Letters to the Editor
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Me too.
I thought it was just me. I quit a yoga class after having to do some very unpleasantly close partner work with a strange guy who was clearly not having any more fun than I was. It was the exact opposite of meditative. You'd like to hope a yoga class is one place where you can escape forced interaction with people you don't know or like... isn't that what the workplace is for?
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Ugh
I can't imagine anything less appetizing in a yoga class than being asked to get intimate with other practitioners. As stated in the article, it's diametrically opposed to everything Yoga is about. Ah well, that's America for you - always taking somebody else's great stuff and pissing a big ol' steaming stream into it.
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Just another topic for meditation
First off, Catherine, let me say: yes, if you don't like it, don't feel obliged to do it. I often don't like it, and I sometimes skip partner stuff. However, you seem to have worked yourself up into a frenzy of self-justification here, and I think that's thrown your article off.
Meditation, being fully present, achieving union with your essence: these are not just things to do when locked in your room. You can practice them anywhere, in any condition. And in my view, you should. If the only time you can achieve peaceful control of your mind is in a perfectly regulated environment, that's a good start, but not a place to stop.
Yes, bodies can seem weird and icky. Yes, strangers can be scary. But barring some hygienic or safety concern, those are just things in your head. You can choose to indulge them -- as you have here -- or you can choose to accept and work those feelings, as you would any other feeling that comes up during yoga.
Yes, partner yoga can fire up the monkey mind. But learning to control that is a big part of why I go to yoga. If you feel similarly, consider treating partner work as a challenge.
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thank you!
The yoga guru is right on the money about American yoga classes being the equivalent of genuflecting to disco music.
This would be why, unlike what seems like every other woman in America, I don't do yoga. Even without the idiocy that is "partner yoga," what's taught as "yoga" in America generally isn't yoga. It's a cannibalization and misrepresentation of Hindu WORSHIP, and although I am not a Hindu, I think that the religious traditions of others should be respected.
If you want to do the postures/breathing excersizes to improve strength, flexibility, relaxtion...fine. But it's NOT YOGA, and don't call it what it is not.
(BTW, very little of Tantric Yoga has to do with spicing up your sex life, either.)
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This is why exercise classes and gyms SUCK.
Doing exercises with anyone else is not cooperation. It is competition. Didn't you people learn anything back in high school gym class? Weren't you embarassed? Didn't you feel humiliated?
You liked high school gym? You're a fascist.
During my college years, one of my favorite things to do was exercise to the comforting, intelligent directions of Lilias Folan. Lilias Yoga and You was the best thing on television, ever. And I didn't do it with my other family members watching, commenting sarcastically or laughing at me.
I never got into the philosophy, I never really attained any kind of personal peace, but it was the only exercise I ever enjoyed. If I had that much open floor space, I'd see if I could find Lilias on DVD someplace and take it up again. But never with a bunch of yahoos sneering at me.
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FFS
*This* is the lead story? Come on, Salon.
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Yoga in the Heartland
Fortunately this variation hasn't penetrated much in the midwest, with the exception of "date-night yoga", that is, yoga with someone you actually want to touch.
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You experienced stealth New Age religiosity
Christian fundamentalists have nothing on the New Agers when it comes to self-righteousness and the belief that theirs' is the ONLY way to salvation, or in their case, enlightenment. What you experienced in California was new-agers pushing their religious concepts onto unsuspecting yoga participants.
lexicon's letter is a prefect illustration of the attitude most every new-ager I encounter exhibits. You are not allowed to question ("work yourself into a frenzy") or disagree with anything, such as staring into someone's eyes, and the pat response is ALWAYS "it must be your fault," or you are just not righteous enough ("like ME!"). lexicon's admonitions and advice are perfect New-Age--narrow and absurd.
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Give it Up!
Buy a bicycle.
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Don't blame California...
I live in Santa Cruz, where we munch only the crunchiest of granola, and no one expects you to do that kind of shit in any yoga class I've been to.
You might also consider trying Pilates instead. (The mat classes tend to be comparable in price, and there are plenty of good studios in SF.) No partnering, as much focus on what it does for your body as you want (without guilt), and no chanting to gods you don't believe in. Yay!
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Really, Salon?
I guess this is what is meant by "high class problem," i.e. this isn't really a problem at all; just ridiculous self-indulgence by people who have nothing better to do and nothing more important to care about.
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RE: Really, Salon?
Definition of ridiculous self-indulgence: fun.
So Anonymous, what do you do for fun? Don't you ever like to read about or watch on TV other people's experiences having the same sort of fun? I think professional sports are about the silliest waste of time and thought ever. Ditto televised race car or poker games, rather watch paint dry. I dont watch TV at all actually, pure waste of time. But Salon and every newspaper is full of TV and sports-related articles. Hmmm, can't remember though the last yoga article I read in Salon. I guess for some one is too many.
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Close your eyes & think of England
I will not cancel my subscription. I will not cancel my subscription. I will not cancel my subscription.
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Wanna Yoga, Partner?
All I have to say is Amen, Catherine Price. I too have been subjected to the horrors of partner yoga at the Anusara Yoga studio I attend in West Hollywood. I am a gay man in my 20's, and invariably I either get paired with an older gay man with a lecherous vibe who would never be able to get that far with me if we met in a bar, or a straight woman in her late 30's who thinks I'm trying to molest her, when actually nothing could be further from the truth. Throw is some profuse sweaters, camel toe-inducing leotards, and you've got yourself a recipe for some genuine awkwardness. Finally enough people complained (by privately emailing the instructors after class) that the teachers scaled down the partner work, but I couldn't agree more with the author... when I go to yoga I want to zen out in my own space and be left alone unless the teacher needs to correct my pose. If I wanted a partner I'd join a country line dancing class.