Namaste Y’all is overjoyed to have Houston, TX yogi Melissa Smith contributing to our site with words of inspiration from the western front of our southern expansion! We are so excited to grow our community and to have some help in our journeys. Thank you Melissa, and Namaste Texas!
~Kendall
NY's newest contributing writer, Melissa Smith
A yogi for about a decade now, I’ve just returned from living in the Far East back to Texas, my roots. While I was gone, the growth throughout Texas in both the student’s practice and places to practice is astonishing.
I’ve been blessed to work with some amazing studios but more importantly, some passionate visionaries who believe in the transformative power of yoga and want to build a strong community out of that desire. In the coming months, we’ll be featuring some of these incredible trendsetters in the Texas yoga world.
Jennifer Buergermeister
Our first spotlight comes from my hometown of Houston, and is a woman who has been unfolding a grand vision for Texas. I’ve gotten to know Jennifer Begermeister over the course of a few years and every time we meet, there is a new idea emerging in a serendipitous way. She can be found at her two studios in Houston, Curayoga.com.
MS: Which five words best describe you?
JB: Passionate, determined, honest, sensitive, blessed, and trusting. My boyfriend thinks I am also feisty! I think I just know what I want! Haha!
MS: How did your yoga journey begin and what path have you taken since?
JB: My journey began when my husband of 3.5 years passed away. This was 10 years ago. One afternoon - after losing nearly 25 pounds and sleep deprived from shock - I heard a woman’s voice while lying on the couch reading a book Many Lives Many Masters by Dr. Brian Weiss. She was older and told me to, “Get up and go to yoga NOW.” Though it scared the hell out of me, I listened. She spoke with conviction and seemed to know something that I did not. Though I had dabbled in yoga classes around Houston and traveling, by no means had it yet become my life. I found a studio in the yellow pages that looked intriguing and began the journey into hot as hell yoga. I am sure that I nearly died on my mat the first couple of times that I went from the heat! However the next day I would always feel a slight shift toward a direction of hope. I quickly began to see yoga helping me get through grief day by day. I began to have epiphany after epiphany. Though I was on a roller coaster of emotional ups and downs, yoga helped me survive the worst pain imaginable. I fell in love with yoga and here we are today. I am now an advocate for keeping yoga free from unnecessary regulation at the state level so that it can remain something easily available to all of us as a way of life.
I am also a multiple studio owner Jennyoga/CuraYoga and activist for yoga as a way of life. I have a nonprofit dedicated to bringing awareness to the general public and children about the importance of a quality breath. It is called Breathe the Cure and was inspired by volunteering to facilitate yoga with cancer patients for five years at MD Anderson. I am also the founder of the Texas Yoga Conference and Texas Yoga Association and the very first multiple level yoga training program, One Yoga USA, that shares the many branches and disciplines of yoga to be completed over a number of years allowing the practitioner to eventually become a “curator” of yoga. The very first Breathe the Cure Conference will be this October 29, 2011 at Rice University at the new Gibbs Recreation and Wellness Center.
MS: How do you define yoga?
JB: Building unity as a way of life by weaving people and functional paradigms into a new world full of rapid transitions. It can begin with the physical, but it eventually has to make its way off the mat. You know…be the change! Sitting around complaining helps no one. Action is the key.
MS: What’s the best lesson you’ve learned along the way?
JB: Finding balance just isn’t always easy. It takes work. Balancing time, projects, people, expectations - all of which takes experience and time to learn. It was so much easier to just show up, teach and go home. Now I run the business and advocacy of yoga. That isn’t always easy or harmonious. I am learning every day how to do it better. I love what I do and it doesn’t feel like work. It’s a passion! Best lesson is that success means not giving up. You will win some and lose some, but just keep marching. Let curiosity and love be your guide.
MS: What’s your ah-ha moment?
JB: The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. Helped me understand the voice I heard eight years earlier that led me deep into yoga. I suggest everyone read it.
MS: What’s been your best choice in life thus far?
JB: Trusting my intuition and gut. It never leads me down a “wrong” path.
MS: Who inspires you?
JB: There are so many! Shiva Rea, Mother Teresa, Albert Einstein, Malcolm Gladwell, Elizabeth Lesser, my dad, my late professors Mike Doran, Ghandi, Neem Karoli Baba, Roger Maley and Lloyd Swenson.
MS: Which person, living or dead, would you most like to meet?
JB: Albert Einstein
MS: What dream do you still want to fulfill?
JB: Living on a large hill with a beautiful vista with time to write and reflect; and my horses grazing in the pasture outside my large window.
MS: What are you reading?
JB: The Bhagavad Gita According to Gandhi among a stack of others on various subjects from theta waves to horses.
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Melissa Smith is a 500 RYT whose first training took place with Inspyrayoga in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Now residing in Texas, she travels throughout the US teaching advanced teacher trainings for Leeann Carey Yoga, leading partner workshops and Thai yoga massage, and blogs about her adventures and teachings at www.graceyogaandpilates.com.
