The Information Diet Is the Practice
Why a yoga teacher reads three newspapers a day, and what algorithmic feeds quietly took from all of us.
Performing the Practice vs. Reading It: Why Inheritance Isn’t Understanding
A student asked me why the closing sequence comes last, and I heard how much of what I knew was inheritance, not understanding. I could have written a post about it. Instead I built the map — 81 lessons, on a platform I own. The thing is the proof.
Equity in the Practice Room
A student in the front row can’t hinge forward. She’s seated, legs extended, trying to reach toward her feet. Her pelvis won’t move. Her spine is rounding from the base. Her face is doing the thing faces do when the body refuses and the person inside has decided this is a personal failure. I tell her: put something under your butt. She looks at me like I offered her a reduced sentence. The prop mythology runs deep. Blocks are for beginners. Props are for people who can’t do it yet. Put the block away when you’re ready. Some of this comes from lineage — traditions where the shapes were sacred, where modification was equivalent to deviation. Some of it is aesthetic. A room of people…
Good Teacher, Broke Teacher: The Business Skills Yoga Training Ignores
I learned to teach yoga long before I learned to make a living from it. So I built the business I wish someone had handed me — and then built the program that hands you the same playbook.
A Beginner’s Guide to Systems Theory
What is systems thinking? Let’s dive into systems theory, exploring interconnectedness, feedback loops, and emergent properties. We’ll untangle this complex web together and maybe learn to think bigger in the process! #systemstheory #interconnectedness #feedbackloops
From Obedience to Inquiry: When I Started Asking Why in Practice
The values audit behind Foundations of Praxis: I kept teaching that beginners deserve to understand from day one — then I stopped talking about it and built the on-ramp. Designed sequence, guided audio, count videos, a Practice Recorder you own.
Practicing Without the Teacher’s Count: Making the Sequence My Own
I ran a values audit on myself and didn’t like how cheap talk is. So instead of posting that practitioners should be able to practice alone, I built the tool that makes it possible — every pose, both sides, counted breath by breath, on a platform I own.
My Teaching Journey — Ashtanga Tech
I started teaching yoga because a friend of mine caught dengue fever.
Ashtanga Tech — the podcast. Keep the practice, lose the guru. Michael Joel Hall on Ashtanga yoga without the authoritarianism.
🎧 Listen to the podcast: https://pub-477a42ee397942aa87e96485ef790f2c.r2.dev/podcast/ashtanga-tech/feed.rss
If a stuck practice or a bad room is on your mind — text CULT to 202-816-5612.
Ten Years of Practice, No Idea Why: Building the System I Couldn’t Find
For years I mistook obedience for depth. The day I started reading my practice as a system instead of a set of instructions — and started instrumenting it like one — everything I’d called discipline turned out to be drift.
MJH INC: Building a Personal Sovereign Internet
From chatrooms at thirteen to running a world in Ultima Online to building communities for companies — a life spent tending rooms online. Now I’m turning that instinct on my own data: pulling twenty years of my life off the platforms and onto ground I own, and building the habit of micro-journaling in my own garden instead of Meta’s.