STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
The Greeks do not have the word “fine,” in their vocabulary, says Agapi Stassinopoulos.
“When someone asks, ‘How are you?’ we do not say, ‘Fine.’ We say, ‘I’m depressed’ ‘I’m ticked.’ ‘I had a fight with him last night,’ ” she recounted.
“Here we do not bring ourselves with us to work, to the coffee shop. In Greece we emote. In Greece we do not have therapy. We have each other.”
Just 13 hours after her sister Arianna Huffington finished giving the opening address of the 2017 Sun Valley Wellness Festival, Agapi Stassinopoulos greeted those attending one of the early morning sessions at the Sun Valley Inn with her own prescriptions for better living.
She began by taking the hand of Ketchum resident Pirie Grossman and leading her and other audience members in a snaking Greek-style dance through the room.
“You came expecting to have me to speak, but I had you get up and dance,” she told the audience. “To get more joy, you must move.”
With neurosurgeon James Doty’s help, Stassinopoulos noted that each of us have 37.23 billion cells in our body.
“And they’re constantly renewing and dying. That means they’re moving. That means you have to move,” she said.
Grossman introduced Stassinopoulos as a former actress who went to Los Angeles to find fame and fortune but instead discovered spirituality. Today she is a best-selling author, who has written such books as “Unbinding the Heart: A Dose of Greek Wisdom, Generosity and Unconditional Love.”
Grossman, a longtime board member of the Wellness Festival, said she herself starts her day reading from Stassinopoulos’s new book “Wake Up to the Joy of You: 52 Meditations and Practices for a Calmer, Happier Life.”
She held up a well-worn book with scads of Post-It notes marking different pages, describing it as a “must read book full of nuggets.”
“She’s taught me don’t wait to be perfect before you take action,” said Grossman. “And things like: Your presence is required. Keep yourself present…in everything you do.”
Stassinopoulos, who now conducts workshops on behalf of her sister’s new well-being venture Thrive Global, told the audience that each of us has a hundred things we’re worried about, from worrying that someone’s going to have more than us to worrying that we’re going to put on weight.
“It takes work to say, ‘I’m not going to do this to myself,’ ” she said. “Be ruthless about loving yourself. When the negativity comes, write it down and burn it.”
When she was worried about her grades, Stassinopoulos said, her mother told her, “Who cares about the grades?! You’re here to do your gift. You’re here to give joy.”
Stassinopoulos referenced the popular refrain, “Think out of the box.”
“There is no box. We box ourselves in,” she said. “And we have a choice. If your husband is negative, leave him.”
“Meditate. Don’t talk to God. Listen to God. Shut up. He’s here to talk to you.”
To find confidence you must let go of what you are, knowing that something bigger will rise out of your letting go, she said.
“How do you let go? By being kind to yourself and listening to others who have things you might need to know.”
She related how one many always makes his wife a cup of coffee upon arising, then takes her breakfast in bed.
“He says, ‘Then I’m there for someone else,’” she reiterated.
“When you wake up feeling lost, dance. Find your music. Hug someone.”
Stassinopoulos noted that Americans are terribly lonely compared to other people in the world. Much of that is because they have become so disconnected as they go after careers and other goals.
“People, ask, ‘How do I love myself?’ Begin with microscopic little steps getting to know you. Ask yourself what you like about self. Maybe it’s how you cook breakfast…It’s an art learning how to connect back to you.”
It’s okay to ask: How am I feeling? What would I like more of in life? Stassinopoulos said.
“Ask yourself: Is there something I can do to bring myself more joy every day? Every day I awake with gladness. Every day I awake with the gift of another day. I don’t take anything for granted. We only have this day. We only have this moment. Don’t miss the moment.”