Yoga class etiquettes

You have heard so much about the goodness of yoga and you finally made up your mind to attend your first class. You must have a lot of question marks in your head. One of it is : How should I behave in a yoga class so I won’t be the laughing stock among the students ?

Here is some guidelines : 1. Be on time or arrived 5-10 minutes earlier

To prepare yourself for the class, to cultivate the right mood for class and let go out the external factors, thoughts. Be quiet when you get into the class without disturbing the students already there, lie down or do some warm up poses. It is also a form of respect to the teacher. Being late is being not respectful to the teacher and fellow students.

2. Turn off your phone Once you have arrived, turn off your phone. You may want to set it on silent mood but put that away. The vibration will still affect the other students. Yoga class is a flow of energy, any disturbance from outside will disturb the flow. Some students put their phone next to their mat, even though is on silent moon but they will still look at the phone. Being distracted and not paying attention to what he/she is doing will result in injuries. Looking at the phone while the teacher is talking or doing together with the students is being very rude to the teacher.

3. Focus on yourself and not your neighbor ​ Yoga is a form of practice where you connect to yourself, drawing inward and learn about self. When you try to look at what others can do, you are focusing outward, no longer an inward practice. Yoga is not a competition. Learn about your body, accept your body, accept who you are. Everyone has different body capacity, the one that is flexible may not be able to balance, the one that can balance may not have enough strength, no sense of competing.

4. Respect teacher’s sequence. Follow the instruction humberly. The teacher knows best what to do and to avoid injuries. Simply adding or changing poses out of what the teacher told, or better yet - told teacher what to teach. This behavior is extreme rude.

5. Stop talking Talking to fellow students while teacher is teaching..not only you are distracting the fellow students, it may lead to injuries for both the fellow student and yourself. Plus this is another rude behaviour in the class. Remember yoga is an inward practice? When you start talking you are focusing outward again - this is no longer yoga

6. Do not skip Shavasana aka the big rest Some students think the shavasana is a waste of time and left before the class ended - absolutely wrong. They don't know what they are missing, the shavasana is the time for you to reap the benefits from what you have done for an hour and is time for healing / restoration. Is time to practice “pratyahara” - withdrawal of sense that preparing you to a better meditation. For those who are lucky enough to have a teacher who would perform a “yoga nidra” - yogic sleep is extra bonus. This is the time when you can remove your deep rooted fear, a deeper practice than meditation.

7. Be clean If you borrow the mat from the studio, be sure to clean it first before you put it back. Just as what you would do in your home.