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afield since 2003 · michael joel hall
View
TODAY
Saturday
October 17, 2026
✎ Essay · Philosophy
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 →
✎ Essay · Shala Digest
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 →TRAILS
Threads
Yoga2487Practice2211Teaching1212Ashtanga1090Reading1049Humor781Reflections767Reflection756Travel697Washington dc674Music562India539Philosophy531Community528Food492Family440Indoors371Nature352Celebration333Mysore319Art291Stretching284Politics271Writing245Love236Friends236Dc212Photography210Talking192Milestones186Living room182Twitter179Usa178Health175Asana171Home interior170Speaking161Gym161Home159Yoga studio153Posing137Goa134Outdoors128Work128Strength training118
On this day
October 17 in years past
October 17, 2024 · 4 entries
in imageI tried working hard when I was younger.
in imageToo far!
Naah
it's risky
Tomorrow
Everyone wants the view, but no one wants the climb.
Jimmy Carr • • • @golimitlesss
@golimitlesss
Naah
it's risky
Tomorrow
Everyone wants the view, but no one wants the climb.
Jimmy Carr • • • @golimitlesss
@golimitlesss
in imagemeeka @MeekyBlinders • 1d
a piece of my roomba broke off and it
vacuumed it up. self sucking little freak
51
t7 3.2K
82K
ıhl 1.2M
meeka @MeekyBlinders •17h
@iRobot pls send me a new roomba mine is a
freak
2
172
392
ıhl 18K
meeka @MeekyBlinders •1h
<
iRobot o
DI
1
...
L
...
Would you be so kind to send me a
picture of the robot's full bottom,
in order for me to be able to assist
you further?
3:27 PM
oh so you're all a lil freaky huh
3:28 PM • Sent
@moistbuddha
a piece of my roomba broke off and it
vacuumed it up. self sucking little freak
51
t7 3.2K
82K
ıhl 1.2M
meeka @MeekyBlinders •17h
@iRobot pls send me a new roomba mine is a
freak
2
172
392
ıhl 18K
meeka @MeekyBlinders •1h
<
iRobot o
DI
1
...
L
...
Would you be so kind to send me a
picture of the robot's full bottom,
in order for me to be able to assist
you further?
3:27 PM
oh so you're all a lil freaky huh
3:28 PM • Sent
@moistbuddha
✎ Essay · Culture
Creating a Yoga Guild: The Case for Unionizing Yoga Teachers
I wanna start this essay by saying that I have come to this essay as the inevitable conclusion of the work that I have been doing in my market analysis of the yoga industrial complex (system). Like many things that I spent months researching inside…
Read the essay →
October 17, 2022 · 3 entries
October 17, 2019 · 1 entry
Iâve got a flight into Atlanta at 9am tomorrow (Friday) and out at 6pm. Hive mind: Suggestions?
October 17, 2015 · 4 entries
Calling all LGBTQ & Allied Yogis! We're gonna do a little primary & a little second! Come!
We're not in Mysore anymore.
We're not in Mysore anymore.
October 17, 2011 · 1 entry
Its a good thing I like practicing awareness, cause I can be really, really oblivious. 🙂
October 17, 2010 · 1 entry
As a man, there are few things more beautiful and intoxicating than giving your favorite woman away.
October 17, 2009 · 2 entries
Thanks @[588214987:2048:Phoenix Robles]! This is grrrreat.
http://www.topcultured.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/balloonboyfb.png
http://www.topcultured.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/balloonboyfb.png
will not be running the Michael Corps Marathon in gross weather 🙁
October 17, 2008 · 1 entry
is dark disco hot
October 17, 2007 · 1 entry
pained. The Drag Race is the same day Jimmey Eat World's in town. Same time, too. So sad.
FIELD LOG
By the numbers
13,239entries logged
24years afield2003–2026
23on this day
37doodles
167pickings
Dec 2003logbook opened
FROM THE DESK
Writing
- PhilosophyThe Building Failed. Not You.Oct 17, 2026
- PhilosophyThe Point Is to Need LessOct 15, 2026
- CultureIf AI Is Doing the Work, Who Owns the Upside?Oct 13, 2026
- PracticeWhy Beginners Quit: Replacing the Wall of Poses With an On-RampOct 11, 2026
- PracticeWhat Do You Enjoy Doing?Oct 9, 2026
- Personal NotesSafety Is Not Real: Why the Alarm Is Not a FireOct 7, 2026
FROM THE SHALA DAILY
Digests
In This Issue
- 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,...
- One Session, Better MoodOct 3, 2026
A single 1-hour yoga session increased positive engagement, revitalization, tranquility, mindfulness, and body consciousness in 144 participants.
- Making Yoga InclusiveSep 27, 2026
Research identified specific teaching practices, including authentic leadership, inclusive language, and health focus, that make yoga spaces more welcoming for all body types.
- 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.
FROM THE FEED
The Read
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
winther.sysctl.dkQ3 2026 notesA personal quarterly review covering blogging (including hosting IndieWeb Carnival), a shift toward genre films and classic Hollywood melodrama, summer reading including Bill Gates' autobiography and Danish philosophy of art, completing a major legacy code migration at work, and a repeat family road✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
borretti.meNo Man Is an IslandThe author argues that sustained individual intellectual work depends on a community that provides shared knowledge and motivation (both intrinsic and extrinsic). AI dissolves these communities by making contributions feel pointless—no one reads your blog post, uses your library, or benefits from yo✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50FROM THE FEED
The Listen
Code SwitchWhy fascists love “fitness”A genuinely surprising intellectual history — fitness as a credential for citizenship, not just a lifestyle — with W.E.B. Du Bois writing eugenicist screeds and Pete Hegseth echoing them in the same breath. The personal ambivalence from the hosts and guests makes the theory land.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
TED Radio HourHave we forgotten how to play?Peter Gray builds a rigorous, counterintuitive case that school — not screens — is breaking kids, while Tracy Edwards proves that unstructured freedom and self-directed risk-taking produce exactly the resilient adults Gray says we're failing to raise.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
The VergecastEverything’s recording everybody. What now?A sharp, lived-in conversation about the cultural gap between what tech companies call 'privacy' and what regular people actually feel. V Song's field reporting from inside the surveillance-wearable experiment makes the abstract visceral.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
The Next Big Idea DailyWhy We Want Things We Don’t NeedTwo authors, one theme: the hidden machinery behind wanting things. Eric Athes maps how novelty hijacks the brain; Katie Kelleher complicates it by insisting beauty still matters — together they make a surprisingly complete argument about desire.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
Life KitHow to find your flow state when you’ve lost itA rare episode that earns its science: Husky's neuroimaging findings about metabolic efficiency during flow are genuinely surprising, and Diane Allen's arc from frozen elbows to writing her own music gives the theory emotional weight.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50FROM THE FEED
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 · $5.50FROM THE LEDGER
Pickings
FROM THE FIELD
Latest dispatches
Doodles
№ ?
Unearthed
youtube.comJustin Bieber - As Long As You Love Me (Audio) ft. Big SeanJustin Bieber - As Long As You Love Me: iTunes: http://smarturl.it/iALAYLM Justin has 8 #VEVOCertified videos and counting!: http://www.vevo.com/certified@BarManMichael yaaay! â@Popjustice: Basically play this then this - amazing.â
The full ledger
13,239 entries · 2003–2026 · filter & browse below
View
October 2026
✎ Essay · Philosophy
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 →✎ Essay · Shala Digest
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 →Code SwitchWhy fascists love “fitness”A genuinely surprising intellectual history — fitness as a credential for citizenship, not just a lifestyle — with W.E.B. Du Bois writing eugenicist screeds and Pete Hegseth echoing them in the same breath. The personal ambivalence from the hosts and guests makes the theory land.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50TED Radio HourHave we forgotten how to play?Peter Gray builds a rigorous, counterintuitive case that school — not screens — is breaking kids, while Tracy Edwards proves that unstructured freedom and self-directed risk-taking produce exactly the resilient adults Gray says we're failing to raise.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50futurism.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 · $5.50The VergecastEverything’s recording everybody. What now?A sharp, lived-in conversation about the cultural gap between what tech companies call 'privacy' and what regular people actually feel. V Song's field reporting from inside the surveillance-wearable experiment makes the abstract visceral.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50The Next Big Idea DailyWhy We Want Things We Don’t NeedTwo authors, one theme: the hidden machinery behind wanting things. Eric Athes maps how novelty hijacks the brain; Katie Kelleher complicates it by insisting beauty still matters — together they make a surprisingly complete argument about desire.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50Life KitHow to find your flow state when you’ve lost itA rare episode that earns its science: Husky's neuroimaging findings about metabolic efficiency during flow are genuinely surprising, and Diane Allen's arc from frozen elbows to writing her own music gives the theory emotional weight.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
✎ Essay · Philosophy
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 →
J. Brown Yoga TalksRadhika Mukhija – “Rhythms, Rituals, and Holistic Optimization”Radhika draws a clean, usable line between ritual and habit — intentionality vs. autopilot — and roots it in Ayurvedic rhythm rather than biohacking optimization culture. The conversation earns its depth by being grounded in lived experience rather than theory.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50In This Section
Pose Categories & Families Intro
Pose Categories Overview
Standing Poses
Core Strengthening
Twisting
Forward Bends
Backbends.
Lateral / Side Bends & Asymmetrical Poses
Balancing
Arm Balancing
Inversions
Pose Categories & Families Intro
Pose Categories Overview
Standing Poses
Core Strengthening
Twisting
Forward Bends
Backbends.
Lateral / Side Bends & Asymmetrical Poses
Balancing
Arm Balancing
Inversions
✎ Essay · Culture
If AI Is Doing the Work, Who Owns the Upside?
If AI takes the labor, we either tax the winners harder or make everyone a shareholder.
Read the essay →winther.sysctl.dkQ3 2026 notesA personal quarterly review covering blogging (including hosting IndieWeb Carnival), a shift toward genre films and classic Hollywood melodrama, summer reading including Bill Gates' autobiography and Danish philosophy of art, completing a major legacy code migration at work, and a repeat family road✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50borretti.meNo Man Is an IslandThe author argues that sustained individual intellectual work depends on a community that provides shared knowledge and motivation (both intrinsic and extrinsic). AI dissolves these communities by making contributions feel pointless—no one reads your blog post, uses your library, or benefits from yo✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
✎ Essay · Practice
Why Beginners Quit: Replacing the Wall of Poses With an On-Ramp
For years I handed new practitioners the entire sequence on day one and watched most of them quietly disappear. The problem was never their discipline — it was my dosage. So instead of writing one more post about consistency, I built the thing that enforces it.
Read the essay →
✎ Essay · Shala Digest
The Debate Around Practice Intensity
Michael Joel Hall discusses the paradox of Ashtanga Yoga, highlighting how it demands effort while requiring patience.
Read the essay →Notes
What did I do John?
I didn't mean to creek
anew rose.
I didn't mean to creek
anew rose.
✎ Essay · Shala Digest
Thirty Minutes a Day
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 six months.
Read the essay →
dazeddigital.com‘Do you smell like a bi millennial?’: Everyone is talking about gay perfumeDerek Deng explores how queer people use perfume as identity signaling and community recognition, triggered by a Grindr encounter where someone's Dior Sauvage matched their aggressive vibe. The piece examines scent as a form of queer semiotics and embodied communication beyond verbal language.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
✎ Essay · Practice
What Do You Enjoy Doing?
The first twenty minutes go the same way every time. A new client comes in and we inventory the damage. Where it hurts, how long it's been hurting, what they've tried, what failed, what the doctor said. It's useful information. I need it. But after…
Read the essay →End-range strength for the axial line.
Spine Extension
Spine Extension PAILS & RAILS
Spine Extension Passive Range Hold
Spine Extension
Spine Extension PAILS & RAILS
Spine Extension Passive Range Hold
sciencedaily.comVagus Nerve Stimulation Could Help New Skills StickResearchers at Tohoku University found that stimulating the vagus nerve in mice after motor training sessions strengthened long-term skill retention, even though it did not improve performance during practice itself. The effect appears to work through rhythmic changes in brain blood volume rather th✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
✎ Essay · Personal Notes
Safety Is Not Real: Why the Alarm Is Not a Fire
If you feel unsafe, you’re either in danger or your alarm system is broken — and it helps to know which.
Read the essay →
The NASM-CPT Podcast With Rick RicheyHow personal trainers can create their own career opportunitiesRichey reframes career-building as a series of low-stakes experiments rather than high-stakes gambles — practical, non-precious, and immediately actionable for anyone in the fitness industry sitting on an opportunity they're too scared to take.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
Uncanny Valley | WIREDKevin Roose Didn’t Use AI to Write His Book About AIRoose offers a rare calibrated take on AI — neither doom nor hype — while being unusually candid about how he actually used the technology to write the book about the technology. The meta-layer makes this essential.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
Next Question with Katie CouricThe Art Of Aging: The Heart Of The MatterDr. Stacey Rosen dismantles decades of cardiac mythology with precise, actionable science — this is the rare interview where every segment contains something a woman's doctor probably never told her. Essential and corrective.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50The Next Big Idea DailyYou’re More Than What You Do for Other PeopleTwo sharp thinkers tackle the same wound from different angles: Miles on how systems strip you of intrinsic worth, Burgess on how groups quietly replace your self with theirs. The frameworks are actionable without being self-helpy.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50✎ Essay · Personal Notes
Half Cocked in the Fuck You Room
On burnout, compassion fatigue, and the slow return to cavalier — a reflection on holding a family through hard seasons and the karma yoga of starting over.
Read the essay →
✎ Essay · Shala Digest
Vinyasa Yoga: Breath & Movement
Brahmari Pranayama: The Bee Breath Technique for Calm and Clarity This video introduces Brahmari Pranayama, also known as Bee Breath,...
Read the essay →
✎ Essay · Personal Notes
Postal People
On mail slots, burning buildings, a dog in a mail truck, and why knowing your mail carrier matters more than you think.
Read the essay →
✎ Essay · Shala Digest
One Session, Better Mood
A single 1-hour yoga session increased positive engagement, revitalization, tranquility, mindfulness, and body consciousness in 144 participants.
Read the essay →
popville.comEND OF AN ERA: DUKEM Ethiopian Closing after almost 30 Years on U Street next month.Dukem Ethiopian Restaurant on U Street NW in Washington, D.C. is closing permanently after nearly 30 years, with final service on November 7. The closure marks the end of a longstanding community institution in a neighborhood that has undergone significant transformation over the past three decades.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
RadiolabA 4-Track MindA neurologist puts a ragtime pianist in an MRI and proves he can simultaneously track four full symphonies in his head — a controlled experiment that forces you to rethink the upper limits of human cognition. The spatial, cinematic way Bob describes his inner ear is unforgettable.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50Rapping in my 40s is a different act than it was in 2001. What remains is my feistiness – it still comes out when it needs to. But this time I am present. I don’t have anybody breathing on my neck, saying: “We’ve got to sell these records.” I also have a total sense of wonder about my life, that it’s taken me this far. I wake up and think, “Damn. How did a girl from Philly get here?”
All of which led to the success of Scorpion. I was a huge fan of all genres of music, from Biggie Smalls to No Doubt, and when I wrote Let Me Blow Ya Mind I knew we should get Gwen Stefani to feature on it. I was the only girl in the boardroom in those major label meetings and that Philly girl often had to come out. They were initially resistant because I was a rapper and she was a rock star, but I said: “Guys, this will work. Trust me.”
Even though I won that particular fight, the response to a lot of my suggestions was often: “Oh, that’s cute. We’re not doing that.” I felt I couldn’t be my full, excited self because there were so many miserable motherfuckers around me in those boardrooms. The atmosphere made me feel like I had to suppress myself and stay small. Decades later, my old A&R actually called up and apologised. He said: “I really wish we listened to you a little bit more – you had some good ideas.” That was validating.
All of which led to the success of Scorpion. I was a huge fan of all genres of music, from Biggie Smalls to No Doubt, and when I wrote Let Me Blow Ya Mind I knew we should get Gwen Stefani to feature on it. I was the only girl in the boardroom in those major label meetings and that Philly girl often had to come out. They were initially resistant because I was a rapper and she was a rock star, but I said: “Guys, this will work. Trust me.”
Even though I won that particular fight, the response to a lot of my suggestions was often: “Oh, that’s cute. We’re not doing that.” I felt I couldn’t be my full, excited self because there were so many miserable motherfuckers around me in those boardrooms. The atmosphere made me feel like I had to suppress myself and stay small. Decades later, my old A&R actually called up and apologised. He said: “I really wish we listened to you a little bit more – you had some good ideas.” That was validating.
✎ Essay · Essay Drafts
The Coercers Are the Ones Who Fear Being Seen
I was trying to describe someone — a teacher, a manager, the kind of authority figure who issues a lot of direction without doing much of it themselves — and I kept landing on a word that surprised me. Not incompetent. Not lazy. Afraid. Fear…
Read the essay →Get MichaelFilter
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