Bikram Yoga San Jose Blog
Savasana – the portal to peace
According to Yogapedia, the first written record of savasana is in the classic 15th-century yoga text, Hatha Yoga Pradipika. It says that “lying down on the ground, like a corpse, is called savasana. It removes fatigue and gives rest to the mind.” Google savasana, and...
Michele’s Insights
Savasana – the portal to peace
According to Yogapedia, the first written record of savasana is in the classic 15th-century yoga text, Hatha Yoga Pradipika. It says that “lying down on the ground, like a corpse, is called savasana. It removes fatigue and gives rest to the mind.” Google savasana, and...
Looking back and moving forward
It's been over two years since shelter-in-place for the COVID pandemic began on March 16th, 2020, bringing unique challenges and solutions to delivering Bikram Yoga to you. Thanks to our staff, especially our management team, for getting creative in delivering Bikram...
Start from scratch once again
Never too late, never too old, never too bad to do yoga and start from scratch once again. Two years ago today On March 16, 2020, like all of us in Santa Clara County, BYSJ closed our facility due to Covid-19. Our management team and staff quickly showed up with other...
Story of Yogi
Story of a Yogi – Paige Muret’s yoga journey
My yoga journey is not unlike any of yours. I started Bikram Yoga almost nine years ago. I am the mother of three amazing children, and this year I am happy to say that I’ve been married for 25 years to the finest human being I know. Our life is full of ups and downs...
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...
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
The gift of resetting and reconnecting
Pratyahara, one of the limbs of yoga, means withdrawal from the senses. As a mother with small children, I have renewed appreciation for how necessary and revitalizing it is to have the chance to withdraw, reset, and reconnect. Life right now is chaos – beautiful and...
Finding what’s contained within
“The best artist has that thought alone which is contained within the marble shell; only the sculptor’s hand can break the spell to free the figures.” – Michelangelo Look in the mirror. Concentrate. Meditate. These words are at the beginning of every 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...
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
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...