Our Blog
Welcome to our blog, featuring insights and articles related to our Bikram Yoga practice and personal stories and testimony by our members.
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Julia Anderson’s Story of a Yogi
I first discovered Bikram Yoga in 2002. My sister and I took our first Bikram class together, and we still practice almost daily. We’ve always been best friends, and this yoga has added another layer of awesome to our relationship. My yoga practice brings me so much...
Michele’s Insights
Equal and opposite force
Who would have thought Newton’s 3rd Law has anything to do with yoga, Bikram Yoga? And, yet, it does. You can count on every posture relying on this law of motion: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Once you begin to understand it, you’ll have...
Creating community for 20 years
BYSJ owner and founder Michele Vennard shares her memories and insights on the evolution of BYSJ at the 20th anniversary celebration on January 21, 2023. Bikram Yoga San Jose is this beautiful container of people with so much diversity among us. We believe in this...
Roaming the room to find my practice
I’ve completed over two dozen 60 Day Challenges at this point, but not once did I do this: practice in every spot in the room. In this third location of BYSJ, we installed these cute orange mat markers in the flooring for the 48 spots we have, making it easy to...
Story of Yogi
Julia Anderson’s Story of a Yogi
I first discovered Bikram Yoga in 2002. My sister and I took our first Bikram class together, and we still practice almost daily. We’ve always been best friends, and this yoga has added another layer of awesome to our relationship. My yoga practice brings me so much...
Charles Bombelyn’s yoga story
How did you first discover Bikram yoga? For my birthday, my friend Purshina gifted me an intro to a Bikram studio in Reston, Virginia. I went and spent 90 minutes with the teacher, little Reggie, yelling at me for the whole class; it felt that way. Then he would sing...
Min Wu’s Story of a Yogi
How did you first discover Bikram yoga? I have been physically active my entire adult life and primarily enjoyed cardio-intense activities such as running, hiking, and cycling. Yoga was never on my radar until 2018, when, during a solo trek in the Himalayas, I took a...
Bikram Yoga
Equal and opposite force
Who would have thought Newton’s 3rd Law has anything to do with yoga, Bikram Yoga? And, yet, it does. You can count on every posture relying on this law of motion: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Once you begin to understand it, you’ll have...
Tribute to my father and gratitude for BYSJ
This holiday season, my family and I said goodbye to an extraordinary man who graced this world with his presence for 99 incredible years. He was a husband, a father, a doctor, a hero, a WW2 veteran, and my mentor. For the last month of his life, he struggled; not to...
Stretching and compression – a whole-body experience
Your whole body (and mind) benefits from your Bikram Yoga practice – literally inside out, bones to the skin. Two key techniques used widely throughout Bikram Yoga are stretching and compression. Often seen as distinct, they are, in fact, very closely related. Think...
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
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
Equal and opposite force
Who would have thought Newton’s 3rd Law has anything to do with yoga, Bikram Yoga? And, yet, it does. You can count on every posture relying on this law of motion: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Once you begin to understand it, you’ll have...
Legs as a foundation for life
We wake up every morning, step out of bed, and our legs carry us throughout our day without any thought. And they do it just fine. We walk around, we stand still, and we bend our knees to get in and out of chairs and up and down stairs. But do we want just fine, or do...
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...
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...