Catfight in Bikram Yoga Class!?!

Hot Off The Mat Class Experiences, Yoga and Life, , ,

We’ve all been there. You have a frustrating day, or arrive at class frazzled from traffic, or are just in a bad mood. Someone sets up his or her mat too close to yours, or right in front of you, or who knows what. And you get mad. It is ridiculous, of course, especially at a yoga class (!), but sometimes it happens.

I witnessed this first hand last week. A woman (we’ll call her Woman #1) had come in early and set up in the front row, between the two ceiling heaters and a small distance from the side wall on her left. She was resting on her back, when another woman walked in (Woman #2) and set up right next to her, squeezing in between Woman #1 and the side wall. Woman #1 angrily demands that Woman #2 move, as the rest of the studio was essentially empty. Woman #2 refuses. They argue (pretty loudly!) for a few minutes about where mats are allowed to be and who can touch the humidifiers, and who was rude and who is a jerk, but nothing is resolved. Woman #1 stomps out to complain to management, but not much can be done, since it is a free country, and both were in legitimate spots in the room.

Class starts, and the two women are staring each other down. All I kept thinking was, “Wow, these two really need to do some yoga!”

We’ve all been there, overreacting to some small annoyance in our day or to another person’s inconsiderate behavior, or to some detail that is out of our control. But that’s not what the yoga room is for. The yoga room is to release these small things, to help us relax and to refocus us on what is important, not to drum up more drama. Let’s all try to remember that the next time some sets up right in front of us…

Fellow yogis, what advice do you have for keeping drama outside the hot room?

9 thoughts on “Catfight in Bikram Yoga Class!?!”

  1. OMG. I have been here! It drives me nuts when someone has to have a certain spot so much so that they squeeze in right next to me (or I see them doing it to someone else) when there is plenty of real estate in the room. When it’s crowded, it’s all good. But when it’s not, well, yeah, I would say that the second person is being a jerk. When it happens to me I either: (a) ignore it or (b) move my mat.

    I cam back into the room a few weeks ago to find someone had set up right in front of me so I couldn’t see myself in the mirror (again, plenty of real estate). So I moved. She became all apologetic. My response, “Hey, I can move. No big deal.” But I was pissed at least momentarily.

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  2. I had a similar experience to Leighhall who commented above. Someone set up right in front of me. Unfortunately I was laying down before class not paying attention so I did not realize she was completely blocking me in the mirror and I could not move since class was in progress. I shifted to the edge of my mat to see when I needed to, and at first I was frustrated but after a few poses I realized, like the heat, it was just another distraction that I could easily put of out my mind and return the focus back to myself. After that I just breezed through the rest of my class.

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