Bikram Yoga San Jose Blog
20 years of teaching Bikram Yoga – transformation through repetition
I recall my first class with Bikram. It was iconic – many of us that went to Bikram’s teacher training know that famous first Monday night. We’re suited up for the class in a vast ballroom, hot as hell, awaiting his arrival onto a 10-foot tall podium. Here comes my...
Michele’s Insights
20 years of teaching Bikram Yoga – transformation through repetition
I recall my first class with Bikram. It was iconic – many of us that went to Bikram’s teacher training know that famous first Monday night. We’re suited up for the class in a vast ballroom, hot as hell, awaiting his arrival onto a 10-foot tall podium. Here comes my...
Michele’s Insights – Starting from scratch on our journey together
It’s a joy to be back at the studio as a practitioner, teacher, and owner after so many months of seeing only a few people. I’m bubbling with glee to be in the yoga room with so many practitioners under one roof. Once masks became optional (if fully vaccinated), I bet...
Michele’s Insights – Strive to live the ordinary life in an extraordinary way
Strive to live the ordinary life in an extraordinary way. – Ralph Blum Every time I left my mom, I knew it was another goodbye: a goodbye to her voice; a goodbye to hearing her say my name; a goodbye to her knowing who I was; a goodbye to her sweet hands; a goodbye to...
Story of Yogi
Story of a Yogi – Donna Gardner
How did you first discover Bikram Yoga? I was looking for ways to relieve overwhelming stress when I noticed a Bikram Yoga studio on my way home from work. I didn’t know much about yoga and nothing about Bikram Yoga. I decided to give it a try. In one of my first...
Story of a Yogi – Ashutosh Jumde
How did you first discover Bikram yoga? I like running as an exercise and was a regular long-distance runner with one full and multiple half marathons under my belt over about 12 years. I never realized how running affects the body if you do not do the necessary...
Story of a Yogi – Tere Zacher
How did you first discover Bikram yoga? I have always loved the idea of yoga since I was little. It sounded like something mystical and spiritual. When I was a professional swimmer, I started going to Kundalini Yoga, and I liked how it helped me be still. When I moved...
Teacher Feature
Teacher Feature – Michele Vennard
What do you love most about the yoga? There is so much I love about this yoga. If I had to narrow it down to one thing, I’d say the security and confidence I have in it to keep me healthy. I’m so blessed to have had this tool over the past 20+ years. The value it...
Bikram Yoga
Michele’s Insights: The Nature of Transformation
“Transformation can come in many modalities, but few include the physical, like yoga,” states Craig Villani, teacher extraordinaire, at the beginning of our leadership intensive weekend with BYSJ teachers. This comment struck a chord with me. I’ve often wondered why...
Becoming World Yoga Champion
The Day of the World Yoga Championships Here it is Sunday morning and we are up and out to take class and get ready for the big day. Both BYSJ teacher, Lee Dickensen, and Bay Area teacher, Gina Middleton, are in the top 10 of their division from yesterday’s successful...
Story of a Yogi Special: Michael Krauss
How did you first discover Bikram yoga? A friend suggested trying it back in 1999/2000 at a studio in Mountain View. I liked it but then had a teacher roughly adjust my knee in toe stand which caused some damage and I turned my back on Bikram. Then in 2004 I moved...
Community Resources
One week in – a letter from Michele
It’s been just over a week since we closed and already it seems so long ago. The last few weeks prior to closing were so hard, navigating the fear and discerning what’s real in this unprecedented global event. Maintaining a yoga practice IN the midst of uncertainty is THE responsibility I adhere to most, and not just with this virus, in any occasion.
Car Accident, 4:30 pm, Tues, Nov 16th, 2010
The reason I didn’t pull any muscles and could hang upside down for 15 minutes in comfort was because of Bikram Yoga. The reason I am alive is because of the grace of God.I was driving north on I 280. It was a clear, cool, sunny day. I just got into the far right lane...
Right Brain versus Left Brain
This is a fascinating talk by a brain scientist, Jill, who had a stroke and came out the other side with the knowledge that we are all connected and that half our brain works this way naturally while the other half differentiates ourselves as separate beings. It takes...
Newsletters
Time for More – Michele’s Insights
This week was a turning point for me. Maybe for you, too. After learning that we were going to be sheltering in place for at least another month, I had to take a deep breath and a nice long walk. I had to soak in the idea that BYSJ will most likely be a part of Phase...
Breath and the Nervous System
Bikram Yoga Teacher, Misha Soltis, recently led us in our daily 10 am PDT live-stream Pranayama breathing on Facebook. She reminded me, and all of us, how great it is to have this one constant in our lives: our breath. With so much uncertainty, we often remind...
Compassion from the Contrasts
Years ago, I recall Gary Vaynerchuk, a bold, self-proclaimed compassionate leading entrepreneur of this digital age, discussing the “me too” stories coming out as women started to un-silence themselves about the sexual abuse they had experienced. His takeaway was...
Postures
An Invitation to Trust: Yoga Championships, Mary Jarvis, and the 60 Day Challenge
The older I get, the more I see the world as both a beautiful and yet a fallen place. I think generation after generation after generation, as we’ve heard for thousands of years, we will always have tension roaming as we vacillate from brighter to darker times, then...
Blowing in Firm Pose
Kapalbhati in Vajrasana Increases circulation Removes toxins Strengthens all abdominal organs Trims the waist line Energizing Improves mental clarity Good for high blood pressure Normalizes bowel function Blog Categories:
Spine Twisting Pose
Ardha-MatsyendrasanaIncreases circulation and nutrition to spinal nerves, veins and tissues.Improves spinal elasticity and flexibility.Opens bronchial muscles and rib cage.Firms abdomen, thighs and buttocks.Exercises digestive, endocrine, muscular, reproductive and...
Popular Posts
Story of a Yogi – Juni Sanoyca
How did I first discover Bikram yoga? Full-body aches. Numbness in my right hand. Sharp, shooting pains. I was turning 40, and I could feel my body giving up on me like an old car. After looking at my MRI scan, my doctor told me I had an “80-year-old spine.” I was...
Story of a Yogi – Bernice Buntaran
I have known about Bikram Yoga San Jose for a while. In 2005 I went to visit Michele’s first yoga studio to inquire about the practice. Several years later, I checked out her second studio not once but twice. More years passed, and I found three friends who practiced...
Story of a Yogi – Kim Jackman
I was introduced to Bikram Yoga 22 years ago by my sister-in-law in Encino after my son was born. Living in the South, she knew that heat didn’t bother me. In fact, I loved the heat and humidity. While visiting family, she said, “I’m taking you to a Bikram yoga...