Wanna Learn Yoga?
Private Instruction
Brand new to yoga? Been practicing for a while but need help focusing on a particular area of interest? Not sure what to do with an injury? I’m here to help. This is perfect of you.
Mysore Style Classes
Group classes structured in a way that is perfect for truly all levels (yes, beginners to the most advanced). Arriving and leaving at your own pace and time, you’ll receive information tailored to exactly your practice.
Workshops
Dig into specific subjects related to all manner of yoga and it’s application. Always dynamic, often with group discussion and opportunities for improvisation in order to deepen understanding of the given topic.
Office Yoga
Bringing yoga to your office, conference, or special event is an absolute game changer. Michael has more than 10 years of experience inside NGOs, Federal Agencies, and Fortune 500 companies!
get to know MJH
Michael teaches yoga from a place of deep study and continued learning. Internationally recognized, but grass roots oriented, he is the director of DC Ashtanga, a mysore style ashtanga yoga program in Columbia Heights, DC and owner of miDCity Yoga, a small business specializing in in-house yoga instruction. --- Michael is a level 2 authorized ashtanga yoga teacher, an accreditation coming from the world renowned and respected Ashtanga Yoga Institute, directed by Sharath Jois in Mysore, India-- Michael has a great love of the vast field of study that is yoga, an interest that is invaluably supported by his teachers David Garrigues and Rolf Naujokat.--- Michael also is indebted deeply to the love and care that was put into his practice early on by Kristina Maze, in the Sivanada tradition, and Kristen Krash, in the Iyengar method. Michael grew up in a rural farming and fishing community, and did his undergraduate work in integrative studies, focusing on communications at george mason university. He also has a background in comedy club hospitality [dc improv] that makes him think he’s funny. He isn’t.
kpjayi ashtanga yoga teacher
fighting for the marginalized. examining identity. not taking shit.
teaching from experience. contemplative practice informs everything.
music, Performance, Circus, and everything in between. There is so much beauty in the world.
learn a simple daily routine that heals and nourishes the mind, body, and spirt.
Writings and Reflections
Ashtanga Yoga and Acute and Chronic Pain
One of the most brilliant aspects of the ashtanga vinyasa yoga physical practice lies in its adaptability. Not unlike the swiss army knife housing a blade, a toothpick, and a bottle opener, the ashtanga yoga practice works effectively across a spectrum of applications. Not confined to being solely a central axis meditation, one could also Read more about Ashtanga Yoga and Acute and Chronic Pain[…]
Don’t Be a Hater: On Selfies, Radical Self Acceptance, and Yoga on the Internet
After I was assaulted and hospitalized in 2012, I became something of a media spectacle. We needed money for my surgery (titanium plates run about 14k a pop, and I needed a few), and my community rallied around me. From yogis to drag queens, so many people gave that we had to tell folks to Read more about Don’t Be a Hater: On Selfies, Radical Self Acceptance, and Yoga on the Internet[…]
The Paradox of Sharing: Unique Experience, Confirmation Bias, and Ashtanga Yoga
Talking about ashtanga can make you crazy. Or not. Or both. “Whenever we practice, we quickly run into paradox… this is what happens when we start to cling to any one formula or any one technique. We quickly run into this sense that it isn’t complete– when we run into another viewpoint coming up in the Read more about The Paradox of Sharing: Unique Experience, Confirmation Bias, and Ashtanga Yoga[…]
Ashtanga: What Matters? On Sports, Dispassion, and Practice
Every Sunday afternoon in Mysore, Sharath holds a conference. It’s a little bit of Q&A time, a little bit of lecture, and a whole lot of Ashtanga Family Time. The Boss’s kids often interrupt. It’s generally very crowded. And, its always really nice. Sharath has done enough of these now that he sometimes finds a Read more about Ashtanga: What Matters? On Sports, Dispassion, and Practice[…]
What is Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga? What’s Mysore Style? And More!
Over the last few years, I’ve received all sorts of questions about the type of yoga I practice and teach. Since before my last trip to India, I’ve been teaching Sunday-Friday at Kali Yoga Studio in Columbia Heights in a traditional format called “Mysore Style” Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga. We call this program “DC Ashtanga.” In Read more about What is Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga? What’s Mysore Style? And More![…]
When is it Appropriate to Take Rest?
adapted from the DC Ashtanga Newsletter for April Ashtanga yoga is practiced six days a week. So, when is it okay to take a day off from yoga… and when should we reconsider canceling? Inertia is a funny thing. Objects at rest tend to stay at rest. Objects in motion, when in a straight path with nothing Read more about When is it Appropriate to Take Rest?[…]
The Natural Mystic
Before the $14 dollar small plate restaurants popped up on every corner in Logan Circle, it was the transexual prostitutes keeping the big blue mailboxes company. I love facadism for holding true the aesthetic of my neighborhood, but it’s just that: a facade. You can’t hypergentrify and maintain the grit. Once an every night occurrence, Read more about The Natural Mystic[…]
Transportation and Communication, pt 1
I couldn’t have been more frustrated. More people in India have mobile phones than running water– and yet, here we were stopped in front of Sandesh the Prince — another palace cum hotel, not a one of us with an address or telephone number for Sandhya’s. Did I mention that this was a group of Read more about Transportation and Communication, pt 1[…]
On New Moons and Nose Rings
My first full day in India fell on a new moon. One of my favorite things about following a lunar cycle is the tiny bit of joy I get turning my iphone’s little green “alarm” switch from it’s perpetual “on” to it’s quiet white off. There is a visceral unraveling of inverted anticipation. Prone to Read more about On New Moons and Nose Rings[…]
Time Travel
Is it telling that I slept on the car ride from Bangalore to Mysore? The last two times, I was wide-eyed, heck, WILD-eyed, sitting on the edge of my seat. Not unlike my dear pooch Sebastian with his head out the window, I couldn’t help but marvel. Everything was so foreign! I had never seen Read more about Time Travel[…]