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Practice with us this season
Two ways to go deeper before the year turns — a full Ashtanga study season in DC, and an intimate Mysore retreat on the coast of Mexico.
Self Practice by the Sea
A Mysore retreat on the Riviera Maya.
Four mornings of practice, four nights on the coast, a private home with a rooftop pool. Small on purpose — four spots only.
Ashtanga Study Group
Three series. One room. One season.
Sixteen Tuesday cohort nights and sixteen Sunday all-levels sessions — Primary, Intermediate, and Advanced A, side by side. Choose your cohort.
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The Shala Daily
YOGA • PHILOSOPHY • LIFE
Where ancient wisdom meets the modern world. Daily reflections connecting yogic philosophy to contemporary life.
When self-inquiry becomes the product you resent
How yoga teachers actually make a living — and what survival does to a practice.
Watch + read →How Yoga Teachers Actually Make a Living
The yoga industry has a financial honesty problem. The polite version says abundance mindset. The honest version is that the math doesn't work for most people.
Read More →It Should Be a Spiritual Focus, Shouldn’t It
Michael Joel Hall discusses the practice of Ashtanga Yoga as a vehicle for self-inquiry, awareness, and transformation.
Read More →When Was the Last Time You Actually Looked Up?
The lower cervicals quit years ago. That's why your backbends pinch at the base of the skull.
Read More →The Tax on Clarity
Yoga makes you see clearly, and then you’re stuck with what you saw—so the practice becomes learning how to hold it without hardening.
Read More →Beginner Friendly Approaches to Building a Lifelong Ashtanga Practice
This is a video about Beginner Friendly Approaches to building a lifelong Ashtanga Yoga practice.
Read More →Five Minutes, Save Your Neck
If you sit all day, you don’t need a new identity—you need tiny movement breaks that your body can actually cash.
Read More →Yoga Improved Balance, Strength, and Quality of Life in Seniors
A randomized controlled trial found that yoga significantly improved physical capabilities and quality of life measures in healthy adults over 65.
Read More →The Brass Ring
A teacher called out my distraction mid-drill, and it turned out to be a life thing—not a yoga thing.
Read More →Yoga Changes Gene Expression in the Immune System
A 2013 study found that yoga practice altered gene expression at the molecular level, affecting immune system function and inflammatory pathways.
Read More →On Not Giving a Sh^t
Equanimity isn’t numbing out—it’s learning how to carry real bad news without letting it eat your whole day.
Read More →The Power of the Ashtanga Community
This is a video about The Power of the Ashtanga Community.
Read More →The Shala Opens Anyway
It’s about the mornings when you’re fried, furious, and broke—and you still unlock the door and let practice do its boring magic.
Read More →The 90/90 Mirror
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Read More →The Joint Ashtanga Forgot
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Read More →The Sacred Role of Obstacles: A Path to Spiritual Growth
In this video, Michael Joel Hall delves into the concept that obstacles are not roadblocks but integral parts of our spiritual journey.
Read More →The Neck Remembers: Whiplash Recovery, Sagittal Plane First
Whiplash recovery in three phases — PNF and FRC, anchored in cervical flexion and extension. The deep flexors are doing math you cannot see.
Read More →Put the Phone in the Bag
A phone-free dinner sounds heroic, but the real work is teaching people to use tech without getting used by it.
Read More →Cultivating Self-Awareness Through Practice
In this video, Michael Joel Hall explores the concept of self-awareness through the practice of yoga.
Read More →The Car Salesman Check
This is about that queasy moment when you name your money motive out loud—and realize honesty isn’t the same as backing down.
Read More →Practicing Happiness
Happiness isn’t a mood you wait for—it’s a thing you train, like breathing on purpose when your brain wants drama.
Read More →Ashtanga Without the Cultural Scaffolding
Ashtanga as practiced in most Western shalas is a stripped-down version of something larger. The asana sequence got exported. The scaffolding mostly didn't.
Read More →Compassion Meditation Changed Brain Structure
University of Wisconsin researchers found that compassion-focused meditation produced measurable changes in brain regions associated with empathy and positive emotion.
Read More →Whose Pain Is This?
This is about compassion as a perceptual shift, not a mood—when the line between your pain and theirs stops behaving.
Read More →The Foot You Forgot You Were Standing On
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Read More →Screens Aren’t the Villain
Cutting school screen time sounds righteous, until you notice we’re banning the tool instead of teaching kids how not to get played by it.
Read More →Free Money Isn’t Free
Those “no essay” scholarships can be a raffle ticket you pay for with your data—so let’s talk about cleaner ways to search.
Read More →Why Your Knee Doesn’t Rotate (and Why That’s a Gift)
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Read More →Head for the Light
This is about aiming your attention toward what’s still here—without lying to yourself about what hurts.
Read More →The Lotus Quadrant and the One Beside It
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Read More →Avidya: Why Patanjali Calls Ignorance the Root
Avidya translates as ignorance, but the English word misses what Patanjali means. He's talking about a perceptual error so deep most people never notice it.
Read More →