I went to Monday night yoga for the first time last night and the instructor, Robin, had everyone line up their mats facing the windows.
This was apparently a change from how she usually has everyone line up their mats because the regulars to the class kept commenting, upon walking into the room, to the effect of “Oh, does she want us to line up this way now?” To anyone who asked me directly, I just smiled, nodded, and responded that Robin had, in fact, told us to line up facing the windows.
Before class actually begins, I like to sit and calm myself, get myself in the yoga-space, if you will. I pay attention to my body and see what hurts, what doesn’t hurt, what wants to be stretched, what stress I can let go. I also listen to what’s going on in the room around me.
When one thinks of a yoga class, I imagine that most people would think of a room of calm people, maybe even spiritual people. There’s a lot of talk on yoga websites and in yoga magazines about loving yourself, lifting your heart, feeling your spirit, that sort of thing. Light and air, love and fluff, etc, etc.
However, people are people. Still, I was astounded by the number of negative comments stemming from such a small change as the instructor having everyone face their mats in a different direction. One would think that she was changing the class from hatha yoga to advanced rock climbing. One woman actually said, “Oooh, this can’t be good. If she’s making us change our mats, that means she’s going to do something really awful to us tonight!”
Really? Awful? Not perhaps something more like “challenging?” But awful? Yoga, for me, is an attempt to rid myself of my negative feelings and emotions. Maybe I’m being an elitist snob, but I feel like going into yoga with a negative attitude is like going to the beach and complaining it’s too sunny. The point of going to the beach is to get sun; the point of going to yoga is to release negativity.
It makes me wonder if the complainers are coming to class because they want to feel better and be healthier, or because it’s “the thing to do.”