Today we’d like to introduce you to Kristi And Rafael Jenkins.

Hi Kristi and Rafael, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Yoga Mouth is an organization that breaks barriers to access mindful wellbeing in our community through evidence informed Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Yoga, meditation, community public health initiatives and school and corporate based programming. We started when Kristi and Fell Jenkins met in 2018 and realized how Yoga and mindfulness were the core of their Brazilian Jiu Jitsu practices.
Over the past 8 years Kristi and Fell Jenkins have pursued advanced trainings and graduate level education combined with clinical training and field research to create one of a kind mindfulness based wellness and fitness programs to support public health initiatives in schools and businesses all over the Baltimore region. They were passionate about Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Yoga but noticed those spaces were often focused on hierarchy of leadership, lacked female and family programming and lacked coaches and instructors that had proper evidence informed trauma sensitive training to meet the needs of a greater community that lacked high quality science backed therapeutic wellness services. After a few years of pursuing for profit business Yoga Mouth Collective was formed as the 501(c)3 partner for Yoga Mouth Studio in 2024. Together both organizations collaborated to open the donation based Sangha House Studio and membership based Mat Lab Martial Arts at 431 Eastern Blvd. 2nd Fl, in Essex, MD in March 2025.
These spaces provide a community hub for all members of the Yoga Mouth community that we have connected through our school based and community mindfulness projects. This new and exciting community space gives families the opportunities to train in mindfulness based wellness at all levels and styles. We currently partner with Down Syndrome Association of MD, Maryland School for the Blind, Baltimore County Public Schools and the LGBTQ+ community to provide scholarships and family wraparound services in these new studios alongside our regular weekly inclusive programs for everyone.
Founders Kristi and Fell Jenkins have a blended family of 5 kids with a variety of mental and physical health needs. Kristi recently underwent treatment for breast cancer and used all of the mindfulness science and tools Yoga Mouth shares to endure and thrive despite the terrifying experience. Their oldest son living with Autism has been raised on BJJ therapy and mindfulness science in collaboration with his OT and special educator’s support. Their business and their lifestyle are intricately connected and designed to support the their whole family. They embrace a full wellness warrior lifestyle of joy and commitment to service.
Family wellness and fitness that meets everyone where they are and provides physical and mental health education in the process is their main passion. Spreading the word of mindful wellness is the goal. They are committed to growing this community both inside the studios and through their expansive community programs to empower as many individuals as they can with mindfulness based alternatives to feeling overwhelmed with the stress and chaos modern life so often brings. We hope to disrupt the current wellness model that keeps people with disabilities isolated from their larger community, families in separate wellness spaces and prohibitive membership rates that exclude our community members that could benefit from stress management and positive community building alongside those with the financial means to pay full prices.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Building Yoga Mouth and all of its programs over the past 8 years has been wild and wonderful, but never easy. As we came together in the early days Fell and Kristi were also blending their young families and building their business plan during the pandemic. They got married on the BJJ mats in the middle of building their business and had a baby at home in the early days of the 2020 pandemic. On top of being brand new entrepreneurs trying to navigate the world of business they were newlyweds and new parents. The early years of Yoga Mouth were filled with love and excitement and a lot of chaos!

Yoga Mouth Studio was started inside a small Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) gym in Essex, MD in 2018. Kristi developed and studied her evidence informed yoga therapy style for athletes in this intimate community setting. She grew into regular classes on the schedule and eventually Fell stepped in to be the head kid’s BJJ coach for the gym. They both dedicated themselves to studying both positive community building and refining their coaching and teaching skills to reflect a diverse and growing community of people searching for relief from pain, anxiety and symptoms of PTSD.

The BJJ gym eventually changed ownership and Yoga Mouth decided it was time to expand and build into broader communities across the region. Kristi was offered an opportunity to rebrand a Dundalk yoga studio that had fallen on hard times during the pandemic. With a new baby and taking graduate classes in Yoga Therapy at Maryland University of Integrative Health Kristi and Fell opened Yoga Mouth Studio in a small upstairs room along Merrit Boulevard and built a thriving community while quickly outgrowing their space. The community programs at schools across the area began to expand as well. Yoga Mouth had to make the challenging decision, after only 1 year in business, to close their brick and mortar studio and focus on their quickly expanding family and community mental wellness programs. It was scary to drop a certain success for the chance at greater growth, but their commitment to community service was always the priority. They closed the doors of the studio in March 2023 and set out to grow with Essex and beyond! Fell continued to coach kids and adult students at another local BJJ gym in Sparrows Point while Kristi networked and built curriculum and research for Yoga Mouth’s Yinjas: Self Defense of Mind and Body programs in demand all over the Essex and Dundalk area by 2024. Yoga Mouth was beginning to take shape as the community based public health initiative Kristi and Fell had dreamed years prior as they built their programs one class at a time anywhere that would give them support to share their passion.

Kristi also struggled being a female leader in the local BJJ scene dominated by men. There are no gyms in the region with women ownership. Many have women competitors and instructors for kids and women’s only classes, but there are no women in leadership roles and they often face intense discrimination and bias as part of their training experiences. Kristi was no exception and came up in BJJ during a time when very few women were on the mats. She took advice and support from the fierce independent women who had been training and coaching before her. However, Kristi was mostly ignored or dismissed by male leadership when she pitched her community based approach to wellness and evidence informed fitness programs. Even as her programs expanded beyond the gym and she brought in members and helped athletes train smarter and harder most gyms did not take time to notice her off the mats, and in a few cases actively tried to break down her programs and confidence in her success. The early years were the biggest challenge for Kristi personally as she tried to find her style and authenticity in the midst of the male bias in the industry. She was always grateful for the support of Fell during those early years of trying to find her place in the male dominated business world of BJJ. He came to all of the early classes, adopted the mindfulness based strategies and adaptive movement for his coaching and together they established a therapeutic coaching dynamic that supported full mind and body transformation in countless athletes and members of their community.

They continue to struggle against the large marketing machines of Yoga and combat sports that prioritize image and brand loyalty over free thinking and adaptability. Many people still hold beliefs that Yoga and mindfulness based practices are only for white people with privilege or already are in peak physical fitness. Yoga Mouth continues to break these stereotypes in Yoga and the toxic cult like culture so often found in BJJ and combat sport gyms. We’ve faced criticism for our creative and collaborative style because we consistently reinforce free thinking and educating students to make informed and careful decisions about where they go to find support for their wellness and hobbies. We proudly hold space for anyone interested in courageous self care and finding strength in positive community building.

Despite these struggles and Kristi’s life altering breast cancer diagnosis in November of 2024 Yoga Mouth received a contract with BCPS in January 2025 and maintains strong partnerships with Md School for the Blind, Down Syndrome Assoc. of MD, Monroe Hall BJJ, the LGBTQ+ community and many small businesses and organizations around Essex and Dundalk. They have amazing coaches that support their programs regionally and share their passion and special movement training with kids and families every day. Now that Sangha House Studio and Mat Lab are open for business in Essex, MD we know the struggles are part of the growth. We need to motivate our friends and neighbors to abandon their screens and join us to courageously care for their bodies and minds. Our community has a lot of needs and many families have basic needs unmet, but we accept the challenge of public health education and believe our mission will give back to people who have given us so much. All of our challenges have given us strength, vulnerability and authenticity. Yoga Mouth is built for warriors.

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Yoga Mouth is breaking barriers to access mindful wellness and fitness throughout the Baltimore region through Yoga, meditation, mindful Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ), fitness and community based public health programs and education. We run school programs and mindful mental wellness initiatives in schools all over the Essex and Dundalk region. Yoga Mouth Collective is our 501(c)3 non profit that fundraises to provide scholarships and programming to even more of our community that may not be able to get to the donation based Sangha House Studio in Essex.

Our adult self defense and therapeutic BJJ programs in our new Mat Lab studio disrupt the traditional hierarchy and ego based training found in most combat sport gyms. We want women, families and hobbyists to have a home at Mat Lab where they can fully experience the challenge of combat sports and intense fitness while also being supported and held up during the process. No other gym in the region has the research based curriculums and specializations that we do to provide evidence and trauma informed adaptive movement training for all ages and abilities. Our kid’s Yinjas program has been highly recommended and reviewed by BCPS administrators and faculty after years of positive results in local schools.
Fell Jenkins, our head coach, has years of both competition and therapeutic BJJ training. We don’t require your undying loyalty and devotion. We encourage cross training and community building.

We don’t expect you to sacrifice your body or mental well being to earn belts and receive promotions. Promotions are earned through class hours and consistent training.

We encourage each student to use BJJ as a tool for wellness. Many people get lost in the culture of BJJ as a way to escape feelings of insecurity or isolation in their personal lives. This can turn obsessive and lead to unbalanced training that increases the risk for catastrophic injury, a lifetime of chronic pain and increased symptoms of anxiety and depression.

Our programs aren’t designed to create a cult around a head instructor. We are here to help you find courageous community and life balance through targeted and challenging ego based training.

Yoga Mouth is most proud of our inclusive community.

We set out years ago to get to know people authentically and honestly so our community could be a space where everyone could meet on the mats and share a similar bond of mental and physical wellness through challenge and self awareness. This mission has expanded to build communities in so many different types of places with so many different types of people. We aren’t blind to people’s differences and struggles, but we offer adaptive practices and open minded conversations to allow everyone an opportunity to be heard and come together. There are plenty of spaces where we can isolate with like minded people. We thrive on expanding and challenging our worldview to increase our humility and curiosity. Yoga Mouth puts the physical body in the middle of the conversation with our practice based model of community building. Here, in class, whether it is Yoga, BJJ, Judo or group fitness everyone is sharing the same purpose and goal. We meet in sweat and struggle and become witness to each person’s growth and commitment to themselves. It is a really special mission we have and our multiple tier membership and donation based services make it possible for every part of our neighborhood to show up and be a part of our mindful wellness revolution. Connecting courageous community one person at a time!

Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
I consider every person I work with, or for, a mentor in some way. I consider every opportunity I have to meet new people an opportunity for networking. I believe in being humble, asking a lot of questions, listening rather than speaking and staying curious and open to all new information. I don’t necessarily recommend jumping into a full blown “mentor,” that is the one and only person or people you go to for guidance. I haven’t seen that benefit any of my colleagues more than my open approach to fearless exploration and learning from anyone who will share time to explain their business or philosophy.
Experimenting and diversifying your information is so important to finding where the gaps in service are for your industry. The more people inside and outside of the Yoga and BJJ industry I meet with help me break out of stereotypical or generic models and allow Yoga Mouth to excel in innovation because of our diverse style integration. We’ve endured so many challenges and set backs because we have so many different ways we adapt our programs and meet our community.
I met and worked with as many different organizations and communities as I could in the early days of my teaching and curriculum development. I failed over and over until I noticed which pieces always thrived regardless of how the rest of the program may have failed. I never gave up and I got up every single time after my heart was broken and decided to do things differently and be more of myself each time. Networking with people who really loved and appreciated what we were doing was far more productive than networking with big organizations that cared little for the business development and personal aspect of our organization. I sat for hours and hours collaborating with teachers and administrators to develop programs based on our shared love of education and serving the community. No business mentor was going to give me that time or expertise for free like these other dedicated community professionals did. If we had focused solely on creating a money making business in the beginning we would have had an underdeveloped and generic product. I never wanted just one person to be guiding us through this dynamic development process.

It has also always been important to us that we support local businesses we love, their grand openings, their events and special fundraisers because we ask the same from them. We critically analyze other businesses and notice their strengths and find ways to compliment what they already have put out into the world. We love to network and support their programs because we have faith and confidence ours can stand on their own. It leads to us having a positive personal relationship with the majority of Yoga and BJJ gyms in the area. It doesn’t always pay off in money or new clients, but it ensures Yoga Mouth upholds our public values of connection and community building. Reputation is hard to build and can be broken in a split second decision if you don’t keep your mind and heart on your mission.