It takes a village to create a dream. Thanks to all of you that helped to crystallize a vision into a tangible loving realty. Dave, Darren, Tom, Sean, Jeff, Kathy, Andrew, Donnie, Todd, Matt, Ken, Steve, Bob, Arbel, Farzam, Nick, Donna, and Randy are just some of the names to single out. Thank you Ban. And the biggest thanks to my wonderful manager and friend Chris for protecting my vision and adopting this dream as his own, assuring me that we could do this even in those times when there was extreme doubt. You all get a rose.

This could not have been possible if I did not do the yoga every day, sometimes, twice a day. Along with the energy it gave me, the yoga also kept me grounded, clear, detached and in alignment with my intention. Thank you, yoga, and thank you Bikram for this yoga. You get a rose.

Three years after we opened in what is now our old studio in 2003, we were already at capacity. From that point on we added more classes to keep up with the demand and held the facility together as best we could. It was then that we planted that seed to expand. Through those years we looked around, talked to our landlord, and met with banks and city officials to learn more about what we could do. There were lots of “no’s” but we persevered. Nothing was right until now. Seeing your faces as you enter the studio makes my heart sing the most. It was all worth it. Both Chris and I appreciate deeply your patience and your trust in us. It’s you BYSJ members that get the final rose. You will see a rose on our back reception desk everyday honoring YOU! Thanks.

For me, even with all the distractions, when you have a dream, you don’t hear the sound of the noise. There is a great quote by Brazilian author, Paul Coelho, that says, “And there are defeats. No one can avoid them. But it’s better to lose some of the battles in the struggle for your dreams than to be defeated without ever knowing what you’re fighting for.” That inspired me.

Soon, you meet the right people and you begin to collect “yeses” and the right path shows up. One of the right people that came into my life when we first opened in 2003 was my business coach, Alon Sagee. He and I worked at building a brand and created our current website. He really knows BYSJ. I brought him back on board as we started to create this new space. I shared with him our community, the commitment you all have in your practice, the amount of new people we continually brought in each month, the diversity in our members. He was lit up and said “There is a movement happening.” I love that. Yes, there is! Alon and I created what is our second Invitation. This tells the tale of who we are now so eloquently. You will begin to see this revised “invitation” everywhere as you come to the studio and read our promotion pieces, website and social outlets. A portion of it reads, “There is a movement happening now. We’ve heard hundreds of stories of how this yoga has impacted lives in infinite and miraculous ways. We don’t really know how it works; we just know that yoga makes everything better. Because of our participation together in co-creating the spirit of BYSJ, we can now empower many more to live the best version of themselves through the practice of yoga. Our new and larger facility is simply a reflection that we can make a difference.

In the last three to five years, I’ve also been collecting art or pieces that are meaningful to our community. I was on a cruise years ago and we stopped at a small fishing town. There was this amazing store filled with collections of brass and some of them shaped as Buddha’s. That is where I found our door handles in the bathroom. The grand Buddha in our lobby was eyed more than 5 years ago. My Feng Shui master told me a few years ago that I should have something with big energy like a piece of art with colors of red and gold close to my entrance. I immediately thought of this Buddha painting and called my friend in Colorado who was with me when I first saw this piece. Ironically, he was around the corner from this gallery. He went in and there it was hanging on the wall and now marked ½ off! Of course, he grabbed it and had it stored it at his house in Boulder for three years, until the new studio was ready. The slate you see in the lobby was important to me as I wanted all of us to feel the earth beneath us. And it’s important to have a beautiful ceiling in the yoga room because we are on our backs 1/3 of class.

All of these ideas, collections, notes drawn on napkins, serendipitous insights were all fueled by you! Your emails about how the yoga has changed your life, your individual stories about how yoga gave you something that made you a better person, the comments about how much you love the fresh flowers, how thought provoking the inspirational cards are to you in the bathrooms, your requests to bring your kids to class, and your smiles and exchanges with each other only further kindled my passion and creativity.

This grand space is only a small reflection to the enormous uplifting platform you’ve given me to live out my dream. Please use the magnificence of this new home of ours to do nothing less than pull out the enormity and magnificence in you.

Evolve in your practice. Evolve in your being. Evolve to higher levels of consciousness. Discover. Help your friends and family discover. Then discover more. We have signed for 10 more years and I look forward to the thousands of life changing stories that I will hear coming from the grace of this good space, our home. Welcome home.

Being in Boulder, Colorado watching 8-10 inches of snow cap the mountains and huge pine trees was a life enriching moment. I almost cried, as I had not seen snow like that in many years. It was breathtaking and special. Boulder has the fortune of having sun 300 days of the year (much like San Diego), so to experience sun-kissed snow in tolerable temperatures was exhilarating as my lungs took in that cold air. I felt so alive. Such heightened moments, if we stop and partake of them, make us feel so grateful and enthusiastic.

Traveling is a gift despite the stresses of departing and arriving. But through a process of elimination, when you narrow it down, the ability to be somewhere else not usual to your routine produces great effects that can enhance your outlook on life. Without the baggage of “things you need to do” that come up every few minutes in your everyday life, you are left with a wide open channel that allows the flow of joy, imagination, creativity, insight, contemplation and gosh, much more. It is said that the most important relationship you can have in your life is the one you hold with “source” (whatever that is for you). For me, Boulder and all the interactions I encountered there fueled my connection to that source. When that happens, I often feel the Universe giving me this loving wink that says “Yes, Michele, you are on the right path.”

Driving down Saratoga Avenue seemed like a new experience as I returned to the studio from my three day trip. Not yet immersed in the big and small tasks waiting for me, I absorbed the striking beauty of the colorful trees that line Saratoga Avenue. The bright, glowing, surreal looking trees to my left caught my eye as leaves fell to the ground, creating this carpet of tangerine yellow. I felt so lucky to experience this vision. It was another gesture that enriched my life at that moment. Again, I was out of my filtered way of cerebral thinking, which allowed for a higher level of experience. I noticed the long drive down Saratoga Avenue amongst these trees on the left and the right leading me right to BYSJ. Perhaps my second wink from the Universe that says “Yes Michele, you are on the right path.”

The instant camaraderie I feel with all of you the moment I walk in the door is another experience that enriches my life at that moment. I am truly rejuvenated without having done one half- moon posture! Without even knowing the content of the conversations going on, the sound they make is music. Not being around this for a few days—as my time in Boulder was more quiet and serene—I felt another sense of being alive with people that I not only enjoy but truly love. My life was enriched again in that moment.

It’s the holiday season, and how crazy it is to even try and filter out the lists to accomplish in the weeks ahead. It’s the end of the year and we may have additional work related tasks to accomplish. We have a new studio to open in a few weeks, which definitely pulls me away if I’m not careful. But maybe the loud, repetitious exposure of Santa this time of year is really another message. Santa in his red suit is not literally real, however what he is can be of great value. Children represent that part in us that has remained innocent, care free, in wonder of life. Without restraint, Santa asks us for our “wish list”, not caring if it’s practical or not. He represents our imagination, creativity, and hope that we often times can’t tap into because of the “rules of the road” we must follow in life. Go ahead and make your wish. While you may not get what you ask for, what you are left with is a more sharpened and available capacity to ponder and contemplate, to use your creativity, and to feel joy. It was a gift to be in Boulder and have that chance to step away, but I can’t take Boulder with me. What I do get to keep is the “mental muscle memory” and bestow this upon what I see and do every day.

As we move from one “front door” to another in the next few weeks, I feel flooded with ways BYSJ has deepened my relationship to source. Of course, it won’t stop as we move to something that gives us the space to continue on that “right path”, but our intimate home that we are leaving behind provided us all with some very big moments: BYSJ, like Santa, often hears our “wish lists” as we begin our practice: a better back, heal my knee, give me confidence, etc…Maybe you didn’t get what you asked for, but I do bet, you received something greater. I did.

All of us at Bikram Yoga San Jose wish you and yours a magical, wonderful, joyous holiday season. It’s the perfect time to segue into our new digs. The season’s energy, when unencumbered with the hustle and bustle of things to do, is filled with gratefulness and opportunities to enrich our lives every single moment. If you have a chance before you leave the studio one day in these final weeks, take a moment and reflect on and share with us a wish you once had as you started to come to BYSJ and the gift you received. We’ve placed “leaves” in the lobby for you to write on. These individual stories when connected will create our family tree —our BYSJ Holiday Tree— leaf by leaf.

Most of the mentoring I received in business came from my life at Il Fornaio, Authentic Italian restaurants. I worked with them for close to 9 years. In the time that I was with them, we grew from 7 to 24 restaurants. If you haven’t ever been to one and you love REAL Italian food, visit the one in downtown San Jose at the Sainte Claire hotel, or if you are in San Francisco, go to the one at Levi Plaza just off the Embarcadero. They are two of my favorites, and they are all beautiful.

The food at Il Fornaio is outstanding, and the camaraderie you will feel even after one visit will have you coming back perhaps as early as the next day. In my years of working with this company, I always felt so blessed to be around amazing, smart, and generous people. The vibe between all of us that worked together set the tone for the vibe within the restaurants. The CEO was adamant that the Partners (as we were called at the time) commit to the Mission of the company. Each year he would host an offsite meeting with all the Partners to remind and refresh everyone on the mission, the core values, and the company’s strategic objectives. It was a way to navigate the ship with all 24 restaurants and the large staff within each of them to move in the same direction. And it paid off, as every year the company did well; the restaurants were thriving and full of life. There are so many great Italian restaurants to choose from, but Il Fornaio even today stands out amongst them all. What we were selling was much more than just Italian food. I attribute a good part of that to my CEO’s commitment to that Mission especially in the way he chose to bring us all together to own it for ourselves and collectively with each other.

Il Fornaio is not the only company that pays attention to embracing a mission with its employees. Apple Computer is another that comes to mind. Steve Jobs, Founder of Apple, undoubtedly one of the great visionaries of our time, passed away much too prematurely. He leaves us with countless gifts that will extend for generations. How blessed we were to have him and his creative genius right here in our own backyard. I’m enjoying all the morsels of his life, his philosophy, and his work that are coming out these days through the media. Steve without question embraced his company and the people who worked in it. While I never attended any of Jobs’s presentations, I understand the he was highly motivational, very inspiring, and a great storyteller. The Apple conferences held each year were greatly anticipated in hopes of hearing Steve speak. I have a copy of Steve’s commencement speech at the 2005 Stanford Graduation. Google it if you get a chance and you’ll agree that Steve can inspire people. He knows that achieving success takes more than just delivering a good product. According to Camille Gallo of Entrepreneur Magazine, Steve made certain that the Apple retail stores would not just push boxes, but enrich lives. Even further she notes that Jobs knew that people care about their own hopes and dreams and not so much about the product itself. Therefore, he suggested, if you help your customers reach their dreams, you’ll win them over. And, most likely for life.

Maybe you know of companies that operate in this fashion. Maybe the organization you work for honors this type of philosophy and carries out a Mission that ultimately makes a worthwhile impact on individuals and the way they live. If so, that is terrific! Bikram Yoga San Jose is no different. We are an affiliation of Bikram Yoga College of India, and privileged to offer a product created by Bikram Choudhury. It too is far more than just stretching in 26 different ways. The sequence in the heat and humidity has a powerful influence on the choices we make for the betterment of our own lives and the many others that contribute to it.

When we first opened here in San Jose, I followed my mentor’s steps and created a Vision and Mission statement. You’ll see it hanging in the bathrooms. Every staff member will see it in our manuals. You’ll hear me begin each meeting with that Mission. It was about 5-6 years ago when we created our 2nd version of our mission with my business coach, Alon Sagee. He is a corporate player turned yogi sharing his experience and wisdom with many yoga business owners. He has the most effective way of interpreting the principles of a business to the unconventional world of yoga. We created what he calls an “invitation” which is a more detailed Mission of who we are as a community. This begins our current website. However, we are evolving. Alon is back on board and over the last few months, we created a new mission (see below) that takes into consideration what we’ve become in the last NINE years.

In preparation for our new studio, we are back out there doing Health Seminars to Silicon Valley companies promoting and explaining the benefits of yoga. While Bikram Yoga is a global business and yoga is now practiced among millions, to my surprise there are still many people who do not know much about yoga and know nothing about Bikram yoga. Really – no joke here. It’s wonderful to introduce new people to the yoga. You can see their hesitancy but you can see even more the curiosity and the willingness. It validated to me that we have lots of work to do in getting more and more people to discover yoga. We are so lucky as our audience is really everyone – 6.8 billion of us. We’ve just scratched the surface.

I took Andre’s class recently. He is just a terrific instructor as you all can agree. He was helping a new student (we’ll call her Karen), and showing such compassion. What I noticed most however, was not only his genuine smile as he talked to her about a pose, but her smile back to him! Whether she heard about us through a health seminar or some other means, that smile starts the story. Having encouragement goes a long way, as the chances of her coming back are greater than getting no smile at all. And, once she’s attended a few times, her story begins. We all remember our first time. And, we all have a story to tell about the yoga and the amazing effect it has had on us. If Karen comes back, it’s you members that she will interact with and watch. It’s you members that will motivate her to do class 4, 5, 6, and so on.

I share this with you as our new studio is no longer a place that I built. Yes, true the first time around, but now, this 2nd evolution is the place we built – together. This new mission statement was created with YOU all in mind as my peers now, in our quest to continue our own personal evolution of being more of all that we can be; as well as the quest to create a wider connection to the many others that long for the same impact this yoga has had on us. As you know, our recipe isn’t changing. We are still very much 26 poses and 2 breathing exercises. We’ve just gotten a whole lot nicer looking and a whole lot bigger to reach out to kids, neighbors, family, and friends, and to become a beacon of light for society to see. There are many wonderful things happening in the world today that are liberating people. We are one of those wonderful things that are bringing people out of the dark. Our small piece influences a greater peace.

BYSJ Invitation
We will never know. We will never really know to what extent BYSJ has been instrumental in making the world a better place. Since our inception, we welcomed change, and quickly learned that the power of transformation reaches far beyond any of us as individuals. Our original intention of holding a space to encourage our dreams has created tangible freedom, love and a connection to one another that has surpassed our wildest expectations. Over the years we’ve blossomed from a simple, warm community into a supportive extended family that is an example for those who are ready.

There is a movement happening now… We’ve heard hundreds of stories of how this yoga has impacted lives in infinite and miraculous ways. We don’t really know how it works; we just know that yoga makes everything better. Because of our participation together in co-creating the spirit of BYSJ, we can now empower many more to live the best version of themselves through the practice of yoga.
As our facility expands, so do our hearts. With abundant laughter, camaraderie, hard work and compassion, we continue to support our dreams, truth, and peace. Our new and larger studio is simply a reflection that we can make a difference, and that all that we are doing individually and collectively is important. We are grateful for the courage and commitment. Now, together, let’s lead the way.
Welcome to BYSJ-Welcome Home

You will see this mission on our website, new marketing materials, and in the new yoga studio. In addition, attached to this newsletter this month is a testimonial form. I am so appreciative to many of you that have shared your stories with me. Now, I’d like to ask that you share it with a greater audience (specifically our website.) It’s your stories that support the belief that change can happen. Yes, its word of mouth that has helped us to grow so much and so fast. But, it’s the compelling stories that each of you has to share that entices new members to walk in that hot room more than just once. Thank you for taking this time to share.

We will be opening mid-December. I will have firm dates in our next newsletter along with a greater amount of detail on rates, schedule, Grand Opening events, and promotions. In addition, we will have a closing ceremony on our home here now. Please be sure to attend all of these things. Like my CEO at Il Fornaio, consider this to be that important trip where together as Partners we bond and own individually and collectively our new mission for years to come.