The Silent Night Protocol gets you out of yoga class with the least disruption.
Alice got a call on her cell phone just as she was entering the yoga studio.
The plans for getting the kids home from the movies has fallen through.
Alice is going to have to leave the yoga class shortly before it is over so that she pick up the kids at the movie theatre.
Alice is glad that her teacher explained the Silent Night Protocol to everyone recently and it applies exactly to this situation.
What is the Silent Night Protocol
There are three steps you need to follow when you discover that you are going to have to leave your yoga class before it is over.
These three steps make up the Silent Night Protocol.
The three steps are:
- Advise your teacher
- Setup near the door
- Leave quietly
It is called the Silent Night Protocol because the key is to be quiet and create as little disruption as possible. These three steps are designed to help you do that. Let’s look at the first step in detail.
1. – Advise your Teacher
Talk to your yoga teacher before your yoga class gets started. Let them know that you need to leave early. You should give them an idea about what point during the class you will be leaving.
Letting your teacher know that you will be leaving early is essential. You do not want your teacher to get concerned that you are upset or hurt in some way when you suddenly get up and leave the room.
You should also let the people that are setup around you know that you will be leaving early as well.
Letting them know that you will be leaving early has the same benefit as letting your teacher know. The people around you are less likely to become concerned for you or be disturbed by you when you get up and leave if they know in advance that you will be leaving early.
Now that you have taken care of the notifying the teacher and the people around that you will be leaving early it is time to move to the next step. The next step is about where to setup your mat during the yoga class.
2. – Setup near the door
In order to minimize disruption to the people in the class, you should set your yoga mat up as close to the door as possible.
If you are using the studio’s props arrange with one of the people near you to have them put the props away for you after the end of the class. This will reduce the amount of disruption you will create when you need to leave.
Setting up near the door will reduce the number of people you disturb when you get up to leave.
Letting the teacher and your neighbors know that your leaving is step one. Setting up near the door is step two and step three is actually leaving the room. Let’s have a look at that step next.
3. – Leave quietly
This is the key step to the Silent Night Protocol. Leave quietly, creating the least amount of disturbance possible.
Leave during a natural pause in the flow of the class. The best time to leave is when everyone in the class is in a rest pose such as child’s pose or corpse pose. During these poses people are focused inwards and are less likely to notice you leaving.
Quietly roll up your yoga mat and gather up your props and belongings. If you are using the studio’s props then leave them where they are and your neighbor will clean them up for you. Remember the arrangement you made with them in step two.
There is no need at this time to say anything to the people around you. You should not apologize. Rather it is much better to just leave in silence. Besides in step one above you told everyone around you that you would be leaving early.
There are a few mistakes that you should try and avoid.
Do not announce that you are leaving now
I was at a workshop once and a lady had to leave early. She announced to the entire workshop that she was leaving and even interrupted the workshop leader with this announcement.
This is rather rude and unnecessary.
Just pack up your stuff quietly and leave the room with the least disruption possible.
Do not apologize to those around you as you leave.
It is not necessary to apologize to those around you when you get up to leave. This will increase the amount of disruption to the people around you.
You should tell them before the class starts that you will be leaving early. That is the time to apologize.
Summary
Using the Silent Night Protocol Alice will be able to leave her yoga class early with the least amount of disruption possible.
There are three steps to the Silent Night Protocol.
- Tell the teacher and the people around you that you will be leaving early
- Setup near the door to minimize the disruption that you will cause when you leave.
- Leave silently during a natural pause in the flow of the class
If you implement the Silent Night Protocol successfully, no one will notice that you have left the class until after you have been gone for a while.
Next Step
The next time you need to leave your yoga class early, let the teacher know and also let them know that you will follow the Silent Night Protocol. They will be glad that you know how to leave the class properly.
