stretching

66 entries in 2024 · oldest first

2024
My friend from @theyoga.club Liz @lizzoouli suggested I record my practice to check in on some asymmetries I'm balancing. She’s worried I don’t get enough time with a teacher for myself. I broke my ankle and rib last year getting hit by a bicyclist, and my wrist about a year before that getting hit by a car. I am really proud of my generally good attitude, outside of one meltdown phone call ( thanks @made_by_mara !!). Yoga has instilled patience and persistence, pragmatism and a solutions focused growth mindset. 10/10, would recommend. The yoga, that is. The getting hit by stuff is a 2/10.

If you need some support in your practice or healing journey, hmu. This stuff works.
in image1 OF
I KNOW IT'S
I'M HEALING
AND GROWING AND
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I love sharing yoga and I think it shows. Here’s a peek in at a private coaching session with @mikematspace at @theyoga.club — We’re doing a study on shoulder movements that will enhance backbends, twists and binds. I didn’t wanna blow up his spot here, but I thought I looked extra muppety so I had to share.

These sessions are super fun —
You can book a session with me from michaeljoelhall.com — it’s very straightforward 🙂
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Here’s some stuff I do in order to wrestle with the nature of reality and the infinite. It’s mostly stuff to affect physiological change towards general well being layered with meditation and mindset. These disparate systems encourage an emergence of something greater than the sum of their parts. It looks some kinda way.
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Ashtanga Yoga is a system of yoga.

A system is a dynamic network of components that interact to produce specific outcomes. It includes:

1. Elements: The individual parts that make up the system.
2. Interconnections: The relationships and interactions between the elements.
3. Function or Purpose: The goal the system aims to achieve.

Systems exhibit lifelike qualities, even if they consist of nonliving elements. These characteristics include:

• Self-Organization: Systems can arrange themselves into orderly patterns without external direction.
• Self-Repair: Systems can mend themselves when disrupted within certain limits.
• Resilience: Systems can withstand shocks and continue functioning.
• Evolution: Systems can give rise to entirely new systems through innovation and adaptation.
in imageSystems often exist within these larger systems
And there is a dynamic and adaptive nature to
Self repair where systems can mend themselves w
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Doing the impossible is a matter of breaking it down into possible pieces, with a dash of faith and patience.

Here are some additional handstands and Compression Drills/ Strategies for Intermediate Series.

Join @ashtanga.tech and me for an immersive intermediate series intensive. Explore the path to personal mastery with us in Nashville at @yogashalanashville ! This isn’t about hierarchy; it’s about individual growth and mastery. Let’s journey together towards personal excellence on the mat. See you there! 🌟
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Enjoyment as a Discipline:

Hey y’all, it’s Michael here, bringing you some backbending inspiration from my workroom. My biggest tip? Stop making yourself miserable.

Incorporating enjoyment and gratitude into the discipline of yoga practice is in itself a transformative act. It shifts the focus from viewing practice as a duty or challenge to seeing it as a cherished part of daily life. This shift in perspective can significantly enhance a practitioner’s dedication and enthusiasm, making the practice more sustainable and enriching.

Commit to knocking the sh*t*y self talk off. Enjoyment is part of the process— be disciplined about its curation!

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Intermediate Intensive -Nashville @yogashalanashville - 6/14-6/16
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Primary Intensive- Washington, DC @theyoga.club - 6/21-6/23
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When I got to Goa, I felt anonymous again.

In Mysore, I felt like everyone had heard. I was the ashtangi who got hate crime'd in the face after his house burned down. I wanted to be the tall pretty one. Or the smart one. But for now, I was very much the tragic one.

Luckily, Rolf wasn’t watching the news. I was just one more 6'3 drop back for him to do. And he was happy to oblige-- quietly sharing lite bits here and there in my ear about his work. But not so happy with it that I didn’t get assigned sone extra. Great.

After 26 years of shrinking myself for others, I got to just be the big one. You gotta gang up to take the big one down, and that's what was happening in real life. Literal gangs at home on the street, and little yogi gangs jockeying for status in Mysore.

When you question your ability to be loved by the universe, it is very helpful to see real love pouring out of someone else’s eyes.

Rolf didn’t need to know that I was stitched together with laughy taffy and titanium. Marci went to work on putting my physical injuries to bed and Rolf my heart. Neither needed a narrative. it is good, because I was so sick of my own story I couldn’t take it anymore.

As I’ve been working on my book-- it’s almost done -- the only part that I haven’t gotten into is my introduction into Systems Thinking-- through a gang beatdown.

I have known catastrophe again and again and gotten up to go again and again. This might sound like hubris, but check my receipts.

Rolf was able to help me see the interconnected nature of things in a way that makes the big picture possible. He also helped me understand how unspecial I was — while also feeling very very, very special. As Rolf would say, you do as you feel, and every day, the Yoga grows inside of you like a little plant.

In many ways, the development of my practice and the autonomy — the Santosh— the self sufficiency — means that there is less labor for my teacher to take on. Now i understand that my desire to be better in my physical practice was also so that Rolf had to do less for me.

Since he’s dead now, I will have to put my thigh down on the ground myself.
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When I started practicing in 2002, there wasnt a yoga studio on every corner. Yoga hadn’t quite hit the granola standard yet (when its not just for hippies anymore). Practice in general was still counterculture, with lineage-based yoga studios having been established for a decade or two. It wasnt yet seen from a consumerist athleisure lens.
This was at a time when traditional yoga studios had begun to propagate naturally into smaller studios from their spry, allowing 30-something teachers to enter full time teaching, inside their own four walls. It was a time before the big boxes, the local chains, and venture capital from Wall Street. Yes, at one time, independent yoga studios were owned by people who had made exotic journeys and devoted insane amounts of time to their spiritual quests amd studies.

So what happened? Head to michaeljoelhall.com to read more.
in imagewasn't just for hippies
usurped by the consumerist
could enter full time
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