SiriusSpirit - 2007-04-29 11:11 AM

My Yoga Journal online newsletter came with this subject, which made me think of one student of mine. I know I am to be learning from her, and it's a difficult lesson for me.

I have a student who drops in now and then who seems to use the gym primarily as a social tool. She is not a serious yoga student. That's all well and good -- I just want to give a little background.

Early on, I found her to be disruptive in class (this is someone in her late 40's) by making comments, making noises, smacking loudly at no-see-ums that were only flying around her, and so on. She attempted a few times to inform me that some of my more fragile, overweight, and older students "can do more," insinuating that I wasn't challenging them enough and they needed to step up the pace -- of course they were healthy enough to kick it in to a higher gear!
She is also one of those students who "thinks ahead" -- she's always assuming that she knows what I'm going to say next. I can't figure out where she came up with the sequence she always thinks I'm going to teach. . . I'm guessing it's from someone else's classes! ?
I learned not to pay any attention/react to the negative attention seeking behavior, and it soon went away (for the most part).

But the other day she came to one of my classes and did something that left me utterly shocked and speechless. We were doing a triangle, and I had a brand new student in the class. The "attention-seeking" student stopped what she was doing (in hindsight I wonder if she was having difficulty with the asana and didn't want to do it), walked to the new student, and began putting her hands all over her, positioning her!!!! Mind you, again this is not a serious yoga student by any means, much less a teacher -- and *I* don't touch my students, and I never would without ASKING!

I occasionally talk at the beginning of class about not judging ourselves or others, not paying attention to what other students are doing in the class, working on quieting our minds and focusing on our breathing -- in fact I talked about that at the beginning of this class! I feel like I need to address this -- perhaps not individually -- but class-wise. I never dreamed I would feel the need to say, "Don't touch each other without permission" !!!
I feel like this student really crossed a boundary. comment? Please?

purnayoga - 2007-04-30 11:24 AM

Which is why the practice has to periodically be defended to "haters".

There is no justification that I can even remotely conjure up for intimidating, embarassing, or humiliating a student of yoga. Period. A piano student, perhaps. I would not, but then there's no Piano Sutras that I am aware of (yet).

All of the students in the class, whether you like it or not, are observing how the Yoga Teacher handles the student and the outbursts. This is where the teacher is judged by how she/he leads her/his life. If we, as yoga teachers, react with harshness, violence (of intention even), or a lack of compassion then it begs the question of "what are we teaching?". That having been said, Guruji is Guruji. No issue there. But when others are NOT Guruji and are emulating or chanelling, this is not appropriate.

One of the larger issues with this sort of thing is to handle the situation, no matter what it might be, in a less reactive way. If we fall into behavioral patterns (samskara) then it speaks poorly of the years of Yoga we've been doing. What have we accomplished with our practice if we cannot deftly handle a needy person in class. After all, it is the needy we expect in yoga. It is the issue-filled person we expect. People come to yoga for help. Our help. Sometimes they don't even know it. Sometimes we can help (as long as we are not over "invested" in the helping) sometimes we can not.

But these attention folks are there to learn and we should find appreciation for every person coming to learn yoga (without being a door mat). Remember, there will be a slightly different answer for each person. The mousey teacher would be advised to speak up more while the domineering teaching would be counseled to soften and teach more from the heart. It is in just the same way a student that is hypermobile in the knee would be instructed to microbend the front leg in Trikonasana while a student that is stiffer would be instructed to straighten the leg (align the bones).

mishoga - 2007-04-30 9:27 AM

Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!