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afield since 2003 · michael joel hall
Tuesday
October 27, 2026
nautil.usJust Imagining a Workout Can Make You StrongerMotor imagery activates the same brain areas as actual movement, with inhibitory signals preventing muscle activation. Research shows mental practice enhances performance across activities, with optimal sessions around 20 minutes. Studies demonstrate measurable strength gains (22% in pinkie muscles)✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
You Can’t Have a Bad Practice
Here's what a bad practice actually requires. It requires you to show up with an idea of who's practicing — how much energy they have, what their hips are doing, how steady their attention is — and then find out, somewhere around minute fifteen, that…
Read the essay →Threads
On this day
October 27 in years past
who costumed as princesses and the parents
who dressed them. To the ghosts of the many
Drag Mothers born on this night and the
"straight" guys who got to experiment. To the
ghosts of Trans families who walked without
fear on the one night it was legal to
"crossdress." To the clang of chains and
clumsy heels on the sidewalk, to raising
delicious hell and casting Queer spells on a
night that was always ours.
Leo Herrera
@herreraimages
----
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HOT LINE: THE
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AND WRITE!
REYNOLDS
DL.CU
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EXCLUSIVE!
BURT REYNOLDS' HOT LINE SCENE-
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FTR: Im talking about the one that charges $9 for a bud light, not the one that asks for 10% of your income.
Black Jeopardy with Tom Hanks - SNL
http://youtu.be/O7VaXlMvAvk
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/10/how-friendships-change-over-time-in-adulthood/411466/
Lately, running has kinda been my life. No two ways about it, I've been passionatly running long distances for months. Running from my own crazy, running from my monotony, running from my problems. At whatever endset line I drew that day, I always found peace, resolve, and clarity. With the Marine Corps Marathon, I get to actually have people out there cheering me-- cheering among a sea of other faces. This time the finish line is something tangible, not just the completion of my daily goal.
Not run 'till I stop crying.
Not run from DC to Virginia to Maryland and back.
Not run for the thrill.
This time I'm running just for me. Woo-fuckin-hoo!
OOh Ra!
By the numbers
Writing
Digests
- Yogic Agency: The Practice on PurposeOct 25, 2026
There's no secret to a transformative practice. Anyone selling one is selling something else. What there is: yogic agency.
- Overcome Cognitive Biases with YogaOct 24, 2026
Discover how Ashtanga yoga acts as a powerful ally in confronting our deepest cognitive biases and illuminating a path towards clear perception.
- Vulnerability and Risk in PracticeOct 22, 2026
Vulnerability is one of the most overused words in self-help. The underlying idea is real. The marketing version mostly isn't.
- Complimentary Forms of Exercise for Ashtanga YogaOct 18, 2026
In this video, Michael Joel Hall discusses the ongoing debate within the Ashtanga yoga community about incorporating complementary exercises, such...
- Meditation and Panic DisorderOct 17, 2026
An 8-week mindfulness program produced clinically significant improvements in anxiety and panic symptoms for 22 people with diagnosed anxiety disorders.
- The Debate Around Practice IntensityOct 11, 2026
Michael Joel Hall discusses the paradox of Ashtanga Yoga, highlighting how it demands effort while requiring patience.
- Thirty Minutes a DayOct 10, 2026
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…
- Vinyasa Yoga: Breath & MovementOct 4, 2026
Brahmari Pranayama: The Bee Breath Technique for Calm and Clarity This video introduces Brahmari Pranayama, also known as Bee Breath,...
The Read
nautil.usJust Imagining a Workout Can Make You StrongerMotor imagery activates the same brain areas as actual movement, with inhibitory signals preventing muscle activation. Research shows mental practice enhances performance across activities, with optimal sessions around 20 minutes. Studies demonstrate measurable strength gains (22% in pinkie muscles)✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
nautil.usWhy Your Boss Might Live Longer Than YouA Stevens Institute study of 27,000+ Americans found self-employed individuals had a 10% reduced mortality risk compared to wage workers, with longer self-employment correlating to greater benefits. The effect was strongest for opportunity-driven (not necessity-driven) entrepreneurs and partially me✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
whyisthisinteresting.substack.comThe Monday Media Diet with Claire StapletonClaire Stapleton, former Google exec turned labor organizer and memoirist, describes a media diet shaped by feeds, group chats, and YouTube vlogs rather than traditional news. She reflects on how institutions capture our longing for purpose, drawing parallels between Graham Greene's The Quiet Americ✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
futurism.comCreator of Super Smash Brothers Offers Blistering Takedown of AI-Generated GamesMasahiro Sakurai, creator of Super Smash Bros and Kirby, criticized AI-generated video games as derivative and unprofitable, arguing that AI excels at copying existing systems but cannot produce genuine originality. He contrasted AI's imitative capacity with human creativity, using game designer Fum✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50The Listen
The Watch
TEDIs AI Turning Us All into the Same Person? | Sandra Matz | TEDMatz reframes the AI risk conversation away from jobs and misinformation toward something quieter and harder to argue with: the slow algorithmic erasure of the self. The 'dial' proposal is genuinely actionable, not just rhetorical.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
Washington Week PBSWashington Week with The Atlantic full episode, Aug. 28, 2026A sharp, sardonic dissection of Trump's inversion of alliances — hating Canada, respecting Kim Jong-un — with a Canadian reporter at the table and real trade mechanics underneath the absurdity. The Dolly Parton coda lands harder than expected.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
TODAYMeet the Couple Behind Panda ExpressA rare look at the Cherngs' unsentimental, clear-eyed philosophy on building an empire — immigrant grit meets shrewd business candor. The orange chicken origin and their unapologetic 'American Chinese food' framing alone make this worth returning to.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
StarTalkHow The Brain Perceives Time, with David EaglemanEagleman dismantles the brain's greatest myths — that memory records, that senses are fixed, that slow-motion fear is real — with experiments wild enough to match the claims. The dream-as-real-estate-defense theory alone is worth the price of admission.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
Tale FoundryThe Book of Dead FairiesA genuinely weird artifact — pressed fairy corpses as Victorian psychosexual metaphor — that earns its darkness and lands a quietly profound point about preserved imagination and the shame of looking back at who you were.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50Pickings
Latest dispatches
Doodles
Unearthed
No, I'm not sleeping with anyone on a regular basis: tanning has made me feel like its summer! Its amazing! I'm amazing! It really is time to herald the return of SummerDrunk!
Thursday didn't see me making it to all-you-can-drink-a-rama at JR's; instead I opted for the safety of straight men, and went to the improv to hang out with the boys. I can’t seem to escape the trap of ending up in bumfuck whenever I go out and play with them– the time it was Chris's in Alexandria. I woke up pretty much still baked. Shocking. I made it back to the District in time to party at Lee and Nill's with Ashley.
I was apparently more trashed at the party than I can recall myself (not blackout drunk, just feeling spectacular enough that I had no idea that I was tipping over my beer repeatedly for the sake of stories). I love shots, I really do, and at a point they stopped giving me real shots, switching them with water. It took me a few (3) to realize this fact, at which point I asked for another. Even I know that water is a good idea!
I was horizontal on my couch with my feet still on the floor when I awoke the next morning. There was no Ashley in sight, meaning she made it home safely. Attagir! last thing I remember from Friday night was the vane efforts at watching Alias. Sadly, we were both entirely too trashed to comprehend a whole episode. We must of start and restarted three times.
Umm, ya, it took a lot to get me to work on Saturday, seein’ as how I was still drunk when I woke up. It definatly required Lauren and I getting coffee... I love it when the coffee guy sees me at 4:30, blurry eyed and less than bushy tailed. He gives me my coffee for free! Hee! Anywho, when I got off work, I made it over to Shacha's for a lovely little party. It was already two, but that didn't stop Chris and I from goin' over there and having an absolutely fun time. Or so I think we had. Cause, uh, yeah... I got plastared at Sacha's.
I was drunk enough that I had to call around to find my keys on Sunday morning. I couldn't for the life of me figure out where I had left them. Apparently I put them in the sink, and Chris moved them for me. He knew exactly where they were...
My Drunky McSherlock powers of deduction tells me that Chris knowing where my keys are also means Chris had to put me to bed. Uh oh. This complicates things just a smidge-- on Sunday a friend of ours informed me that I may have "weirded" Chris out. Hee!
It damn well could have been anything. I am just as likely to have fallen asleep with my head in his lap as I am to have tried to make out with him. Either one of those could weird someone out, and either one is as likely as the other to have occured. He hasn't brought it up, and I'm gonna just let my own curiousity on the matter subside, and maybe just forget about it. Maybe. I am awful bruised up and my eye looks like I may very well have been punched– but that could have come from a domestic disturbance with my stairs.
I can’t wait to find out what really happened. There is nothing better than true gossip about yourself that you don't know.
So, anyway, like everyone else in America, I was doin the Super Bowl thing on Sunday. Drinks aplenty, but moderation, too. I clearly had been excessive for days and pace finally started to matter again.
I began my Super Day over at Caitlin, Ashley, and Jeremy's place, but I eventually had to make my way out to Glover Park for Bill's big shindig. Tons of people tons of fud, ya know? Bill’s all the way out in Glover Park, so it makes it a little tricky to get home, 'specially when I don't like waitin' around for the bus. I managed, with the aid of the lovely and wonderful Lil Miss Smokey.
Anywho, after my lovely ride home, I go to play more with Lauren, and she had Kelly in tow. Yay for snuggle buddies! Just snuggle buddies for a little while, though, cause this boy had to go to bed and get up eaaaarly on Monday.
This boy had the catch the Open Bar bus to Pennsylvania at 8 AM. Bailey's took the Improv skiing at White Tail providing us with the yummy open bar bus, ski rentals, lift rentals, a meal, and even booze in the lodge. Fred (Standsinsauce Movetocleveland), Bill, Chris, and I spent all day playing together. We provided the bowl hits on the side of a mountain, the good music, and the great comradery... It really was amazing, we had a wonderful time. See, ya’ll? Booze gives back!
I made it home early enough to go to Showtunes at JRs with Eric and his friends Kaari and Matt. Such a lovelier bunch of people than that one group I went with a couple of Thursdays ago. I practiced pace all day, and managed to not hurt myself or anyone else all day. Kaari and I even got a high score at one of those pushbutton-y games you place at Bars.
So, now after this remarkably long tally of events, lets discuss the damage done:
Ankle: Twisted.
Knee: Cut
Right Eye: Bruised
Right Cheek: Cut
Back: Scratched
Right Wrist: Scratched
Thighs: Sore
Damage from Skiing: 1
Damage from Drinking: 6
I'll let you guess which is from what.
The full ledger
13,258 entries · 2003–2026 · filter & browse below

You Can’t Have a Bad Practice
Here's what a bad practice actually requires. It requires you to show up with an idea of who's practicing — how much energy they have, what their hips are doing, how steady their attention is — and then find out, somewhere around minute fifteen, that…
Read the essay →
nautil.usJust Imagining a Workout Can Make You StrongerMotor imagery activates the same brain areas as actual movement, with inhibitory signals preventing muscle activation. Research shows mental practice enhances performance across activities, with optimal sessions around 20 minutes. Studies demonstrate measurable strength gains (22% in pinkie muscles)✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
nautil.usWhy Your Boss Might Live Longer Than YouA Stevens Institute study of 27,000+ Americans found self-employed individuals had a 10% reduced mortality risk compared to wage workers, with longer self-employment correlating to greater benefits. The effect was strongest for opportunity-driven (not necessity-driven) entrepreneurs and partially me✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
whyisthisinteresting.substack.comThe Monday Media Diet with Claire StapletonClaire Stapleton, former Google exec turned labor organizer and memoirist, describes a media diet shaped by feeds, group chats, and YouTube vlogs rather than traditional news. She reflects on how institutions capture our longing for purpose, drawing parallels between Graham Greene's The Quiet Americ✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
futurism.comCreator of Super Smash Brothers Offers Blistering Takedown of AI-Generated GamesMasahiro Sakurai, creator of Super Smash Bros and Kirby, criticized AI-generated video games as derivative and unprofitable, arguing that AI excels at copying existing systems but cannot produce genuine originality. He contrasted AI's imitative capacity with human creativity, using game designer Fum✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
Samadhi on a Tuesday
Samadhi lives in a particular part of the spiritual imagination — somewhere between mountaintop and miracle. You picture it arriving after years of austere practice, maybe in a cave, definitely in silence. When it finally comes, it announces itself with appropriate ceremony. This is wrong…
Read the essay →Yogic Agency: The Practice on Purpose
There's no secret to a transformative practice. Anyone selling one is selling something else. What there is: yogic agency.
Read the essay →
popville.comHeads Up: The Marine Corps Marathon is Sunday and there will be parking restrictions and street closuresA PoPville alert about the Marine Corps Marathon on Sunday, October 25, 2026, listing extensive parking restrictions (2AM-2PM) and street closures (5:30AM-3PM) throughout DC, including major arteries like Wisconsin Avenue, Independence Avenue, and several bridges. The notice is purely logistical, in✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
popville.comYO!! Movies and More opening in SW Tomorrow!! “The Revada Arts Center to Open in Southwest DC, Providing a New Home for the Arts”A press release announces the October 2026 opening of the Revada Arts Center in Southwest DC, a multidisciplinary arts hub co-stewarded by Theater Alliance, IN Series, and 4EYE Film Center. The center features performance spaces, a cinema, rehearsal studios, and community engagement areas, positioni✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50Overcome Cognitive Biases with Yoga
Discover how Ashtanga yoga acts as a powerful ally in confronting our deepest cognitive biases and illuminating a path towards clear perception.
Read the essay →test from b6

The Name Creates the Gap
Jordan wanted a handstand for two years. Every class. He watched other people float up, watched himself not. Something grinding and grasping in his chest, increasingly desperate. He got the handstand. That's not the interesting part. The interesting part is what happened six months before…
Read the essay →
Vulnerability and Risk in Practice
Vulnerability is one of the most overused words in self-help. The underlying idea is real. The marketing version mostly isn't.
Read the essay →
The Eight Limbs Aren’t a Ladder
There's a version of yoga instruction that goes like this: master the ethics first, then the postures, then the breath, then the senses, then the concentration, then the meditation, then the union. Eight rungs. Bottom to top. Do the lower ones right and eventually you…
Read the essay →
theguardian.com‘We are beyond heartbroken’: Cindy Crawford, Rande and Kaia Gerber share tributes to PresleyA Guardian article reports the Gerber family's first public Instagram tributes to Presley Gerber, who died aged 27 at a rehab facility in September 2026. Cindy Crawford, Rande Gerber, and Kaia Gerber each shared emotional statements remembering Presley as a 'sweet, beautiful soul.' The piece documen✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
theguardian.com‘We are beyond heartbroken’: Cindy Crawford, Rande and Kaia Gerber share tributes to PresleyCindy Crawford and Rande Gerber's son Presley died at 27 at a rehab facility in September. The family shared tributes describing him as kind, vulnerable, and deeply loved, with sister Kaia Gerber writing about learning to love him in absence. Presley had spoken openly about struggles with depression✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
Stop Trying to Stop Thinking
Everyone who has tried to meditate has failed the same way. You sit down, close your eyes, and try to stop thinking. Then you think about trying to stop thinking. Then you think about how bad you are at not thinking. Then you wonder if…
Read the essay →
Complimentary Forms of Exercise for Ashtanga Yoga
In this video, Michael Joel Hall discusses the ongoing debate within the Ashtanga yoga community about incorporating complementary exercises, such...
Read the essay →
blog.scottstevenson.netPattern Matching Beats Narrative ReasoningThe author argues that narrative reasoning—simple, compelling stories—leads to poor bets in business and investing because reality is multi-causal and illegible, not reducible to clean explanations. Instead, effective decision-making relies on pattern matching and intuition developed through digesti✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50Slop is "low-grade creative output because there's an incentive to do so," and narrative is the legible thing markets overvalue — so is yoga's story-slop (the clean arc, the alignment cue, the guru myth) a content problem or an incentive problem, and what would changing the incentive actually look like at your shala?
Your ledger just surfaced a protest in Mérida, Albanian riot police, and a Reform candidate's "concentration camps" next to an animated short about depression — what is the pattern your reading is matching on that no narrative you'd write about it would capture?
❖ Synthesize
(empty reply)

The Building Failed. Not You.
Somebody you know left. Maybe it was a yoga studio. Maybe a job, a team, a community they’d given years to. They left quietly, a little ashamed. They told a story about how they just couldn’t handle it. Weren’t disciplined enough. Too sensitive. Not the…
Read the essay →
Meditation and Panic Disorder
An 8-week mindfulness program produced clinically significant improvements in anxiety and panic symptoms for 22 people with diagnosed anxiety disorders.
Read the essay →
futurism.comMeta Glasses Said to Be Recording Even When They’re in Sleep ModeMeta's AI-enabled glasses are reportedly recording conversations even when in sleep mode, activating without the required 'Hey Meta' wake phrase. Multiple users across different device generations have observed this behavior, raising serious privacy concerns about devices designed for discreet recor✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
The Point Is to Need Less
You've probably noticed that the need doesn't resolve. You take the workshop, do the training, get the certification, find the better teacher, discover the right lineage, and six months later you're still looking for the next thing. The gap between you and sufficiency never quite…
Read the essay →Pose Categories & Families Intro
Pose Categories Overview
Standing Poses
Core Strengthening
Twisting
Forward Bends
Backbends.
Lateral / Side Bends & Asymmetrical Poses
Balancing
Arm Balancing
Inversions
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