To moan or not to moan that is the question
I was reading a recent copy of the yoga journal and they had an article about yoga etiquette. They had 10 etiquette rules for your yoga practice. Since I had written many articles about yoga etiquette in the past, I was interested to see if they had any new etiquette rules that I had not covered already. I found three of the ten that were new to me and should be added to the list.
- Moaning, Groaning and Humming
- Go it alone
- Stay (and die) awhile
There were new etiquette guidelines to me and when I read them, I went yes of course this should have been in the list.
Moaning, Groaning and Humming
- Moaning with pleasure as you experience a delicious stretch in pigeon.
- Groaning as you move into a difficult pose.
- Humming with each breath that you take.
- Exclamations of Joy as you finally achieve a posture.
- Declarations of sorrow as you once again miss a pose.
All of these sounds can be very distracting to the person practicing next to you. The sounds you make, the groaning, moaning and humming as you move into and out of poses can disrupt the concentration of not only the person on the mat next to you but potentially every person in the practice room.
I have been a class while one of the people in the class was humming with every exhale. This did prove to be quite distracting for me. I was wondering, why was she humming?
It is best to keep these sounds to yourself and let everyone else in the room have their practice in peace while they enjoy the quiet of the practice space and focus on their poses and their practice.
Ujjayi breath on the other hand is an audiable breath that, depending on the style of practice, your teacher may ask everyone to do. Ujjayi breath sounds like the waves washing up on the ocean beach or like the wind blowing softly through the trees. When everyone is doing Ujjiya breath as part of the practice it can add to your concentration. Ujjayi breath is a soft rhythmic breath that will care you through your practice. It does not have the same impact as the moaning, groaning or humming.
Leave the Kids at home
Bringing your kids to yoga is a great way to have some family time while doing a healthy activity. The kids should be old enough and mature enough to do their own yoga practice without disrupting the rest of the people in the practice room.
Check with your yoga teacher before your bring your child or children to class with you.
Also consider the other people in the class. They may be enjoying a kid-free interval. They maybe looking forward to a yoga class without little children wandering around and distracting them during class.
I have had kids as young as 5 years old in class. In one instance they lost interest part way through the class and her mom had to leave the class with her when she started to wander and talk. In the other instances everything went fine. When they got bored with the yoga, they sat quitely and waited for the class to end.
Stay in Savasana
Savasana is perhaps the most important part of the yoga practice. Savasana is not a physically challenging posture. It is a very demanding mental posture. Savasana is the meditation time of the practice and this is the time when you work on managing stress in your body by keeping your mind focused on the present moment and on the breath and the body.
You should resist the urge to cut your Savasana short and immediately leap up and start to pack up your mat, props and clothes or going to talk to the teacher. These activities can be very disruptive to everyone else who are still in Savasana.
If you are really anxious to get up and go at the end of the yoga practice before Savasana is finished then this is a strong sign that you really need to spend some more time practicing Savasana and start to gather the benefits of this posture.
And here are the 10 guidelines
The Yoga Journal article had 10 etiquette guidelines. Here is the complete list.
These are the ones that have been covered in prevous blog entries:
- Time it right – Arrive on time.
- Sharing is caring – Tell your yoga teacher about any injuries or conditions that you may have.
- Dry ideas – Keep your sweat to yourself and clean up after yourself.
- Spare the air – Avoid wearing scented products.
- Walk this way – Leave your shoes outside and avoid walking on other people’s mats.
- Pickup nothing but your foot – Flirting is best done outside of the yoga studio.
- Silence your cell – Turn off all electronic devices.
These are the new ones that are covered in this blog entry:
- Go it alone – See Leave the kids at home above.
- Find the quiet – See Moaning, Groaning and Humming above.
- Stay (and die) awhile – See Stay in Savasana above.
Hey Jack
Good post – I never realized there was so much to think about with Yoga. I thought you just kind of rocked up and did your thang and then left.
Some of these guidelines are applicable to other areas of life too – I can’t bear people who are late for meetings, or work. Sure there are circumstances that affect us all every once in a while, but I used to work with a great drummer who called me the other day and asked why I’d stopped using him. The answer: because he was always late and I’d rather use a guy who was not quite as capable (still very good though), but was always 30 Minutes EARLY. And come to think of it, had a much better team attitude.
L8r.
Paul
I think this depends on the class. There are some classes that encourage quiet withdrawal, but you really haven’t lived until you have been in a class where you can let out noise.
Noise and sound can channel and focus your energies. They also can be a genuine expression of the pose, unifying the breath, mind and body.
Finally, I must note that I have practiced under a variety of conditions, and find that if something is distracting me in yoga, then I need to focus. I am sympathetic to laying in Savasana while people laugh and joke in the hallway or someones phone goes off. It is irritating, but I try to practice through these things. This is attempting to master the second yoga sutra.
Namaste Bro, Thomas