We need more egos
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Unlock the full reading · $5.50 →The author argues that personal blogs and websites thrive on healthy ego and named identity, contrasting themed blogs (like columns) with personal sites that function as journals. Drawing on RuPaul calling weblogs 'sweet narcissism' and Orwell's 'sheer egoism' as a motive for writing, the piece celebrates the breakaway act of sharing one's thinking publicly and calls for more writers willing to claim their voice.
Teaching:
• Ashtanga practice requires healthy ego—not vanity but the willingness to show up, claim your mat, and own your process in front of others
• The daily practice is a named thing with a pulse; each student's relationship to it is personal, journal-like, not generic fitness
• Cueing students to notice their own patterns is teaching them to write their practice story, to see their body as a viewport into their mind
• Shala culture depends on individuals willing to be seen practicing imperfectly, a kind of sweet narcissism that builds collective energy
Writing seeds:
• Essay: 'Sweet Narcissism on the Mat'—why Ashtanga requires you to claim your spot, your breath, your mistakes publicly, and how that ego serves the practice
• Shala Daily post: The four motives for practicing (parallel to Orwell)—egoism (showing up), aesthetic (the form), historical (lineage), political (embodied resistance to distraction)
• Short piece on named practices vs unnamed movement: why Ashtanga's fixed sequence gives practitioners a 'column' to write their personal variations within
• Essay connecting the personal blog to the personal practice: both are viewports into a mind, both require willingness to be seen thinking/moving in public
Idea map:
• Systems literacy: a named practice (Ashtanga) is a system with a pulse; personal practice is the journal entry within that structure
• Embodiment as egoism: claiming your body's experience, your breath, your limits is the breakaway act RuPaul and Orwell describe
• Attention economy: writing publicly (or practicing in a shala) is political purpose—resisting the feed, owning your narrative
• Practice as method: the daily mat is the blog post, the sequence is the theme, the practitioner is the writer discovering ideas through repetition
Source: https://enocc.com/2026/08/26/we-need-more-egos.html
Teaching:
• Ashtanga practice requires healthy ego—not vanity but the willingness to show up, claim your mat, and own your process in front of others
• The daily practice is a named thing with a pulse; each student's relationship to it is personal, journal-like, not generic fitness
• Cueing students to notice their own patterns is teaching them to write their practice story, to see their body as a viewport into their mind
• Shala culture depends on individuals willing to be seen practicing imperfectly, a kind of sweet narcissism that builds collective energy
Writing seeds:
• Essay: 'Sweet Narcissism on the Mat'—why Ashtanga requires you to claim your spot, your breath, your mistakes publicly, and how that ego serves the practice
• Shala Daily post: The four motives for practicing (parallel to Orwell)—egoism (showing up), aesthetic (the form), historical (lineage), political (embodied resistance to distraction)
• Short piece on named practices vs unnamed movement: why Ashtanga's fixed sequence gives practitioners a 'column' to write their personal variations within
• Essay connecting the personal blog to the personal practice: both are viewports into a mind, both require willingness to be seen thinking/moving in public
Idea map:
• Systems literacy: a named practice (Ashtanga) is a system with a pulse; personal practice is the journal entry within that structure
• Embodiment as egoism: claiming your body's experience, your breath, your limits is the breakaway act RuPaul and Orwell describe
• Attention economy: writing publicly (or practicing in a shala) is political purpose—resisting the feed, owning your narrative
• Practice as method: the daily mat is the blog post, the sequence is the theme, the practitioner is the writer discovering ideas through repetition
Source: https://enocc.com/2026/08/26/we-need-more-egos.html
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