The History of Yoga in a Nutshell

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According to an article in the Yoga Journal, Yoga's history has many places of obscurity and uncertainty due to its oral transmission of sacred texts and the secretive nature of its teachings. The early writings on yoga were transcribed on fragile palm leaves that were easily damaged, destroyed or lost. The development of yoga can be traced back to over 5,000 years ago and some guess may be at least 8000 years old.

Yoga techniques were developed by the Indus-Sarasvati civilization in Northern India over 5,000 years ago. The word yoga was first mentioned in the oldest sacred texts, the Rig Veda. The Vedas were a collection of texts containing songs and rituals used by Brahmans, the Vedic priests. Yoga was slowly refined and developed by Vedic priests, who documented their practices and beliefs in the Upanishads, a huge work containing over 200 scriptures. The most renowned of these Yogic scriptures is the Bhagavad-Gîtâ, composed around 500 B.C.E. The Upanishads took the idea of ritual sacrifice from the Vedas and internalized it, teaching the sacrifice of the ego through self-knowledge, action (karma yoga) and wisdom (jnana yoga).
Yoga as we know it today is thus the result of a complex evolution. However, according to most scholars, Yoga can't be recognized as a complete and complex tradition before about 500 B.C.
The oldest written records of Indian culture and yogic activities are found in the Vedas, which is a compilation of hymns and rituals that are over 3000 years old. Vedic Yoga, also known as Archaic Yoga, revolves around the thought of reuniting the visible material world with the invisible spiritual world by sacrificing certain things. In order to practice these rather long rituals successfully it was necessary to be able to focus the mind to a very heightened level and frequency. The goal is to reach a Divine connection with our Creator known as the Ein Sof in Kabbalah located at the top of the Tree of Life or according to the Yogic tradition, in the Crown Chakra. This inner focus of the mind without thinking is the root of all Yoga.
The Vedic teachings were not reserved for the religious elite. They were transmitted to the people by Vedic prophets, called Rishis, who had gained insight in the origin of life and its existence through the connection to infinite consciousness. The hymns of these prophets witness of strong intuition, wisdom and knowledge about human beings that can inspire new levels of understanding even for the people of today.
Yoga's long rich history can be divided into four main periods of innovation and development: Vedic, Preclassical, Classical, and Post-Classical.
The first systematic presentation of yoga was Patanjali's Yoga-Sûtras. Written most likely in the second century, this text describes the path of Raja Yoga, often called "classical yoga". Patanjali organized the practice of yoga into an "eight limbed path" containing the steps and stages towards obtaining Samadhi or enlightenment. Patanjali is often considered the father of yoga and his Yoga-Sûtras still strongly influence all styles of modern yoga.
Patanjali thought that every individual consists of two parts - matter (prakiti) and soul (purusha), and that the goal of Yoga is to free the soul from the material world in order to take its original, pure form. This is often characterized as philosophical dualism, which is quite remarkable considering that most Indian philosophy is of a non-dualistic nature. The world as it is perceived is generally thought to be different aspects of the same pure, shapeless but conscious existence.
Patanjali's Yoga Sutra

The most famous proponent of the Samkhya world view was an enigmatic philosopher/writer known only as Patanjali. Nearly every yoga teacher today is familiar with his treatise, the Yoga Sutra, which is considered to be the first systematic presentation of yoga, and reveres its author as the father of modern yoga. Actually, no one really knows who Patanjali was, although speculation varies widely. Was he a simple grammarian, a teacher of Samkhya philosophy, or an incarnation of Shesha, the thousand-headed ruler of serpents? Whoever else he was and whatever else he did, Patanjali clearly succeeded in codifying the concepts of an ancient, oral tradition. His collection of 195 sutras (aphorisms or "terse statements") compiled most probably in the second century c.e., provides the first practical treatise on daily living, beginning with how to conduct oneself in society and culminating in the act of final liberation or enlightenment. Because Patanjali believed one could attain final liberation only with the help of a guru, these aphorisms are not really a self-help guide. They exist to assist the guru in his teachings.
Like the followers of Samkhya before him, Patanjali embraced a dualistic view of existence. On the one hand, he taught, there is purusha, the all-present, all-knowing ethereal consciousness, made up of countless Atmans, who watch as the cosmos unfolds before them. Male, formless and unmanifest, Purusha attaches to nothing; immobile yet pervasive, he simply sees all and knows all. Prakriti, on the other hand, is nature incarnate. Female, visible, and dynamic, prakriti constantly moves, creating and changing as she goes. She is all that is manifest in the world. Existing only to serve purusha, prakriti is unconscious and insentient. Nature exists, according to Patanjali and the Samkhyan philosophers, through a complex interplay among the three gunas—sattva, rajas, and tamas—which are visible aspects of her character. Much like in the Bhagavad Gita, Patanjali aligned these gunas with specific characteristics in humans. When the element sattva presents itself, according to this philosophy, the energy is light, clear, and joyous; a predominance of rajas produces passionate feelings, desire, and even greed, as one becomes attached to worldly goods; when tamas gets the upper hand, it brings energy that is slow, heavy, and thick, and can bind a person to a life of sloth and despondency.
Like the Samkhya philosophers, Patanjali believed suffering resulted when humans become attached to external phenomena, when they hold on to the fruits of their actions or when their desires (all the shoulds, wants, and needs in life) pull them away from their connection to a higher consciousness. Patanjali thought that conflict among the three gunas, each vying for dominance, was at the heart of human suffering. Sattva may bring feelings of joyfulness, he reasoned, but being attached to those feelings is no better than holding on to the greed of rajas or being stuck in the despondency of tamas. Much like the Bhagavad Gita—and diametrically opposed to the renunciation espoused in Samkhya—Patanjali wrote that only hard work (karma yoga) and deep meditation (jnana yoga) could relieve human suffering and lead to liberation. In fact, only through strict adherence to his eight-limbed path of yoga (ashtanga yoga) could a yogi tame the gunas and bring them back into balance, as they existed in primordial nature. Ultimately, said Patanjali, by releasing attachments to the natural world, a yogi could allow the transcendental quality of purusha to shine through his true Self.

Although yogis eventually rejected Patanjali's dualism entirely, they continued to use and expand upon his eight-limbed yoga path. This combination of practices still serves as a blueprint for living in the world and as a means of attaining enlightenment, although modern-day teachers no longer believe students must master the limbs in succession.
Patanjali's Kriya Yoga

Although he is best known as the chronicler of the eight-limbed yoga path, Patanjali also presented a version of kriya yoga, the path of transmutative action (i.e., the act of changing into a higher form) in his Yoga Sutra. Kriya yoga can best be described as a form of internal karma yoga. That is, by perfecting the niyamas or self-disciplines of Patanjali's eight-limbed path, particularly tapas (austerity), svadhyaya (self-study), and isvara pranidhana (devotion to the Lord), a yogi erases samskara (subliminal activators) from his subconscious. Samskara are like karma scars that result from good or bad behavior. They are indelible memories, imprinted on the subconscious, that propel the conscious mind to act; they are what dictate a person's birth, life experiences, and death. These activators cause the constant chatter or fluctuations in the mind that separate a person from purusha and make it impossible for him to experience it. An individual has good kinds of samskara and bad kinds, according to the Yoga Sutra. The bad kind keep the conscious mind actively seeking experience outside itself, regardless of whether that experience is pleasurable or painful. The good kind stop the conscious mind from seeking and attaching itself to external objects and senses. The resultant cessation (nirodhah) of vritti (fluctuations) and samskara brings true liberation.

Post-Classical Period

A few centuries after Patanjali, yoga masters created a system of practices designed to rejuvenate the body and prolong life. They rejected the teachings of the ancient Vedas and embraced the physical body as the means to achieve enlightenment. They developed Tantra Yoga, with radical techniques to cleanse the body and mind to break the knots that bind us to our physical existence. This exploration of these physical-spiritual connections and body centered practices led to the creation of Hatha Yoga.
A few hundred years after Patanjali, the evolution of Yoga took an interesting turn - the potential of the human body became an interesting field of study. Yogis of the past had never paid very much attention to the (physical) body, as they focused all their energy on contemplation and meditation. Their goal was to leave their bodies and the world, in order to re-unite with the shapeless reality - the soul.
The new generation of Yogis however, developed a system where different exercises - in conjunction with deep breathing and meditation, would help keep the body young and prolong life. The human body was regarded as the temple of the immortal soul, and not just as a meaningless vessel to be abandoned at the first opportunity.
This paved the way for the creation of Hatha Yoga, and other branches and schools of Tantric Yoga.
The History of Tantra Yoga

Tantra emerged early in the post-classical period, around the fourth century c.e., but didn't reach its full flowering until 500 to 600 years later. This school represents a rather radical departure for yoga philosophy. In what could only have been understood as heresy, tantra rejected the Vedas (the most sacred texts of Hinduism since at least 1500 B.C.E.) as irrelevant. It refuted the notion that liberation could be attained only through rigorous asceticism and meditation, and it dismissed the Samkhyan precept that a yogi must renounce the world in order to free himself from it. Tantra also eschewed karma yoga (the path of action or service), choosing instead to focus on devotion (bhakti), most particularly worship of the Goddess.

In teaching about the causes of suffering and the path to liberation, tantra shares common ground with its ancestors. Like the nondualistic authors of the early Upanishads, tantric yogis believed that human suffering comes from the illusion of opposites, from the mistaken notion that the Self is somehow separate from the objects it desires. Being good nondualists, tantrikas (tantric yogis) see all possible sets of opposites, all dualities (good and evil, hot and cold, hard and soft, male and female) contained within the universal consciousness. The only way a yogi can liberate himself from suffering, according to tantra, is to unite all the opposites or dualities in his own body. Like Patanjali, tantrikas believe in the need to have a strong, pure physical body.
While Patanjali may have acknowledged the need to strengthen and purify the body, he ultimately believed that the body was defiled and that a truly liberated yogi would shun the company of others for fear of becoming contaminated. Tantrika, on the other hand, celebrated the physical body, which they considered to be a sacred temple of the Divine, as a means to conquer death. The body became the vehicle for attaining liberation. In tantric yoga, the universal consciousness, which earlier philosophers called purusha, became Shiva and resided within the body. The principle of nature or creation, called prakriti in earlier yogic thought, became shakti and lived at the base of the spine. The ultimate unity—the male energy of Shiva with the feminine principle shakti—took place internally and led to final liberation or samadhi. Unlike the more traditional nondualists, however, tantrikas believed that the whole world was not an illusion, but a manifestation of the Divine and that all experience brought the practitioner closer to his or her own divinity.

Most Westerners equate tantra with kinky sex practices, and in one particular school of tantra uniting the male energy of Shiva with the feminine principle of shakti actually does lead to unusual sexual positions and wild orgiastic practices. The vamamarga, or left-handed path of tantra, employed traditionally forbidden pleasures, including sexual intercourse, to achieve samadhi. After all, they reasoned, how can an individual know what to transcend if he doesn't experience it first? The more conservative, right-handed tantrikas, on the other hand, weren't quite so literal. In fact vamamarga practices horrified them.
Similarly, tantra's use of mantras (sacred sounds) is as old as the Rig Veda, but tantrikas employed these sounds in a very different way. Each letter of the mantra (given to the student by his guru) corresponded to a place in the body and each place in the body represented a force in the universe. By chanting the mantra, the yogi could awaken the body and its corresponding universal forces. In order to practice this form of mantra meditation, the body must be pure and strong and the mind clear and alert.

Tantric yogis liked to use visual aids, such as mandalas, in their meditations. Generally made of wood, paper, or cloth, tantric mandalas were drawings of circles and geometric designs. Regardless of how simple or complex these drawings were, they always contained a seed or bindu at the center, which represented the union of the cosmos and the mind; concentric circles, which represented the various levels of existence; and a square "fence" around the circles, with open gates, to protect the sacred space. Ultimately, by meditating and visualizing, the tantrika entered into the mandala and realized that the unity of all things resided in him and that there was no separation between him and the Divine.
Hatha Yoga

Hatha yoga, out of which came the physical postures the Western world now embraces, first appeared in the ninth or tenth century. Despite its rather detailed and complex philosophic underpinnings, it was little more than a small and somewhat radical sect during the post-classical period. In fact, among some Hindus of the period, hatha yoga had the reputation of being nothing short of heretical in its focus on the physical and in its fascination with magical powers. Hatha yoga's principles arose from tantra, and incorporated elements of Buddhism, alchemy, and Shaivism (worship of the transcendental Shiva).

Like tantrikas, hatha yogis believed that creating polarities (male vs. female, hot vs. cold, happy vs. sad, good vs. bad, right vs. wrong) caused suffering and brought about disease, delusion, and pain. The very name hatha yoga, a combination of "ha," meaning sun, and "tha," meaning moon, denotes the union of opposites. Hatha also means a force or determined effort, and yoga, of course, translates as yoke or joining together. Therefore, hatha yoga implies that it takes a lot of strength, discipline, and effort to unify opposing forces and to bring together the body and the mind. The biggest obstacles to practice for the hatha yogi include indifference, greed, hatred, delusion, egoism, and attachment.

Interested less in the sexual union of opposites than tantrikas, hatha yogis strove to transform the physical body into the subtle, divine body and thereby attain enlightenment. The transformed body was said to be impervious to disease, void of any defects, eternally youthful, and the bearer of paranormal, magical powers. Before hatha yoga students could even hope to accomplish such transformation. However, they had to learn an intricate physiology of the body, including the muscles, organs, chakras (energy channels), and tissues, and the gods that govern each. Hatha yogis also had to perform intense purification rituals before they could begin asana and pranayama practices. As with all yoga practice at the time, yoga students received instruction from their gurus.

Even though hatha yoga remained a somewhat marginal sect during the post-classical period, it produced an impressive number of treatises and prescriptive manuals. The first and primary text was written by a yogi named Goraksha, the person most often deemed the father of hatha yoga. Like most early gurus, Goraksha was a rather elusive figure. Quite possibly a member of the weaver caste in the Punjab, he probably lived in the ninth or tenth century c.e., although later hatha yoga texts also place him in the twelfth or thirteenth century. Goraksha founded the Natha sect of yogis and was considered by some to be a miracle worker, saint, and revered teacher.
His earliest writing, the Siddha Siddhanta Paddhati, introduces several important elements of hatha yoga, including the idea that the physical body is only one level of embodiment. There are five others, moving from the grossest (garbha or physical) body to the subtlest (para or transcendental) body. He also delineates nine energy channels or chakras, three signs or lakshya (literally, visions), and 16 props or adhara, upon which a yogi focuses attention (the ankle, the thumb, the thighs, the navel, etc.).

Svatmarama Yogin, who called himself a disciple of Goraksha (even though he came a few centuries later), wrote a second treatise, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, probably during the mid-fourteenth century. This text describes sixteen postures, most of which are variations of Padmasana (the cross-legged Lotus pose), several purification rituals, eight pranayama techniques (primarily to retain the breath), and ten seals (mudras) with specific bandhas, or locks to constrict the flow of prana or life force. As Svatmarama explained, before the mind can even hope to control the senses, the breath must neutralize the mind. Steady, rhythmic breathing calms the mind, freeing it from external distractions; a calm mind in turn reins in the senses. Although decidedly nondualistic in nature, Svatmarama's six-limbed yoga path was exclusively for the attainment of samadhi through the practice of raja yoga (the yoga of Patanjali).
The Gheranda Samhita, a late-seventeenth-century manual based on the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, offers seven niyamas, or disciplines necessary for yoga practice: cleanliness, firmness, stability, constancy, lightness, perception, and no defilement. The manual's author, the sage Gheranda, prescribes 32 asanas and 25 mudras. He also outlines an intricate purification system. But despite this emphasis on the physical body, Gheranda believed that a yogi attains liberation or ecstasy ultimately through the kindness of his guru.

Perhaps the most comprehensive—and the most democratic—treatise on hatha yoga, the Shiva Samhita may have been written toward the end of the post-classical period, as late as the early eighteenth century. It emphasizes that even a common householder (a common male householder, that is) can practice yoga and reap its benefits—a concept that would have startled earlier proponents of yoga. The Shiva Samhita outlines the intricacies of esoteric physiology, names 84 different asanas—the most wide-ranging list to date—and describes five specific types of prana (or life force), providing explicit techniques to regulate them. Unfortunately, only four of the asanas are described in detail. Just like all hatha yoga philosophy, the Shiva Samhita postulates that performing asanas will cure a yogi of all diseases and bestow upon him magical, superhuman powers.
Hatha Yoga is a gentle and slower paced form of yoga, although it can be quite challenging physically when you move deeper into the practice of it. The word Hatha, when split in to 'ha' and 'tha', means 'sun' and 'moon'. This style is ideal for those that are new to yoga, and haven't yet built up experience or confidence. Due to its' slower pace, it is easier for people to learn the principles, postures, and the breathing methods involved in yoga.

Vinyasa Yoga, on the other hand, is a far faster paced, and more advanced form of yoga. Instead of simply doing individual exercises on the mat, with pauses in between, the asanas are linked together in synchronization with the in-flow and out-flow of breath. This produces a very dynamic effect, and it allows heat to build up in the body. An increased body temperature helps loosen the muscles, and people find they can go deeper into a stretch than if they were doing the posture in a more traditional way.

Both Hatha and Vinyasa yoga offers a range of health benefits. There is certainly no reason why you cannot start off using the slower paces Hatha Yoga, and once more experienced and flexible, move on to practice the more challenging form of yoga, Vinyasa. Both offer a great way to increase mobility in the joints, tone up your body, and find a sense of peace and stillness often lacking in daily activity.

In forms such as Ashtanga and Hatha, this flowing style was originally developed.
What Is Flow?
Flow yoga, also called Vinyasa flow, has become one of the most popular forms of Hatha Yoga practice in the world today.

Flow Yoga is a practice in which our movements are linked fluidly together with focused awareness on breathing. Postures are connected and sequenced in a way that intelligently opens the body in stages (in Sanskrit, “karmas”) and sets of postures, or sequences always build from the most basic to the complex.

Flow yoga can be practiced in a very vigorous, stimulating and dynamic way as well as a softer, slower, and gentle manner.

Most people tend to think of flow as a practice that is constantly moving, with very little regard for form or structure. While constant movement may be used during class, individual postures will be held for longer periods of time during a flow practice. A flow class also emphasizes alignment and sound structure, which helps us move in a very mindful, healing and graceful manner.

Flow Yoga is a well-balanced yoga practice that will stretch every muscle, move every joint, build strength, flexibility, endurance. Its greatest lesson is that it teaches us how to stay fresh and alive, present with the moment so that we may experience how to move through our lives with more joy, grace, and ease.

This type of practice literally puts us into a state of flow. It is a state of being where we feel totally non-judgmental, conflict-free, self-loving and free. Ultimately, when we are in this “zone,” we experience our potential more fully and we tap a source of strength, joy, openness and presence that we do not often experience in our daily grind.
History of Vinyasa Flow
Our lineage is through the great teacher Krishnamacharya whose brilliant knowledge of the healing power of yoga inspired most of the popular branches of yoga we know today in the West. Krishnamacharya, Desikachar, BKS Iyengar, Patthabi and Indra Devi, the first western female to receive instruction and blessings to teach yoga, all derived from this great tree. Our intention is to maintain the highest standard, integrity and adherence to the quality of the lineage from which we flower.
Key Qualities of a Flow Class
• A breath-focused practice. Attention to the breath continues UNINTERRUPTED throughout the entire class and in every posture.
• Utilizes proper body alignment, body mechanics and structural integrity of muscles, joints and bones.
• Is designed to build strength, flexibility, endurance and balance.
• Contains all classes of Asanas (standing postures; twists; forward bends; backbends; inversions; balancing postures and movement sequences)
• A well-rounded practice that includes a full complement of postures that are accessible to most students and sequenced to incorporate the most important postures and their counter poses.
• Structure of class is creative, dynamic and ever-evolving. Each class you experience is fresh, unscripted and born of the moment.
• Facilitates a deep meditative state within all movement or moments of stillness.
• Gets you in touch with your body’s natural rhythm.
• A holistic practice that is based on the viewpoint that there is a relationship between body, mind and spirit and that the physical and the spiritual reflect and affect each other.
• Cultivates intuition by teaching practitioners how to determine their own pace and move to the tempo of their own breath. Encourages personal expression and freedom.
The Benefits of Yoga
• Build strength & stamina
• Correct poor posture
• Improve your flexibility
• Improve muscle tone/create longer, leaner muscles
• Speed up your metabolism
• Lose weight
• Enhance your balance
• Rehabilitate an injury or recover from chronic pain
• Reduce stress
• Feel more focused and positive
• Have more energy, passion, and creativity
• Experience a new level of emotional calm and mental clarity
• Enjoy life more
• Live Longer
• Look and feel younger

How CieAura Transparent Holographic Chips Influence Your Health

How CieAura Transparent Holographic Chips Influence Your Health

For over 3,000 years, the Chinese have developed the art of promoting an inner energy flow that was considered the basis of healing. Physical disease was thought to have an origin of stagnated energy. Once this "blockage" of energy was dispersed and a greater flow of energy stimulated, symptoms of illness would normalize. These energy flows run throughout the body on pathways called "meridians," mapped out from traditional Chinese medical texts and named after different organs and body systems. Along the meridians, various concentrations of energy, known as "points," can be stimulated through massage, needle or heat application to promote well-being. There have been many applications of palm energy, mineral and gem placement and most recently, electrical stimulation on specific acupuncture points to influence the human energy field. A common example of energy flow can be seen in a garden hose. The water freely flows until a kink occurs in the hose. This slows the flow down to a trickle. This juncture is where the blockage of water is occurring. If we straighten the kink (compared to stimulating an acupuncture point along a stagnant meridian) the strength of the flow is restored. Our CieAura Transparent Holographic Chips™ influence key points to create the desire effect.

Acupuncture points are simple to understand, because there's almost a natural connection in how we instinctively treat them. For instance, there's a Bladder #1 point that is bi-lateral and exists on both sides of the bridge of the nose.
Stimulation of these points energize this very long energy pathway that begins at the nose bridge and continues down to the small toe, so it runs through the entire body. If you think about it, when you're tired you instinctively rub these points, and that energizes that meridian. Same for the Lung #1 point located between the first intercostal space of the ribs about two inches from the area where the armpit is joined to the body.


When Tarzan beat these points, it gave him more endurance and vocal strength to shout (swinging on the vine). Another example of energy healing is your instinctive grasp of a painful area that has been hurt. We touch it, in essence to put our palm energy there. That's why it feels better. There are many points that we instinctively grab to stimulate different conditions without being consciously aware of what we're doing. More practically, certain acupuncture points have a stronger influence over others and these are key players when applying the Chips.

CieAura™ has the developed a distinctive and proprietary method of programming multi-layered Transparent Holographic Chips™, with VibraTec,™ an exclusive patent-pending technology that adhesively binds sound vibrations into the discs for the purpose of influencing the human energy field. Once applied, the body's energy field triggers the release of these vibrations stored in the Energy Chip. The vibration process applied to Energy Chips is non-transdermal, and therefore nothing enters into the body. Transparent Holographic Chips are a unique and safe way to adjust and balance our body’s inner energy flow.

There are four main premises that explain how CieAura Transparent Holographic Chips work:

1.The body communicates with and regulates itself by vibrations. There are numerous sources of these vibrations within the body.
2.When these vibrations become abnormal or out of sync, the result is disease, illness, or other problems.
3.These internal vibrations can be modified by outside sources.
4.CieAura Holographic Chips can be this outside source.
Premise 1: The body communicates with and regulates itself by vibrations. There are numerous sources of these vibrations within the body.


There is no single life force or healing force. Instead there are many systems in the body that conduct/transfer various kind of energy and information from place to place. All the systems (organs tissues, cells, molecules, atoms, subatomic particles) work together energetically to produce a whole. In terms of vibrations, the human body can be compared to a symphony orchestra. We know that there are many organs and body systems that generate electromagnetic fields and use these fields to regulate the body. All the body systems interact together and exchange information to keep us healthy. No system acts totally on its own. For the sake of simplicity, let’s look at just a few systems that use vibrations in an energy fields to regulate the body and repair wounds.


The central nervous system is a good example. It is composed of two separate types of cells: the nerve cells or neurons and the perineural cells. The classical nervous system, or neural nervous system, consists of neurons. In terms of our evolution, this is a fairly recent innovation. The neural nervous system reaches every crook and cranny in the body. Neurons conduct information from specific place to specific place as electrical impulses. This system uses a digital type signal. It provides high speed, high volume information transfer. It is an all or none signal and can be a spike of energy or trains of pulses. This part of the nervous system is responsible for sensations and movement. An example of a neural action is movement of the finger.

The perineural system is the more ancient type of nervous system in our evolution. It is composed of perineural cells. These cells completely surround each neuron in the brain, and perineural connective tissue surrounds and follows every peripheral nerve to its termination. In fact half the cells in the brain are perineural cells. The perineural nervous system communicates with slow waves and is analog in nature. It cannot transmit large amounts of data, but it transmits the signal throughout the entire body as opposed to point to point. The perineural system regulates wound healing and tissue repair. Think about all the body functions involved in wound repair as opposed to moving a finger. The perineural system plays a role in the system wide regulation, coordination and integration of wound healing by many different parts of the body. Adrenaline is secreted, nutrients are sent to the wound area, bone repair is initiated, etc. A system that communicates with many areas at once is needed for this type of action and the wave communication of the perineural system fits the need perfectly.


The perineural system also regulates the operation of the neurons, so the systems complement each other. (Becker 1990) In both systems, the brain initiates the signal. In the case of the neural system it is pulses of energy. In the case of the perineural it is slow waves.

“Peri” tissue is tissue that surrounds. The nervous system is but one of many systems in the body that have “peri” cells. The vascular system has perivascular connective tissue that goes throughout the body. It also communicates by waves. Currents in the perivascular system are important in inflammation, hemostasis, injury repair and carcinogenesis (adjustments to nourish a growing tumor).



A periosteal system surrounds bone cells and aids in the forming of new bone after a fracture. A perimysium system for muscles aids in muscle regeneration and repair of damaged muscle cells.

The perineural system also regulates the operation of the neurons, so the systems complement each other. (Becker 1990) In both systems, the brain initiates the signal. In the case of the neural system it is pulses of energy. In the case of the perineural it is slow waves.

“Peri” tissue is tissue that surrounds. The nervous system is but one of many systems in the body that have “peri” cells. The vascular system has perivascular connective tissue that goes throughout the body. It also communicates by waves. Currents in the perivascular system are important in inflammation, hemostasis, injury repair and carcinogenesis (adjustments to nourish a growing tumor). A periosteal system surrounds bone cells and aids in the forming of new bone after a fracture. A perimysium system for muscles aids in muscle regeneration and repair of damaged muscle cells.

In summary, the “peri” systems of the body are extremely important in many areas, especially injury repair. These systems communicate in extremely low frequency waves. Some of these frequencies have been documented by physicists. (Siskin and Walker 1995)




In the future, we can expect to see more and more discoveries in this area.



Premise 2: When these vibrations become abnormal or out of sync, the result is disease, illness, and other problems.

Vibrations underlie virtually every aspect of nature. Every electron, atom, molecule, cell, tissue and organ has its own vibratory character. Research has shown that each of the millions of molecules in a cell membrane, tendon, muscle, bone, nerve cell or other structure vibrate.



In the presence of an electric field (produced by the body), these vibrations become coupled and give rise to coherent or laser like vibrations. The vibrations become a collective or cooperative phenomena, in which all of the weakly vibrating parts become coupled. The result is a strong, orderly, and stable vibration that is far more than the sum if individual vibrations. When the vibrations are stable and at the right frequency, we are healthy. Problems arise when they are not.



Over the last few decades, scientists have developed measuring devises to measure energy fields within and around the human body. Up until recently they were dismissed as byproducts of cellular activities and of no use in diagnosis. Now we can document how these energy fields are generated and how they are altered by disease and disorder. Jackson and Mantsch used spectroscopic methods to determine that the human body emits vibratory information that precisely specifies the activities taking place within.

The body’s vibrational system uses a process called entrainment to fix problems in its vibratory system. In traditional physics, entrainment is the phase locking of two or more oscillators. Physicists use the term to describe a situation in which two rhythms or vibrations that have nearly the same frequency can become coupled to each other so that eventually both have the same rhythm. For example, a number of identical pendulum clocks on the same wall will have the pendulums swinging at different beats when initially installed. Eventually the pendulums will entrain, without any outside impetus, so that all swing in precise synchrony.
You will see how the body uses this phenomenon to
regulate itself.



An assembly of cells, such as a tissue or organ, will have certain collective frequencies that regulate important processes. Normally these control frequencies are very stable. If for some reason a cell shifts its frequency, entraining signals from neighboring cells will tend to reinstall the correct frequency. However, if a sufficient number of cells get out of step, the strength of the systems collective vibrations can decrease to the point where stability is lost. This loss of coherence leads to disease and disorder.


As an example, glands release a messenger signal to a target cell to produce an action. A second messenger inside the cell causes the action to happen and provides feedback to the gland of what was accomplished. All of this is done with electromagnetic signals. Disruption of this regulatory loop can result in allergies, chronic and degenerative diseases and a failure to heal.

Premise 3: These internal vibrations can be modified by outside sources.

As mentioned earlier, when the vibratory frequencies get abnormal, the body internally entrains signals to heal itself. It stands to reason that an outside agent with nearly the same frequency can entrain a frequency in the body and move it one way or the other. There are numerous examples of external electromagnetic fields altering bodily functions.

•The high correlation of heart attacks during periods of heightened solar activity indicate brain waves can be entrained by outside electromagnetic forces.
•Injury and trauma block information flow. Application of healing energy waves opens networks to flow of energy and information. The source of these energy waves is the brain and organs (Robert Becker 1990) Outside stimulus can entrain with the body’s energy field and change it in a positive manner.
•Medical research has demonstrated that devices producing a pulsing magnetic field of particular frequencies can stimulate the healing of a variety of tissues. Siskin and Walker in 1995 showed that employing magnetic fields on tissue at very specific frequencies have resulted in
•Enhanced capillary formation
•Decreased necrosis
•Reduced swelling
•Diminished pain
•Faster functional recovery
•Reduction in depth, area and pain in skin wounds
•Reduced muscle loss after ligament surgery
•Increased tensile strength of ligaments
•Acceleration of nerve generation and functional recovery
•Froelich predicted living organism must produce coherent oscillations. Each tissue and organ has it’s own ideal resonant frequency. By manipulating and balancing the vibratory circuits we can directly influence he body’s defense and repair systems. Pulse electro magnetic (PEMF) therapy has been around for years. It is a machine that produces a magnetic field at a very specific frequency (7 Hz) to jump start the healing process in bone fractures. It mimics natural electrical activities in the bone. The repair process is triggered by the information contained in the specific frequencies. Clinical tests have shown that bone healing is not only sped up, but it has occurred in patients who have had no healing progress in years. (Bassett 1985)
Clearly, the electromagnetic properties of the body can be altered by outside stimuli.
Premise 4: CieAura Holographic Chips can be this outside source.

All matter has its own natural resonant vibration. CieAura Holographic Chips are small holograms that can be embedded with a variety of intrinsic vibrations. These vibrations in turn, interact with the body’s vibrational system to achieve desired results. The CieAura Chips seeks to move your body’s vibrations to the optimum. Intrinsic frequencies are placed on the CieAura Chips. When the CieAura Chips is placed near the body’s surface (Less than 1 inch) the imbedded vibrations activate and interact with the body’s vibrations. A good way to explain this process is to look at a piano tuner using tuning forks to tune a piano. If a tuning fork is struck, a piano string (with the dampers held down) that is of the same note will begin to vibrate on its own and resonate with the tuning fork. In this explanation, your body is the tuning fork and the piano
string is the CieAura Chips. If we are like a tuning fork, we need to vibrate at the correct frequency. You cannot get the G string to vibrate by striking the A tuning fork. When the CieAura Chips is close enough to the body to feel the vibrations, its own vibrations begin. They effect only the similar body vibrations, so very specific results can be achieved. Remember, the body is an orchestra of vibrations and the CieAura Chips uses several at once to achieve the desired result. Through lengthy tests of the CieAura Chips, specific frequencies were found to be the most effective for pain management, sleep, energy enhancement, and a variety of other biological functions. These tests also showed that Acupuncture Points and meridians have proven to be the most effective input channels for the vibrations. There may be more than one effective point to place the CieAura Chips. It depends on which part of the body’s vibrational system is the target of the CieAura Chips.

Yoga Unifies Houston

Yoga Unifies Houston
Jennifer Buergermeister and Chiza Alba © 2009


Author of The Healing Path of Yoga, Nischala Joy Devi, said, “With humility, we embrace the sacredness through the study of Yoga.” An open mind and heart will follow.

“Yoga” is a derivative of a Sanskrit word meaning “unity.” Many yoga practitioners will define yoga as a series of stretching and strengthening postures, known as asana, used in combination with meditation and breathing techniques. What they describe is actually Hatha Yoga, the yoga of postures. This popular form is only one branch of the yogic tradition. There are many branches on the yogic tree, much like the tree of life. But they share in a complete sense that yoga is about unification. A student of yoga strives to unify his or her body, mind and spirit with that of the entire universe. Yoga practitioners seek to expand the concept of self to achieve a higher, more transcendent reality, and promote unity consciousness.

People in Houston, the fourth largest city in the USA, are learning how yoga can enrich their lives and improve their health. Texas created a Free Day of Yoga in 1999, originating in Austin and grew to Dallas and Houston. The event is held annually.

In 2009, nearly 150 Houstonians gathered on the stage of Discovery Green to practice yoga with teachers from Jennyoga and YogaOne. Luke’s Locker and the Yoga Teachers Association of Houston (YTAH) sponsored the Free Day of Yoga event which is doubling in size each year.

YTAH President Jennifer Buergermeister said, “I envision at least 300 Houstonians next year at Discovery Green on the stage and all across the lawns surrounding the stage. It’s so exciting to see Houston fall in love with yoga!”

This is a phenomenon occurring across the United States. Recent studies have indicated that Americans are spending nearly double the amount of money on yoga classes and yoga related products than they did five years ago. Nearly half of all 16 million Americans studying yoga are doing so because they are aware of its health benefits, spending $5.7 billion a year on yoga classes and products.

These people need a unified, respectable body of knowledge to turn to for guidance. The more that the yoga studios and associations of Houston work together, the stronger the cause will grow here in our city. Just as the word namaste’ infers - to be the change, we must live the change and become one - just as yoga intended 5000 years ago.

The yoga movement has been active in Houston for at least 30 years brought in by talented yogis such as Robert Boustany, David and Doug Swenson, John Friend, Billie Gollnick and others. Today, there are studios opening up everywhere. Each studio has its own unique style of teaching and interacting with their students, and each is wonderful in its own right, but for a beginning student of yoga, differences can be somewhat daunting. Which style is the “right” style? Which studio is the “right” studio? Far from having a unifying effect, the diversity can have the effect of deterring a yoga student. That deterrence can and should be avoided by making every student aware that the yoga entities in Houston are working together for the common cause of bringing yoga into the world by embracing creative differences.

How can yoga unify a city?

Jennifer Buergermeister, owner of Jennyoga Studio in the River Oaks area and president of the Houston Yoga Teachers Association, inspired the founding of the Texas Yoga Association and the Texas Yoga Conference in 2009. In May of 2009, Ms. Buergermeister from Jennyoga requested to meet with the owners or representatives from Joy Yoga, YogaOne, Yoga West, the Jewish Community Center, Yoga Ananda, Yoga for Peace, Nia Moves, and Yoga Rasa came together to discuss the collaboration of the Houston yoga studios for an annual event and came up the Texas Yoga Conference.

The First Annual Texas Yoga Conference will be hosted by Unity Church on February 19-20, 2010. The funding studios participating in the yearly conference are Jennyoga, owned by Jennifer Buergermeister; Joy Yoga, owned by Joy Winkler; YogaOne, owned by Roger and Albina Rippy; and Yoga West, owned by Kristin Abel.

The conference has talent represented from all over Houston and other cities in Texas such as Robert Boustany, Ricky Tran, Ann Hyde, Raye Lynn Rath, and Dr. Hansa Medley. Several special guests will be joining the conference from California and other states in support of our conference’s launch including filmmaker Arthur Klein premiering his movie Y YOGA, Hemalayaa as recently seen on the cover of Yoga Journal and on the television program Ellen DeGeneres, Gopala Amir Yaffe from the Rainbow Kids, Sean Johnson Kirtan, and Etan Boritzer, author of the children’s book series What is God?. For more information about the Texas Conference, please go to www.texasyogaconference.com.

Collaboration of these four Houston yoga studios has brought the conference to life. The mission of TYC is to promote awareness of the spiritual tradition of yoga and to inspire the general public to learn more about yoga in its many forms. Experienced yoga practitioners and those new to yoga will come to experience differing styles of yoga and attend presentations by speakers from all over Texas and beyond. The people involved in the TYC understand that in order for yoga to make a difference in this world, it must be shared rather than held close by only a few elitists who wish to hoard its mysteries. Only when yoga is shared can the ideal of unification become a reality. Houston is a meritocracy of international people and a lovely representation of a city that understands, “We are one.”

Today there are approximately 30 yoga studios existing in the Houston area. The YTAH Membership is at nearly 150 teachers. There are probably twice as many teachers in Houston.

The Texas Yoga Conference is only one way that Houstonian yogis are unifying for a common cause. As of today, nearly every Houston area yoga studio will be participating in Breathecure®, a nonprofit organization also founded by Jennifer Buergermeister, to promote the art of conscious breathing. Breathecure® seeks to educate others on the many benefits of quality breathing, meditation and yoga. Future plans for Breathecure® include programs that teach the children in Houston area schools about the benefits of quality breathing and how to use the techniques in everyday life. Breathecure also intends to create, enhance and expand free programs for cancer patients and patients of other diseases, and for underprivileged populations. For more information about Breathecure, go to breathecure.org.

The Yoga Teachers Association of Houston, other organizations such as the founders of the Texas Yoga Conference and Breathecure, and local yoga studios envision bringing together a network of associations, yoga teachers, therapists and caregivers to promote well-being and unity consciousness. Some of the Texas Yoga Conference owners have recently signed with New York City’s leading yoga talent agency YAMA, owned by Texas born Yogini Ava Taylor, to take the talent of Texas on the road in a Texas Two-Stepping with Yoga Across America Tour to be launched in late summer of 2010.

Quality Breathing Can Change Your Life

Quality Breathing Can Change Your Life
By Jennifer Buergermeister © 2006

Do we understand the importance of a simple breath? To breathe means to process the air in-and-out of the lungs. Breath maintains our life and wellbeing. Breathing is the utilizing of oxygen that comes in with each wave of the breath. If you are living, you are breathing, yet are you breathing correctly? Less obvious is the importance of the quality of one’s breathing. That is, are you merely breathing on autopilot or are you consciously activating the diaphragm and expanding the lungs?

Respiration, the process of breathing, is the inhalation of oxygen into the chest and
diaphragm and the exhalation of carbon dioxide. The inhalation is essential for the delivery of oxygen throughout the entire body. If one does not get enough oxygen to meet the body's energy demand, it will result in the reduction or cessation of cellular functioning, which results in a decline of health. Most of us have experienced circumstances that have brought awareness squarely on the breath—its shallowness, rapidness, or depth.

Think about the last time you were angry, frightened, or nervous. Your breath, more
than likely, became short, rapid and shallow. That is, the inhale only went as far as the upper chest. You may have gasped, sighed relief, or exhaled a sob of grief. While exercising, the body requires more oxygen to meet the demands of muscle contraction.

Oftentimes, during one’s workout, the breath will be shallow, short, and rhythmic. By
contrast, a yoga class promotes long, deep, rhythmic breathing—lung expansive and diaphragmatic respiration. The result is a state of calm and relaxation.

Diaphragmatic breathing focuses on lung expansion into the lower areas of the lung,
which are often neglected and the location of trapped stale air. Fully exhaling the stale air from the basement of the lungs allows for the reinvigoration of new,fresh, oxygen-rich air to flood the capillaries and then to be delivered throughout the body. In addition, the organs receive a much welcomed massage from the activity of diaphragmatic breathing.

This type of diaphragmatic breathing pushes the abdominal organs down and forward,
boosting circulation and enhancing functionality of the organs within the abdominal cavity.

Also, diaphragmatic breathing is a therapeutic tool for common health concerns, such as hypertension, a leading cause of heart disease. Furthermore, it promotes proper lymphatic propulsion and drainage within the body. Oxygen is what produces the energy to pump the lymph through the lymphatic vessels. Full, conscious breathing alleviates anxiety, which has been found to be a common denominator in mortality rates found in America.

I think we inherently know how important it is to breathe, but are we paying
attention to how vital it is to do it properly? We are familiar with the phrases, “When you’re nervous, stop and take a deep breath” or “Before your react, take 10 deep breaths.”

However, many do not know that breath is often referred to as spirit. The Latin word
spiritus means breath. When we realize that breath is spirit, doesn’t it take on a whole new meaning for us to breathe? As a baby, we enter life with a first inhale, letting spirit enter into the body, and when we die we take our last exhale, where spirit leaves the body to continue on its journey.

The autonomic nervous system consists of two systems: sympathetic and parasympathetic. The two subsystems work together to regulate the body, including heart rate. The sympathetic system accelerates heart rate and the parasympathetic nervous system slows the heart rate down. Finding the quality of breath and learning to control the breath brings the parasympathetic nervous system into balance with the sympathetic nervous system. Balance is the key.

When the sympathetic nervous system is activated, heart rate increases and blood
flow is restricted to the organs. Instead, blood is sent to the limbs to response to the fight or flight mechanism. Upper chest breathing caused by stress then triggers the sympathetic nervous system into overdrive.

The energy needed throughout physical activity to discharge accumulated energy during stress, if not met, will lead to anxiety. When this happens, anxiety is perpetuated by continuous arousal which usually results in states of irritability or even hyperventilation, adrenal exhaustion, and not to mention a lack of blood flow to the vital organs.

Studying the interrelationship between emotions, breath, and the autonomic nervous
system could bring valuable insights to the prevention and treatment to a number of stress-related diseases.

Learning and practicing mindful meditation, pranayama, and proper diaphragmatic
breathing , which expands the chest while contracting the abdominal muscles, are found toachieve the best results intended by the autonomic nervous system in the body.

To conclude, breathing is easy, but it may not be enough. Quality, conscientious
breathing will provide many health benefits to our mind-bodies and prevent long-term celland tissue damage. Learning to breathe properly may ultimately save your life.

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Skirt Magazine Interview with Jenny Buergermeister

What makes Jennifer Buergermeister so skirt!? Goddess energy, of course! The owner of Jennyoga, she explains that her Mecca of Zen is all about “Shakti, which specializes in the empowerment of people with courage, love and hope.” A creative and expansive force, Shakti is “the look” a woman gives her husband when he passes a sarcastic remark about her growing waistline and the gaze of the lioness as a predator stalks her helpless cubs. You really don’t want to mess with Shakti. From her, the Eternal Mother, all life originates. Yuj, or yoga, realizes the unity of all things and it integrates the masculine with the feminine to promote balance. I feel our world seeks balance by calling forth the feminine, which has been lost for several thousand years, and to heal the wounded male archetype. (Note: This has nothing to do with being or not being a feminist.)

My studio is dedicated to cultivating the “warrior energy” inside of each of us by teaching others to remember that spiritually, love is the real motivation of our lives. A warrior is not a soldier of war; a warrior is one who stands for truth and integrity, who loves without fear, and who leads a life of service and sharing. A warrior is creative in motion, exists in the flow, and is courageous in tribulation. Most importantly, the warrior truly knows that he/she is worthy and has much to be grateful for. Being a warrior also requires faith.

Paulo Coelho said in his book Warrior of the Light, “Angels help him in his struggle; celestial forces place each thing in its place, thus allowing him to give it his best…His companions say: ‘He’s so lucky!’ And the warrior does sometimes achieve things far beyond his capabilities. That is why, at sunset, he kneels and gives thanks for the Protective Cloak surrounding him.”

I am a fan of Skirt magazine because it empowers its readers to live with passion, courage, and inspiration. As a “feminine” magazine, Skirt promotes the feminine Shakti energy of creation or power. Shakti teaches us how to flow with grace. Grace is the flow of spirit that emanates from the heart. There is a distinct difference between flowing and being stagnant. Vinyasa, which is Shakti yoga flow, teaches that stagnation is impossible when you are one with the spirit. The words spirit and breath share the same root and essentially mean the same thing. Quality breathing helps to open the stagnant channels in the body and to promote the healthy flow. So if we breathe, it becomes possible that the spirit can cure any emotional, physical, spiritual or mental blockage. That is why I developed Breathe the Cure™ - people helping people to remember they are made from love by offering it through the service of love. I believe in possibilities!

How about letting go of fear—the fear of failure or of not being good enough? How about facing our fears and doubts so that we can live the life we have always dreamed to live! Why wait for dis-ease or trauma to get the bigger picture of what is really important?

Cancer is on the rise. Jennyoga is dedicated to empower patients and families through the journey of cancer from diagnosis to treatment and beyond. I created Breathe the Cure™ (Breathecure) as a foundation to support others and to find programs, which will lead them to health and stress-reduction. Breathe the Cure™ is currently seeking nonprofit status with the IRS, which will enable us to create free yoga and healing art programs that allow people to try something totally new, such as yoga, pranayama, Qi Gong, and meditation. All of which can ultimately lead to the greatest adventure of all – an inner journey to the very depths of one’s being; the discovery of the higher Self.

Along the way one will cultivate a higher sense of Self, a more pronounced sense of purpose. People have the tendency to look outside of themselves for satisfaction. This leads to a never-ending search where one finds nothing but emptiness because real fulfillment is not “out there”--it thrives within. I have found in my journey that wholeness is found and created from within. It is not to be found outside the Self. The thirst for wholeness is quenched by the springs of the universal being. Then, that unique fabric of the Self connects to the great tapestry of the universe. The being of self communes with the greater source and all becomes fused as one.

Faction leads us astray, as human beings, from reaching our full spiritual potential—spirits to learn, laugh, grow, play, and cry. As the old saying goes, we are spiritual beings having a human experience. I think it is important to know that we are here to realize life is full of light and darkness. They both exist to recognize the other: Shiva and Shakti, or the Yin and the Yang. Or let me put it like this! Sometimes our hearts break so that God’s tear can slip inside to fill it with love and compassion so that we may someday help someone who is similarly bereaved. Life isn’t necessarily always supposed to be a walk in the park. How much would we learn if it were? Would we likely ever come to know the depths of our own being?

I moved to Houston in 1980 so I feel like a native Houstonian. High school was crazy. I will leave it at that. We had a lot of fun and I love my friends. We are a solid community still supportive and in regular communication with each other. I am fortunate.

I lived in Mexico City for three years where I studied Spanish and worked in television. Then I returned to Houston to attend college at UH. I was very attracted to knowledge, yoga, the healing arts, anthropology, and psychology thanks to the inspiration of three fantastic teachers.

The late Dr. Michael Doran became like my second father and, in my opinion, was unfairly relieved of his position as an adjunct professor because it seems that he was too inspirational! Of one of the greatest minds I have ever known, his love for his students and our love for him caused quite the stir among the university officials who refused to create a GEOGRAPHY program for us to learn more. We campaigned, no one listened. Why wouldn’t we have geography programs in our colleges? You know, I did a survey on campus of well over 200 people and most of them had no idea whether South America was above or below Mexico. Don’t get me started, it makes me silly!

Dr. Roger Maley, whose passions of Transpersonal Psychology also lead me to where I am today. He introduced me to the writings of Shakti Gawain, Joan Borysenko, and Carl Jung. From his class and these texts, I began to think more deeply about the mind/body/spirit connection.
Dr. Lloyd Swenson fed me great knowledge about the history of science in his honor’s class, which encouraged me to become a huge quantum physics buff! I am fascinated by what physics says about our universe and our existence in it. I got lucky. I have met many who don’t even remember college, let alone a professor they had that inspired them.

I worked for ABC for a year, and then I transferred over to Health Media Network where I met two fantastic people – Carrie Woliver and Dr. Keith Robinson. They taught me so much about friendship and living your dreams with love, truth, and passion. Their friendship ironically foreshadowed the union that I made in 2004, eight years later, with Bruce Cameron, my current business and life mission partner. Bruce survived cancer and is a devout yoga student who I met when he could barely touch his toes. Now, he is standing on his head! Bruce has a protective set of wings over me. I feel their comfort and cherish his support, faith and dedication. Keith and Carrie had the same spiritual connection. Weird!

Then, beyond college and into early adulthood, my late husband became my greatest teacher of all. Experiencing grief is no doubt one of the most challenging and life-changing experiences. The irony is that it, too, can be an “opportunity” to discover who we are, what’s important and what is real. No one can predict life's sudden turns. I learned that being grateful is an essential key – grateful for the good and the bad. We never really know what will come of the lesson. I constantly asked, “Why? What am I here to do? What have I learned from this?” I didn’t stop asking until I got clarity. If we do not synthesize “the learnings” life—the lessons—then denial and repression can fragment our very being. Not to put this too simply, but I’ve experienced that fragmentation can lead to victimization.

I was once betrayed by a “friend” in a business deal. It’s scary what a victim will do once given the opportunity to strike their venom. Usually attacking the one closest to them, they wait until you’re “weak” and strike their fangs right into the jugular. It’s never fun to have a friend do that, especially when you just lost your husband. However, I understand that our experiences with others teach us many important lessons. Sometimes it is just time for them to go away because paths change. And rather than becoming bitter, I have learned how to become a true friend. I now see who my real friends are and how to tell the difference by observing behaviors more closely. Real friends feed, they do not take.

But even our enemies can be our friends if you can find “the learnings.” Actually, one of my favorite books is The Little Soul and the Sun, a children’s story written by Neale Donald Walsch. It addresses soulful contracts that aren’t always fun and easy lessons. How can we learn to be forgiving if we have no one to forgive? The book says that souls come here to teach each other lessons of life – sometimes learning involves friction! How else could we get moving?

First of all, I have been to hell. And I mean that seriously. Losing a loved one feels like having your heart ripped out of your chest. There were moments during and after the shock of my husband dying, that I thought to myself, “If there is a hell, this is it.” I remember thinking once that if all the phantoms and demons in the universe suddenly faced me and said the most horrific, terrible things to me, that I would look at them with my “Shakti” gaze and say, “You can’t scare me or take me, I am already there.” That was a profound experience for me. I’ve had numerous “other-worldly” or mystical experiences, even with things most people can’t see nor do they want to see, had a few epiphanies, and then I lost fear. It was so strange. Bad dreams stopped, guilt and shame were no longer my own to carry. I faced the demons and chose love.
I found love in my heart for those that I have blamed in the past or could not forgive for leaving me. It’s as if I understood the realness of every parable of Jesus, and of all the poems of Rumi, or the teachings of Buddha, and every other great mind and/or prophet who ever walked this Earth. They all fundamentally said the same thing: Where there is fear, love cannot be. Ok, I got it! Think about it. All of the “great ones” overcame their fears. Isn’t that why we should go to the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights? It’s a metaphor for losing fear! You have to face the beasts to overcome their temptations.

Mind you this awareness did not happen overnight, but I am certainly in a different place now. I have learned that sometimes we compress in order to later expand. In those moments of compression, the real gem of learning is being formed. Some of the greatest writers and poets were some of the most depressed people on the planet, and many of them quite eccentric. Introspection and reflection are indeed tools for developing deeper cosmic and spiritual awareness. That is, in essence, how yoga saved my life.

Twenty five pounds too skinny, lying on the couch one day for a nap, which was the only sleep that I endured after my husband crossed over, I fell into a place between sleeping and waking. Then out of nowhere a voice much like my own screamed at me from somewhere inside and outside my head, “Get up and go to yoga NOW!”

I jumped up completely alert yet confused. But I listened. I went to the phone book and found a yoga studio that looked like it would be interesting and began a hot, sweaty yoga class. After two near death experiences on my mat, I began to feel better and soon afterwards I began to eat again, evidently a necessary component to remaining healthy and alive. At that time, sun gazing wasn’t on my list of skills, or even within my scope of understanding, for survival. And I still am not sure if I would rely on that method today – yogini or not.

I am content with she who eventually came out of the abyss of re-identification. A friend once painted on canvas for me a butterfly coming out of a deep cave in the ground. Surfacing, with fairy dust twinkling on its wings, it flew out from the heart of an Angel to the light above, returning to life. And then he painted another one of a broken egg shell resting on a window seal decorated with red curtains, and from the egg was a trail of the same fairy dust which indicated that the butterfly had “hatched” from its shell and was flying along a lovely passageway paved with trees – heading on a journey.

The butterfly, specifically the blue morpho, became my mascot and symbol. The blue morpho is vibrantly blue on one side, and on the other, it looks like an owl, with yellow eyes, and full ears—an adapted survival trait, one that preserves the Self. Once airborne, it has only a two-week lifespan. It goes through many stages to become that beautiful, fluttering butterfly, to experience the freedom of flight, and then to die shortly thereafter. Its determination to live and to be beautiful from the inside-out amazes me as it moves through each stage of its development: larvae, caterpillar, cocoon, butterfly. And in the last stage of its transformation, there is the struggle.

The struggle is to squeeze out of the cocoon through a tiny hole which helps the butterfly develop its wings so that it will begin to fly. I think we are all butterflies. We just need to be aware that struggles can help us to grow our wings and fly. What a beautiful metaphor for ascension and transformation!

Needing a sabbatical in 2001, I quickly sold my house in the Montrose to move to a farm in Rosehill, TX. I was grief-stricken then and I realize now that I had to return to the cocoon where I could re-identify with myself and ask the serious questions. Who is Jennifer? What does Jennifer stand for in life? Who do I want to become and how can I be the love that I want to be?

The answer that came to me said, “Serve. Then you’ll see.” The guidance to serve has been right for me - love people, serve and help others and everything inside begins to come together.
I am sure that my early years were more about being served than serving. I am an only child, a leo...should I go on? But my heart has always been good, just a little misguided, like the hearts of many a youth. If I fell, I would always get back up, dust my knees off and keep marching. That is me. I have experienced a lot of things walking in the gusty winds of my own ego. And I see others who are walking in it now.

Yoga has really helped me see that I am no longer so attached to my ego. The ego is what often leads us into trouble. Ahhh, and I have learned patience. Something I did not really have before. I like to say that I discipline the ego well with yoga and service. It keeps me humble and on my watchful guard not to slip into the perks of me, me, me. I think my students and friends would agree that I do not judge and I am one who believes in humility without losing personal power.
I think that we have been beaten up enough, ironically, mostly by ourselves. That never really gets us very far. That is why I am also against working for companies who use fear tactics to manage their employees. It serves no one. Not even their company in the long run. Karma always has a way of coming back. And sometimes the bigger we are, the harder we fall. I try to remain humble so as to keep the forces of lower vibrations from scratching and shrieking at my desire and intent to remain peaceful and centered. I want to be a peaceful warrior, not one who stomps and yells and uses force, manipulation and tyranny to get outcomes. Does that make sense to spirit? It wounds the spirits of all involved. And yes, I have had that experience too—expectations to serve without being fed anything in return. Hey, that’s slavery and a very old way of doing business!

I believe in standing up for truth and kindness. We don’t have to beat each other up to make things work. That’s how I run my studio and manage my teachers, and so far so good. My troops are laughing, smiling and marching forward into becoming the greatest teachers that they can be. They are warriors too! Most importantly, they are doing so with honor. We are a very loving community always available to help each other through the good times and the rough times. My teachers are my Angels and they know I am always here for them! We do not teach an exercise program. We teach what it is to practice YOGA! It is a way of life that embraces love and acceptance. I get a lot of feedback, but the one phrase variation that I get the most is that my students and teachers have light in their eyes and EVERYONE is kind. So if you are kind, come to Jennyoga, you’ll feel at home. I love that! I also like to think that it is a home for those who are ready for the next step in their practice beyond the physical.

Truth – I am known to speak it. I figure, “Here is my truth and if you don’t understand what I am sharing, then ask me to clarify.” I don’t mind. I know that no one can ever take my truth from me. I would prefer to die than conform to something that represses me from expressing who I am and what I love. There is so much fear in our world. We need friendships. Friends are generated when interesting discussions are brought forward with the premise that it is ok to be different. But love is universal. To find out if an action comes from love, ask this question: is it for the highest good of all and is it ecologically beneficial for the planet?

I think we fear that which we do not understand. Therefore again, I am dedicated to people who are ready to release fear so that they can find happiness—so that they can live, love and laugh at a deeper level. The deeper you go, the more space you find to fill. Of course this is all experiential, quite gestalt really, and until you start the journey, it is somewhat esoteric. Like anything, you don’t know until you know. And the journey begins when you desire to know another way, and it usually hooks you pretty fast. Most of my students would agree. We have choices. What do you choose to lead your life?

Again, my greatest teacher was my late husband. But recently I have learned a new kind of love – and that is the love for and from a child. One of my students introduced me to a widower several years ago. We became good friends and then best friends. I fell in absolute love with his daughter, Claire, who is an only child, full of spirit. She lost her mother at two years old or so, just a few months after I was widowed in 2001. Last week, because I mentioned that I love roses, she convinced her father, my BFF, to go and buy four rose bushes. She planted them into pots all by herself that Sunday afternoon. Knowing this, my heart filled up, penetrating into deep pockets that I didn’t even know existed. I can’t get the image out of my head of her potting those roses. The feeling is so peaceful and loving. I feel that she and I are great teachers for one another, each teaching what the other yearns, leading to other levels of love. A mother who she vaguely remembers died of cancer when she was just a baby. It must be difficult to not have a mother. She has indirectly brought me closer to my own mother. I am very grateful to know Claire.

Experience has taught me that it is important to let be what is. We are all here at different phases of our lives and stages of spiritual evolution. All of our experiences are different. No two lives are the same. And that is what I believe our Creator intended. WE are each emanations of the Creator’s desire to fulfill all possibilities. Who are we to judge such a Divine emanation? I think we have to remember what the prophets and saints have taught us – turn the cheek, love thy neighbor, let go and let love, be the change…

My yoga practice is pretty solid. But like anything, it is a journey. There is always a next step. I am not quite sure if we really ever master anything. Would we still be here if we did? I love my students, many of which are in my teacher trainings. I see great things in each of them and there is nothing more gratifying then seeing them blossom. It is the archetypal mother in me that is growing. I live to teach, share, and also learn from them.

I believe in quality of life versus quantity. As a lululemon ambassador in Houston, I only wear lululemon athletica to practice yoga. I shop at Whole Foods and Central Market. I prefer one organic big and juicy anything versus a lot of mediocrity. I have two bachelor’s degrees with honors, one a B.S. in psychology and the other, a B.A. in journalism. And I almost finished a third in Biology. I attended graduate school at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, hold a doctor of divinity degree from Spiritis Seminary, am a master and trainer of NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming), and studied Hypnosis and many other mind/body programs or techniques. I haven’t spent much time not pondering the universe or seeking to increase my knowledge base through study and experience. Yet, I know that I know nothing. And I am ok with that. What makes me most happy is working on projects, meeting people, and bringing the right people together to do good things for others. I love to be in the flow with spirit as a unit of like-minded folk interested in being the change we wish to see in the world. Connection! I like to feel connected. Those who cannot connect, I send love that they find a better way. They are missing the icing on the cake and the surprise out of the mystery of a synchronistic life.

I also work at MD Anderson and teach Hatha yoga in the Place…of wellness where I began as a volunteer over a year ago. I also volunteered at MD Anderson in College where I first pursued mind/body wellness. I am a volunteer for The Yoga Teachers Association of Houston and sit as Vice President [now president] on the Board of Directors. I also write their newsletter and help manage the calendar of special events as well.

Love has a way of making what it says come true. I believe in finding passion and courage. When we lose fear, the world opens up. Beautiful things happen. It's not always easy at first to stand in your truth because it seems to be a test of how much you actually believe in your truth and how grounded you are in it. It’s worth the battle. Be a warrior!

We invite members from the Houston community to drop in and say hello, share a green tea from our complimentary tea bar, and talk about yoga and the city’s recent expansion in pursuing the yogic path. Houston, a very international city, has a long history of philanthropy and a reputation for accepting and embracing all people and ideas, which makes Houston an embodiment of meritocracy. The number of people practicing yoga in the United States is increasing dramatically. In 1990 there were approximately three million people practicing yoga. In 2004, that number was up to 15 million.

As the research on yoga continues to grow with the Houston Medical Center being one of the leading research centers in the world, it is not surprising, based on the history of this city, that one day Houston may take the lead in developing key programs in health and wellness that other cities can model. Houston is becoming one of the most expansive cities in the United States in the promotion of yoga as a way of life and exercise. The reason is because Houston has always been open to the progressive ideas. Though yoga is ancient, its many benefits are now seriously being recognized.

As MD Anderson takes the lead locally in researching yoga and its complementary benefits in the treatment of cancer, Jennifer Buergermeister, owner of Jennyoga, founded the organization Breathecure™ to contribute in the promotion of cancer awareness and research of the benefits in quality breathing and yoga. Jennifer has recently published several articles on the subject of breath in Natural Awakenings Magazine and Icon Magazine. “Passionate, determined and focused, we hope to bring about the type of community awareness about dis-ease where people can share information and always gather what’s new, what’s different and what the experts are saying about the progression of dis-ease research.”

Jennyoga aspires to be an educational studio where anyone can come to learn more about the yogic tradition, prevention of dis-ease, and breath and wellness by “building bridges with yoga.” Jennifer said, “Yoga bridges the body with the mind, mind with heart, and heart with Spirit. We want Houston to be a bridge to the world with yoga and the healing arts.”

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