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
August 2, 2026
theguardian.comNational Gallery security staff segregated like ‘second-class citizens’, curator claimsThe National Gallery faces allegations that its outsourced security staff—predominantly from minority ethnic backgrounds—are segregated from the institution's mainly white employees. While permanent staff access a subsidized hub with natural light and quality facilities, security guards are confined✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
publicdomainreview.orgArtificial Intelligence: Ars Notoria and the Promise of Instant KnowledgeAnne Lawrence-Mathers examines the Ars notoria, a medieval manuscript promising instant mastery through diagrams and incantations—a historical shortcut to knowledge. She draws parallels between this magical system and contemporary AI, both offering rapid acquisition without the labor of traditional✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50publicdomainreview.orgArtificial Intelligence: Ars Notoria and the Promise of Instant KnowledgeThe Ars notoria was a medieval grimoire promising instant mastery of university subjects through contemplation of complex diagrams, recitation of mysterious words, and prescribed rituals. Despite condemnation by Aquinas and church authorities as demonic superstition, fifty-six manuscripts survived,✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50Schedule a quick intro call or coffee chat
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A Little Better: On Watching Your Mind Get You Hurt
Knowing what your mind does won't stop it—but practice shortens the gap between recognition and reaction.
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When Medication Was Not Enough
People with treatment-resistant depression showed decreased depression and anxiety after practicing Sudarshan Kriya yoga, while those on medication alone saw no improvement.
Read the essay →Saturday
August 1, 2026
english.elpais.comEva Millet, writer: ‘The constant pursuit of perfection is a recipe for guilt, frustration and unhappiness’Eva Millet discusses 'FAFO parenting,' a trend advocating that children learn from natural consequences rather than constant adult intervention. She argues that intensive parenting models—respectful, conscious, attachment—have created exhausting pressure on parents, especially mothers, by demanding✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
Planet MoneyWhat makes a toy go viralA tight case study in how viral toy success is engineered — surprise mechanics, artificial scarcity, and a just-in-time supply chain — told through one squishy blob. Practical business lessons wrapped in genuinely fun reporting.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
VoxHow Google broke the internet | The Gray AreaRyan Brick makes a genuinely counterintuitive case that Google Zero could be liberation rather than collapse — and his diagnosis of how Google warped internet culture from the inside out is precise and damning. Worth returning to for the architecture-of-the-internet framing alone.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
Essentia FoundationCan We Get Back To The Golden Age Of Meaning? | John VervaekeVervaeke traces the full arc of humanity's psycho-technologies — from shamanic soul-flight to Socratic metacognition to Christian agape — as a single cognitive story about how meaning was built, and how we lost the thread. Dense, generative, worth returning to.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
ESOTERICAWhat is Theosophy? How a Shoemaker Invented Modern EsotericismA rare accessible entry point into one of Western esotericism's most impenetrable thinkers, tracing Böhme's theosophical system from the divine abyss through Sophia, the fall of Lucifer, and the practical cure for melancholy. Essential orientation before reading *The Way to Christ*.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50↳ Propose 2-3 time slots
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Yoga Broke the Pain-Depression Cycle in New Study
A 2020 study found that yoga significantly improved pain levels, mood, and functional capacity in people living with both chronic pain and depression.
Read the essay →Practice with us this season
Two ways to go deeper before the year turns — a full Ashtanga study season in DC, and an intimate Mysore retreat on the coast of Mexico.
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. Small on purpose — four spots only.
Ashtanga Study Group
Three series. One room. One season.
Sixteen Tuesday cohort nights and sixteen Sunday all-levels sessions — Primary, Intermediate, and Advanced A, side by side. Choose your cohort.
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.
