then all of a sudden the creativity really gets juiced up, the culture opens, and inertia of innovation can’t be stopped.

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

grateful, gratitude, kindness, thankful, thanksgiving

Beginning: Remembering To Whom We Owe Thanks

Christa Avampato

“I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.” ~ Claude Monet

“The only people with whom you should try to get even are those who have helped you.” ~ John E. Southard

A friend of mine recently lost her job. I met with her to talk about some new possibilities and how I could help her connect to sources of new employment. For very close friends, I’m always happy to have these types of conversations. I spend a lot of time cultivating and caring for my network for just these types of occasions. I relish the role of being a connector.

Just after my friend and I finished talking she asked me how she could repay me, which made me smile. I didn’t need any repayment of any kind – I have already been repaid many times over. She’s my friend. And honestly, I get repaid every day just to have the opportunity of being alive. This sounds trite, except when I explain that every day I have is just gravy to me. I came very close to not making it out from a fire that happened in my apartment building about a year and a half ago. Until I was out of the building, I didn’t realize how close I had come to a really tragic end of a life not yet fully unfurled. All the repayment I ever need from any good deed I do in this lifetime is the opportunity to breath.

A lot of people have helped my life along to where it is now. Too many to name here though they can rest assured that I remember every kindness, every favor, every ounce of support. Family, friends, teachers, co-workers, neighbors. When I think about all of the goodness that I’ve seen in my travels, the disappointments and set backs are so minimal (even if they didn’t seem minimal at the time that they happened.) That’s why the quotes above by Monet and Southard caught my attention in such a powerful way. By helping people like my friend currently looking for a job, I’m just repaying the world for all its done for me. I’ve only just begun – I still have many more payments forward to make.

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

choices, decision-making, priorities

Beginning: The Freedom That Comes From Closing Possibilities

Christa Avampato

“All motion is cyclic. It circulates to the limits of its possibilities and then returns to its starting point.” ~ Robert Collier

Last week Dailygood ran a piece about letting go of certain possibilities. I thought about that idea all day. I felt not that I didn’t have enough options but that I had too many options, too many interests, too many opportunities that in my mind were all good. One part of me felt extraordinarily lucky to be blessed with so many choices and the other part felt overwhelmed. I felt pulled in so many directions, a situation that I created.

I realized that once again it was priority-making time. The older I get, the more often my life seems to need a wringing out. I find that I increasingly need more idle time to let ideas marinate, and to create that idle time I have to let some possibilities pass by, despite their potential.

There are some things I will have to stop doing. So here’s what I’ve decided to close:
1.) In mid-March, I’m going to stop renting at Pearl Studios in favor of another yoga teaching opportunity that has come about. (More on that when the opportunity takes flight in mid-March.)

2.) In addition to this blog, I’m focusing only on one independent writing project – my book about yoga and personal finance. I’ve laid out a writing schedule to get it finished by October. I’m also pursuing several writing opportunities with other outlets in an effort to expand my reach, and my content on this blog is going to be syndicated by another site. (More on that in a later post.)

3.) I’ve decided to only date guys that truly have long-term potential. If it’s just a “fun while it lasts” situation, then I need to sideline that in a hurry.

4.) I’m going to stop trying to think of ways to make my day job the perfect job. There are aspects of my job that I find really fascinating (mobile technology) and aspects of it that hold absolutely no interest for me (politics, jockeying for funding and influence). Eventually, I know that I will move on from this job to something that focuses more on where my personal interests truly lie. I stopped worrying about what that opportunity will be, having confidence that when the time is right, that new opportunity will present itself through my own hard work. I felt a tremendous amount of freedom when all of a sudden I stopped viewing my current role as the end destination. The daily grind I felt there has been put to rest.

How about you? Are there things that you’re going to stop doing in an effort to make more room in your life? Can you find freedom in letting go?

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

art, discovery

Beginning: Finding and Losing Ourselves in Our Art

Christa Avampato

“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” ~ Thomas Merton

I love the power of art to inspire us, to help us reach higher ground, while also taking us away from our day-to-day lives and giving us the permission to dream of a different way of being. It helps us to reduce attachment to where we are, and then as if by magic, a new vision of our lives comes crisply into focus. Good art, in any of its forms, alters our perception of time.

On this rainy (albeit warmer!) weekend, take some time out to lose yourself in art and see how your deepest dreams surface. Let me know what you find and I promise to do the same!

The image above depicts the painting “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte” by Georges Seurat. It inspired the musical “Sunday in the Park with George” by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine. The original hangs in the Art Institute of Chicago and is one of my favorite paintings of all time.

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

choices, creativity, opportunity, passion, patience

Beginning: Renewing the Familiar and Waking Up

Christa Avampato

“The moment one gives close attention to any thing, even a blade of grass it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.” ~ Henry Miller

Every morning I walk 5 blocks to the subway, and some mornings I don’t remember a single step that I took to get there. I’m out ahead of my walk. I’m imagining the packed subway car that I don’t want to deal with or thinking about my morning meetings and deliverables. I’m checking Twitter and Facebook or planning out my evening activities. This is the downside of being hyper-organized and a creature of planning – I can miss the moment I’m in right now, and all of the learning that each one offers.

In the past month, I’ve been focused on waking up and being aware. I’m observing more consciously, and finding that Henry Miller was absolutely right. Right in my neighborhood, there are beautiful things happening. Small business owners trying to make a-go of their dream. Tiny sprout of life breaking through the cold ground as Spring makes its long slow climb out of obscurity in Riverside and Central Parks. Street musicians and artists decorating our sidewalks. And even all of those people packed in the subway car on weekday mornings – just watching them and taking note of their activities makes my commute a part of my day rather than just some means to an end.

It is possible to renew the familiar, and it doesn’t require any fancy equipment or class or certification. You can start right now, wherever you are. Observe the knots in the world flooring beneath your feet, the sunshine filtering through your window, or the simple mannerisms of the person sitting next to you. We always have the option to begin a practice conscious living.

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

change, travel, yoga

Beginning: There’s So Much to Learn During Times of Transition on the Yoga Mat and in the World

Christa Avampato

“The way you arrive somewhere affects your experience once you’re there.” ~ Jason Crandell

How we arrive in a destination, the physical act of how we get to that first step at our destination is often an experience we barely consider. We’re rushing out the plane, train, car, or subway in effort to get somewhere, without consciously thinking much about how we got where we are and how we want to show up at our destination. The same happens in our yoga practice. In this month’s issue of Yoga Journal, Jason Crandell writes about transitioning between postures of ease and steadiness to postures that challenge us to maintain balance. He doesn’t focus on the completion of the transition, the actual arrival. In this article he’s focused on the many tiny steps in-between. He’s exploring the beauty, challenge, and strength of the transition.

It’s a challenging practice. I rush my practice all the time. My toes grip the mat as if I’m holding on for dear life in standing balance postures. My muscles tense and I have to consciously tell myself to breath. When Jason walks his readers through the transition, I realize how many opportunities for growth and reflection there are in the actual transition. To slow down and pay attention in that process is a focus in and of itself. All this time, I’ve been missing that opportunity in my teaching and in my own practice.

Transition will be the theme of my yoga classes this coming week in my private session, my group class on Sunday evening, and in my by-donation class at Columbia Law School on Monday night (which is now open to the public). I’m excited to see what we find in the in-between. There are adventures hiding there that have so much to teach us.

The image above appears at http://communityofmindfulparents.com

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

costa rica, courage, writing, yoga

Beginning: Trust that Yoga Can Help You Find Balance On and Off the Mat

Christa Avampato

“Falling out of balance doesn’t matter, really and truly. How we deal with that moment and how we find out way back to center, every day, again and again – that is the practice of yoga…it’s about trusting that you will find your way.” ~ Cyndi Lee, Founder of OM Yoga

This month’s issue of Yoga Journal is packed with incredible articles and heartfelt quotes that made me stop mid-article and remember all of the wisdom available to all of us in this ancient practice. In yoga there is a disproportionate amount of emphasis placed on getting to a certain destination – a particular variation of a posture, an end goal of improvement in some area such as flexibility or strength, or the simple desire to stop the whirring of our minds. What I love about Cyndi Lee’s quote above is that she offers a goal accessible to everyone, at every level of ability. When we lose our balance, can we maintain our grace, learning from the fall, and find the strength to try again?

We all fall out of balance, on and off the mat, and when it happens there’s a gut reaction of frustration. We rant and beat ourselves up and immediately begin to draft up huge changes that we’re going to make so that this lack of balance never happens again. It’s a never-ending battle, this pursuit of balance, and here’s why: balance isn’t something we always have in a snapshot in time. Balance, sustainable and freeing, is something we have over long stretches of time, not in snippets. In a certain posture, we may find extreme ease and balance, but it the remainder of our practice, feels out of whack, that moment of balance in one postures won’t remain in our hearts. Conversely, if our whole practice feels balanced and we struggled at the edge of a posture here and there, then we feel more peaceful and grounded.

In our life off the mat our job, relationship, family, friends, or a particular project may require the majority of our attention. The next day, our focus may need to belong to something different entirely. The key is to think about life balance over many day, weeks, and months. Has it been too long since you’ve been out with friends or spent some quality time just taking care of you? Have you been consumed by one project while other activities that you feel passionately about languish on the vine? Balance is about tending to the part of our lives that needs us most at this moment.

The image above can be found at http://www.tiffanyyoga.com/index.php

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

happiness, opportunity, patience

Beginning: Learning to Grow Happiness

Christa Avampato

“The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet.” ~ James Oppenheim via my friend Sue’s Facebook page

“If only” is a dangerous way to begin a thought. If only we had more money, time, lived here, had this relationship, job, house, project, contact, opportunity. And on and on it goes. There isn’t an end to what we want (and mistakenly think we need). And there will never be an end. There will always be something out there that seems like a good idea for us to have.

When I saw Sue’s quote on her Facebook wall, I was having one of those particularly “wanting” days. I had just reached the end of my rope with a particular situation at work. I had resolved that I was going to pull a Gershwin and call the whole thing off. This would have been a very bad idea because when I made my way back to my desk the situation reached such a tremendous conclusion, one that had never even occurred to me as in the realm of possibility, that I had to sit for a minute in stunned silence to fully process my good fortune. All this time, I had thought my efforts on the project were for naught. I had no idea how much of an impact my efforts made.

I was so focused on what wasn’t going well, on my internal frustration with the situation, that I hadn’t bothered to take stock and appreciate all of the progress I had made. It was slow, incremental progress, but it was progress. Sure and steady, hard-won and not fully baked just yet. But surely there were many moves in the right direction. All the while, I forgot to notice the bright green grass growing right under my feet. I was too busy living up in the clouds.

What a lesson in staying grounded and having a very good look at the buckets of opportunity that are all around us. I’m reminded again of a favorite quote that always helps me to count my blessings – so often what’s needed is a change of self, and not a change of scene. Or as my lovely friend, Sharni, so beautifully states on her blog – “the grass isn’t greener on the other side, it’s greener where you water it.” Happiness is something we can cultivate, right where we are, right now.

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