Hi, I’m Michael.
I teach insight practices — yoga, meditation, and a few less obvious ones — to people building things in leadership and technology.
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About
Twenty years teaching yoga, running a studio, and thinking about what insight practices actually do. They sharpen attention — and attention is the bottleneck on every hard problem, personal or professional. I write about that intersection, work one-on-one with leaders and builders, and run The Yoga Club in D.C.
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Sunday
October 11, 2026
borretti.meNo Man Is an IslandThe author argues that sustained individual intellectual work depends on a community that provides shared knowledge and motivation (both intrinsic and extrinsic). AI dissolves these communities by making contributions feel pointless—no one reads your blog post, uses your library, or benefits from yo✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
Why Beginners Quit: Replacing the Wall of Poses With an On-Ramp
For years I handed new practitioners the entire sequence on day one and watched most of them quietly disappear. The problem was never their discipline — it was my dosage. So instead of writing one more post about consistency, I built the thing that enforces it.
Read the essay →
The Debate Around Practice Intensity
Michael Joel Hall discusses the paradox of Ashtanga Yoga, highlighting how it demands effort while requiring patience.
Read the essay →Saturday
October 10, 2026
dazeddigital.com‘Do you smell like a bi millennial?’: Everyone is talking about gay perfumeDerek Deng explores how queer people use perfume as identity signaling and community recognition, triggered by a Grindr encounter where someone's Dior Sauvage matched their aggressive vibe. The piece examines scent as a form of queer semiotics and embodied communication beyond verbal language.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
Thirty Minutes a Day
A Johns Hopkins review of 47 clinical trials with 3,515 participants found that 30 minutes of daily meditation improved anxiety and depression symptoms, with effects lasting at least six months.
Read the essay →Practice with us this season
Two seasons a year in DC through 2029, and four Mysore weekends a year on the coast of Mexico. Pick a date, hold a seat.
Self Practice by the Sea
A Mysore retreat on the Riviera Maya.
Four mornings of practice, four nights on the coast, a private home with a rooftop pool. Four dates a year through 2029, four spots each.
Semester Enrichment
Sixteen Sundays. Two cohorts. Four seats each.
Fall 2026 is sold out. Spring 2027 opens 7 February — Functional Primary or Functional Intermediate — and the fall format returns in September. Seasons run through 2029.
Books by Michael Joel Hall
Six books on Ashtanga, systems, and the craft of a practice. Functional Ashtanga is free; the rest are $10 each, or all six for $50. EPUB + PDF, instant download.
Functional Ashtanga
The manifesto and the method — the whole project’s front door, built on one principle: agency, not compliance.
Free
Self Practice
The method as a manual — how to build an intelligent, sustainable self-practice from the first breath.
$10
Ashtanga 2.0
The philosophy — a postmodern deconstruction of yoga’s authority, and the grounded mysticism that survives it.
$10
Mechanism, Not Magic
The thinking underneath the practice — yoga as a system for clear, honest leadership on and off the mat.
$10
How to Build a Yoga Club
The playbook for the room itself — how to build a practice space that lasts, without burning out or selling out.
$10
Your Life Is Art
The systems primer — stocks, flows, and feedback loops, and the craft of composing a life.
$10
Press
Interviews, bylines, and the occasional controversy.
What is Ashtanga Yoga? The Benefits of This Challenging Practice
“Ashtanga demands fitness, flexibility, and focus — a calming, yet sweaty form of moving meditation.”
Read →Yoga Teacher Recovers, But Attack Highlights a Job’s Health Care Issue
The catalyst for my ongoing advocacy around economic precarity in the yoga teaching profession.
Read →Building Resilience in This Political Climate
A practice sequence for finding strength and clarity when the news is loud.
Read →Responding to Rand Paul on Free Yoga for Government Employees
“They are in less pain, physically and mentally. They go on and do a better job.”
Read →Does Yoga Really Foster Transformation?
On why I practice — to cultivate the conditions required for transformation.
Read →Mysore, the Place and the Practice
A long conversation with Chris Parkinson about my journey, cross-training, and the trajectory of yoga in D.C.
Listen →The Newsletter
A daily email on consciousness, leadership, technology, and practice. No fluff. Unsubscribe anytime.
Get in Touch
Questions, collaborations, speaking, coaching inquiries — send a note.
