Some Yoga Etiquette Guidelines

You may (or may not) know that I am a yoga teacher and practitioner. After teaching for seven or so years now, I've come up with some yoga manners guidelines. There aren't many, but the ones I do have are some about which I feel quite strong:

1.) Start your practice with a (relatively) clean body. Yoga is about building heat and patience in the body, and so I get it! - people sweat! If you start sweating during practice, GREAT. No worries if you come to class after work, but what gripes me is someone that will come in after not having showered or washed in a very long time with layers of uncleanliness on them, and even before class starts, they may smell so off-color that even being next to them is disagreeable. It is a simple thing have a small package of baby-wipes in your car, if you need a quick swipe under your arms. Some of us are sensitive to smells (me!), and it makes practicing difficult. The smell of sweat is fine; "sour" from unwashed-ness is not so ok.

2.) In your attempt to be clean, also please do not overcompensate by dousing yourself with cologne or perfume. This is just as bad as unwashed flesh, for the reasons mentioned above. Nothing worse than being on your mat, and the woman who is head-to-toe spritzed in her daily perfume plops down next to you. Overload!

3.) Last but not least -- Please, please, please DO NOT walk on other peoples' mats. I have been in classes where students have walked on other students' mats, and this bothers me to no end. A yoga mat, to me, is a sacred place. It is where we do some of our most introspective work; it is the only place where some people can really connect to their "quiet place." It's like being in church or temple. When someone other than that mat's owner walks on it, it is as if you came into someone else's meditation spot and made a bunch of noise.

Yoga love and kisses to all, and please KEEP PRACTICING! Yoga does a body good!

~Michelle