The Yoga Contractor Trade-Off
Most yoga jobs in the US are 1099. That’s the default, not a choice you opted into. Here’s the math that determines whether it’s actually worth it.
Most yoga jobs in the US are 1099. That’s the default, not a choice you opted into. Here’s the math that determines whether it’s actually worth it.
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.
Michael Joel Hall discusses his intervention strategies to address unhealthy group dynamics in Ashtanga Yoga practice.
It’s about legal guest workers on U.S. farms—and how “doing it right” costs more than the market wants to admit.
A companion to The Digital Caste and The Architecture of Generosity. The conversation about yoga economics runs the same loop. Teachers can’t make a living. Studios can’t stay open. Students can’t afford classes. Everyone assumes the problem is price — find the right number and the system works. It doesn’t. And price isn’t why. The deeper problem is that yoga communities are trying to operate inside an economic framework designed for scalable products. Yoga isn’t one. It’s a discipline transmitted through relationships, repetition, and time. That makes it profoundly valuable. It also makes it economically awkward in a system that rewards growth, efficiency, and scale. The pattern is predictable. A studio takes on significant overhead — prime real estate, renovations, staff, marketing. That forces prices…
A 2017 study found that interoceptive awareness, the ability to sense internal body signals, is linked to greater stress resilience. Yoga trains this capacity directly.
Ashtanga’s method is a gift; the guru-centric machinery is optional. I didn’t just say so — I built the self-owned platform that unbolts one from the other.
It’s about telling the truth about your mood without turning it into a lifelong identity—or a daily beatdown.
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.
It’s about why yoga practice makes some people weirdly calm when life throws them—sometimes literally—off the horse.