The Yoga Beat

Wisdom versus Knowledge: There is a difference

2011-11-04T16:26:00.001-07:00

Wisdom versus Knowledge:There is a differenceby Jennifer BuergermeisterKnowledge is the accumulation of facts and information. Wisdom is the synthesis of knowledge and experiences into insights that deepen one’s understanding of relationships and the meaning of life. In other words, knowledge is a tool, and wisdom is the craft in which the tool is used.Arrogance brought in by some accumulation of knowledge, may often lead us astray and into the ego - the building blocks of narcissism and the promotion of elitism. As the young and indignant, driven not by truth but by ego and inexperience, try to find their way, we watch the West unfold as it may in the name of Yoga. I was taught that we should always respect our teachers and to honor that which has been built often with great vision. On the rise is a lack of patience, originality and respect for others in our communities. Some simply function through the faculty of control using tactics from the art of war to divide and conquer in order to gain support by manipulating those who are too weak to think and act for themselves. They lack the ability to use logic or tell the difference between the need for control, power, and popularity versus genuineness with the best of intentions. There is also a strong tendency by some to project onto others fears often masked by a facade of having it all together as they mock the decency of others. It's the "who is the most popular kid on the playground" sort of behavior that we should have outgrown in middle school. Genuine people, especially wise ones, can typically see through the shadow attempts to veil the light and hard work of true innovation and leadership. Fear is the culprit. Manipulation is fed by fear. Speaking anger to another is fed by fear. Hurting another is fed by fear. Denying and using people for one's own gain is led by fear. Accusations unfounded are fed by fear. Stress surely doesn't help the process. Who hasn't said or done something stupid under pressure? If hormones are out of tune, the thyroid in particular, it is even harder to control emotions. Good thing is that we are not our behaviors and all things can be brought back in balance with a little practice and a sincere apology in most cases.The Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman is my favorite book turned motion picture honoring true wisdom through spiritual events comparing knowledge and wisdom. It also beatifully portrays the release of fear through the journey into no ordinary things. I highly recommend the reading and the movie!If the hearts of our communities were truly open rather than bound in fear of their own true authentic potential and/or shadow side, there wouldn't be this increase of superficiality by comparison and bitterness. The inexperienced and naive who are tapping only into the surface of who they truly are would soon realize wisdom simply can't be rushed. They wouldn't hurt others for their own gain. They wouldn't lie, manipulate or steal. They would be supportive and kind, honoring those who helped them along the way. Spirit knows that we do not have to knock each other down to get what we want.Wisdom understands that time and experience is indeed the true bringer of leadership. Wisdom also understands that we are all at different milestones along the path to realization and that we too were all once grasshoppers. Time and experience can bring all truth to realization as wisdom.Blessings on the path. Namaste'

In the Beginning...and we all began somewhere.

2011-10-18T17:00:00.000-07:00

In the beginning...and we all began somewhere.Any time is a good time for someone to find a well-suited yoga practice. I have heard students who found yoga later in life say how much they wish they would have found it sooner mainly because they begin to feel better about everything in such a short amount of time. I am one of those women and have dedicated my life to its pursuit. After years of experience with yoga, I now believe yoga actually pursued me. My friend Michele Hebert said the main principle in yoga is the spine. I agree. I have learned that a healthy nervous system is the key to a balanced life.Yoga and I met when I was 24 years old, which was 17 years ago in 2011. It was love at first sight. The philosophy resonated sweetness and hope in an uncertain world of a then young adult. I lived in Mexico City for three years and while there became interested in the history of Mexico and other ancient traditions such as Buddhism and yoga. Something resonated with me energetically about yoga’s inception. Maybe our nervous system is an antennae reaching to the universe, sending and receiving messages in accordance with the law of attraction? I could not escape yoga, nor did I want to. I liked the way it made me feel and feeling is also energy. The energy inspired me to delve deeper into knowing yoga and life, as we know, can bring many experiences to help us understand that which we seek.Why is yoga so AWEsome? 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 restricted to the organs is restricted. Instead, blood is sent to the limbs in response to the fight or flight mechanism. Breathing into the upper chest breathing is caused by stress which then triggers the sympathetic nervous system into overdrive. The energy needed throughout physical exertion to discharge energy accumulated during stress, if not met, will result in anxiety. When this happens, anxiety is perpetuated by continuous arousal of the sympathetic nervous system which results in states of irritability or even hyperventilation, adrenal exhaustion, and diminished blood flow to the vital organs. Studying the interrelationship between emotions, breath, and the autonomic nervous system could bring valuable insight to the prevention and treatment of many stress-related diseases. Learning and practicing mindful meditations, pranayama, and full diaphragmatic breathing, which expands the chest while contracting the abdominal muscles, are found to achieve the best results intended by the autonomic nervous system in the body. Becoming a widow at age 30, yoga empowered me to eventually believe in myself and refrain from slipping into the mindset of a victim. We have a choice to see the world through whatever shade of glasses. We decide whether we will be happy or not happy. Life and our experiences have a way of helping us synthesize and gather wisdom, especially when we have lost a loved one and also when we are or someone we love is faced with a diagnosis of disease.

FOX Interview with Jenny about Breathe the Cure

2011-10-18T16:55:00.001-07:00

2011-10-18T09:47:00.000-07:00

Just pull it together right?There are two sides in the union of balance which has been articulated by many different names over the years: the yin and the yang, the Shiva and the Shakti, light and darkness, as above so below. A polar opposite must exist to recognize the other, and together the opposites unite to make up what we know to be as life in balance and harmony. Man and woman represent the two sides of the same coin by their expression of yoking, or yoga. Yoga provides deep, analytical insight into the human body and energy field through anatomical evaluation of alignment and meridian flow. I like to express my art in yoga as an authentic expression of the body’s natural tendency to unwind if given the chance through fluidity and grace. Vinyasa flow yoga helps the body to let go of blockages using sound, vibration, intent and movement correlated and connected with the breath. The masculine is Shiva. Shiva is the containment of energy, often also seen as the void or point of singularity. Together the masculine and feminine represent the metaphor of rushing water in a river (Shakti) held by the beauty of its bank (Shiva) to manifest its primordial energy into the creation of life. Shiva and Shakti are inherently complementary and loving within the fabric of the universe and all of its creation. This book is a reflection of my life. It will often reflect each of the masculine and feminine viewpoints in how yoga can be expressed as an art and science where spirituality and the physical become one. We are all artists. We will learn that there are universal truths and how to facilitate energy flow. My intention is for all to see universal truth revealed through the practice of yoga. Yoga is experiential. I hope you enjoy the yin and yang concepts of yoga through my personal journey where I discovered the power of unity consciousness and oneness by simply paying attention.

Monday is my day of sharing as I work through the chapters of my new book! A Tell Tale of my heart's experiences in grief, yoga and community.

2011-10-16T11:34:00.000-07:00

Check back every Monday for a sample from Jenny's book! Please leave a post giving much appreciated feedback! I want to hear from you! :)

3's, 3's, Everywhere 3's!

2010-11-29T14:31:00.000-08:00

This pattern of threes occurred to me recently. Coincidence? Maybe, but you have to admit it is all pretty strange!

- My late husband died on July 12 (12 is a multiple of three), 2001 (a three year) - He was in his 32nd year. His birthday was 2/6/69
- Born 2/6/69. (lots of three multiples); I was in my 30th year, 18 days (multiple of 3) before my 31st birthday since it was after 5 p.m. that he died.

- We were married three years.

- My dad died on July 24 (a multiple of 3), 2010 (a three year). He was only 66. (33 doubled and a multiple of 3) His birthday was 11/16/43

- Husband and dad died 12 days apart both in a 3 year and in July. (2001/2010)

- According to the Kabbalistic teachings, my dad's tikkun and my husband's tikkun were polar opposites making them relative to each other in very unique ways.

- And last but not least - my grandfather had three heart attacks.

Just because...

2010-11-29T07:20:00.000-08:00

Just because you do what is "right" does not mean for certain others will think that you have done anything at all.

What does this statement mean? Does it mean that we should do what is right anyway, like Mother Teresa said? Does it mean not to try at all so that others give up hope? If we do good and it goes unrecognized, isn't that the highest form of service to God?

Vow not to waste energy on that which we cannot control. What we can control is what we do and our intentions behind every action. In other words, it is what we do that matters and the essence of being driving the actions. Jealousy, greed, power and pride can only lead to trouble, if not with others but ourselves in the long run.

Here is one of my favorite writings by Mother Teresa:

People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway.

What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.

Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway.

In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.

-this version is credited to Mother Teresa

Hamsa - I am That.

2010-11-22T09:12:00.000-08:00

As some of you may have noticed, or will notice, our CuraYoga Studios in Houston have a lot of Hamsa symbols hanging around. You may have also noticed that our new logo has the Hamsa contained within it as well. You may also be asking yourself, “Why?”

I have loved this symbol for many years. I remember painting it once in my twenties in the center of a storm using free association and abstract. Not only am I an eighth Syrian (bet you didn’t know or probably care about that either) but I have great reverence for the Qabalah, Huna and many other the ancient, esoteric teachings which all seem to be saying the same thing – unity consciousness, find balance, etc – each seemingly yogic in its roots. This symbol has been portrayed in India for roughly 5000 years and all over the middle eastern world for at least 3000 years. When pointed down, it often represents the feminine (receiving). When pointed up, it represents the masculine (giving). Giving and receiving in balance, and with authenticity, is one of the greatest and often tricky lessons we can learn.

How do we give and receive authentically? Through higher consciousness. We give without needing recognition or reciprocation. We should take or receive with kindness and awe - not so much because it is expected, but because we are grateful.

Since I enjoy observing my universe, I once watched a lady at the Unity Church bookstore stand over a table used to promote a newly released book on spirituality. I could sense she was contemplating whether or not she should buy the book. I watched her walk away and return to the table many times. She would pick up the book and put it down, and more than once checked the price. I finally went over to the table, grabbed one of the books, and purchased it.

I will never forget her face when I handed her the bag with the book inside. I told her, “This book wants you to read it.” I gave her a hug and walked away. It felt so good to give her that book without expectation or acknowledgment. I suggest everyone try this at least once. I bet they will do it again and again! The satisfaction of giving awe to another human being is truly priceless.

We should be generous, without being foolish. Learn to receive without the need for taking. Balance and harmony are the ingredients to a good life. Flow yoga for life helps us to work with the law of least effort and to feel our intuition at play. It’s all about the feelings. I tell you, there have been many times that I have gone with things because it felt right and it didn’t work out. But later I realize it DID work out, just not in the way that I had expected. Our gut guides us well. We should learn to trust it!

The lesson then becomes about losing expectation, which brings us to the law of attachment. Can you love without expectation? Can you give without expectation? Can you receive without feeling guilty? Can you be in relationships that are not possessive? Have you ever formed a bond that survives only on your unhealed wounds? Can you help others without feeding their wounds? My training in NLP taught me a lot about resourceful states and using consoling/empathy. As hard as it is for us, it is not considered healthy to touch others when they are in less than a resourceful state, especially during anger or a pity party.

Life is complicated. We were taught so many things that seem to make life more complicated. However, just like the great rishis, we can burn through the veils that keep us asleep through practices such as meditation and yoga. Awareness to your life is essential to living with the law of potentiality. There are only possibilities when you meet in “the field.” Once your mind grasps onto this awareness, the world will be like an opening oyster. Going with it, not against the grain of potentiality and least effort is the key. The signs will tell you WRONG WAY if you are heading against the grain. And as I have often said, it speaks through intuition felt in the gut.

Let our lives be one of bliss and gratitude. We are in this web of life together regardless if we feel alone or not. The illusion of separation tells us that we contribute nothing to the greater scheme of things. I always remind myself that if we came from a pulsating prick of light or point of singularity called the big bang, which many do, then we can never be truly separated.

In 1982 at the University of Paris, a research team led by physicist Alain Aspect performed what may turn out to be one of the most important experiments of the 20th century. Never did we hear about this discovery on the evening news which is too busy talking about politics and doom. In fact, unless you are in the habit of reading scientific journals, you probably have never even heard Aspect's name. Some even believe his discovery may change the face of science. Aspect and his researchers discovered that under certain circumstances subatomic particles such as electrons are able to instantaneously communicate with each other regardless of the distance separating them when sliced. It doesn't matter whether the electrons are eight feet or 10 billion miles apart, they communicate simultaneously.

David Bohm, a famous scientist of holograms, believes the reason subatomic particles are able to remain in communication with one another regardless of the distance separating them is not because they are sending some sort of mysterious signal back and forth, but because their separateness is an illusion. He argues that at some deeper level of reality such particles are not individual entities, but are actually extensions of the same fundamental something.

Hamsa means I am That. I am That is everything in the manifest universe. In yogic philosophy it is the Shakti.

The meaning of the Hamsa

This symbol appears to have originated in the Middle East or possibly in India, where it is also found; however it is most well-known and popular in the Middle East. A similar symbol has a blue eye in the center of hand, also intended to protect from the evil eye or ward off evil spirits.

The Hamsa is usually worn as a charm or talisman, but also appears either directly painted on walls or can be found as a plaque. Additionally, it is hung over doors and windows. People tend to believe that the Hamsa is protecting them. Many claim it gives them the security and a valuable belonging to trust on. This fact gives people the power needed to success and destroy obstacles like Ganesha. One explanation for the symbol is that it is designed to ward off the evil eye. Some associate the significance of the five fingers to the five books of the Torah for Jews, the Five Pillars of Islam for Sunnis, or the five People of the Cloak for Shi’ites.

Numerically it represents change or change to come. It can also represent the five directions: east, west, north, south and the sky/ether. The word Hamsa has so many symbolic meanings just like the metaphors we use to explain the cosmos and life’s emanations.

Hamsa ("swan/gander") - apart from the literal meaning, this term also refers to the breath (prâna) as it moves within the body; the individuated consciousness (jîva) propelled by the breath (jîva-âtman or parama-hamsa).

Hamsa also functions as the movement of energy. The Shakti (power) of Hamsa is also a vehicle for the Ashwins, which are prana and apana in the yogic teachings. The link between Hamsa Shakti prana and breath is a powerful and consistent theme. Hamsa contains another gift when reversed - the rhythm of sound is reversed, ham-sa becomes sa-ham. The meaning of Sa'ham is I am She. I can breathe and identify with the Goddess, with She who initiated sound by setting the universe and cosmos in motion.

Archaeological evidence suggests the Hamsa predates both religions of Islam and Judaism. It is thought by some to have originated with the Phoenicians to honor Tanit, a patron of Carthage. Research shows that the Hamsa is a symbol that has been around for thousands of years. There are several styles for the Hamsa hand, the double thumbs symmetrical with three centered fingers held up in the middle, and a second prominent variation showing all five digits of the hand.

Today the Hamsa design in used in numerous variations. One of these variations is the wall blessing. The wall blessing is a piece of ceramics or a silver plate that’s hanging on the wall next to the front door of a private home or a business. Believers and non-believers alike wear it because they enjoy the thoughtful handmade designs that Hamsa jewelry usually exhibit and has become a widely recognized symbol across the globe.

Just remember, “I am That.” Cause you are so shakti! Namaste’

Jenny

Live. Breathe. Do Yoga.

CuraYoga, Jennyoga, Breathecure, Texas Yoga Association
ONE Yoga USA, Texas Yoga Conference
3641-C Westheimer Rd.
Houston, TX 77027
713.839.9642
jennifer@jennyoga.com

The Texas Yoga Conference

2010-10-01T13:17:00.000-07:00

Register for the Texas Yoga Conference by clicking the link below:

http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07e2ypxd4n5e135be3&llr=oophzybab

Katalin Axmann Wellness Retreats

2010-09-05T16:15:00.000-07:00

“The Day Retreat” with Katalin Axmann

September 25th, 2010 Saturday
La Torreatta Del Lago Resort & Spa

Resort: Montgomery, Texas. Just an hour north of downtown Houston, nestled along the shores of beautiful Lake Conroe, La Torretta Lake Resort & Spa is a Texas resort a world apart from the bustle of city life and a unique gem blending modern luxury and Texas comfort. The resort & spa provides students with an unforgettable vacation experience with its very own Aqua Park, La Terre Spa, a sandy beach is located on a quiet lake inlet and a marina which offers numerous water-based activities ranging from fishing and kayaking to jet skiing.

For more information on this resort, please visit:
http://www.latorrettalakeresort.com/

Yoga & Wellness: “The Day Retreat” starts in the morning with three hours of invigorating yoga practice which incorporates elements of Hatha, Iyengar, and Vinyasa yoga. Open to all levels, consisting of “asanas” which deeply cleanses and revitalizes. Additionally, it specifically stimulates organs responsible for organic detoxification including the liver, intestine and kidneys. In these fun and energizing classes we will explore everything from the “bandhas” to arm balances while cultivating the fundamentals of maintaining natural alignment within the practice. After a nurturing meal for lunch, we will have a three hour breathing and meditation workshop. You will learn how to meditate properly, thereby overcoming emotional turbulence and the mind’s restless activity into profound peace and extended awareness. Kat welcomes all levels of experience. Her teaching is shared in a supportive environment that invites exploration and encourages development and growth. For more information, please visit the website: www.yogawithkat.com

Spa: Pick your pleasure at Spa Terre with a 20% discount! The complimentary Hamam at SpaTerre provides a unique and relaxing experience. Representative of a component of traditional bath houses, the steamy, eucalyptus-filled Hamam helps improve circulation and clean the body from harmful toxins.

Price:

$ 110/person

Includes light breakfast, lunch, six hours of yoga instruction, taxes and gratuity.

Registration Form

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“The Weekend Retreat” with Katalin Axmann

October 22nd - 24th, 2010 Friday to Sunday
La Torretta del Lago Resort and Spa

Resort: Montgomery, Texas. Just an hour north of downtown Houston, nestled along the shores of beautiful Lake Conroe, La Torretta Lake Resort & Spa is a Texas resort a world apart from the bustle of city life and a unique gem blending modern luxury and Texas comfort. The resort & spa provides students with an unforgettable vacation experience with its very own Aqua Park, La Terre Spa, a sandy beach is located on a quiet lake inlet and a marina which offers numerous water-based activities ranging from fishing and kayaking to jet skiing.

For more information on this resort, please visit:
http://www.latorrettalakeresort.com/

Yoga & Wellness: Meet and greet the day with morning sessions of breathing and meditation which will move you beyond the mind’s busy activity and emotional turbulence into profound peace and expanded awareness. Through invigorating yoga workshops, we will practice elements of Hatha, Iyengar and Vinyasa yoga which will give you the knowledge of true alignment and adjustment. In these fun and energizing classes we will explore everything from the “bandhas” to arm balances while revitalizing the immune system, the body and the happiness pathways. Kat’s popular restorative yoga sessions will also be offered in the evenings. These classes will focus on relaxing the body in restful poses, relieving fatigue and stress, promoting well-being, and bringing healing balance into your life. Kat welcomes all levels of experience and her teaching is shared in a supportive environment that invites exploration and encourages development and growth.

•2 three hour invigorating yoga workshop

•2 two hour restorative yoga

•Two hour breathing practice

•Two hour meditation practice

For more information, please visit: www.yogawithkat.com

Menu: Freshly prepared breakfast, lunch and dinner that offers all the necessary nutrients to fully nourish the body while supporting gentle cleansing.

Free time: Nap on the sunny, warm, and secluded beach, swim in the refreshing waters of the Aqua Park, indulge in a therapeutic massage. If you enjoy sports, La Torretta Del Lago Resort & Spa offers boating, kayaking, and jet skiing along with tennis and miniature golf.

Spa: Pick your pleasure at Spa Terre with a 20% discount! The complimentary Hamam at SpaTerre provides a unique and relaxing experience. Representative of traditional bath houses, the steamy, eucalyptus-filled Hamam helps improve circulation and clean the body from harmful toxins.

Price:

Single occupancy: $700
Double occupancy: $550

Includes 14 hours of yoga, breathing and meditation instruction. Accommodation for Friday and Saturday night, access to Aqua Park, all meals, gratuity and tax.

Registration Form

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“The Day Retreat” with Katalin Axmann

December 5th, 2010 Sunday
Omni Hotel Riverway-Mokara Spa

Resort: Discover a luxurious oasis at the Omni Houston Hotel. Situated on impeccably manicured grounds, the Houston Galleria hotel features the finest in Houston accommodations; two outdoor swimming pools and the Mokara Spa and Ceron Salon.

For more information on this resort, please visit: http://www.omnihotels.com/FindAHotel/Houston.aspx

Yoga & Wellness: “The Day Retreat” starts in the morning with a three hour of invigorating yoga practice which incorporates elements of Hatha, Iyengar, and Vinyasa yoga. Open to all levels, consisting of “asanas” which deeply cleanses and revitalizes. Additionally, it specifically stimulates organs responsible for organic detoxification including the liver, intestine and kidneys. In these fun and energizing classes we will explore everything from the “bandhas” to arm balances while cultivating the fundamentals of maintaining natural alignment within the practice. After a nurturing meal for lunch, we will have a three hour breathing and meditation session. You will learn how to meditate properly, thereby overcoming emotional turbulence and the mind’s restless activity into profound peace and extended awareness. Kat welcomes all levels of experience. Her teaching is shared in a supportive environment that invites exploration and encourages development and growth. For more information, please visit the website: www.yogawithkat.com

Spa: Pick your pleasure at Mokara Spa with a 20% discount! Nestled on a knoll, overlooking twelve park acres, the spa offers a full menu of spa services sure to rejuvenate and invigorate the senses. You may try a soothing facial, body treatment, massage, manicure or pedicure after your yoga sessions.

Price:

$ 110/person

Includes light breakfast, lunch, six hour yoga instruction, taxes and gratuity

Bees and Bridges

2010-09-01T05:56:00.001-07:00

Bees and Bridges

To bee, or not to bee. Many of us asked this question recently at the ITP Summer Seminar 2010 in Los Gatos, CA. "Bees and Bridges" were the underlying theme for me during our 3rd year opening. There were various symbols that connected a few of us with pivotal moments of irony, encouraging us to build a bridge between ideas and confidence in order to deepen our personal work through experiential learning. Half of the seminar was spent in intellectual pursuit in the classroom. During the other half, we were allowed to put wisdom into the world through listening to others, hearing their stories, applying yoga to life, and considering the metaphors around us in a sanctuary environment. We spent most of our time in groups, mainly configuring the dynamics of our entrance into the research portion of our doctorates. What was amazingly profound for me was not so much the content of the seminar, but the connections that were made with my fellow classmates, the opportunities to reflect as we listened to the backgrounds and pursuits made by others, and the intensity of synchronicities. Bees and Bridges - from frenzy toward building heart liaisons - is the metaphor I took home.

How were bees and bridges important to a spiritual deepening during our time together in Los Gatos? In reflection I realized that I was learning to align, attune and be. After losing my father just a few weeks prior to this trip, it could not be mistaken for coincidence the way the theme of bees and bridges wove into the seminar. It was one of the most heartfelt purposeful trips that I have experienced in a long time.

I met a lady who most probably is a cousin from my dad's side of the family, aligning my heart with my papa's through the mutual family name - two daughters desiring to be closer to their Bridges fathers who have both crossed over. Iishana Artra and Jennifer Buergermeister are really Elizabeth Bridges and Jennifer Bridges by birth. Our fathers come from the same area of the United States born just miles from each other in Kentucky and Ohio. Iishana had made a pledge to pursue family from her dad's side just before the seminar. My heart was sensing my father's love from the spirit realm. Thinking of him often, I found myself missing him greatly.

In my devotion, I recently petitioned for bids to hand carve a totem pole in honor of the Bridges Family and my father. My dad and I had discussed making a Bridges totem together before he died but with his decline in health, we never had the chance. The union of two Bridges gals in a mutual Ph D program was sweet and synchronistic. I feel blessed to gain a cousin, even a sister and friend, on the mission to put wisdom of the heart to work not only in the world, but in the grieving process.

Iishana was stung by a bee on the first day of class. She also took this picture above to the right a few days before she left for the seminar. Notice the synchronicity? To the left is my 2007 photo from my DVD Red Hot Yoga.

Ironically, the book that I brought to the seminar for leisurely reading (yea right) was The Shamanic Way of the Bee by Simon Buxton. A I will discuss later in detail, one of our amazing professors, Ana Perez-Chisti, mentioned to us after the seminar a story about bees in a lecture she gave in Northern San Francisco that Sunday. "Cuz" Artra and I knew that we had to attend Ana's Sufism lecture.

We rented a car and drove to the event on a beautiful day in northern California. We were "bee-ing" in the moment and flowing with grace.

Our cohorts, each containing about 15 Ph D students, were given nicknames the first day of seminar. My Cohort A was determined to be an abbreviation for aligning and attuning; and Iishana's Cohort B stood for being and bees.

At Ana's lecture, yet another "coincidence", she used a personal story and metaphor about bees and their buzzing vibration differences which evidently depends on if they are a domestic bee or a feral bee. Domestic bees have a sound that is low in pitch with longer and wider frequency waves like a cello, providing placidity and harmony within the colony. The feral bees are high pitched, and seem urgent. They can easily represent the sign of our times and the change in modern human dynamics.

The queen bee, the mother and soul of the bees, directs the hive to be community and produce the nectar that feeds and nurtures us. I left feeling great reverence for the bees and the synchronicities, the mother energy, realizing there must be much to explore about their existence to awaken our spirit. I am determined to read the book about the shamanic way of the bees right away.

Bees represent the importance of connection; and through metaphor bridge us to our Sufi hearts, the essence of constant change and impermanence that is in tune with nature. Ana Perez-Christi shared with us on Sunday that it is the light we must face, not the window itself and how it is shining through capturing the light. Instead, we must stop looking at the form alone and observe the light in its truest form. The light simply is.

The concentration of light brings being and form. But it is not permanent.
Ana made me think about how dangerous it is for us to continue veiling the underlying mysticism underneath the skin and bones, cities, and other complex realities as systems that we form all around us. We must learn to be rather than to do, letting our capacity to shift into new realities open our hearts to change. Shifting from shit to sure became a joke phrase between many of us. We discussed the importance of standing in truth and being sure that you represent well what you say, and own it. Everything we do, we should own it if it comes from our heart. It is a reflection from within without sorrow of its presence.

Ana reminded us that our unique capacity to vibrate, change and shift is precious because it is so transient. She also reminded us to be kind to others because ignorance is just a veil over our perceptions that do not allow you to ground into the reality. Everyone has capacity to move into relationship with nature, perceive impermanence and connect to the natural flow of life. Hording the material realm will eventually cause the destruction of our connection, and also be the lead toward the body of humanity to experience failure to sustain and survive. The kidneys and lungs of our planet are being exploited, and the mystical connection to the Earth lost. Then we ask how and why such a thing happened. Ana said, "The fish in the ocean are not thirsty." We have forgotten that we too are in an ocean of beautiful underlying, permeable, mystical exchanges between inner and outer illusions in relationship to reality. Ana also reminded that "The manuscript of God is written in nature." Our bees can teach us a lot about how we are doing here as the human race if we just listen.

The seminar gave us glimpse into the theme of bridging attention with flow. The teacher of Aikido, Sue Ann McKean, mesmerized me. There was something amazingly beautiful about her energy. I embodied my deep passion for flow yoga as it aligned with the teachings of Aikido. I really enjoyed listening to Sue Ann, and appreciated her statements about energy flow. She reminded us that we use feeling in Aikido. She said, "If you use your arm to block, you are not feeling." I wanted to hug her for saying that.

In yoga I have found that it is the heart that the central channel awakens when kundalini shakti moves through the body. The energy awakens the heart to the field of possibilities and to grace. The great heart awakening is the trigger to the law of attraction - life's martial art. The Himalayan Yogis understood this well, as taught by one of my favorite swamis, Vidyadhishananda Giri, in his 2007 Chakra lecture once given at Unity Church, Houston. Sufis agree that the doorway to the heart is not in the intellect, but in feeling and being.

The seminar bridged many of my previous understandings into a well-formed outline that I suddenly received in a flash of inspiration during lecture with my History of Systems and Methods/Research professor, Gabrielle. She is an amazing and passionate woman who gave me an article on inner voices after hearing my dissertation idea. Her generosity, passion and engaging participation inspired me to begin formulating the inspired, defined outline of what I want to research or offer qualitatively using much of my own experiences.

I already termed and dove deeper into the understandings of inner knowing, listening and deep grief work - Transgrief Experiences: from grief to glowing during times of transitioning realities. My question is: How can an inner voice lead one through transpersonal experiences and life path choices into leadership roles using heart awakening and inner knowing as a transpersonal practice and teaching?

I checked online and much to my surprise, the term Transgrief is not used and the domain has never been purchased. Elated, I bought the domains for my possible new dissertation topic on Transgrief experiences and the reemergence of a higher self! It all came together with songs from the heart strings of our unique connections made at Ph D, Year 3 at ITP. Namaste'

Live. Breathe. Do Yoga.

How it all began in a Nutshell...meet Jennyoga's Founder Jenny Buergermeister

2010-08-15T16:38:00.001-07:00

I began practicing yoga in 1994. I remember taking DVDs around with me while I toured with my then tennis player boyfriend. I spent a lot of time alone while he practiced tennis. I would practice sun salutations or watch a VHS yoga class from time to time while he was away. In college, I became curious about mind/body subjects thanks to two brilliant professors, Dr. Roger Maley and Dr. Michael Doran. They opened my mind to new concepts and ways of looking at Psychology and could be considered my first gurus. I finished my undergraduate work at UH in 1999 with a double degree in Psychology and Journalism cum laude with minors in Anthropology and Speech Communication. I really didn’t get seriously into yoga classes until later after I met the man of my dreams.

I married Thorsten, or Tossi as we called him, a beautiful German man in December 1998 and would drag him around to a few yoga classes with me in Houston. When he unexpectedly died in 2001, I really “found” yoga. Or maybe it found me. It was very strange how I developed a deep relationship with the practice. I think we all have stories about how we found yoga and they are all so amazing.

I rarely slept when my husband passed away from a heart issue; as anyone who has ever lost a loved one can attest, sleep is impossible. It’s too painful and too shocking. Unable to sleep at night for at least 6 months, I often took naps in the afternoons. One afternoon I felt my eyes tiring from reading a book and in that space between waking and sleeping, I heard an older woman’s stern voice clearly say, “Get up and go to yoga, NOW.” It scared the hell out of me. I jumped off the couch in bewilderment, maybe even horror. I remember thinking to myself, “Great! Now I am hearing voices.” At least one that I could clearly understand!

As if it wasn’t already bad enough to be in heartbreak hell from losing my best friend, I was suddenly hearing demands from someone who I couldn’t even see! And why would she tell me to go to yoga? That was the last thing I would have ever expected a voice from beyond to tell me to do. She didn’t yell at me, she spoke with conviction, like she knew something I didn’t. After the horror subsided, I found myself walking into the kitchen to find the phone book.

That really was the beginning of my great journey. I went to the phone book and opened it to yoga. Being only a dabbler, I felt that I hadn’t really experienced its essence at the gyms where I had practiced. I saw Bikram’s Yoga College of India and decided that it would be a nice place to experience yoga. I had no idea it would be so damn hot and I think I nearly died the first couple of times I tried it. I am not sure that I fought the fact or even cared that I was having a near-death experience right there on my mat.

I was very thin at the time. Losing Thorsten was a near-death shock itself and I literally couldn’t swallow. That made it very difficult to consume enough calories to rigorously practice or exert myself in anything. With grief the weight had just fallen off. Luckily I began craving Gourmet Jose Fresh Salsa and chips. They had unfortunately discontinued carrying the salsa at our local grocery stores so I had to order it directly from the company. They were so kind to have it dry-iced shipped overnight to me. I later convinced Fiesta to restock it which only lasted a few months. I suppose I was lucky to have craved anything at all, this yummy salsa being fresh and full of antioxidants.

The first six months as a young widow were extremely difficult. There were days I seriously thought that I could die from the pain in my heart. I later learned that I had broken-heart syndrome. My heart changed rhythms and suddenly I had a murmur which was revealed in an exam nearly two years after his death.

Death has a way of making life real. And the pain that I felt was very real. It was also a very huge awakening of my spirit. I had crystallized the energy around my heart as one “seer” who I met claimed. Losing someone that close slices deeply through the layers of superficiality and can leave one feeling what I would describe as raw. Pain can shadow the work that is being done at a deeper level when we feel raw. I can say that in that rawness, and through the pain, the opportunity for yoga to become my guide swiftly blew into the cracks of my broken heart. Yoga helped me rekindle my soul and gather a few understandings that only a dark night of the soul can awaken one to journey. I remember reading during my grieving process a book by Rav Berg that told a story of a Rabbi who spoke of heartache to the children in his class. He said that only when our hearts break can G-d’s tear slip inside and feel it with love and compassion. Only then can we in turn help someone who is similarly bereaved. Understanding his statement so clearly, I wanted my heart to mend and it did as I found healing in helping others.

I am blessed. I lost a lot of fear in the grieving process mainly because during that time I was also given many gifts. A plethora of transpersonal experiences and awakened skills led me to where I am today. I attribute my initiation to the esoteric and philosophical teachings of spirituality and yoga to my guru husband from the other side. He, the universe began to show me many things. The process felt like what many have referred to as shaktipat. It was a shock of transition into the shakti of life.

Spending the time alone continued to teach me. In silence I found the golden nuggets of another reality that spoke to all levels of my being beyond the person or physical. It was truth that I had never felt before!

Several occurrences over the first year helped me realize a few important esoteric things about energy. We really never die. We simply change form. What was shown to me helped me lose fear. The experiences were the things people write movies about such as The Sixth Sense or What Dreams May Come. When you begin to really see the “learnings” and what is all around you clearly, maybe for the first time in your life, the order is by no chance coincidence. It will change you. We die every moment at some level of our being, but losing someone close to you is a real eye opener to how you are living your life and whether your eyes are really open or closed. We need all three eyes, not just two, to really see the beautiful world around us! Beauty unfolds as you let the heart reawaken, even after it is broken.

The struggle is often part of the plan, I guess. One evening I was invited to a disastrous dinner only a month after Tossi’s death to a Mexican restaurant with all couples. They meant well, but sitting there as the only person not a couple, and being a new widow, I simply lost it. I barely made it to my car and as soon as I did, the turbulent river of my tears broke through the dam of my pride and resistance to accept the impermanence of life in this form. I cried the whole way home uncontrollably. I had never cried that hard in my life. I could not breathe.

That was the day the deepest of grief kicked in and when I got home, I walked into the house and locked the door from the inside with the key. I then fell to my knees with my puppy Henry, the Shelti I begged my husband to buy for me. He licked the tears as they fell from my swollen face. I remember saying out loud on the floor that if there was a hell, I was already there. I thought that all the demons and evil in the universe couldn’t hurt me more than I laid there suffering in that moment. And that night I had a dream that clearly showed me how fear attracts more to be afraid of. We manifest and project that which is inside of us, even in our dreams.

After finding enough courage to get up off the floor, I went to bed. Then something remarkable happened. I used to have a reoccurring bad dream where I could not wake up and it was always the same thing - I would hear people walking around my room, opening and closing things. A few times I could feel something touch me or hear people talking. I would always become completely paralyzed and unable to awaken even if I prayed. It felt like I was sinking into something and I would desperately try to wake up with little success. The more I feared it, the worse it got over the years. At one time I thought maybe I had epilepsy. However it only happened when I felt tired or was about to fall asleep. Whatever it was, I knew it was probably just a dream but it scared me.

This night was different. Defeated, I made my way to bed expecting to lie awake once again. I began feeling a similar vibration that always came with the dream when it was about to reoccur, and instead of fearing it, I basically stepped into it as if saying, “Come on, show me what you got, because I am already there!” Then something happened as my energy went from fearing it to moving into it with fierce grace. The vibration totally shifted. Then as if I were one big eye, I began seeing very vibrant colors and began traveling from the ceiling of my room through to the rest of the house and then back into the bedroom. I remember there were a pair of purple shoes in the doorway of the master bathroom and then I woke up. Everything appeared normal as I lay there with my eyes wide open in disbelief that I had shifted the dream to something really sort of cool. After a few moments I jumped out of bed to see if there were by some strange chance a pair of very fancy purple shoes in the doorway of the bathroom. There were not. The purple shoes never existed. Or did they? Metaphorically I can see they were symbolic of immanent magic that was on the horizon.

I never had another bad dream. Something that I have lived with for 15 years was now gone, just like that! And all I did was acknowledge that there was nothing to fear. I was raw enough to finally realize that I created those bad dreams by fear and shifted it by moving with love! I now believe anything is possible and enjoy saying yes to life. There are only possibilities and the key is to gain love and lose fear! That is grace in action.

The keys that I locked myself into the house with that night had totally disappeared and were never found the next day. I had to find an extra set, Thorsten’s, to unlock the door. I looked everywhere, including the trash. To this day, those keys have never been found. A series of items began to disappear then reappear over the next year inexplicably and sometimes with others there to witness. Radios and other electronics had quite the relationship with me in the field. Lights would blow out in rooms that I would walk in, pictures would fly off walls, and other very strange occurrences would happen all around me. My life became anything but normal so I went all the way with where it was leading me. I did not fear it. Instead, I was awed by it.

Many of the experiences I have had led me to ask many questions about life, deeper psychology, personal myth, nature, energy and patterns. Eventually I came across the teachings of the Qabalah and Qi Gong, chakra theory, past lives, quantum physics, the understanding of light and the wave/particle duality, singularity and dimensions, studies of the cosmos and how we are all connected. It has been a journey that to this day leaves me breathless. What a beautiful universe we live in. How cool is it for us to be here together. I love what I see happening with consciousness and truth. Yoga is spreading like a wild fire across the world. The next great awakening is here and be a part of the collective energy contributing to reaching the tipping point for a global transformation.

I began teaching yoga after one year of a solid practice to a group in Tomball, TX where I had purchased a little farm that became my sanctuary during my grief work. I basically raised farm animals as pets and studied yoga and transpersonal psychology for three years. I taught yoga on the side and privately began seeing clients to do more esoteric work. I think there is something truly special about being a conduit for energy and understanding your dharma. In 2009, a colleague and friend gave me a Vedic Astrology reading and said that with my moon in Mula, double cancer, I am a catalyst for change. And the Goddess associated with my chart – Kali. I wouldn’t understand the significance of this chart until the pieces began to later come together.

After a while the work that I began in Houston was beginning to blossom and I soon found myself in a beautifully strange opportunity to open a studio in River Oaks, a very central and upscale area of Houston. I sold the farm in 2005 and was already living centrally in Houston again. I felt ready to open the studio and promote yoga in a different way, something that had nurtured me through a transition that basically changed the course and intensity of my life path. Everything that I began to do somehow was wrapped around the discovery of how to help people using yoga and breathing techniques. But I soon began to realize that teaching yoga and running the business of yoga are two completely different animals.

My students convinced me to call it Jennyoga after a few weeks of trying out new names, none of which really seemed to click. I think that my approach to yoga is an amalgam of all of the things that I have learned over the last 11 years, personally and professionally, so I decided it was ok to name the studio after myself. I had to accept that I was worthy of stepping into my power and be Jenny that shares the y with yoga. Why? Because yoga became such a huge part of me when it entered into my heart and captured the moment to be here now with life more awakened! And it all began with a voice. I later found comfort about the voice from that afternoon by reading The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Rinpoche Sogyal. I highly recommend this book for anyone ready to make sense of a few things that have seemed unusual in their life.

Experience and time, life’s MBA, helped me get through the first few years as a young studio which were not easy ones. But they were very magical. I am huge believer in client comfort and satisfaction. I am always happy to accommodate them! But any new business has growing pains. And all I want to do is share my love and the gifts I have been given.

I would say that I live a pretty synchronistic life. Every day I see the magic. It helps me as I am learning to let go and not worry so much. Things ALWAYS work out so I am learning to trust my relationship with the universe. I have attracted some of the most beautiful people to my studio and I feel safe to now let things flow as they are and focus on my other projects. One of my teachers told me recently that I was probably the most relaxed boss she has ever had. It is difficult for small business owners not to be too controlling. However, I learned that expectations seriously have a way of muddying the waters of reality. Expectation is control and how funny is our universe to show us just how much we are not in control! I am learning this delicate and fine line to managing people and a business still in its infancy. It isn’t easy sometimes. Harmony takes skill and great sensitivity.

The last few months have been more stressful than usual. Studios and yoga training programs were served in Texas by the Texas Workforce Commission in January 2010. We were given the option to become licensed career schools or shut down. It would cost small yoga programs thousands of dollars to become licensed as a career school with no real added benefit. I geared up, began interviewing programs that were already served the year before in Austin, gathered a few allies and formed the Texas Yoga Association. We were ready to march in an effort to prevent the state from regulating yoga so that the intimate programs could remain untainted. www.texyoga.org

I had already dreamt of a Texas wide association to unite our beloved cities to promote yoga at large. The TWC letters simply jumpstarted my effort. And it all happened right around our premiere of the Texas Yoga Conference that I founded in 2009. Our first conference was a huge success. It was an amazing, and synchronistic, platform for us to get the word out to the community about the issue of regulation in our state. I learned a lot about politics and how those who work close to politicians move their pawns and survive in such an environment. It isn’t very yogic. I have had to toughen up a bit to handle some of what I experienced and witnessed. During the first few months of 2010, I’m sure that I unknowingly began channeling Kali for the first time. Things were in such chaos! Though I would much rather express one of Shakti’s more beautiful and graceful forms, I began channeling one that often wreaks havoc so that things settle down in better order for the highest good. I have learned quite a bit about Kali and now have such deep reverence for her. On my 40th birthday I wanted to paint my body blue. I had my demon heads ready to wrap around my waist. A red Popsicle was waiting in the freezer to redden my tongue just before the party. I would be fierce celebrating my 40th! I was ready to rip the heads off some demons and shake it!

The party never happened. That morning my father died. How about that for expectations? Life has a way of making things very real with death. I later reflected how strange it was that my husband and father would both die in my birth month of July – two weeks and one week prior to my 31st and 40th birthday respectfully.

My father was always saying things were good. My pappa bear knew how to simply be in the moment. This heart-break encourages me to let grace rekindle some of the softer forms of the feminine as I once again face grief. I left for Lake Tahoe to be on the water a week after my daddy’s passing and is where I am now writing this. How nice to let all windows open so that I can hear the sounds of the small waves hitting the shore and rocks. We went sailing a few days ago and the water intensely reflected my mind as waves of consciousness. The water ripples the memories that come and go. Water is the element that I most cherish to be near when I am reflecting and feeling the need to go inward.

I have been giving my life path a new focus. I am teaching now only a few classes per week and trying to focus on my graduate work. I am in my third year of my Ph D program in Psychology and am really enjoying the enrichment that the program has given me. It has helped me develop Breathe the Cure, Texas Yoga Association and One Yoga USA. They are three projects that I feel are my contribution to seva and to making the world a better place through giving back and building community.

Breathe the Cure came to me in a shower, the beautiful water element again there to facilitate an inspiration! I had spent already three years working with cancer patients at MD Anderson Cancer Center. I am a “facilitator” of yoga in the Integrative Medicine Program at the Place…of Wellness.
It took two years for Breathe the Cure to become a 501(c)3 and we are currently producing a training program that I initiated with Alejandro Chaoul, Ph D, and publishing children’s activity books called the FUNdamentals of Breathing. Crow Collection of Asian Art Museum sponsored the printing of the first book. I collaborated with Beth Reese, founder of Yoginos: Yoga for Youth after meeting her at the conference in 2010. I thought there was great synergy. We wove the story of Ganesha into our first activity book and used many of Crow’s art pieces to fill in the story. I am interested in threading nutrition through the second book. Plus, I feel it might be time to introduce the various forms of Shakti to our readers. Shakti is the bringer of ideas into manifestation. Building community, which she births, is simply a good idea!

One Yoga USA is a project to unite the United States with seva in 2012! SEVA 2012 is but one project initiated by One Yoga USA. We are collecting ambassadors in each state to stand as One Yoga. Sean Johnson, Swami Maharaj, Hemalayaa, Ricky Tran and Alison West are standing with me so far and representing their states. I have about 43 more states to go! Basically each state will represent one week of seva beginning in January 2012 and all the way through the end of the Mayan calendar in December 2012. We are looking for sponsors and journalists to help us make that happen. Imagine all 50 states rocking in the year 2012 as we ride the wave of global transformation and the “great shift!” Isn’t that what we are all anticipating and excited about as we watch yoga make a huge splash in our communities? www.oneyogausa.com

Other plans with One Yoga USA are to offer difficult to obtain benefits for our members and a yoga training that unites all variations of yoga using experts in each form through a tiered platform that encourages oneness, life experience, transpersonal training and resume building.

We each play a role in this process of becoming one. Nothing is by chance. As Mahatma Gandhi said, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” Promoting seva, sustainability and “we” consciousness is exactly how we can be the change…together.

I love it when people on the same wave length unite to make change happen. Giving up is fear-based and is not what I wish to align myself with. There really are only possibilities when great minds come together and lead with integrity.

The Texas Yoga Conference was a community effort that was inspired by my vision for Houston. In 2009 after I called a meeting of roughly 12 yoga community leaders to do something annually together, we formed the conference. It was so amazing to see people come together to do this project. We shared ideas and four studios participated in the organization of the first year. Houston’s YogaOne and Jennyoga are the owners of the Texas Yoga Conference.

We anticipate an even greater turnout than the first year on February 25-27, 2011 at the University of St. Thomas in the Jerabeck Athletic Center. We are kicking off the event with a Bhakti Bash on Friday night! MC Yogi, Sean Johnson and The Wild Lotus Band, Duncan Wong, Sadie Nardini and many of our amazing Texas yogis and yoginis from all over our great state are in the line-up for 2011. www.texasyogaconference.com

In a nutshell, that’s it!

Community, Change, Resistance

2010-07-08T06:23:00.000-07:00

At the end of my class this morning, I felt inspired to speak to my students a little about a series of strange events or “coincidences” that have been occurring over the last few days regarding a paper that I am writing on Kali, the primordial unconscious and individuation. Metaphors that I used in the document have included black holes (which took my first draft in a “perfect storm” of computer glitches never to be seen again), Jonah, Little Red Ridinghood – innocence on the journey into the forest where we meet the “wolf” on our way to grandma’s house representing wisdom. Each metaphor represents the unconscious mind and our journey on the path toward awareness.

I have several very well read and brilliant ladies in my class and today we began speaking about the political implications of such things in the unconscious mind when left unresolved, issues projected can influence how we create the systems around us - government being one where we simply see two sides opposing without any desire to help push important legislation through and practice good bipartisanship to do what is right for humanity.

The archetype Kali is a representation of our conscious and unconscious minds in tension to find clarity, meaning, and security in perceived chaos all around us where religious inference and projections of evil prevail. Then we began to speak of control, lack of healthy developed relationships, giving up when things don’t go our way, war and the history of man. I began to feel saddened by what perceptions we may have as a society about others and that humans repeatedly can’t seem to build systems that demonstrate real community and sustainability.

Instead we create faction and misunderstandings that often lead us to inevitably disappoint and fail the other. Imagine watching a ship sink and doing nothing though our job is to serve the coast guard. Humans are doing that every day. It is puzzling to me that we, as MLK says, simply "do what is right." We are also animals on this planet though we often righteously give ourselves credit to be above the animal kingdom - many functioning from a place a scarcity or lack, and mostly fear or just trying to survive. It isn’t easy sometimes.

We are wise to know our limits but unwise when we hurt or judge others. I have been reading a lot of Martin Luther King lately and I want to share a quote from his writings with all of you.

“Everybody can be great,” MLK said, “Because anybody can serve…You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”

I often see more deeply into the souls of those who I meet seeing only beauty and perfection than imperfect human behaviors which is not only a naïve assumption but a projection of my own soul yearning to simply be THAT. My sensitivities lead me to feeling hurt when the behaviors I am interpreting alarm me, and I am caught off guard. I am learning to channel that differently and to be more sensitive to each of our needs on all levels of our being – spiritual, mentally, physically and emotionally. We are not our behaviors yet they are what we discern when we move closer or farther away from people. This is so tricky. Finding that delicate balance in order to work with people isn’t easy. Maybe that is why the tendency is to focus on individuality. It’s freakin’ hard to please everyone.

I wish I could snap my fingers and have it all figured out but I admit I am learning as I go. All I could ever ask is for patience with me. My heart is in the right place but I am still learning this dance. I only want to see yoga and everyone shine and our sanctity protected.

Tell the wolf hello and send her my best when you see her :O)

The Yoga Beat: One Yoga USA

2010-06-27T19:06:00.000-07:00

The Yoga Beat: One Yoga USA

One Yoga USA

2010-06-27T18:58:00.000-07:00

It is always going to be about unity, regardless if others get it or not. If you look at how the universe is woven, it is unified. Human faction is not the way energy likes to flow. That is your DNA. Rise above it, join us, and be the freakin' change you wish to see in the world. Check your ego at the door and feel the vibration of spirit trying to speak through you! Shakti is manifesting way beyond the speed at which the lower vibrations can tap or slow down higher power and purpose. Meaning...let the negative make you shine more and never stop feeling, because that is what makes you beautiful people. Be bright, be love, be yoga!

www.oneyogausa.com

TWC Update

2010-01-23T07:46:00.000-08:00

The Texas Yoga Association could not have formed at a better time. These words have been echoed many times over the past few days from Houston to Austin to Dallas.

Last week Jennifer Buergermeister, Founder and Executive Director of the Texas Yoga Association, reached out to yogis all across Texas promoting unity to rise up as one in response to the inquiries many yoga teachers were served from the Texas Workforce Commission. Now facing a fifteen day deadline, the launch date of the Texas Yoga Association (originally planned for February 19-20, 2010 at the Texas Yoga Conference) would have to be pushed up, and fast.

On Sunday, January 17, 2010, more than 25 Houston yoga studio owners, yoga teachers, and yoga supporters gathered, including Will Collins, a Houston pro bono attorney, Sue Schecter, former State Representative for Harris County, and Brad and Brad Shields, two lobbyists from Austin. On Monday, January 18, 2010, David Sunshine, Kurt Johnsen and Vicki Johnson hosted a meeting of more than 20 Dallas yogis at the Dallas Yoga Center. Jennifer Buergermeister and Kristin Scheel travelled to Dallas representing the Texas Yoga Association. Brad and Brad Shields also attended the Dallas meeting. As these groups joined one spirit emerged: unity in this great community, to create a positive solution for yoga. We learned that as an association, the yoga community has greater standing under the law than we have as individuals. Like many other professions, the yoga community needs industry representation who works with government agencies and policy makers to educate state authorities about yoga. The union of the Texas yoga community was long overdue.

The groups explored a range of options concerning the primary issue of how to respond to the Texas Workforce Commission, while keeping in mind that the larger stake in this game is to preserve and protect the integrity of yoga for years to come. As our fifteen days quickly expire, the Texas Yoga Association legal advisers are working fervently to draft a unified response for the affected yoga teachers. Meanwhile, the Texas Yoga Association lobbyists set up an informational meeting between the Texas Workforce Commission and the Texas Yoga Association which will be held next week. The purpose of this meeting is to help the Texas Workforce Commission understand more about yoga and the programs it seeks to regulate.

This is only the beginning and there is much to be done at the grassroots level in order to succeed. We need to continue raising awareness of these issues in the yoga community and amongst yoga supporters. With every class we teach and every student we meet we have another opportunity. We must keep a unified front before the Texas Workforce Commission, and share information relating to these communications. The Texas Yoga Association will continue to issue updates and connect people with each other and the pooling of resources. The Texas Yoga Association needs your help too. We are setting up local charters in cities across the state of Texas. Dallas and Austin have set up charters, and we need to continue reaching out to establish charters in other regions. We need representation from the entire state in order to speak on behalf of the Texas yoga community as one. Fundraising and membership must begin immediately to generate donations for our political action fund. We will come together as planned at the Texas Yoga Conference to continue building our spirit and developing our united representative community, the Texas Yoga Association.

We are honored and blessed with your support, and the support of our advisers,

Houston Pro Bono Attorney/litigator:
William J. Collins, III
Sheehy, Ware & Pappas, P.C.
2500 Two Houston Center
909 Fannin Street
Houston, Texas 77010
(713) 951-4603
Dallas Pro Bono Attorney/litigator:

The History of Yoga in a Nutshell

2009-12-30T08:35:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Jennyoga!

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

Yoga Unifies Houston

2009-10-20T06:32:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-14T22:43:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-09-07T12:01:00.000-07:00

Make a Smilebox greeting

Skirt Magazine Interview with Jenny Buergermeister

2009-08-31T15:33:00.000-07:00

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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2009-08-10T20:39:00.001-07:00

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SHRI K. PATTABHI JOIS ASHTANGA YOGA INSTITUTE

2009-06-29T16:28:00.000-07:00

SHRI K. PATTABHI JOIS ASHTANGA YOGA INSTITUTE: "home biography method practice publications dvd's newsletter tour

News

Guruji passed away on Monday, 18th May 2009 at 2:30pm (Indian Standard Time). Thank you for all your condolences and prayers. Please kindly refrain from contacting the family directly at this time.
Students may come and pray for Guruji's departed soul on Sunday, 31st May 2009 in Mysore. Vaikunta Samaradhane will be performed at 1:30pm at the shala.

The shala will be closed until Sunday, 7th June. Class will resume on Monday, 8th June. School credit or partial refund will be given to current students."

Bliss water just tastes better - ask Henry!

2009-06-27T15:30:00.000-07:00

In the Dr. Emoto's experiment, Cathal and I chose four ceramic cups, cleaned each of them, and put filtered water with one drop of honey of equal proportions in each cup. We were looking to see if the water tastes different after a period of two hours after we wrote the words gratitude, you suck, bliss, and I am not worthy – each word or phrase on each cup.

The baby blue cup had the word gratitude written on it in a blue marker. I told the cup all of the things that I loved about my life, and how grateful I am for the studio and my teachers, the students, opportunities, the yoga conference and new beginnings for yoga in Houston.

On the red cup I wrote YOU SUCK! We said it a few times trying not to laugh.

On the yellow cup I wrote bliss and told it all of the things that has brought bliss into my life and felt it in my heart.

On the black cup we wrote I am not worthy. It was really difficult not to laugh this time because we said many things about not being worthy to the cup of water, and after all was said and done, Cathal adds a quick, “Loser!” to it. I couldn’t help but chuckle.

The cups sat on the counter in the same place for two hours. We decided that we would taste the water in the cups first and then see if Henry our dog would drink from one of the cups.

Conclusion:
We wanted the experiment to be sampled by an innocent bystander unaware of our experiment. We gave our dog Henry a bite to eat in a bowl guaranteeing his thirst afterwards. I placed the four cups behind him so that when he turned around, he would have four options for water. I stood nearby with camera in hand. He went to the red cup first and sniffed, then to the next one which was blue, then to the black and finally over to the yellow cup and decided that was the one that smelled good. Bliss was his flavor of choice. He did not even try to drink the other three. He drank the entire cup of bliss and left the other ones full. Then when we picked up the cups, he went back to where bliss was and licked the floor where a little had spilled out of the cup from lapping the bliss out of the cup the first time.

Cathal and I stood watching in complete amazement. We knew Henry was a good test model. He is our guru at the studio!

I want to share this experiment you. Try it, you will love this experiment if you have animals! I always bless my food and water when I eat or drink it. We have Dr. Emoto’s word stickers on everything liquid! I found and bought them about 6 months ago at Body Mind & Soul in Houston. Namaste’

2009-06-27T14:57:00.000-07:00

Community Call to Be the Bliss with Jenny Buergmermeister

In order to be the bliss you wish to see in the world, let’s try together one week of practicing Emoto’s work with water.

Find or purchase a metal, glass or ceramic drinking cup that is yellow, green or pink. Write the world BLISS on the side with a marker that is also blue or green.

Drink from this cup all week. When you fill it with liquid, talk to it and send it stories of your most blissful moments in life. Infuse it with gratitude for having such moments of bliss.

Keep a journal and write down the days occurrences – dreams in the morning, lunchtime notes, before bedtime recollections of any synchronicities, disappointments etc.

Sometimes what seems like a door closing is just another one opening. Go back to your journal entries often to see where the dots have connected and if you can make sense of past moments where you may have felt disappointed. This can help us to learn to trust. Everything is going according to plan.

Continue for one week your bliss project. Share with the group. Send me your email address to jennifer@jennyoga.com so that I can make a bliss file of participants.

Read Dr. Brady’s article and see if it brings up anything for you. It inspired me to make this exercise a healing ritual.

http://www.committedparent.com/TricksterPhil.html

2009-06-19T21:59:00.000-07:00

Flowing with the Breath in a Modern World by Jenny Buergermeister

Breath is the key component of life. We can live without water for days, and food for weeks or months. However, the moment we stop breathing, we die. Breath is your spirit feeding the body.

Ninety percent of our energy comes from an inhale and 75 % of the toxins leave through an exhale. This means that the flow of breath is also the flow of life force that runs through us. In order to have clarity of mind, positive emotions, and connection to spirit, the breath must be connected and flowing. Today, in a busy world of materialism and entrepreneurship, there is a constant need to push forward and achieve. This motivation is positive if understood correctly but can be a blockage to those have not learned how to flow through the hustle and bustle of modern day life.

The “flow” in a vinyasa yoga class, for example, is about being in the flow of life rather than fighting for results in a pose. One must learn to relax and let the pose find you. You must be a warrior of a different sort. A warrior does not go to the battle field to kill or be killed. A true warrior in the yogic sense is one who stands in truth and understands spirit.

A Warrior of the Light as Paulo Coelho describes in his book does not use his own energy for success but the unlimited power of spirit to thrive. At the highest levels of our being, there is unlimited potential and unimaginable abundance for everyone. “Flow” in breath is about surrendering to the guidance of spirit and receiving all your good through a deep inhale and by letting go of what no longer serves you during the exhale. The mind and emotional vibrations hold on to the limited vision of the “self” preventing the breath from flowing. The outcome is often seen as blockages or even pain and suffering.

Vinyasa yoga is about being in the flow of life, and conscious breathing is about surrendering to the unlimited potentiality of the universe in order to become all that you deserve to be. We have a God and a Goddess inside each of us and we emanate the desire to fulfill all possibilities when we listen to its guidance.
Yoga and “the breathing arts” open and allow grace to flow through the heart. It has been said that with love anything is possible. The first step is to consciously breathe, the second is to bravely act, and the third is to lovingly accept that which is unfolding before you. In other words, trust.

When we know something, the knowing part is bigger than having faith in something. You know who your mom is right? Do you have to have faith that she exists. You know that she does exist because you have spent time with her and have a relationship with her. Spirit is similar. When you awaken and begin to feel and see the interconnectedness in all things, you no longer seek. Instead, you become the I Am. You feel the energy that made you as connected to the energy from the very beginning of time. Can you imagine feeling the moment the universe was created? Try it.

Sit quietly with your eyes closed, spine elongated, and focused on your breath. Inhale slowly and fully in all directions including lower belly and side ribs. Keep your attention between the brows and wait until you feel something happen – a gentle shift, a leveling of mind or a feeling of floating. Can you feel your energetic connection to all that is made manifest in the universe. We connect through the heart vibration known as the Anahata, or Heart Chakra.

Chakras are the energetic wheels partly associated with the endocrine and nervous system of the body that spin out our unique vibration to make what is called the auric field. The heart chakra, or the is a connector of energetic networks linking you to the world in which you live. It is said to connect us through a place called feeling. It allows your essence, the awakening to being here now, to gradually permeate the interconnected web of life and energy in this universe and each other.

The reproductive chakra, or the Svadhisthana, is also an energetic connector. Through this energy center you attract certain elements of the world. Your heart emits an energy, which often is funneled by another person's second chakra. Your second chakra, like a magnet, attracts another person's heart emissions. It makes the figure eight. This cycle is what attracts us to others. The heart chakra has its energetic networks plugged into the universal matrix known as the law of attraction and typically involves the process of creativity that signals messages out to the universe. The question is what are you sending out and what are you attracting? Are your chakras clear?

With continued practice and the synthesis of life lessons, you can bring your thoughts and emotions into the space of feeling. Here, you are able to make real, lasting Self changes. Within this new Self-integration, you begin the deeper journey toward synchronization and play within the “divine matrix.” When you learn this truth of your being, and understand the truth that prevails, it is possible to live fearlessly like a warrior - a peaceful warrior. As the changes begin to occur, you begin to know and understand the systems we are referring to, and you are forever transformed. That which is esoteric and misunderstood is revealed as the wise teacher. We find purpose in living, and in death. The guru you seek is realized inside of you.

I Am Ready by Counting Crows

2009-06-03T23:05:00.000-07:00

I am color...blind
Coffee black and egg white
Pull me out from inside
I am ready
I am ready
I am ready
I am
taffy stuck, tongue tied
Stuttered shook and uptight
Pull me out from inside
I am ready
I am ready
I am ready
I am...fine
I am covered in skin
No one gets to come in
Pull me out from inside
I am folded, and unfolded, and unfolding
I am
color...blind
Coffee black and egg white
Pull me out from inside
I am ready
I am ready
I am ready
I am fine
I am fine
I am fine

Yoga for a Healthy Life – Just Breathe!

2009-06-03T10:12:00.000-07:00

Yoga for a Healthy Life – Just Breathe!
Jennifer Buergermeister © 2009

Any time is a good time for us to find a yoga practice. I have heard students who found yoga later in life say how much they wish they would have found it sooner mainly because they begin to feel better about everything in such a short amount of time. I am one of those women and dedicated my life to its pursuit. After years of experience with yoga, I now believe yoga actually pursued me. I have learned that a healthy nervous system is the key to a balanced life.

Yoga and I met when I was 24 years old, which was 15 years ago. It was love at first sight. The philosophy resonated sweetness and hope in the uncertain world of a young adult. I lived in Mexico City for three years and, upon my return, became interested in the history of Mexico and other ancient traditions such as Buddhism and yoga. Something resonated with me energetically about yoga’s inception. Maybe our nervous system is an antennae reaching to the universe, sending and receiving messages in accord with the law of attraction? I could not escape yoga, nor did I want to. I like the way it makes me feel and feeling is also energy. The energy inspired me to delve deeper into knowing yoga and life, as we know, can bring many experiences to help us understand that which we seek.

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 restricted to the organs is restricted. Instead, blood is sent to the limbs in response to the fight or flight mechanism. Breathing into the upper chest breathing is caused by stress which then triggers the sympathetic nervous system into overdrive.

The energy needed throughout physical exertion to discharge energy accumulated during stress, if not met, will result in anxiety. When this happens, anxiety is perpetuated by continuous arousal of the sympathetic nervous system which results in states of irritability or even hyperventilation, adrenal exhaustion, and diminished blood flow to the vital organs.

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

Learning and practicing mind-ful meditations, pranayama, and full diaphragmatic breathing, which expands the chest while contracting the abdominal muscles, are found to achieve the best results intended by the autonomic nervous system in the body.

Yoga empowered me to believe in myself and to refrain from slipping into the mindset of victim. We do have choices. We can decide whether or not we will be happy or not happy. Life and experience has a way of helping us synthesize wisdom, especially when we are faced with a life threatening disease or we have lost a loved one. One of my students currently undergoing cancer treatments wrote:

Yoga can tone and strengthen, preventing some of that middle-aged sag, especially if started early on. It helps greatly with arm tone, something that goes fast in aging women who don't do strength work. It builds stamina, and though it can be tough, it draws me back because of the way I feel afterward--calm and at peace. I am usually smiling. It's also great with improving and maintaining flexibility which helps every day and can prevent injuries in case of a fall.

Getting started could best be done with a friend, one to laugh with when trying to achieve some of the positions. A couple of private lessons before attempting a class could prevent a possible sense of awkwardness. ~ Candace Clark, Houston
Another student said yoga has helped her cope with the stress of juggling family life and raising three kids:

What can yoga do for you? I didn't realize how much of my strength and balance I had lost over the years of "working out and running". Yoga has changed that so much! I have become much stronger in my core and upper body.

How does it benefit your health and well-being? It has taught me to slow down my mind which (with three busy kids) never takes a break! I didn't realize was living in a constant state of mental motion...it was exhausting!

How do you get started if you've never done it? I had a dear friend drag me to a new teacher's house to start a beginner's class. I was 45 and had never done yoga before. It was a great way to learn the basic poses and techniques.

"There are days when I wake up tired and stiff and have to d-r-a-g myself to class, but once I'm there, I'm so happy that I made the effort to be there! I always feel so wonderful when I'm walking out of class, into the day, with a new awareness of my body and strength!

Yoga lifts my mood and encourages me to take care of me so that I can take care of the rest of the world!" ~Amy MacDougall, Houston

Many of us, especially women, are compelled to juggle chores and multi task. It is in our nature! The key is to find balance. Yoga brings the breath into the equation. Mind and body are linked with the breath to promote calmness and balance to the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems. But do we really 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, but 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 like the increased heart-rate when confronted by an aggressive driver.

Think about the last time you were angry, frightened, or nervous. Your breath, more than likely, became short, rapid and shallow. That is, the inhalation 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 is a common denominator of high 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.
Though yoga is for everyone, it is mainly women who fill up the classes. It’s strange how this clearly was not the case in India. I thought once that it’s possible the yogis from India were reincarnating in America to become women in a western world – give that a try and see how it feels as an expression of Shakti. The feminine was lost and is now found in the west!

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 cell and tissue damage. Learning to breathe properly can ultimately save your life and awaken the most vibrant Shakti within. We are finding the shakti in this “new” age of the feminine – meaning simply that learning to nurture the soul is a fine and healthy thing to do! Namaste’

2009-05-23T19:16:00.000-07:00

Taming the Shakti
Jenny Buergermeister © 2009

Ladies, as if we don’t already know how amazing we are – juggling chores, parenting, meal-planning, and managing careers – did you know that ancient Hindu philosophy claims our female essence created the entire universe? No wonder we often feel tired as if there just isn’t enough time in the day to get everything done. Inevitably, you are Shakti.

Shakti is a Sanskrit word meaning “sacred force” or “empowerment.” It is often referred to as The Divine Feminine, responsible for creation and change. If you want to change something, put a woman in charge.

Shakti Loves Shiva

We experience Shakti as the pulsating, vibrating, and throbbing power of manifestation in the material world. Shakti is the feminine attribute to the balance of being (shakti) from no-thing (shiva). She is the ultimate creative force of the universe. As women realize this power, we move away from limitation and move toward the awakening of a higher consciousness. As human beings expressing this latent energy, often released in large spurts of creativity, we often experience depletion and exhaustion. Essentially, we’ve become low on Shiva, or male counterbalance energy, necessary for healthy balance.

We can have a lot of energy inside us flowing as Shakti and yet feel physically exhausted. When we channel Shakti as an open conduit, it can be a challenge to maintain the physical body’s energy – creativity sometimes will not let us rest. Since Shakti is also the force that liberates us from individual limitation and takes us to higher levels of awareness, we need to learn to skillfully manage it physically. At higher levels of awareness we see truth and objective reason through subjective feeling of our higher Selves as well as through our micro-Cell-ves. Physical, mental, emotional and spiritual bodies unite through Shakti.

Psychic Grief

Immediately after my husband passed in 2001, I lost 30 pounds. I was unable to sleep or eat. In the process, I became open to psychic experiences, or shall I say, psychic experiences became open to me? The pain of grief was unbearable at times. I had not known that such pain existed until I suffered the loss of my husband. Strange things were beginning to happen. Maybe the lightness of being opens us up to extraordinary experiences…

For example, during my grieving one day I was reading the book, Many Lives, Many Masters, written by Dr. Brian Weiss, MD. My dog, Henry, was sleeping at the foot of the couch when I heard a clicking sound. The motion detector in the hallway was blinking mysteriously. This was strange since nothing was moving to trigger it. Perhaps it was running low on batteries. I realized, no, it was hardwired to the electric panel. Unable to form a conclusion, I returned to my book.

A few moments later the clicking began again, this time faster and louder. Henry glanced up so I peered in the direction of his gaze and witnessed the most amazing thing. It was a vortex. It shimmied to and fro, dancing in front of me and Henry. The motion detector was going wild. My jaw dropped, I stood up. Amazed, yet completely fearless, I walked toward it. As I approached, I noticed tiny blinking lights inside, which formed a spiral galaxy spinning at chest-height. I could clearly see the vortex.

I was sure it was my husband who came back to say hello. God, how I missed him! I stepped inside the vortex and my life changed forever. I felt a love and awe so great and so intensely sweet that I ever could have ever imagined. It felt like a breeze filled with tingling negative ions of the ocean that only a perfect spring day could bring. I felt calm – a peacefulness beyond words. I knew that everything was okay and that I would endure this “crazy” time in my life. I have often felt that grieving experiences have re-patterned and reprogrammed me in such a way that I see a much bigger picture: the holographic nature of life and splendor. Am I still dreaming? How can you sleep after an experience with the seemingly supernatural?
Feeling the awe and the energy of the vortex has taught me trust. These feelings were important to the awakening of my heart, a cosmic force that compels us to love and to serve. Shakti awakened in me and since, I have been driven beyond any other to share the knowledge of breath and spirit.

Sometimes, I have to unplug, which isn’t always easy. Last evening I turned everything off so that I could go to bed early. Learning to enjoy the silence of being is important - the no-thing, which led me to a prophetic dream about an old friend. Though I haven’t seen her in 6 years, I dreamt of her, then saw her the very next day.

It is imperative for all of us to rest, exercise, and spend time in nature. Taming the Shakti requires balancing with Shiva, holding steady, and moving with grace from the heart. Shakti is grace and balance as she co-creates with Shiva.

JennYoga - Houston, Texas -- live. breathe. do yoga!

2009-05-15T07:49:00.000-07:00

JennYoga - Houston, Texas -- live. breathe. do yoga!

Jennyoga Spring 2009

2009-05-14T15:29:00.000-07:00

Make a Smilebox slideshow

2009-05-07T08:50:00.000-07:00

I found this great website created for Gwyneth Paltrow to blog her thoughts and love it! I think her current news is a great message for all of us to ponder so I am sharing it with you! Read below and then click the link to read more about why people feel compelled to gossip and feed their negativity. The theme is basically consciousness versus unconsciousness! Namaste'

Jenny
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Back in the day, I had a “frenemy” who, as it turned out, was pretty hell-bent on taking me down. This person really did what they could to hurt me. I was deeply upset, I was angry, I was all of those things you feel when you find out that someone you thought you liked was venomous and dangerous. I restrained myself from fighting back. I tried to take the high road. But one day I heard that something unfortunate and humiliating had happened to this person. And my reaction was deep relief and…happiness. There went the high road. So, why does it feel so good to hear something bad about someone you don’t like? Or someone you DO like? Or someone you don’t KNOW? I once asked the editor of a tabloid newspaper why all of the stories about a famous British couple had a negative bent. He said that when the headline was positive, the paper didn’t sell. Why is that? What’s wrong with us? I asked the sages to shed a little light.

Here’s to washing our mouths out with soap...

Love,
Gwyneth

http://www.goop.com/newsletter/30/

Hormonal or are we just getting fat, tired and infertile for nutt'in?

2009-05-03T22:05:00.000-07:00

I can't believe what I am learning about hormones. Sudden weight gain, sleepy after meals when you are supposed to have energy, irregular or very heavy menstration. Friends! This isn't normal. Plus it can prevent us from having babies. NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Chinese Medicine has an amazing grasp on hormonal shifts and changes in the body. I am becoming very passionate about studying it! Check out Dr. Axelrad's website and blog!

We have him lecturing at the studio on May 17, 2009! Joins us! See ad: http://www.healingenergetics.com/Sites/a/Pages/Events/Events.aspx?e=hormones-05-09

How Jennyoga ALMOST didn't happen and the strange synchronicities that did...

2009-05-02T08:22:00.001-07:00

The Formal Opening of Jennyoga

My name is Jennifer Buergermeister and I am a yogini. Houston is my humble home and I have been sharing the art of yoga with its citizens for 8 years! Yoga saved my life in many ways and I have dedicated my life to yoga. Since 2006, I have set a very strong intent to make Houston a Yoga Mecca in the USA. And it is beginning to happen. The labors of the seeds that I have laid are coming into fruition. My friends call me Jenny “Appleseed.” Though there are many examples that I can give you, and I will if you want, there is one that I feel most compelled to share with you. It is about how I opened my studio. I have learned a few things over the years, being a widow and finding yoga which changed my life forever and helped me get through the most difficult time in my life – grieving. My heart was broken and in its mending, an energetic change occurred, even detectable on an EKG. I began to beat to a different drum. Synchronicities, as they are termed, have become a norm for me in my daily life, and there isn’t anything that I am more aware of than the law of attraction. I believe that it begins in the heart and with a feeling. And I feel yoga.

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Yoga and “the breathing arts” open and allow grace to flow through the heart. It has been said that with love anything is possible. The first step is to consciously breathe, the second is to bravely act, and the third is to lovingly accept that which is unfolding before you. In other words, trust.

The heart chakra (energetic wheel partly associated with the endocrine system), or the Anahata, is a connector of energetic networks linking you to the world in which you live. It allows your essence, an awakening to being here now, to gradually permeate the interconnected web of life and energy in this universe. The reproductive chakra, or the Svadhisthana, is also an energetic connector. Through this energy center you attract certain elements of the world. Your heart emits an energy, which is funneled by another person's second chakra. Your second chakra, like a magnet, attracts another person's heart emissions. This cycle is known as the law of attraction and typically involves the process of creativity that signals messages out to the universe. The question is what are you sending out and what are you attracting?

With continued practice and the synthesis of life lessons learned, you bring your thoughts and emotions into the space of feeling. Here, you are able to make lasting Self changes. Within this New-Self integration, you begin the deeper journey toward synchronization and play within the “divine matrix.” When you learn this truth of your being, and understand the truth that prevails, it is possible to live fearlessly like a warrior - a peaceful warrior. Then, change occurs and you are forever transformed. That which is esoteric and misunderstood is revealed as the wise teacher. We find purpose in life, living, and in death. (Buergermeister 2009)

In 2007, my dear student and friend Bruce M. Cameron and I spoke of opening a yoga studio together. We said to each other that if one day the right space just so happened to appear, and the commercial rent price was right, that we would entertain opening a studio. One week later I drove down the most trafficked street in Houston, Westheimer Rd., and saw a leasing sign posted on a lovely building located in the heart of Houston. I called the landlord and he described the space as a shell - no walls and needed lots of build-out. He mentioned also another space that he had for lease down the street. Bruce and I met and looked at both spaces which had been vacant for over a year. One needed a lot of build-out and the other lacked a restroom and a waiting room but we were thinking somehow one of them would work because we loved the area of town and felt it could be a huge success. All we had to do is make a choice between the two locations. I phoned the landlord who told me that both properties were leased – the larger space that needed build-out went to a geology firm that analyzes rock to find oil who had plenty of money to upgrade his space, and the other with no restroom leased to a lawyer who wanted to import Jerusalem tile. Just like that! They were both vacant for over a year, no one even looking at them and then in one week, BAM! My heart sank and I sadly hung up the phone, tail tucked between my legs, and thought, “It just wasn’t meant to be.”

A week later, while walking out of my first teacher training course with five of my most faithful students, I checked my phone messages and there was one from Mr. Deal, the landlord of the two properties that had just been leased to other people. He said that strangely one of his tenants in the first property that we liked wanted to move and asked to put his property up for lease. Mr. Deal said that he thought he had a better solution than the other two properties for us. He said it was downstairs from the unit that was still a shell and had a private restroom and…a waiting room. Plus, it already had hardwood floors. What are the odds, right?

It was a small space, approximately 800 sq. feet, and he thought that we could maybe fit 15-20 in a yoga class. We saw the property and decided to move forward though it was fairly small. The landlord gave us a straight one year lease at an unbelievable price for the area, and without triple net!

Soon the geology firm upstairs began their build-out which required a lot of patience to bare the noise and smells of turpentine. They expanded into another area upstairs which took even more patience - this time they decided to rip up the old carpet padding and stain the concrete. Not only did the smell nearly push all the other tenants out of the building, we could now hear every little footstep made upstairs. Things were not going as well as we had hoped.

Then the geology firm purchased a new state of the art million dollar machine to analyze rocks. They tried to get the one ton machine upstairs in their unit space but it was architecturally impossible. The owner of the company had a dilemma.

Meanwhile eight months had passed and the Jerusalem tile importer wasn’t selling and moving his product. Evidently he couldn’t pay his rent. The landlord had numerous issues with the tenant and had to evict him. Mr. Deal, aware of his well paying client’s issue with their new million dollar machine, and his other yoga clients tired of hearing footsteps across the floor from the tenants above, called us and offered the Jerusalem tile space down the street to us at a good price. He mentioned that they had built a restroom and storeroom in the back of the unit since I had last seen it, and that he felt it could now work for us.

We were at a crossroads with our current space, needing more of it and very tired of the smells and noises from above. We looked at the new space and made a deal with Mr. Deal. That is really his name!

Our new space is over 2000 square feet. It has sacred Jerusalem tile from an old ancient seabed from the holy land embedded with crystals and fossils, and has a large restroom and a waiting area three times the size of the other space. It was such a win-win for everyone!

How it all came together is amazing. There is no way I could have predicted the series of events that led to opening this studio. From tail between legs, to slowly growing into a small space, then a new larger space big enough for all of our needs, discounted rent for the first year as we grow, and with the new amazing floor that feels like heaven when you look and walk on it. I am sure that it was organized by something more intelligent than what we could have ever imagined or written down on paper. Spirit was working and since we had the right intentions, the universe was responding to our hearts.

So it happened. We were in the adorable, yet small space for just 8 months. Just as more students were filling up the room and space was shrinking, my upstairs neighbor wanted my space. How else would our upstairs neighbor fit the enormous, multi-million dollar piece of equipment? It was so massive that it demanded our space downstairs which we had worked so hard to make into a beautiful yogic sanctuary. Opening the first studio space had been the culmination of years of yoga instruction, during which time I had developed a devoted flock of students. Little did I realize that this lovely space was only the caterpillar. I would soon meet my butterfly space.

The new space developed quickly. The irony is that just as soon as the upstairs tenant needed to make way for the machine monstrosity, another tenant of the same landlord was being evicted. Now, in Jennyoga studio, ironically the Negev tile provides the fossilized, solid base upon which yogis practice the ancient techniques of mind-body discipline. The polished limestone shines like the soft light of the divine and heaven-bound souls reveal themselves as graceful human yogi-beings. The move from one space to the next was easy--done in two weekends. The preparation was smooth enough since we had a little experience under our belts from developing the first one. The only challenge was to make the rent, which had doubled in cost.

The landlord gave no other allowance except one month free to recoup the money that it cost Jennyoga to move and to build out the new space so that there'd be an inviting, welcoming area which was a storeroom. Payment began the next month, allowing only 30 days to reorganize and open, with an equivalent 30-day spare cash flow to make it all happen!

Then, in the middle of September in that same first month, Hurricane Ike slammed the Northeast corner of Galveston Island before moving inland to ravage the city of Houston, Texas, the studio’s hometown. By the grace of angels, the studio survived, enduring only minimal damage. Much of the city was without electricity for many weeks, requiring us to work diligently to rejuvenate the excitement of the studio after its return. We worked incessantly to maintain the level of support and practice from the previous space, and even more so to increase the patronage.

During this time I even pondered turning the studio into a non-profit venture, offering donation yoga. I got the idea after visiting a studio in New York. I grew to believe that somehow the studio could pay the teachers and squeeze out the rent, but soon I found that I wasn’t making enough money to pay myself after the storm. As things tightened up, money just wasn’t coming as fast as it needed to in order to stay open. I noticed something odd about the account and our rent checks--they had not been cashed, yet the accounting department at the landlord’s office testified that everything had cleared and that the studio had a zero balance. We were barely making rent in the first few months and sent a few rent checks prematurely that clearly lacked funds after several payroll checks had cleared. I knew if the landlord cashed all the checks, we were in trouble. We were coasting and the ship was seeming to sink.

During the storm, come to find out, the landlord's office sustained extensive flood damage. The storm caused chaos and misplaced checks. This act of nature, for Jennyoga yogis, became an act of mercy. It had bought us the time to garner enough support and to attract the many students who, by the time of the financial shortfall discovery, were attending the studio, and were able to supply the needed revenue to keep the studio alive. I had asked the universe, to God, to make it clear whether or not I was supposed to keep the studio open, and if so, to please help. I remember even saying out loud, “If I am where I am to be, ok universe, make it happen.” And the games with the universe began. It took six months for the landlord to find and cash the checks, giving us a miraculous edge to get out of the red and back on track. Bruce said, “God must sure love you.” I believe he is right!

Today we are a rock solid yoga studio in Houston and a hub for many yoga enthusiasts. I was voted to become the president of the Yoga Teachers Association of Houston and have united the studios of Houston into a business together called the Texas Yoga Conference premiering February 27-27, 2010. We have made many connections to California and have made Houston, Texas a hub for popular California teachers to visit. Some are even moving here. Houston is becoming a mecca for yoga enthusiasts. We recently had Arthur Klein premier his movie Y Yoga at the YTAH General Meeting this year and amazing connections are being made with Breathecure® and medical professionals in the area. Ask and it shall be given. There is no doubt in my mind. Namaste’

Jennifer Buergermeister is the current president of The Yoga Teachers Association of Houston. She is the owner of Jennyoga, a vinyasa yoga studio and school in Houston, TX. She is also a facilitator at MD Anderson Cancer Center located in the renowned Texas Medical Center in Houston. She has been teaching yoga in Houston for eight years and practicing for fourteen.

Jenny founded Breathe the Cure® in 2007. Breathecure® is a non-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness about the importance of quality breathing. She intends to establish worldwide breathing programs to children and adults, which promote a model of preventative health care. Along with contemporary medical technology, Yoga and other methods of contemplative practices can be offered as complementary forms of treatment. Her motto is Live. Breathe. Do Yoga.™

Welcome Brandon, Stef, Kimberly and Teal Marie!

2009-04-26T22:11:00.000-07:00

Thanks for joining!!! This will be fun Ok, so we are completely new at this. We want to open up this blog for questions and to share information about yoga and life in general :O) So let's begin with a few simple questions:

How is your yoga practice going?

Which style do you practice the most?

What makes a fantastic yoga instructor versus a medicocre one?

Has yoga changed your life?

Namaste'
Jenny