Practicing Yoga is savoring life intensely. Every Breath. ~jsp

When I was introduced to Classical Yoga in 1989, the practice of Yoga provided a tangible way to calm my anxious mind, and appreciate the potential of the present moment, even in the most difficult times. Over the decades, my understanding and experience of the practice has evolved so that yoga isn’t something that happens on the mat. It takes place in every moment of every day. Integrating time tested universal ethics, movement, breath and a means of turning our attention inward to our true nature through meditation, yoga has the potential to transform every life from the inside out.

Since 1999, I’ve been dedicated to sharing my understanding of the practice through teaching. I’m dedicated to supporting students to utilize the practice to exercise their own potential for exploration, creativity, service and real love, for living a meaningful life.

Class Schedule

PRACTICE WITH ME IN-STUDIO

Wednesdays: 12 – 1:15pm   Foundations of Yoga
Saturdays
:  9 – 10:15am   Mandala Vinyasa

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PRACTICE WITH ME ON ZOOM

Tuesdays & Thursdays:  8:15am – 8:45am   Free Meditation
Thursdays:  9am – 10:15am   Mandala Vinyasa
Saturdays9am – 10:15am   Mandala Vinyasa

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MANDALA VINYASA

Vinyasa means to place in a special way while mandala means “circle,” or “essence.” Like origami, or the Japanese art of folding, the body moves progressively, breath by breath, towards one or more apex postures, much like a conscious walk up an unexplored mountain path. We will utilize historically early yoga-asana, contemporary expressions of movement, and seasonal practice to build our flow experience. Counter postures unfold the body for short seated practice. Yes, there likely could be some chanting. This class is for those with an understanding of internal alignment and flow and a love for a breath-centered adventure.

FOUNDATIONS OF YOGA

This class provides a physically-accessible movement experience while drawing upon foundational principles that have formed our understanding of the practice of yoga over the last 2000 years. Each week we’ll focus on a specific, time-tested principle so we can, over time, build a sustainable and well-rounded practice from the inside out. Expect references to early texts, pranayama, mindful movement, making what we learn on the mat relevant to our daily lives, small meditations, and some chanting. This class is open to open-minded beginners, seasoned practitioners, and everyone in between.

Tapas

Tapas means the discipline of steady practice. Each season of the year has a special series of postures dedicated to it. The postures that are chosen for each season address traditional Indian medicine or the wisdom of Ayurveda, as well as the Chinese meridians that run along the body, so that you can be empowered to care for your health. Students who practice the four different Tapas series throughout the year have reported greater internal stability, a stronger immune system, better circulation and higher energy levels. At Breathe Together Yoga, this series is practiced in a heated room, but it not necessary to receive its benefits.

Practice with Jennifer On-Demand

Practice with Jennifer on Yoga Anytime

Jennifer’s Mandala Yoga progressively guides us through a series of adventurous and engaging practices that support strength in your body, and a clear, calm mind. Begin practicing today at Yoga Anytime.

Projects

In 2018, Jennifer created a series of 84 postures that are present in modern postural yoga in response: Asana in an urban environment, practiced largely by women, many of which are standing postures as a form of exercise and to counter the sitting in chairs that comprises modern living. This project was also a commentary on yoga on social media. On one hand, we want to be seen, and on the other hand, we struggle to see who we truly are. The practice of uniting body, mind and breath “polishes our own mirrors.” It makes it possible to see that we aren’t who often we think we are at all.

In Jennifer’s practice and in teaching, she draw from these 84 postures often. They are also taught in Season 2 in Mandala Yoga below.

In winter of 2015, while in India, Jennifer visited the Mahamandir temple inside what is now a schoolyard in Jodphur to see a mural of 84 yoga postures painted in the early 1800’s. As her understanding of the practice of yoga has evolved, she became curious about the paintings. She had come to understand that the yoga that we were practicing was almost entirely modern in it’s form, and very western.

The Jodhpur images, which weren’t the first set of images to visually document 84 postures, are currently not cared for by the government, so they are in latter stages of decay, but even so, they tell the story: The practice of yoga was at that time geared towards, cleansing, and keeping the body healthy. Most of the postures are seated.

Podcasts

The Joy Map Integration of Dharma Teachings and Practice with host Kelly Blaser

The Power of Meditation is a free, online event that brings together a myriad of lineages in a multi-disciplinary celebration of meditation and the dharma. With Host Kelly Blaser, LMFT & Dharma Teacher.

 

Mind Games Podcast Logo, Featuring Jennifer Prugh

The Art of Finding Your Center

Jennifer Prugh is the latest guest of a fantastic podcast, MIND GAMES, hosted by Hailey and Ronnie Lott, which has featured Steve Young and Jerry Rice. The podcast is available for free on iTunes or on the Mind Games podcast site.
 
Listen to learn more about Jennifer’s history and insight into the mind, mindfulness, mental health, and how yoga fits.

 

The Power of Meditation 2021

When you awaken to essence nature, the way-seeing mind, and a sense of spaciousness, freedom seeps into your perception of everything, and nothing in life will ever be the same.
 
Friend of Breathe Together Yoga, and dharma teacher Kelly Blaser has created a global interview series about awakening and the dharma teachings that carry us closer to the truth. She has brought together a brilliant and insightful group of teachers.
 

 

Journey On

Jennifer seems to take you on a little journey each time she answers a question and, like any great guide, she stays right with you every step of the way. She is the owner of the Breathe Together Yoga studio and author of the magnificent River of Offerings book which vividly tells the story, in words and pictures, of her 12 trips following the path of the Ganges River. There’s a realness about her that will draw you right in in the simplest and most loving way.

Listen on Spotify or Apple.

 

Making Tough Decisions with a Compass of Kindness

She shares with us a compass for making business decisions that are conscious and kind, as well as prudent and profitable. She shares her history from pushing against social constructs to finding yoga, teaching yoga, and inevitably building a business seen as a sanctuary for all who call Breathe Together Yoga their healing space. We’ll discuss the pivots that were needed in the midst of COVID-19 uncertainty and understand guiding principles, like meditation, that keep kindness and compassion at the forefront of how we show up in this world.

Listen on Real Eyes.

 

Chanting

Om Mani Padme Hum

The mantra Om Mani Padme Hum is easy to say but because it contains the essence of the entire teaching, it is quite powerful. When you say the first syllable, Om, to help you achieve perfection in the practice of generosity, it is blessed: ‘Ma’ helps perfect the practice of pure ethics; ‘ni’ helps achieve perfection in the practice of tolerance and patience; ‘Pa’ helps achieve perfection of perseverance; ‘me’ helps achieve perfection in the practice of concentration; and, ‘Hum,’ the final syllable, helps achieve perfection in the practice of wisdom.

“So in this way recitation of the mantra helps achieve perfection in the six practices from generosity to wisdom. The path of these six perfections is the path walked by all the Buddhas of the three times.
What could then be more meaningful than to say the mantra and accomplish the six perfections?”
~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Heart Treasure of the Enlightened Ones

Gayatri Mantra

Om Bhur Bhuvah Svaha
Tat Savitur Varenyam
Bhargo Devasya Dheemahi
Dhiyo Yo nah: Prachodayat
~ Rig-Veda, Mandala 3, Hymn 62, Verse 10

This prayer is for liberation and enlightenment. Two translations:

S. Krishnamurthy: “We mediate upon the radiant Divine Light of that adorable Sun of Spiritual Consciousness; May it awaken our intuitional consciousness.”

Monier Monier-Williams: “Let us meditate on that excellent glory of divine vivifying Sun, May he enlighten our understandings.”

Aditya Hridayam Punyam Sarv Shatru Vinashanam
When the sun is kept in the heart all evils vanish from life

Four Immeasurables

Immeasurable love (Sanskrit: maitri, Pali: metta),
Immeasurable compassion (Sanskrit: karuna, Pali: karuna),
Immeasurable joy (Sanskrit: mudita, Pali: mudita),
Immeasurable equanimity (Sanskrit: upeksha, Pali: upekkha).

Traditional Tibetan Prayer
May all beings have happiness and the cause of happiness.
May they be free of suffering and the cause of suffering.
May they never be disassociated from the supreme happiness which is without suffering.
May they remain in the boundless equanimity, free from both attachment to close ones and rejection of others.

Om Tare Tuttare

There are 21 different Taras and this mantra is to Green Tara, representing Compassion in Action. The first Dalai Lama wrote that Tara is called on to protect us from eight specific dangers, each of which represents a corresponding human internal obstacle:

wild elephants — delusion and ignorance
snakes — jealousy
prisons — greed and miserliness
lions — pride
floods — desire and attachment
demons — doubts caused by delusion
forest fires — hatred
robbers — wrong views, including fanatical views

Shiva's Chant

sacchārānanda-parapūrnam
shivo’ham mmmm shivo’ham
nityānanda-svarūpam
shivo’ham mmmm shivo’ham
ānando’ham ānando’ham, ānando’ham ānando’ham (x2)

Sachara Chara Para Purna Shivoham Shivoham
I am that which prevails everywhere… complete in itself.

Nityananda Swarupa Shivoham Shivoham
I am Shiva; the deity of eternal bliss

Anandoham (16)
I am Joy itself… I am Bliss itself.

Words To Live By

Right Thought

May we be steady, present and joyful.

Right Speech

May our words improve upon the silence.

Right Action

May we be the change we wish to see.

STAY UPDATED ON JENNIFER’S OFFERINGS

THROUGH BREATHE TOGETHER YOGA’S NEWSLETTER

  • “Jennifer creates a safe place for students to grow and change.”

  • “A masterful teacher who creates safe space and strong bonds between the students. She has an amazing ability to see in everyone our greatest potential, and skillfully guide us to fulfill what’s beyond we consider possible.”

  • “Jennifer has a gift where she can see you, to make a connection. As she says, we are all unique flowers, and she will help your flower grow and begin to blossom.”

  • “Jennifer is the rare teacher who always knows exactly what her students need: whether it’s to slow down and take things more mindfully or it’s time to explore one’s edge.”

  • “Jennifer Prugh is a masterful teacher, with a compassionate heart, who sees greatness in others.”

  • “Jennifer is very attentive and constantly helps you push yourself to your limit. I also appreciate the focus on meditation at the end of the class. Even if it’s just a few minutes of quiet and calmness, it’s still a few minutes more than I would normally have a day.”

  • “I’m an avid student of Jennifer Prugh’s and never thought I’d find a teacher I like as much, but I have thoroughly enjoyed each and every class I’ve taken.”

  • “Her style of teaching was very supportive, encouraging, warm and inviting.”

  • “Jennifer, since she is such a passionate, hands-on instructor who teaches with my style of sense of humor and firmness of instruction.”