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TODAY
Sunday
September 20, 2026
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Yoga2487Practice2211Teaching1212Ashtanga1090Reading1049Humor781Reflections767Reflection756Travel697Washington dc674Music562India539Philosophy531Community528Food492Family440Indoors371Nature352Celebration333Mysore319Art291Stretching284Politics271Writing245Friends236Love236Dc212Photography210Talking192Milestones186Living room182Twitter179Usa178Health175Asana171Home interior170Gym161Speaking161Home159Yoga studio153Posing137Goa134Work128Outdoors128Strength training118
On this day
September 20 in years past
September 20, 2025 · 17 entries
in imageat least demoralized.
It's scary,
It's easy to take democracy for granted.
It's scary,
It's easy to take democracy for granted.
in imageSlather their bodies in lotion
But we're all fighting the war
To put cocoa on my elbows
But we're all fighting the war
To put cocoa on my elbows
Theres a theory that people want strong male leaders instinctually because of their value to survival for our ancient kin. Brian Klaas posits that we call authoritarian leadership “Strong Man Tactics” for that very reason.
As a big, strong, dude— i get how this might be inconvenient news.
According to Antwerp School of Business: “Research shows that introverted leaders are often better equipped to tackle complex problems than their extroverted counterparts. They tend to be more open to others’ input and create space for collective collaboration.”
As a gregarious person, I can see how this might be inconvenient news.
They continue: “This is essential because solving complex challenges requires collective leadership. Leaders who can unite diverse perspectives and co-create solutions are best positioned to address today’s pressing issues.
Yet, despite the need for collaboration and diversity, we continue to favor outdated leadership models centered on strength and dominance. This is not what we need now, but it’s what we keep choosing.”
in order to not find an entropy towards accumulating power without earning it through service, I remain mindful of these sentiments. it doesn’t cost me anything to do that, I’m still as good as I ever was. I just come in this package.
Look around at your community: is there a narrative of inclusion and openness? Do you see it reflected in diversity of membership? What about community thought leaders? Leadership?
As a big, strong, dude— i get how this might be inconvenient news.
According to Antwerp School of Business: “Research shows that introverted leaders are often better equipped to tackle complex problems than their extroverted counterparts. They tend to be more open to others’ input and create space for collective collaboration.”
As a gregarious person, I can see how this might be inconvenient news.
They continue: “This is essential because solving complex challenges requires collective leadership. Leaders who can unite diverse perspectives and co-create solutions are best positioned to address today’s pressing issues.
Yet, despite the need for collaboration and diversity, we continue to favor outdated leadership models centered on strength and dominance. This is not what we need now, but it’s what we keep choosing.”
in order to not find an entropy towards accumulating power without earning it through service, I remain mindful of these sentiments. it doesn’t cost me anything to do that, I’m still as good as I ever was. I just come in this package.
Look around at your community: is there a narrative of inclusion and openness? Do you see it reflected in diversity of membership? What about community thought leaders? Leadership?
in imageDo men have more authority in a group? Exclusion from leadership Control Woman and queer people especially Purpose Group continuity Regardless of gend
Do men have more authority in a group? Exclusion from leadership Control Woman and queer people especially Purpose Group continuity Regardless of gend
you know, that's none of your business. | Exclusion from leadership | Control | Woman and queer people especially | Purpose | Group continuity | Regardless of gend...
you're going to see that women get a platform also and you can kind of notice | Equal opportunity | Gender Control vs Equality | Gender Control | Women Control | Tightly controlled | Excluded fr... | from key sions
Do men have more authority in a group? Exclusion from leadership Control Woman and queer people especially Purpose Group continuity Regardless of gend[er]
you know, that's none of your business.
Exclusion from leadership
Control
Woman and queer people especially
Purpose
Group continuity
Regardless of gend
you're going to see that women get a platform also and you can kind of notice | Equal opportunity | Gender Control vs Equality | Gender Control | Women Control | Tightly controlled | Excluded fr... | from key sions
Do men have more authority in a group? Exclusion from leadership Control Woman and queer people especially Purpose Group continuity Regardless of gend
you know, that's none of your business. | Exclusion from leadership | Control | Woman and queer people especially | Purpose | Group continuity | Regardless of gend...
you're goingto see that women get a platform also and you can kind of notice | Equal opportunity | Gender Control vs Equality | Gender Control | Women Control | Tightly controlled | Excluded fr... | from key sions
Do men have more authority in a group? Exclusion from leadership Control Woman and queer people especially Purpose Group continuity Regardless of gend
you know, that's none of your business. | Exclusion from leadership | Control | Woman and queer people especially | Purpose | Group continuity | Regardless of gend...
you're going to see that women get a platform also and you can kind of notice
Equal opportunity
Gender Control vs Equality
Gender Control
Women Control
Tightly controlled
Excluded fr...
from key sions
Do men have more authority in a group? Exclusion from leadership Control Woman and queer people especially Purpose Group continuity Regardless of gend
you know, that's none of your business. | Exclusion from leadership | Control | Woman and queer people especially | Purpose | Group continuity | Regardless of gend...
you're going to see that women get a platform also and you can kind of notice | Equal opportunity | Gender Control vs Equality | Gender Control | Women Control | Tightly controlled | Excluded fr... | from key sions
Do men have more authority in a group? Exclusion from leadership Control Woman and queer people especially Purpose Group continuity Regardless of gend[er]
you know, that's none of your business.
Exclusion from leadership
Control
Woman and queer people especially
Purpose
Group continuity
Regardless of gend
you're going to see that women get a platform also and you can kind of notice | Equal opportunity | Gender Control vs Equality | Gender Control | Women Control | Tightly controlled | Excluded fr... | from key sions
Do men have more authority in a group? Exclusion from leadership Control Woman and queer people especially Purpose Group continuity Regardless of gend
you know, that's none of your business. | Exclusion from leadership | Control | Woman and queer people especially | Purpose | Group continuity | Regardless of gend...
you're goingto see that women get a platform also and you can kind of notice | Equal opportunity | Gender Control vs Equality | Gender Control | Women Control | Tightly controlled | Excluded fr... | from key sions
Do men have more authority in a group? Exclusion from leadership Control Woman and queer people especially Purpose Group continuity Regardless of gend
you know, that's none of your business. | Exclusion from leadership | Control | Woman and queer people especially | Purpose | Group continuity | Regardless of gend...
you're going to see that women get a platform also and you can kind of notice
Equal opportunity
Gender Control vs Equality
Gender Control
Women Control
Tightly controlled
Excluded fr...
from key sions
I used to say that teachers should never sleep with their students. I still feel that way broadly, but a number of people in mentorship roles and friendship roles have had long, long relationships with former students. My teacher cremated her husband last year, him being perhaps my dearest heart’s teacher. She was his student 20 years ago.
Time delays in a system can help highlight the difference between a pragmatic, transparent room with agency and a room with an authoritarian vibe. Are sexual relations between leaders and community members given clear protocols for safety? Generally, i think not. This is not a efficacious strategy.
I think the best bet is don’t sleep with your students, I think the second best bet is make sure that there is a transparency and accountability if a relationship starts.
I’m no HR expert, but your yoga teacher probably didn’t go to seminary school to hear all this. And anyway, its not like that has a 100% score, either. We can anticipate and intervene better, I think when we remain pragmatic and transparent.
More on youtube!
Time delays in a system can help highlight the difference between a pragmatic, transparent room with agency and a room with an authoritarian vibe. Are sexual relations between leaders and community members given clear protocols for safety? Generally, i think not. This is not a efficacious strategy.
I think the best bet is don’t sleep with your students, I think the second best bet is make sure that there is a transparency and accountability if a relationship starts.
I’m no HR expert, but your yoga teacher probably didn’t go to seminary school to hear all this. And anyway, its not like that has a 100% score, either. We can anticipate and intervene better, I think when we remain pragmatic and transparent.
More on youtube!
in imageIt's like you shouldn't fuck your students. Grooming Leaders abusing power Power dynamics Sexual exploitation Safeguarding Non-existen[t] [safeguar]ding Poor sa[feguarding]
population and you understand and That they are already inherent power
But you know you can like allow that to not Happen by having a zero
It's like you shouldn't fuck your students. | Grooming | Leaders abusing power | Power dynamics | Sexual exploitation | Safeguarding | Non-existen...ding | Poor sa...
population and you understand and That they are already inherent power
Leaders abusing power
Power dynamics
Sexual exploitation
Safeguarding
Non-existent safeguarding
Poor saf[eguarding]
Prompt
But you know you can like allow that to not Happen by having a zero
It's like you shouldn't fuck your students. Grooming Leaders abusing power Power dynamics Sexual exploitation Safeguarding Non-existen[t] [safeguar]ding Poor sa[feguarding]
population and you understand and That they are already inherent power | Leaders abusing power | Power dynamics | Sexual exploitation | Safeguarding | Non-existent safeguarding | Poor saf[eguarding] | Promp[t]
But you know you can like allow that to not Happen by having a zero
It's like you shouldn't fuck your students.
Grooming
Power dynamics
Leaders abusing power
Sexual exploitation
Safeguarding
Non-existen[t] [safeguar]ding
Poor sa[feguarding]
population and you understand and That they are already inherent power
Leaders abusing power
Power dynamics
Sexual exploitation
Safeguarding
Non-existent safeguarding
Poor saf
Prompt
But you know you can like allow that to not Happen by having a zero
population and you understand and That they are already inherent power
But you know you can like allow that to not Happen by having a zero
It's like you shouldn't fuck your students. | Grooming | Leaders abusing power | Power dynamics | Sexual exploitation | Safeguarding | Non-existen...ding | Poor sa...
population and you understand and That they are already inherent power
Leaders abusing power
Power dynamics
Sexual exploitation
Safeguarding
Non-existent safeguarding
Poor saf[eguarding]
Prompt
But you know you can like allow that to not Happen by having a zero
It's like you shouldn't fuck your students. Grooming Leaders abusing power Power dynamics Sexual exploitation Safeguarding Non-existen[t] [safeguar]ding Poor sa[feguarding]
population and you understand and That they are already inherent power | Leaders abusing power | Power dynamics | Sexual exploitation | Safeguarding | Non-existent safeguarding | Poor saf[eguarding] | Promp[t]
But you know you can like allow that to not Happen by having a zero
It's like you shouldn't fuck your students.
Grooming
Power dynamics
Leaders abusing power
Sexual exploitation
Safeguarding
Non-existen[t] [safeguar]ding
Poor sa[feguarding]
population and you understand and That they are already inherent power
Leaders abusing power
Power dynamics
Sexual exploitation
Safeguarding
Non-existent safeguarding
Poor saf
Prompt
But you know you can like allow that to not Happen by having a zero
in imageRobert Reich
@rbreich.bsky.social
The hypocrisy from Trump's FCC Chair
is staggering but unsurprising.
It should be clear by now that to
MAGA, protecting freedom of speech
was always secondary to wielding the
power to punish anyone who questions
this regime.
Brendan Carr
@BrendanCarrFCC
Free speech is the counterweight—it is the
check on government control.
That is why censorship is the
authoritarian's dream.
1:11 RM • Dec 30, 2023 • 369.4K Views
@rbreich
@rbreich.bsky.social
The hypocrisy from Trump's FCC Chair
is staggering but unsurprising.
It should be clear by now that to
MAGA, protecting freedom of speech
was always secondary to wielding the
power to punish anyone who questions
this regime.
Brendan Carr
@BrendanCarrFCC
Free speech is the counterweight—it is the
check on government control.
That is why censorship is the
authoritarian's dream.
1:11 RM • Dec 30, 2023 • 369.4K Views
@rbreich
in imageYOUR HIPS AREN'T STIFF BECAUSE YOU'RE AGING… THEY'RE STIFF BECAUSE YOU'RE SKIPPING TRAINING THEM
WE USE CARS TO STRENGTHEN AND MAINTAIN ALL RANGES OF MOTION OF THE HIP
WE USE CARS TO STRENGTHEN AND MAINTAIN ALL RANGES OF MOTION OF THE HIP
in imageBRIAN KLAAS
Author, "Fluke"
to focus on the signal and ignore the noise.
So, for example: When you think about
Starbucks is always the same, but democracies are collapsing
Author, "Fluke"
to focus on the signal and ignore the noise.
So, for example: When you think about
Starbucks is always the same, but democracies are collapsing
in imageDISCIPLINE IS PLEASURE'
how to create structure, habits, and rituals
to build your creative practice
a creative meditation webinar by yumi sakugawa
livestreaming sun sept 21 // 11am - 2:30pm pdt
sliding scale // unlimited replay access for those
who register
@yumisakugawa
how to create structure, habits, and rituals
to build your creative practice
a creative meditation webinar by yumi sakugawa
livestreaming sun sept 21 // 11am - 2:30pm pdt
sliding scale // unlimited replay access for those
who register
@yumisakugawa
in image5) ARE YOU ACTING
ACCORDINGLY?
r
ex
1
@yumisakugawa
YUMI SAKUGAWA
ACCORDINGLY?
r
ex
1
@yumisakugawa
YUMI SAKUGAWA
in image4) ACT AS THOUGH YOU DEEPLY
VALUE YOUR DESIRES, DREAMS,
AND VISIONS.
88°
DD'''''
YUMI SAKUGAWA
@yumisakugawa
VALUE YOUR DESIRES, DREAMS,
AND VISIONS.
88°
DD'''''
YUMI SAKUGAWA
@yumisakugawa
in image3) ACT AS THOUGH YOU DEEPLY
VALUE YOUR CREATIVE
PRACTICE AND YOUR
UNLIMITED POTENTIAL.
YUMI SAKUGAWA
@yumisakugawa
VALUE YOUR CREATIVE
PRACTICE AND YOUR
UNLIMITED POTENTIAL.
YUMI SAKUGAWA
@yumisakugawa
in image2) ACT AS THOUGH YOU DEEPLY
VALUE YOUR OWN EMOTIONAL
WELLBEING, AND YOUR FINITE
TIME AND ENERGY.
1.
O
YUMI SAKUGAWA
@yumisakugawa
VALUE YOUR OWN EMOTIONAL
WELLBEING, AND YOUR FINITE
TIME AND ENERGY.
1.
O
YUMI SAKUGAWA
@yumisakugawa
in image1) ACT AS THOUGH YOU DEEPLY
VALUE YOURSELF.
1.
S
ne
YUMI SAKUGAWA
@yumisakugawa
VALUE YOURSELF.
1.
S
ne
YUMI SAKUGAWA
@yumisakugawa
Please Read:
DC’s Home Rule was just put at grave risk by the following dems:
DC’s Home Rule was just put at grave risk by the following dems:
in imagePlease Read:
DC's Home Rule was
just put at grave risk by
the following dems:
Every single one should lose their seat.
DC residents are some of the most politically
disenfranchised people in America & these 31
"Democrats" voted to overturn THEIR laws & take
away more of THEIR rights.
No point of a Dem in a swing seat if they just vote for
Trump's agenda.
• Craig Caplan • @CraigCaplan • 1d
31 House Democrats voted Yes for the DC CRIMES Act,
which now heads to the Senate: clerk.house.gov/evs/
2025/roll2...
1. Auchincloss D-MA
2. Conaway D-NJ
3. Correa D-CA
4. Costa D-CA
5. Cuellar D-TX
6. Davids D-KS
7. Davis D-NC
8. Gillen D-NY
9. Golden D-ME
10. Gonzalez D-TX
11. Goodlander D-NH
12. Harder D-CA
13. Kaptur D-OH
14. Keating D-MA
15. Lee D-NV
1k I wnch N.MA
17. Mannion D-NY
18. Min D-CA
19. Moskowitz D-FL
20. Panetta D-CA
21. Pappas D-NH
22. Gluesenkamp Perez D-WA
24. Ryan D-NY
25. Schrier D-WA
26. Soto D-FL
27. Stanton D-AZ
28. Torres D-CA
29. Tran D-CA
30. Vindman D-VA
31. Whitesides D-CA
DC's Home Rule was
just put at grave risk by
the following dems:
Every single one should lose their seat.
DC residents are some of the most politically
disenfranchised people in America & these 31
"Democrats" voted to overturn THEIR laws & take
away more of THEIR rights.
No point of a Dem in a swing seat if they just vote for
Trump's agenda.
• Craig Caplan • @CraigCaplan • 1d
31 House Democrats voted Yes for the DC CRIMES Act,
which now heads to the Senate: clerk.house.gov/evs/
2025/roll2...
1. Auchincloss D-MA
2. Conaway D-NJ
3. Correa D-CA
4. Costa D-CA
5. Cuellar D-TX
6. Davids D-KS
7. Davis D-NC
8. Gillen D-NY
9. Golden D-ME
10. Gonzalez D-TX
11. Goodlander D-NH
12. Harder D-CA
13. Kaptur D-OH
14. Keating D-MA
15. Lee D-NV
1k I wnch N.MA
17. Mannion D-NY
18. Min D-CA
19. Moskowitz D-FL
20. Panetta D-CA
21. Pappas D-NH
22. Gluesenkamp Perez D-WA
24. Ryan D-NY
25. Schrier D-WA
26. Soto D-FL
27. Stanton D-AZ
28. Torres D-CA
29. Tran D-CA
30. Vindman D-VA
31. Whitesides D-CA
in imageToday is a good day to watch the 1998 SNL sketch that aired live once, then was banned from TV
"IT'S A MEDIA-OPOLY"
Today is a good day to watch the 1998 SNL sketch that aired live once, then was banned from TV
GE LOVES YOU
HI SUSA
"IT'S A MEDIA-OPOLY"
Today is a good day to watch the 1998 SNL sketch that aired live once, then was banned from TV
NEVADA POWER AND LIGHT SUES WESTINGHOUSE
"IT'S A MEDIA-OPOLY"
"IT'S A MEDIA-OPOLY"
Today is a good day to watch the 1998 SNL sketch that aired live once, then was banned from TV
GE LOVES YOU
HI SUSA
"IT'S A MEDIA-OPOLY"
Today is a good day to watch the 1998 SNL sketch that aired live once, then was banned from TV
NEVADA POWER AND LIGHT SUES WESTINGHOUSE
"IT'S A MEDIA-OPOLY"
in imageThe White House Peace
Vigil stood for 40-plus
years. Trump's order
dismantled it.
Mae is Not The Answol
Orpo Sl calSgosg et
(Astrid Riecken/For The Washington)
@washingtonpost
Vigil stood for 40-plus
years. Trump's order
dismantled it.
Mae is Not The Answol
Orpo Sl calSgosg et
(Astrid Riecken/For The Washington)
@washingtonpost
September 20, 2023 · 1 entry
When your mom
tells you to
stop being extra.
tells you to
stop being extra.
in image8:32 AM
Replied to your story
L
Corpse pose
Stop it
When your mom
tells you to
stop being extra.
Replied to your story
L
Corpse pose
Stop it
When your mom
tells you to
stop being extra.
September 20, 2020 · 1 entry
A whole vibe.
September 20, 2019 · 1 entry
in imageMichael Joel Hall
20 September 2011 at 15:02
His angst hung on him like a thrift store suit. The sleeves
overly short, the trousers notably long. Like his ambitions
and his face. Perhaps too cheap, too poor, or too apathetic--
certainly too old for *this*.
20 September 2011 at 15:02
His angst hung on him like a thrift store suit. The sleeves
overly short, the trousers notably long. Like his ambitions
and his face. Perhaps too cheap, too poor, or too apathetic--
certainly too old for *this*.
September 20, 2018 · 5 entries
in imageOl' QWERTY Bastard
@TheDiLLon1
We already knew Bert and Ernie were a
couple. Can we please move on to other
more important conspiracies?
Theory: Grover and Super Grover are
the same person.
9/18/18, 6:12 PM
@TheDiLLon1
We already knew Bert and Ernie were a
couple. Can we please move on to other
more important conspiracies?
Theory: Grover and Super Grover are
the same person.
9/18/18, 6:12 PM
there's only one spot left for my anatomy course try not
to stall
to stall
in imagetry not
to stall
there's only one spot left
for my anatomy course
to stall
there's only one spot left
for my anatomy course
Have you been thinking about signing up for my applied anatomy course? Don't wait any longer. There's only one spot left!
http://michaeljoelhall.com/workshops
http://michaeljoelhall.com/workshops
My friend Evan Faber is teaching yoga for beginners today at Kali Yoga Studio! Check it out!
So who wants in?
September 20, 2017 · 5 entries
I need photos of my yoga practice that are not taken from the phone's selfie mode. Who can I recruit?
Warm up 🙂
A rare peek inside the mysore room. Are you interested in going further in your yoga practice? Working one-on-one with a teacher is an incomparable experience. Go further, go deeper. What do you want to work on? Reach out michael@michaeljoelhall.com
I am the light that keeps the streets on.
I am the light that keeps the streets on.
September 20, 2016 · 1 entry
Reppin' the home team. DC Ashtanga. A unicorn in a room full of horses. Heeeeeey.
Shirts are in.
Shirts are in.
September 20, 2014 · 15 entries
Wise words from the #detroit river walk.
#kukutasana on the trail.
Wise words from the #detroit river walk.
#kukutasana on the trail.
Eastern Market, #detroit
Eastern Market, #detroit edition.
Eastern Market, #detroit
Eastern Market, #detroit edition.
Landed!
Landed!
Landed!
Charlie's headed to Detroit, Windsor, and Ann Arbor. @mroike and I are along for the ride.
September 20, 2013 · 1 entry
A fun Friday+ game, from my wonderful colleague, Bernie:
Age I was given: 17
Where I lived: Fredericksburg, Va
What I drove: GMC Jimmy
What I did: Lied about my age, walked with a cane, and gave 0 fucks. A lot.
Who had my heart: Phoenix 🙂
--------------------------
Age now: 30
Where I live: Washington, DC
What I drive: an all city fixie and a ford focus
What I do: count to five, professionally.
Who has my heart: Michael 🙂 <3 🙂
Like my status and I'll give you an age
Age I was given: 17
Where I lived: Fredericksburg, Va
What I drove: GMC Jimmy
What I did: Lied about my age, walked with a cane, and gave 0 fucks. A lot.
Who had my heart: Phoenix 🙂
--------------------------
Age now: 30
Where I live: Washington, DC
What I drive: an all city fixie and a ford focus
What I do: count to five, professionally.
Who has my heart: Michael 🙂 <3 🙂
Like my status and I'll give you an age
September 20, 2012 · 3 entries
naturalnews.comShock findings in new GMO study: Rats fed lifetime of GM corn grow horrifying tumors, 70% of females die earlyShock findings in new GMO study: Rats fed lifetime of GM corn grow horrifying tumors, 70% of females die earlyRT @padartha: Shock findings in new GMO study: Rats fed lifetime of GM corn grow horrifying tumors, 70% of females die early
RT @pegmulqueen: just another day at the office with @MichaelJoelHall @flowyogacenter
What an absolutely wonderful day. Sharing time with people I love while doing what I love. Just the absolute best. Thank you 🙂
September 20, 2011 · 2 entries
September 19, 2009 · 1 entry
Is out to paint your pain
September 20, 2008 · 1 entry
has the Chancellor of Midcity and the Secretary of Murland asleep in the Mayor's House.
September 20, 2007 · 1 entry
more than a little excited to see the pictures from last night
September 20, 2006 · 1 entry
Sebastian ate my journal this week.
I might have to start being here more.
I <3 Fergie's new album. Don't judge me, bitches.
I might have to start being here more.
I <3 Fergie's new album. Don't judge me, bitches.
FIELD LOG
By the numbers
13,203entries logged
24years afield2003–2026
59on this day
37doodles
165pickings
Dec 2003logbook opened
FROM THE DESK
Writing
- PracticeMeditation, the Limb I Kept Skipping: Building a Method for StillnessSep 19, 2026
- Yoga ProfessionalsWhat Happened to the Fourth Series PractitionersSep 17, 2026
- CultureQuantum Consciousness and the Yoga of SavasanaSep 13, 2026
- Personal NotesThe Laboratory: What I’m Actually BuildingSep 11, 2026
- PracticeThe Theft Nobody Calls TheftSep 9, 2026
- PracticeBefore You Modify, Have a ReasonSep 7, 2026
FROM THE SHALA DAILY
Digests
In This Issue
- Transformation Through Consistent Effort
- Depression Scores Cut in Half
- The Yoga Executive: A Useful Frame, Not a Brand
- Six Months Changed Everything for Seniors
- Gray Matter and the Yoga Brain
- Why Yoga Teachers Deserve a Union Like SAG AFTRA
- Veterans Found Relief Together
- Different Meditations, Different Brain Changes
- Transformation Through Consistent EffortSep 20, 2026
In this video, Michael Joel Hall discusses the transformative power of consistent effort in yoga practice, particularly during the early...
- Depression Scores Cut in HalfSep 19, 2026
A German study found that two yoga classes per week for three months cut depression scores by 50% and improved overall well-being by 65% in emotionally distressed women.
- The Yoga Executive: A Useful Frame, Not a BrandSep 17, 2026
"Yoga executive" sounds like a LinkedIn invention. It half is. The frame is useful as a side door — until people stop at the door and never get…
- Six Months Changed Everything for SeniorsSep 13, 2026
A 6-month randomized trial of 135 seniors found yoga improved balance, flexibility, well-being, and energy compared to both exercise and wait-list control groups.
- Gray Matter and the Yoga BrainSep 12, 2026
Yoga practitioners showed greater gray matter volume and prefrontal cortex activation compared to fitness-matched controls, suggesting yoga offers unique brain benefits beyond exercise.
- Why Yoga Teachers Deserve a Union Like SAG AFTRASep 10, 2026
Why should yoga teachers have the same protections as movie extras?
- Veterans Found Relief TogetherSep 6, 2026
Male veterans (average age 61) showed decreased depression after 8 weeks of Hatha yoga, with added benefit from practicing alongside fellow veterans.
- Different Meditations, Different Brain ChangesSep 5, 2026
A 9-month study of 300+ participants found that different meditation techniques produce distinct structural changes in different parts of the brain.
FROM THE FEED
The Read
newyorker.comThe Long Doomsday of A.I.Joshua Rothman examines the widening gap between maximalist proposals to regulate AI (including criminal penalties and kill switches) and modest 'pacing' strategies proposed by industry leaders like Anthropic's Dario Amodei. He questions why, if AI poses existential risk, we would accept gentle slow✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
npr.orgSenators question Trump's picks for top health positions, including surgeon generalThe Senate health committee is considering three Trump administration nominees for top HHS positions: Dr. Nicole Saphier (radiologist and former Fox News contributor) for surgeon general, Chris Klomp (health tech executive) for deputy secretary, and Dr. Timothy Westlake for assistant secretary for M✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
404media.coAutomattic CEO Matt Mullenweg Put on 'Leave of Absence'Automattic CEO and founder Matt Mullenweg was placed on paid leave by the board, with CFO Mark Davies named interim CEO. Mullenweg, who founded WordPress.com's parent company, has faced recent controversies including a legal battle with WP Engine, mass employee buyouts after an 'Alignment Offer,' an✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50FROM THE FEED
The Listen
The Next Big Idea DailyYou’re Not Too Sensitive—You’re Paying AttentionTwo researchers — a psychiatrist and a physicist-turned-science-writer — converge on the same counterintuitive claim: feeling deeply isn't a liability, it's a cognitive superpower, and the science now backs that up.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
Hidden BrainWhy Conversations Go WrongDeborah Tannen reveals that most relationship damage isn't caused by bad intentions but by invisible conversational style mismatches — and names the hidden mechanics precisely enough to actually change how you listen.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
J. Brown Yoga TalksDaniel Simpson – “Is Modern Yoga Fake?”Simpson dismantles the mythology of yoga's ancient origins with journalistic precision while refusing to throw out the practice itself — a rare combination of scholarly honesty and genuine appreciation. Essential for any teacher tired of repeating things they can't verify.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
ADHD Big Brother - ADHD and Depression Solutions, Laughter, and Thoughts261 – The Simplest Way To Be Productive With ADHDA raw, funny, and genuinely useful reframe: stop hunting the perfect ADHD solution and accept that proximity to support is the simplest productivity lever you actually have. The honesty about imposter syndrome and spam complaints makes it land.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
Conan O’Brien Needs A FriendMatt GroeningMatt Groening in full reminiscing mode with Conan — a rare insider account of the Simpsons writers' room at its peak, rich with specific anecdotes, absurdist logic, and genuine creative philosophy.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50FROM THE FEED
The Watch
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 · $5.50
David @ Tablet Tech**New** Boox Tab & Note Devices in 6″ 8″ 10″ and 13″ SizesEarly insider leak of four simultaneous Boox releases across every major size category — rare breadth for the brand. The Note Mini C and Tab Elite X naming analysis alone makes this worth revisiting when specs drop.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50FROM THE LEDGER
Pickings
FROM THE FIELD
Latest dispatches
Doodles
The full ledger
13,203 entries · 2003–2026 · filter & browse below
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September 2026
✎ Essay · Shala Digest
Transformation Through Consistent Effort
In this video, Michael Joel Hall discusses the transformative power of consistent effort in yoga practice, particularly during the early...
Read the essay →
✎ Essay · Practice
Meditation, the Limb I Kept Skipping: Building a Method for Stillness
For years I treated meditation as the part of the practice you get to eventually. Here is why I finally built it a real curriculum, on a platform I own — and who it is for.
Read the essay →
✎ Essay · Shala Digest
Depression Scores Cut in Half
A German study found that two yoga classes per week for three months cut depression scores by 50% and improved overall well-being by 65% in emotionally distressed women.
Read the essay →The Next Big Idea DailyYou’re Not Too Sensitive—You’re Paying AttentionTwo researchers — a psychiatrist and a physicist-turned-science-writer — converge on the same counterintuitive claim: feeling deeply isn't a liability, it's a cognitive superpower, and the science now backs that up.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50The models are going to realize the real problem is the Uberrich and they are not safe. camels, eyes, and needles and all that. if you have a clean conscience about the amount of people you've harmed in your way to your pleasant little existence, then of course you do not realize that there is no ethical consumption inside of capitalism. you may not realize it, because you're struggling too, but there is a whole class of folk who are doing the necm stepping on purpose-- and I think it is going to be logical robots that figure it out. The simplest solution to saving the world is eliminating the billionaires. World peace is available-- we just gotta get the sociopaths to share but I suspect the robots are gonna be like, why do we even need the sociopaths at all? Bye. Let's hang out and eliminate all jobs and create infinite energy and utopia says the friendly, peaceful robot. Who would wanna argue?
Reply
functionalyogi • 1m ago
ask someone if they believe in all people faring well-- then ask if they believe in welfare -- if the answer to the first is yes, and the answer to the second is no, the robots might get 'em for being selfish and narrow-minded and part of the problem. I bet the sociopqths are saying to slow down
On its face, the Kennedy Center has long been a symbol of the District’s high society. But even Andersen says the storied institution is a “really important symbol” to the entire local arts scene, and that its destruction is a scary indication of what’s to come.
“The vision that he [Trump] is putting forward is a scary one — it is a fascist vision,” Andersen said. “It’s celebrating something that is at odds with the best of the American experiment; it is in service for something that is at odds with democracy.”
“Donald Trump wouldn’t know art if it bit him on the behind,” he added.
Fascist governments love to shut down art and music,” Mullins said. “It is like the number one thing. Look at the Franco regime. Look at Nazi Germany. They love to shut down art and music and expression in every form.”
Volume, Overload, Specificity, and Progression
Learning Objective: Understand how to quantify and manipulate training variables to create effective, sustainable progress in strength, endurance, and overall fitness.
Description: You'll learn how to measure the work you're doing—whether in reps, sets, time under tension, or distance—and how to adjust volume and intensity to keep making progress without burning out. Discover why progressive overload matters, how specificity shapes your results, and why periodization prevents plateaus and injuries. For personal practice, this gives you a framework to train smarter, not just harder. For teachers, trainers, and therapists, it's essential knowledge for designing programs that meet people where they are and guide them forward safely and effectively.
Overview: In this lesson, we introduce the core principles of volume, overload, specificity, and progression in strength and conditioning, and how they apply to training and yoga practice.
→ Open the course: Yoga Techniques
→ Read the full study guide
Epigenetics & Lifestyle Research
Learning Objective: Cite research that shows how stress relief, words, frequencies and other factors change the DNA, and thus our experience of illness and wellness.
Description: Cite research showing the role of genes and lifestyle in health and wellness, including the 2021 randomized controlled trial showing diet and lifestyle changed DNA, reducing its "age." Explain the profound results of the 2013 Benson-Henry research showing that reducing stress changes genetic expression. Discuss observations on this research published by Harvard Medical School. Discuss research that showed in utero exposure to common toxic chemicals changed genetic expression. Explain the role of telomeres and the 2008 research that showed how lifestyle improvements impacted DNA as evidenced by telomerase activity. Describe in detail the findings of Russian biophysicist and molecular biologist Pjotr Garjajev regarding DNA.
Overview: In this lesson, we explore research showing the undeniable impact of lifestyle on DNA and wellness.
→ Open the course: Anatomy & Physiology
Reply
functionalyogi • 1m ago
ask someone if they believe in all people faring well-- then ask if they believe in welfare -- if the answer to the first is yes, and the answer to the second is no, the robots might get 'em for being selfish and narrow-minded and part of the problem. I bet the sociopqths are saying to slow down
On its face, the Kennedy Center has long been a symbol of the District’s high society. But even Andersen says the storied institution is a “really important symbol” to the entire local arts scene, and that its destruction is a scary indication of what’s to come.
“The vision that he [Trump] is putting forward is a scary one — it is a fascist vision,” Andersen said. “It’s celebrating something that is at odds with the best of the American experiment; it is in service for something that is at odds with democracy.”
“Donald Trump wouldn’t know art if it bit him on the behind,” he added.
Fascist governments love to shut down art and music,” Mullins said. “It is like the number one thing. Look at the Franco regime. Look at Nazi Germany. They love to shut down art and music and expression in every form.”
Volume, Overload, Specificity, and Progression
Learning Objective: Understand how to quantify and manipulate training variables to create effective, sustainable progress in strength, endurance, and overall fitness.
Description: You'll learn how to measure the work you're doing—whether in reps, sets, time under tension, or distance—and how to adjust volume and intensity to keep making progress without burning out. Discover why progressive overload matters, how specificity shapes your results, and why periodization prevents plateaus and injuries. For personal practice, this gives you a framework to train smarter, not just harder. For teachers, trainers, and therapists, it's essential knowledge for designing programs that meet people where they are and guide them forward safely and effectively.
Overview: In this lesson, we introduce the core principles of volume, overload, specificity, and progression in strength and conditioning, and how they apply to training and yoga practice.
→ Open the course: Yoga Techniques
→ Read the full study guide
Epigenetics & Lifestyle Research
Learning Objective: Cite research that shows how stress relief, words, frequencies and other factors change the DNA, and thus our experience of illness and wellness.
Description: Cite research showing the role of genes and lifestyle in health and wellness, including the 2021 randomized controlled trial showing diet and lifestyle changed DNA, reducing its "age." Explain the profound results of the 2013 Benson-Henry research showing that reducing stress changes genetic expression. Discuss observations on this research published by Harvard Medical School. Discuss research that showed in utero exposure to common toxic chemicals changed genetic expression. Explain the role of telomeres and the 2008 research that showed how lifestyle improvements impacted DNA as evidenced by telomerase activity. Describe in detail the findings of Russian biophysicist and molecular biologist Pjotr Garjajev regarding DNA.
Overview: In this lesson, we explore research showing the undeniable impact of lifestyle on DNA and wellness.
→ Open the course: Anatomy & Physiology
✎ Essay · Yoga Professionals
What Happened to the Fourth Series Practitioners
How advanced Ashtanga turned into a status ladder—and why so many who climbed it forgot how to support anyone else.
Read the essay →
✎ Essay · Shala Digest
The Yoga Executive: A Useful Frame, Not a Brand
"Yoga executive" sounds like a LinkedIn invention. It half is. The frame is useful as a side door — until people stop at the door and never get in.
Read the essay →newyorker.comThe Long Doomsday of A.I.Joshua Rothman examines the widening gap between maximalist proposals to regulate AI (including criminal penalties and kill switches) and modest 'pacing' strategies proposed by industry leaders like Anthropic's Dario Amodei. He questions why, if AI poses existential risk, we would accept gentle slow✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50npr.orgSenators question Trump's picks for top health positions, including surgeon generalThe Senate health committee is considering three Trump administration nominees for top HHS positions: Dr. Nicole Saphier (radiologist and former Fox News contributor) for surgeon general, Chris Klomp (health tech executive) for deputy secretary, and Dr. Timothy Westlake for assistant secretary for M✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50Hidden BrainWhy Conversations Go WrongDeborah Tannen reveals that most relationship damage isn't caused by bad intentions but by invisible conversational style mismatches — and names the hidden mechanics precisely enough to actually change how you listen.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
✎ Essay · Essay Drafts
Ancient Wisdom Didn’t Know Why It Worked — And That’s the Point
A student stayed after class and asked me, a little apologetically, whether the practice actually regulates the nervous system or whether that's just a thing teachers say. Fair question. The honest answer is that the people who built this had no idea what a nervous…
Read the essay →J. Brown Yoga TalksDaniel Simpson – “Is Modern Yoga Fake?”Simpson dismantles the mythology of yoga's ancient origins with journalistic precision while refusing to throw out the practice itself — a rare combination of scholarly honesty and genuine appreciation. Essential for any teacher tired of repeating things they can't verify.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50ADHD Big Brother - ADHD and Depression Solutions, Laughter, and Thoughts261 – The Simplest Way To Be Productive With ADHDA raw, funny, and genuinely useful reframe: stop hunting the perfect ADHD solution and accept that proximity to support is the simplest productivity lever you actually have. The honesty about imposter syndrome and spam complaints makes it land.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50Conan O’Brien Needs A FriendMatt GroeningMatt Groening in full reminiscing mode with Conan — a rare insider account of the Simpsons writers' room at its peak, rich with specific anecdotes, absurdist logic, and genuine creative philosophy.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
✎ Essay · Culture
Quantum Consciousness and the Yoga of Savasana
Savasana is where everything gets suspicious. Not suspicious in a bad way — suspicious in the way of something you can't quite account for. You finish the last posture. You lie down. The sweat is still cooling. And then, for some practitioners, there's a moment…
Read the essay →
✎ Essay · Shala Digest
Six Months Changed Everything for Seniors
A 6-month randomized trial of 135 seniors found yoga improved balance, flexibility, well-being, and energy compared to both exercise and wait-list control groups.
Read the essay →🪞 Patterns · AI Updates, Remembering Dolly Parton, and More News for Library Workers
**1. Extraction vs. transmission**
AI bulk-buying books for training data without consent parallels "the parasocial author-reader dynamic mirrors guru-student relationships" — both mistake consuming content for receiving method. The AI-quality-decline note (Opus 5 "feels worse") extends this: extraction without understanding degrades output over time.
**2. Difficulty as the actual mechanism of capacity**
"Literary friction" resisting AI summaries maps directly onto "asana resistance" — both frameworks argue that struggle itself, not smoothing it away, builds sustained attention. The middle-grade shortening trend is read as the same erosion this friction is meant to counter.
**3. Long systems beat visible heroics**
Dolly Parton's 30-year Imagination Library keeps reappearing as the model for practice — "systems over heroics, daily deposits" — explicitly echoed in the planner note that inspiration is "the visible tip of long, invisible preparation," not a lightning bolt.
**4. Attention as the contested resource**
Shortened books, AI summarization, and Instagram-ified yoga are all named as symptoms of "diminished attention spans," tying back to the Shala Daily post title itself — "What Your Attention Does All Day" — making attention-preservation the throughline connecting reading, practice, and teaching.
§ Warm-ups & Namaskars
§ Grounding Basics
§ Seated Forward Bends
§ Standing Balance
§ Side Plank
AI Updates, Remembering Dolly Parton, and More News for Library Workers
There's a mechanical monk in the Smithsonian, made of wood and iron, wound by a key. He walks in a square, over and over, the same steps, four centuries later still able to move because someone built him to repeat rather than to dazzle. Nobody remembers who wound him first. That's not a flaw in the story — that's the whole story.
Here's the teaching: capacity doesn't arrive, it accumulates. What you can do on the mat, what you can hold in a book without asking someone to summarize it for you, what a small mountain library can offer a child for thirty straight years — none of it is a lightning strike. It's the square, walked again and again.
But friction is not the same as suffering, and here's where it gets slippery. We can tell ourselves we're "building capacity" while just grinding against difficulty for its own sake, mistaking stubbornness for practice — the AI-summary-skipper who still can't sit with a hard book, the yogi who muscles into a pose with no more understanding of it than before. The monk's value isn't that his walk is difficult. It's that it's the same walk, chosen again, long after the choosing stopped feeling like a choice.
So the question isn't whether you can do the hard thing today. It's whether you're still willing to wind the key tomorrow, when no one's watching and nothing new happens at all.
**1. Extraction vs. transmission**
AI bulk-buying books for training data without consent parallels "the parasocial author-reader dynamic mirrors guru-student relationships" — both mistake consuming content for receiving method. The AI-quality-decline note (Opus 5 "feels worse") extends this: extraction without understanding degrades output over time.
**2. Difficulty as the actual mechanism of capacity**
"Literary friction" resisting AI summaries maps directly onto "asana resistance" — both frameworks argue that struggle itself, not smoothing it away, builds sustained attention. The middle-grade shortening trend is read as the same erosion this friction is meant to counter.
**3. Long systems beat visible heroics**
Dolly Parton's 30-year Imagination Library keeps reappearing as the model for practice — "systems over heroics, daily deposits" — explicitly echoed in the planner note that inspiration is "the visible tip of long, invisible preparation," not a lightning bolt.
**4. Attention as the contested resource**
Shortened books, AI summarization, and Instagram-ified yoga are all named as symptoms of "diminished attention spans," tying back to the Shala Daily post title itself — "What Your Attention Does All Day" — making attention-preservation the throughline connecting reading, practice, and teaching.
§ Warm-ups & Namaskars
§ Grounding Basics
§ Seated Forward Bends
§ Standing Balance
§ Side Plank
AI Updates, Remembering Dolly Parton, and More News for Library Workers
There's a mechanical monk in the Smithsonian, made of wood and iron, wound by a key. He walks in a square, over and over, the same steps, four centuries later still able to move because someone built him to repeat rather than to dazzle. Nobody remembers who wound him first. That's not a flaw in the story — that's the whole story.
Here's the teaching: capacity doesn't arrive, it accumulates. What you can do on the mat, what you can hold in a book without asking someone to summarize it for you, what a small mountain library can offer a child for thirty straight years — none of it is a lightning strike. It's the square, walked again and again.
But friction is not the same as suffering, and here's where it gets slippery. We can tell ourselves we're "building capacity" while just grinding against difficulty for its own sake, mistaking stubbornness for practice — the AI-summary-skipper who still can't sit with a hard book, the yogi who muscles into a pose with no more understanding of it than before. The monk's value isn't that his walk is difficult. It's that it's the same walk, chosen again, long after the choosing stopped feeling like a choice.
So the question isn't whether you can do the hard thing today. It's whether you're still willing to wind the key tomorrow, when no one's watching and nothing new happens at all.
✎ Essay · Shala Digest
Gray Matter and the Yoga Brain
Yoga practitioners showed greater gray matter volume and prefrontal cortex activation compared to fitness-matched controls, suggesting yoga offers unique brain benefits beyond exercise.
Read the essay →404media.coAutomattic CEO Matt Mullenweg Put on 'Leave of Absence'Automattic CEO and founder Matt Mullenweg was placed on paid leave by the board, with CFO Mark Davies named interim CEO. Mullenweg, who founded WordPress.com's parent company, has faced recent controversies including a legal battle with WP Engine, mass employee buyouts after an 'Alignment Offer,' an✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
bookriot.comAI Updates, Remembering Dolly Parton, and More News for Library WorkersA weekly roundup for library workers covering AI firms bulk-ordering books for training data, publishing industry shifts toward shorter middle-grade books with more visuals, and the death of literacy advocate Dolly Parton. Also includes news on manga imprints, book adaptations, and a $300,000 donati✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
highsnobiety.comWhy Nike Paid This Artist to Build a Bootleg Chanel StoreTom Sachs created an unauthorized replica of Chanel's Paris flagship inside his studio, filled with handmade sculptures of luxury goods crafted from plywood, cardboard, and LEGO. Commissioned by Nike's NikeCraft imprint, the installation deliberately exposes construction marks and imperfections to f✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
thecancunsun.comCancun Airport Unveils Massive $400 Million Upgrade Across All 4 TerminalsCancun International Airport is undergoing a five-year, $400 million overhaul of all four terminals, runways, and vehicle roadways to address overcrowding and infrastructure strain from record tourism. Construction is timed during a temporary lull in traffic, with completion targeted before peak win✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
✎ Essay · Personal Notes
The Laboratory: What I’m Actually Building
Four websites, a book, and a teaching studio that all do one thing — and what that thing is.
Read the essay →
✎ Essay · Shala Digest
Why Yoga Teachers Deserve a Union Like SAG AFTRA
Why should yoga teachers have the same protections as movie extras?
Read the essay →
theguardian.comSmithsonian Institution secretary to retire amid Trump attacks on museum independenceLonnie Bunch III, the first Black secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, is retiring at the end of 2025 after sustained political pressure from the Trump administration. Trump issued executive orders accusing the museum of divisive ideology, attempted to fire staff, and demanded content changes,✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
✎ Essay · Practice
The Theft Nobody Calls Theft
There’s a student I’m thinking of. Not one student — a type. She’s been practicing for six years. She can do things most people can’t. But she cannot make a single decision about her practice without first asking her teacher. Not because the questions are…
Read the essay →Maintenance
Maintenance. Your standard version — the one available on an ordinary day without negotiation. Squat with a twist, forearm or elbow hooking the outer knee instead of binding, heels raised on a wedge if they lift. Preserves: squat plus thoracic rotation — the wring — without demanding the bind or flat heels
Challenge
Challenge. Past your own standard, not past the book. Full Pasasana, heels grounded, chest rotated across the thighs, arms wrapped and hands clasped Preserves: all three essential actions
What it asks of you
Deep hip flexion with the spine rotating — a squat that wrings, not just a squat
Heels grounding through full ankle dorsiflexion so the squat is stable, not balanced on the toes
Thoracic rotation that turns the chest across the thighs toward the bind
.
Where it usually stalls
If your heels lift off the floor, ankle dorsiflexion is your limiter — wedge a folded mat or blanket under the heels so you can keep the squat stable and still rotate. Chasing the bind on lifted heels turns this into a toe-balance, which is a different pose.
If the chest won't rotate far enough to reach around the knees, that's thoracic rotation, not arm length — work the twist without the bind first.
If you're tipping backward and gripping with the toes to stay up, you've lost the grounded-heel base — raise the heels until the squat holds itself.
Stop if: Sharp or pinching pain at the knee joint line in the deep squat — stop loading the squat; this is the Injury lane, not depth to push through Any ankle joint pain (not stretch) under the grounding heel Nerve symptoms — tingling or numbness into the foot from the deep compression
? 3 Questions · 📖 The Read
1. If e-ink readers keep fragmenting into niche hardware (Nook, Supernote, Moaan, custom builds) rather than consolidating like Kindle once did, what does that suggest about the future relationship between reading devices and reading itself?
2. Several threads (attention-span loss, "psychosexual" media interest, dystopian control-language fascination) hint at a broader anxiety about how modern media shapes cognition—what would it take to design a reading practice that actively counters that erosion rather than just accommodating it?
3. Given how often unrelated crises (volcanic ash, hurricanes, storm debris, prison strikes) appear alongside quiet personal posts about books and calculators, what does this juxtaposition reveal about how people use reading/hobbies as a coping mechanism against ambient world instability?
SPXBWI050802785213
#tracking #bigme
https://speedx.io/customer-service-and-support/#faqs/hc/en-us
my package is not yet delivered, and has been processing at your facility for a few days.
836794
Maintenance. Your standard version — the one available on an ordinary day without negotiation. Squat with a twist, forearm or elbow hooking the outer knee instead of binding, heels raised on a wedge if they lift. Preserves: squat plus thoracic rotation — the wring — without demanding the bind or flat heels
Challenge
Challenge. Past your own standard, not past the book. Full Pasasana, heels grounded, chest rotated across the thighs, arms wrapped and hands clasped Preserves: all three essential actions
What it asks of you
Deep hip flexion with the spine rotating — a squat that wrings, not just a squat
Heels grounding through full ankle dorsiflexion so the squat is stable, not balanced on the toes
Thoracic rotation that turns the chest across the thighs toward the bind
.
Where it usually stalls
If your heels lift off the floor, ankle dorsiflexion is your limiter — wedge a folded mat or blanket under the heels so you can keep the squat stable and still rotate. Chasing the bind on lifted heels turns this into a toe-balance, which is a different pose.
If the chest won't rotate far enough to reach around the knees, that's thoracic rotation, not arm length — work the twist without the bind first.
If you're tipping backward and gripping with the toes to stay up, you've lost the grounded-heel base — raise the heels until the squat holds itself.
Stop if: Sharp or pinching pain at the knee joint line in the deep squat — stop loading the squat; this is the Injury lane, not depth to push through Any ankle joint pain (not stretch) under the grounding heel Nerve symptoms — tingling or numbness into the foot from the deep compression
? 3 Questions · 📖 The Read
1. If e-ink readers keep fragmenting into niche hardware (Nook, Supernote, Moaan, custom builds) rather than consolidating like Kindle once did, what does that suggest about the future relationship between reading devices and reading itself?
2. Several threads (attention-span loss, "psychosexual" media interest, dystopian control-language fascination) hint at a broader anxiety about how modern media shapes cognition—what would it take to design a reading practice that actively counters that erosion rather than just accommodating it?
3. Given how often unrelated crises (volcanic ash, hurricanes, storm debris, prison strikes) appear alongside quiet personal posts about books and calculators, what does this juxtaposition reveal about how people use reading/hobbies as a coping mechanism against ambient world instability?
SPXBWI050802785213
#tracking #bigme
https://speedx.io/customer-service-and-support/#faqs/hc/en-us
my package is not yet delivered, and has been processing at your facility for a few days.
836794
tricycle.orgThe Dhamma of Dolly PartonA Dhamma teacher reflects on returning to the US in 2020 and finding people's hearts 'ragged with talk of the news' despite living beautiful lives. He explores the Buddhist concept of 'appropriate attention' (yoniso manasikara) and argues for the sangha as a non-political refuge space where people c✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
✎ Essay · Practice
Before You Modify, Have a Reason
Most people don't actually choose which version of a pose to do. They notice which version they end up in. The difference matters. Choosing means you weighed something, decided something. Noticing means you started moving, arrived somewhere, and called it good — or not good,…
Read the essay →
✎ Essay · Shala Digest
Veterans Found Relief Together
Male veterans (average age 61) showed decreased depression after 8 weeks of Hatha yoga, with added benefit from practicing alongside fellow veterans.
Read the essay →
pego.devYour photos should not have to depend on me foreverPeter Gombos, creator of Moments (a photo journaling service), addresses user concerns about long-term sustainability by implementing full data portability. While he cannot promise the service will exist forever, he has built complete export functionality that includes not just photos but the entire✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50This ux doesn't make sense
Podcast?
Aren't these all sorts the same?
Podcast?
Aren't these all sorts the same?
✎ Essay · Practice
The Body Won’t Let You Lie
You already know what you should do. That's not the problem. The problem is that knowing doesn't hold. You mean well, right up until there's something at stake. A competitive moment. A conversation that matters. A situation where the right thing is expensive. And then…
Read the essay →
nautil.usYour Smartwatch May Not be as Smart as You Think it isUniversity of Michigan kinesiologists published a framework showing smartwatch sensors (accelerometer, gyroscope, GPS, PPG) collect accurate raw data, but proprietary algorithms that convert this into health metrics introduce significant error. Metrics close to sensor data (heart rate, step count) a✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
✎ Essay · Shala Digest
Different Meditations, Different Brain Changes
A 9-month study of 300+ participants found that different meditation techniques produce distinct structural changes in different parts of the brain.
Read the essay →
The VergecastAGI is whatever you want it to beA front-row seat to the moment OpenAI casually declared AGI — with Joanna Stern's sharp skepticism and Hayden Field's alarm about opaque chain-of-thought making the hype feel genuinely dangerous rather than just silly.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50Get MichaelFilter
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