A PSA to digital content consumers and new creators: Please consider paying/charging for online content

All out-bound yoga teachers in Washington, D.C. are out of work until at least April. There will be no compensation. Most of us pay at least our own health insurance, rent, and phone bill.

For most, these are recurring monthly expense in excess of $1500, required for survival— and not including food.

It’s been a tough go of things in my industry: this is the second time i am have been forcibly removed from the workforce (without reimbursement!) due to my status as a contract employee in 15 months. My job is to provide meditation and mindfulness training and classes as a wellness service to different federal agencies, non-profits, and endowments — there is no unemployment for the self employeed.

When I was out of work last year for the government furlough, there was no “back pay”— just a sharp decrease in my pay for the 35 days the government shut down. As I said, unemployment doesn’t cover contractors. With stocks plummeting and 401ks evaporating, many of us who “responsible saved” are watching our safety net shrink at exactly the time we shouldn’t be touching it.

YOU CAN HELP!

The pivot to online training for your favorite wellness provider is not a hobbiest pivot— it’s essential. Please consider reaching out to your favorite in-person provider and supporting them financially, digitally.

I’ve included my Patreon here:

https://www.patreon.com/yogawithmjh

To all of your who have already pledged— thank you! I’m looking forward to sharing content with each of you. For the cost of one boutique fitness class, you can have access to all of the content— and for $10, you can get access to once class. I’d sure love it if you wanted access to all of it 🙂

https://www.patreon.com/yogawithmjh

Tracy Single.

https://www.out.com/news/2019/8/15/tracy-single-16th-trans-person-murdered-2019

Working inside of different federal agencies, corporations, and NGOs for the last 10+ years as a yoga teacher has been illuminating in the ways mindfulness practice can be co-opted for both the forces of good and some far more nefarious.

As a young teacher, i felt as though i was sharing something very useful with people who could affect change on a much larger scale than I ever could— i felt subversive to be doing it right in the heart of the corporate/capitalistic machine.

Practice works— and it works across a broad spectrum of therapeutic modalities each with individual metrics. Spiritual health, physical well being, interpersonal relational skills, emotional balance— each can be touched on. When instructed well, each can be elevated. So too, I’m sad to say, can the shadow side: further anesthetization, good old spiritual bypassing, and duration of a culture that punches down and goes to sleep.

Having seen this in local yoga studios, international finance organizations, and local community sports non-profits, its very much on my radar. But, it doesn’t mean to stop. It means to care more and share better.

Teachers have a responsibility: pick your platform, and to pick it well. Keep your ethics high, and they will trickle down.

https://www.thenation.com/article/ron-parser-mcmindfulness-mindfulness-meditation-book-interview/

I’m so grateful for you.

https://www.advocate.com/youth/2019/6/27/report-just-one-accepting-adult-can-save-lgbtq-young-persons-life

"By all accounts, most GOP Congress members recognize that Donald Trump is a pathological narcissist with early stage dementia and only peripheral contact with reality — and they have, nonetheless, decided to let him retain unilateral command of the largest nuclear arsenal on planet Earth because it would be politically and personally inconvenient to remove his finger from the button."

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/01/trump-is-mentally-unwell-and-everyone-around-him-knows-it.html

Complexity: 100%

https://personalityfactors.com/results/QrRRTgjo8rEXTwQe6

"Playing devil’s advocate so well, people with this personality type may find that the most complex and rewarding intellectual challenge is to understand a more sentimental perspective, and to argue consideration and compromise alongside logic and progress."

https://www.16personalities.com/entp-personality

For @kitty.schulz -- but, but... I'm not a cat person. And, uh, tiger pose.

The bit about every day bring the day you might die-- and having to die a second rate, repressed version of yourself -- is the reality when you are not safe. Might as well be yourself, because your safety as a queer person is never guaranteed.

"Passing" for straight could be considered a privilege... so long as it's price isn't self-love.

Why I've Avoided Dressing More Femininely — Until Now

https://www.buzzfeed.com/jpbrammer/why-ive-avoided-dressing-more-femininely-until-now?utm_term=.bxX4OWpL6#.ndgVoW6JB

A young woman was black-out drunk. A persistent freshman in college had sex with her behind a dumpster. The sex was messy, and she did not consent.

"Here's The Powerful Letter The Stanford Victim Read To Her Attacker. "

I don't care about his minimal punishment: I care about the narrative. Each and every person reading these words knows someone who has been in a similar situation.

Teach your children not to rape.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/katiejmbaker/heres-the-powerful-letter-the-stanford-victim-read-to-her-ra?utm_term=.qljVd1jx5#.ahrv4xDNE

"I’ve listened to someone as young as 14 and someone as old as 100 talk about their close friends, and [there are] three expectations of a close friend that I hear people describing and valuing across the entire life course,” says William Rawlins, the Stocker Professor of Interpersonal Communication at Ohio University. “Somebody to talk to, someone to depend on, and someone to enjoy. These expectations remain the same, but the circumstances under which they’re accomplished change.”

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/10/how-friendships-change-over-time-in-adulthood/411466/

My friend Lizandra's been hospitalized with a cervical spine injury after a freak accident, leaving her hospitalized and unable to work.

If you don't know Lizandra personally, you may know her through her work. Not only is she a yoga student and teacher, she is also a Certified Holistic Health Counselor and Thai Massage practitioner who is passionate about helping people find their own way into holistic wellness in all aspects of their lives. She just moved back to Pittsburgh after living and teaching yoga in Haiti for 2.5 years, where she founded an amazing organization to introduce yoga as a transformational tool of empowerment to everyone, regardless of background and trains adolescents to teach kids yoga classes. Most recently, Lizandra enrolled in massage school so she can further her skills.

Please consider donating

https://www.gofundme.com/lizandravidal?pc=fb_g_m

Personal training as physical therapy: I am pain free.

I needed a trainer who could help me with weird aftermath of the assault without compromising my practice.

"Fix the scoliosis and get model-hot," I said. "Oh, and this is the intermediate and advanced series of ashtanga. Please don't fuck it up"

He's made good on all of it.

http://www.activelifedc.com/personal-training/featured-trainer-ej-mecklenburg-of-balance-gym-beta-academy-and-yamasaki-dc/115706

Awesome work, friend!

http://www.washingtonian.com/blogs/wellbeing/fitness/6-exercises-personal-trainers-secretly-hate.php

How I feel in the states.

http://whatshouldwecallme.tumblr.com/post/18591265464/when-everyone-else-is-too-polite-to-be-the-first-person

No, no, this post isn't about Brit-Brit, though she does look good in the hat. here are some of the best Aretha looks from the more recent years. I personally love each. and. every. one.

http://community.livejournal.com/ohnotheydidnt/31670148.html