BIG news on Small Business Saturday...

​Big change is coming.

At BYSJ, our mission is to get the most people feeling the best by providing a joyful, inclusive environment for the practice of yoga.

​We named our yoga school "Bikram Yoga St. Johns" because we believed it was helping us achieve our mission. Bikram Yoga is the style of yoga we teach. It is a highly impactful, even lifesaving, yoga system.

We chose (and kept) our name for the last 4 years, because we wanted anybody seeking Bikram Yoga to be able to find us easily.

Bikram Choudhury is the man who popularized this yoga system in the West and worldwide. He has also been accused of some abhorrent behavior. 

We do not condone or support any of this behavior.

​We are sad beyond words at what has happened, and we hope that everyone involved finds peace and a healing path forward.

We want you to know that BYSJ is and always has been independently owned and operated, by us. ​

Like most, if not all, yoga schools who teach Bikram Yoga, we have never and do not pay any affiliation or franchise fees to Bikram Choudhury or any other person or entity. 

This is a fact which has been misrepresented in the media for years. There is no worldwide Bikram Yoga franchise as many poorly fact-checked articles have reported. 

Perpetuating the myth that Bikram yoga studios pay fees to Bikram Choudhury does not right any wrongs and does not bring justice to any wrong-doers. In fact, it only harms two groups of people: (1) small business owners, many of them women and mothers, and (2) the yoga students they serve.

To us, Bikram the yoga and Bikram the man have always been separate and distinct. ​

We now realize that, seeing multiple studios worldwide with the name "Bikram Yoga" on their doors, it can be easy to assume that we are part of a chain. (We're not, but that doesn't matter unless it can be communicated.)

We understand if people don't want their money to go to Bikram Choudhury, and we can see how, because of this, the name "Bikram Yoga St. Johns" may prevent them from coming to our yoga classes. (And most people really need this yoga!)

It has become clear to us that our name is now getting in the way of our mission.

So, like anything that gets in the way of us helping people, we are letting it go. 

​Our hope is that our new name will communicate to the public that we are a locally owned, independent business, and also convey a sense of what we stand for as a business and a community. 

​We are changing our business name. We are not changing our values, our mission- or our personalities.

You can help us spread the truth about who we are by sharing this video, but even better, you can help by sharing your own positive experiences with the yoga and with us.

We are not changing the yoga. ​

Bikram Yoga is still the most powerful, most inclusive, and most joyful system of yoga that we've ever encountered, and we intend to continue practicing and teaching it as long as we possibly can.

We are looking forward to offering this impactful wellness technology to everyone, under a new banner that communicates what we believe in:

Integrity
Courage
Inclusivity
Hospitality

We think we've found the perfect name, and we look forward to sharing it with you!

Stay tuned for the big name-reveal coming soon...