Ask The Yogacist
Does this sound familiar?
You’re late for yoga, the teacher’s already shut the door and denies your entry. Drat! You paid for class. Should you enter anyway?
Or maybe…
Sweaty McSteamybod has removed his shirt and is dripping all over your mat during class. Do you confront his royal perspireness?
If situations like this have you scratching your third eye or shaking a mighty mudra to the sky in frustration worry no more! Ask The Yogacist!
Introducing the YogaDork’s answer to the world’s most popular syndicated column Dear Abby crossed with a dash of the New York Times’ The Ethicist. While we’re not quite at 110 million readers and haven’t won any Emmys, we’re pretty confident we can assist in the sattva-fication of your daily yoga dilemmas (or at the very least make you smile).
Whether you’re a student, a teacher, a concerned relative, we’ll answer your deepest darkest questions like ‘what’s the proper protocol for asking out the cute yogi who keeps eyeing my bakasana?’
The Yogacist will be a recurring weekly column featured every Tuesday on YogaDork.com – to entertain, to educate, to let you know you’re not alone!
Now taking your questions, queries, and quandaries! Just email us at - yogacist@yogadork.com
Ground rules
Well there really aren’t any rules per se, just keep it yoga related! And be aware we have the right to dismiss any questions crossing the line of abusive or overly offensive. So, ah, ask away!
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Dear Yogacist
You’re a yoga teacher, you’re sympathetic, empathetic and kind. But a student in your class just does their own thing. You say down dog, they do up cat. Do you a) calmly repeat instructions, b) move closer to the student and direct your energy towards them, or c) move closer repeat instructions and use your foot to give them more direct encouragement?
Hmm, I have had some yoga days where I feel dyslexic and for some unknown reason mix up and down and left and right – or I have had one day where I had a slightly torn calf muscle and simply could not do all as instructed and raher than miss the class, opted for less straining versions ie., what I could do. On another day someone I was at loggerheads with professionally was also in the class and while I managed not to be distracted for most of it, I was for some. One woman in one class I attended was out of sync with the instructions and doing some of her own thing and she mentioned to me after the class she had just been told one of her parents had died and had come to the class to assist absorb that news. My point? Participants can be out of sync with the instructor for a wide variety of reasons, yoga practice ebbs and flows and unless someone of falling on your mat or actually physically stopping you from doing your class, you should try not to engage with their actions, their postures etc. Instructors of course have varying attitudes towards this – some ignore it, others repeat the instruction with the hope it penetrates and others use the class members name or go over to them.
Dear Friends… I would privately ask them if they were ok and get some sense of why they are doing their own thing. There is usually a good reason. namaste
RT when u have a song stuck in your head, is the cure to listen to it or does that only make it worse?? (currently huey lewis & the news)
Huey is a particularly virulent strain of bad-song-from-the-80s-stuck-in your-head – mantra antidotes – kirtan works great as well – Vitarka Badhane pratipaksa bhavanam – when plagued by a – thought, flip it around…
I’ve not met many women who like the term “Cougar,” yet I see “Cougaryogi” on your site as a kind of compliment. Cougar strikes me as the equivalent to “dirty old man.” I guess since it also implies one is good looking, it’s okay here?
I agree with Annie. Always good to find out why. The more you can step out of the way for someone’s yoga practice, the more they learn on their own. If help is necessary, well, there you are to do it!