“Bikram Yoga is a gas station,” Bikram Choudhury declared in one of his lectures at the Teacher Training in Acapulco. He was on a mission to help us understand the vast ‘horsepower’ within all of us, of which (according to him) we use a mere 3%. While the number is more of a ballpark than…
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Eighteenth Anniversary Insights – Michele Vennard
Eighteen years ago, I was lucky enough to open the doors of a small space that would be the beginning of Bikram Yoga San Jose – in the back of a run-down shopping center next to a popular dive bar. After my mom passed away in 1998, I knew life would be different because I…
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Hallowed Ground – Michele’s Insights
Thank you, 2020, for bringing out what lay hidden. Time has profoundly shown us not to take it all for granted. The daily news of people dying has forced us to shake off the entitlements that prevent any sense of real presence in life, our authentic and meaningful life. The precious moments in my life…
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Sorrows and the Search for Peace
There’s a Buddha statue that sits on my desk all curled up in a ball with his head sunk between his legs, hands covering his face sitting in sadness. I was given this statue years ago as it was said that this Buddha cries for the sorrows of the world. I don’t remember who gave it…
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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…
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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 ourselves to stop and take a breath. We…
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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 beautiful: “one day, from this, maybe the real lesson is that we’ll learn that we all have…
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The Flexibility to Adapt
Thank you to so many of you that reached out to see how I was doing with both my sister leaving and my ankle dilemma. My ankle is so much better, and the last two days I was able to take really long walks. It was glorious and another reminder to appreciate the joy of…
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What we need now more than ever – Self-Awareness
It so embarrassing to say this, but my first day back at running, I rolled my ankle (within a quarter mile of starting, no less). Oddly, I managed to “save” the ankle I rolled, and I was so pleased with myself. Only later could I feel a strain in my other ankle– the one that sacrificed…
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Breathe. Prevent. Be Present.
In 2006, I started having bad abdominal pains and drove myself to Stanford ER. I was there most of the day, waiting for test results and routinely talking to a very smart (and very busy) Stanford doctor. She took a liking to my yoga life after discovering that this might be why my blood pressure…
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