yoga etiquette

7 Tips For Minding Your Yoga Manners

Published on December 18, 2013

Is my mat welcome in class? It’s a question each of us might ask, whether we’re unrolling our yoga mats for the first time or the thousandth. Yoga is, after all, an awareness practice, and being mindful includes sensitivity to and consideration for others. A yoga studio may not be Romper Room, but a few simple “dos and don’ts” can make it easier for everybody to get along.

Yoga class etiquette and manners

  1. Don’t be on time…be early.
    Rushing into the room at the last possible moment is not only disruptive to others, it’s also a form of self-sabotage. Make the most of your practice by arriving to class with enough time to settle in and get centered before the first OM. This goes for teachers, too. Respect your students’ schedules (and the incoming class) by beginning and ending on time.
  2. Be clean.
    The yamas and niyamas aren’t musty philosophical musings but practical guides for everyday behavior. Shaucha, often translated as purity or cleanliness, can apply to hygiene. In a crowded studio no one wants to take a deep three-part breath of someone’s flop sweat, or the perfumes and products used to cover it up. Shaucha also applies to your surroundings: Does your beloved mat need washing? Is that garlicky aroma wafting from your favorite hoody? Leave it in the car or stash it with your phone and purse. Tidy up blankets, bottles, props, etc. And please (pet peeve alert!) don’t walk across my mat to fetch a yoga block.
  3. Be really clean.
    Shaucha encompasses thoughts, actions, and motives as well. We can all (teachers, too) benefit from asking ourselves, “Why am I here?” Any agenda—even a seemingly harmless one like getting in shape—sets us up for expectations and attachments, the seeds for inner and outer conflict.
  4. Be appropriate.
    Dress comfortably, simply, and yes, modestly. No one (except maybe the pervy lurker in the back row) wants to see your underwear. A teacher friend once told me that in Swami Satchidananda’s ashram, trainees were encouraged to take an objective glance in the mirror before class. If their first reaction was “Lookin’ good!” it was a clue they should probably change into something else. See for yourself: Will that outfit turn heads? What about when it’s upside down, bent over, and/or twisted?
  5. Be content.
    You wanted arm balances, and your teacher is focusing on hip-openers. Or worse, your teacher is on vacation, and there’s a sub. It’s like Mick says: You can’t always get what you want. But samtosha, the niyama of contentment, doesn’t mean settling for what you don’t want. Practicing samtosha means learning to recognize your hooks…and to realize how silly and inconsequential they are. And if you can’t laugh at yourself or be at peace with the present, then at least be polite. Act as if you are serene and unruffled. Be the change—or, to put it more bluntly, “Fake it till you make it.”
  6. Be present.
    You think teachers don’t notice when you need to take a drink of water or use the bathroom during a particular asana? When you feel resistance coming up, don’t retreat. Practice the niyama of tapas (fiery self-discipline). Rise to the occasion and give that asana—or a modified version of it—your full attention and awareness. Learn from your teacher, who can suggest a modification. Even more profound, learn from your inner teacher—what is the resistance trying to tell you about yourself?
  7. Be grateful. Because…why not?
    Every class—even the one that make us want to scream or weep—is an opportunity to learn, to grow, to be part of something bigger than ourselves. We’re not just good little Do-Bees adhering to a set of rules, we’re opening the door for compassion and kindness. In that space, every mat is welcome.

Do you have any favorite tips (or pet peeves) to add to this list?

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7 responses to “7 Tips For Minding Your Yoga Manners”

  1. kathleen reilly Avatar
    kathleen reilly

    would love to see more articles like this one, this is great!!

  2. Patricia Avatar
    Patricia

    Great article.

    What makes me smile are those people who don’t like crowded classes.

    They complain that there are too many people but they stay in class anyway.

    How much room do you really need to practice? Is the size of your mat not enough?

    Some people need to learn to get along/play nice with those around them.

  3. Ayushree Agrawal Avatar
    Ayushree Agrawal

    Great article. I am practicing yoga and this helps get better perspective of things and also improve the daily practice. Contentment is so important. Thank you so much!

  4. Susan Bush Avatar
    Susan Bush

    Yoga is on my retirement bucket list, so I’ve joined a class, committed to twelve months of fees — step one complete, right? It never occurred to me to ask if toddlers would be attending with their mothers to do what precious little toddlers normally do. I cannot focus, & cannot block it out. I feel cheated of the spiritual side that I seek. I need to be able to hear instructions well, since I want to learn & know very little, just that I want to experience it. I just wonder if this is par for today’s yoga classes?

    1. Timothy Burgin Avatar
      Timothy Burgin

      No this is not normal, there are usually specific classes just for new moms and their toddlers. I’d advise attending a different class or studio.

    2. Daan Avatar
      Daan

      Susan, I hope you found something better by now as I realize I’m reacting very late.

      My advise is to try some different classes until you find one that you like and never to stop looking around and trying other classes. As you change and advance your taste for teachers and classes will also change. In the beginning it isn’t that important what the teacher actually tells as long as it motivates you to move and you might have to look at the people next to you to see what you should do … ( I will explain … ).

      If yoga is really on your “retirement bucket list” … you start somewhere 1 day a week and it will feel like you can’t do anything right and don’t understand anything. After 3 months, just going and doing it, you might find that you can do something you never thought you could. That is the moment yoga begins.

      It is not that you should discover Yoga. No way. Yoga should serve in you discovering yourself and in the beginning just moving your leg up when someone tells you can help a lot if you don’t normally do that. At this point you might know what you want to discover; you can choose your teachers.

      So find a teacher who challenges you to go a little step further then you would normally do, looks at you with understanding and gives you the right advise, Step by step until you climb a mountain, meditate and walk down the way your body can do. That’s yoga; it really isn’t that more complicated ,,. it is great and the wisdom is there where no wise men would ever expect it to be.

  5. Daan Avatar
    Daan

    I was reading this remarks about not standing on yoga mats. I really don’t like this part as I found that people where standing on my math all the time bubbling about …. yoga politics or something? For me it was a turn away from people doing yoga while I was becoming a yogi myself. I believe there is a strange context in which all people are playing the yoga tom-tom and sing mantras on your yoga mat. In Thailand yogis seemed like tooth brush commercials playing drums. Weird!!!!

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Kathleen Bryant Avatar
About the author
A former teacher and forever student, Kathleen Bryant swapped her running shoes for a yoga blanket in 1992, when she joined her first Hatha Yoga class in the back room of a local crystal shop. After earning a 500-hour teaching certificate from the International Yoga College, she taught anatomy, asana, and other subjects at 7 Centers School of Yoga Arts in Sedona, AZ. Kathleen is especially interested in the therapeutic aspects of yoga and continues to learn from Rama Jyoti Vernon, an amazing yogini who inspires her students to integrate yoga philosophy and mythology with contemporary life. An award-winning author, she has also published a children’s story, a cookbook, and books that focus on Southwest culture, travel, and natural history.
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