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afield since 2003 · michael joel hall

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September 26, 2026

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September 26, 2024 · 5 entries
The commodification of yoga doesn’t just dilute its spiritual and personal dimensions—it also leads to exploitative behaviors within studios. I’ve seen studio owners adopt practices that undermine both the integrity of yoga and the well-being of their teachers.

I’ve been lucky enough to watch my newsletter get unfollowed by two local studio owners, and I’ve had three other others reach out directly about how they can help change the dynamics inside of their studio.

Its telling who get offended. It tells me they aren’t accidentally ignorant, which means they’re purposefully malignant. Willful ignorance in this instance is malice.

This career doesn’t have to be a dead end, nor does it need ti be exploitative.

Yoga teachers, you have the power. Take it back.

Yoga studio owner/operators— is your rent too high to pay a livable wage? Feel trapped? Youre not the first one to end up in this position.

Question 1: are you practicing?

Feel free to reach out if want to chat.

If youre new here, some quick receipts: I was the director of operations for local six-location chain, ran a six figure yoga business as owner-operator, was a #board member for a yoga nonprofit, and my mysore program has been running for over 10 years consistently… aaaaand I have had the fortune to have more than five of my students go into business for themselves as studio owners, mysore teachers, and corporate wellness pros.

Like my daddy says “if doing the right thing was always profitable, everyone would do it. But it doesn’t mean it can’t be.”

This, friends, is where the rubber hits the pavement.
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September 26, 2022 · 3 entries
September 26, 2019 · 4 entries
in image:39
Ryan >
Welp
Today 3:11 PM
Step up ur online presence!
Fitness guru created 369 fake Instagram
accounts to harass rivals, stage kidnapping
nypost.com
0mg
She crazy, but honestly l admire her
effort. 369 accounts??
I do, too. Give her an award.
Exonerate her.
If Modi can get a Gates award for
his humanitarian efforts while
simulatiously locking down all of
Kashmir, this lady should get a
pass.
💬 Comment
cc: @yoantoine & @dolceannella
in imageloldodgers
What if Mike was short for Micycle
bakrua
*
every now and then theres a text post that
gets stuck in my damn head. here it is. im
never going to be free of micycle
sarahsnitch
What if bike was short for bichael
cc:@yoantoine &
@dolceannella
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September 26, 2018 · 1 entry
September 26, 2017 · 3 entries
September 26, 2016 · 1 entry
September 26, 2015 · 4 entries
September 26, 2014 · 2 entries
September 26, 2012 · 2 entries
September 26, 2009 · 3 entries
September 26, 2008 · 1 entry
September 26, 2007 · 1 entry
FIELD LOG

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13,207entries logged
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36on this day
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165pickings
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The Read

dazeddigital.comI tried Readme, the new dating app for book loversThe article reviews Readme, a dating app designed for book lovers, contrasting idealized bookstore meet-cute fantasies from romantic comedies with the reality of modern dating. It explores whether shared literary interests can serve as a foundation for romantic connection in an app-based dating land✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
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13,207 entries · 2003–2026 · filter & browse below

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September 2026
wtop.comCan ‘A Different World’ sequel change lives like the original series? Hillman is back in sessionNetflix's sequel to 'A Different World' returns to the fictional Hillman College, following Deborah Wayne (daughter of original characters Dwayne and Whitley) and a new generation of students. The original series (1987-1993) influenced viewers' college choices, career paths, and self-perception; the✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
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The 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
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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
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🪞 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.
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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
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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
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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
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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
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