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Michele V

@michelevennard

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Owner and Teacher @bikramyogasanjose for 20+ years
Substack Writer: M+ Bikram | Business | Belief
Avid Baker, Ballroom Dancer and God Mom

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Kitchen Table Scriptures has become: Come and see.
God does the work. We simply have to be willing.

That’s how it happened for me. Slowly. One prompting at a time. One question leading to another. One Scripture opening something I hadn’t understood before.

God began revealing more of Himself to me, awakening the Holy Spirit within me to guide, correct, comfort and, yes, heal parts of my life.

Be willing. Believe. Honor His Ways. His Will. His Timing.

Your life can somehow flip on its head without the circumstances of your life changing very much at all.

Reborn.

So this Library is my nudge to you:

Come and see what I’m seeing for yourself.

I’ve gathered all fourteen Kitchen Table Scriptures together in one place—brief reflections on Scripture and how God’s Word meets us in our everyday lives.

🙏

Kitchen Table Scriptures Library | Come and See
Link in comments. by @michelevennard

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10 days ago

“What did you say?”

You know that moment when someone says something and, years later, you can still hear their voice?

Today I’m beginning a new series called What Did You Say? with two examples that have stayed with me for decades.

One came during Bikram Yoga Teacher Training in the uncertain weeks after 9/11: “Can you give it two weeks?”

The other came at a leadership conference, when I needed to hear that an opportunity wasn’t just something I had to do. It was something I got to do.

Neither sentence changed my circumstances in an instant. Both changed how I met them. Whoa!

What’s key about these “ sparks “ in our lives, is the context they come in! Read mine and feel it too!

The first story is up now on Bikram | Business | Belief. I hope you’ll read it—and I’d love to know: What did someone once say to you that you still carry today?

https://bikrambusinessbelief.substack.com/p/what-did-you-say?r=1ntd9h&utm_medium=ios 🧡 by @michelevennard

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17 days ago

My sister Sheri was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s. My mother passed away from this same disease in 1998—and far too many people you and I know and love are living with it today.

My nephews—Sheri’s three boys, Connor, Ryan, and Trevor—care for their mom in ways that go beyond anything I could write here. Because of them, Sheri’s life remains full and even joyous. Yet this disease continues to strip more and more away from her.

Can’t we get rid of it entirely? Please.

I struggle with this more personally than I often share. I lost my mom to Alzheimer’s, and I reluctantly try to dismiss the thought of losing Sheri to it, too.

In the caption are links to Ryan’s and Trevor’s fundraising pages, and I will share Connor’s page as well. If you are able to donate, thank you.

Life is too rich with intelligent minds; modern medicine and heightened awareness on better ways of living - let’s push this disease into history books only.

I feel for every one of you who has experienced Alzheimer’s in your own life. 💜 by @michelevennard

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a month ago

**The Red Sea took a day.
The wilderness took years.**

God delivered the Israelites from Egypt—but then began the much longer work of getting Egypt out of them.

Old appetites.
Old thinking.
Old fears.
Old beliefs.

Maybe that’s true for us too.

In this month’s **Kitchen Table Scriptures**, I share a little of my own journey.

For years, I carried a belief of **”I’m never enough.”** And when that’s what you believe about yourself, it’s pretty easy to take the blame for every sour situation—even when all of it doesn’t belong to you.

Today, I can look at those same situations differently. I can take responsibility for what is mine without carrying what isn’t. Not because I’ve simply become a better or improved version of myself, but because God has changed something deeper in me.

**That’s new.**

There’s a church word for getting out of Egypt: **salvation.**

And there’s another for getting Egypt out of us: **sanctification.**

Rescue can happen in a moment. Transformation takes a lifetime.

As we head into the last stretch of the year, maybe the question isn’t only, *”What do I still want to accomplish?”*

Maybe it’s:

**”God, what are You still changing in me?”**

September’s **Kitchen Table Scriptures: MADE NEW** is up now. Eight minutes around the kitchen table. ☕️📖

#KitchenTableScriptures #MadeNew #Faith #ChristianLiving #Sanctification 2Corinthians517 Romans122 by @michelevennard

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a month ago

BYSJ wishes you the best birthday and year ahead Anurag! by @michelevennard

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2 months ago

Be bold in the steps you need to take. Be willing to live with uncertainty. And somehow, stay five steps ahead.

The best visionaries have their feet on the ground while their minds remain high in the air. They see what others overlook—and recognize the small step today that may shape a business ten years from now.

They may even be corny, awkward, and a little nerdy.

I know because I dated one—and worked for one. 😊

My newest MBA just dropped:

**Feet on the Ground. Five Steps Ahead.**

Amazing people. Know one? Find one!
Link is in caption!

#BusinessLeadership #VisionaryLeadership #Entrepreneurship #BusinessWisdom #FiveStepsAhead by @michelevennard

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2 months ago

Almost without realizing it, our eyes leave Jesus... and settle on the storm.

I’ve done that. Maybe you have too. So what do we do?
Keep your eyes on Jesus.

Not because you’ll immediately understand the path...
...but because you’ll remember Who is walking it with you.

Faith isn’t keeping your eyes on the finish line. It’s keeping your eyes on the One who leads you there.

This month’s **Kitchen Table Scriptures** is a gentle reminder that no matter what August holds, **Jehovah Shammah—The Lord Is There.**

I hope you’ll join me. 🤍
Link is in comments

#KitchenTableScriptures #LookToJesus #Faith #ChristianLiving #JehovahShammah TheLordIsThere by @michelevennard

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2 months ago

This picture is one reason why I wrote today’s Friday Feels.

A weekend in Chicago with my family. Time with my sister Sheri. Laughter around the table. Hugs that are tight and long held.

Watching Alzheimer’s touch our family for the second time has changed me. It has made me less interested in chasing perfection and far more interested in cultivating vitality.

Teaching Bikram Yoga to thousands of “all kinds” of people has also heightened a pointed perspective.

The body is always talking.

The question is...

Are we listening?

Today’s essay is about the ordinary choices that help us live well—breathing, moving, nourishing our bodies, quieting our minds, and paying attention before the body has to scream.

Not because we can control everything. Let’s be clear- we can’t.

But because every day we’ve been given is worth living fully.

**”Vitality”** is now on Substack. Link in bio. by @michelevennard

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3 months ago

Some lessons from Bikram Yoga reveal themselves in a single class. Others take years.

I’ve gathered my writings on the Original 90-Minute Bikram Yoga practice into one place—a growing library of essays on the postures, teaching, Teacher Training, and the wisdom that continues to unfold through this remarkable practice.

Welcome to the **Bikram Yoga Library**. by @michelevennard

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3 months ago

Twenty-seven years ago, I walked into my first Bikram Yoga class.

That single class led me to Teacher Training, opening Bikram Yoga San Jose in 2003, and more than two decades of teaching the Original 90-Minute Bikram Yoga series.

Along the way, I’ve written about the practice—not just the postures, but the lessons hidden within them. Lessons about discipline, mental peace, courage, and the ways yoga quietly changes us over time.

Today, I’ve gathered those writings into one place:

**The Bikram Yoga Library.**

It feels especially fitting to share it today, the anniversary of the passing of Bishnu Charan Ghosh. With gratitude, I honor the lineage that has shaped this remarkable practice and, in turn, so much of my own life.

The dialogue hasn’t changed. The postures haven’t changed. Yet somehow, they continue to reveal something new.

I hope you’ll enjoy exploring the library.

#BikramYoga #Original90Minute #YogaTeacher #YogaPractice #YogaWisdom MentalPeace BishnuCharanGhosh BikramBusinessBelief by @michelevennard

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3 months ago

A new Substack just dropped:
Mental Peace Is the Ultimate Destination

This piece came out of an interview with Jim Kallet about Bikram Yoga, the practice, the mind, and why this practice is so much more than physical exercise.

Years ago in my Teacher Training, Bikram asked us:

“What is the ultimate destination?” Great answers but he’d reply, mental peace.

In this article, I reflect on how Bikram Yoga trains the mind through concentration, awareness, responsibility, and ultimately the development of what scripture calls “a sound mind.”

“You are not your thoughts,” and “peace is already there,” are phrases in this piece in right context.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, which makes this conversation especially meaningful right now. Read and encourage someone you know to read and start a practice.

Link in bio. ❤️🙏
And here to copy in browser
https://open.substack.com/pub/bikrambusinessbelief/p/bikram-mental-peace?utm_source=app-post-stats-page&r=1ntd9h&utm_medium=ios

#BikramYoga #MentalPeace #MindBodyConnection #MentalHealthAwareness #YogaPractice #BikramYogaSanJose #SoundMind #YogaTeacher #Meditation #SelfAwareness #InnerPeace #Bikram by @michelevennard

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5 months ago

This banana bread has become my favorite and came with me to Chicago. 🍌

Simple ingredients. Easy to make. Perfect toasted the next morning. And somehow the kind of thing that belongs in ordinary moments—late mornings, errands, jammies, family kitchens.

Which is exactly what this week’s Friday Feels is about.

Astronauts call it the Overview Effect—the shift that happens when they see Earth from space and suddenly realize how connected we all are.

This week I experienced something closer to home.

What I’m calling the Slip-Into Effect.

Sometimes connection doesn’t come from distance and perspective. It can happen when you step fully or slip into everyday life with the people right in front of you.

This Friday Feels, Substack has:
Chicago.
Family.
Space travel.
Rory.
Justin.

And a reminder that connection always leads us back to love.

It’s up on Substack.
Recipe included there too.

Link in bio. Or open in new browser
https://open.substack.com/pub/bikrambusinessbelief/p/friday-feels-4e4?r=1ntd9h&utm_medium=ios
So glad you’re here. 🤍 by @michelevennard

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6 months ago