If we’re speedy or multi-tasking or face-in-phone on our way to or from yoga, is that something we might want to work with, or simply defend?

Such an interesting discussion.

I posted a criticism of post-yoga-class multi-tasking and being unfriendly, and a self-described introvert friend of mine had a very different take.

You know…when you listen, when she listens, we all learn. So different than on social media, too often, where everyone else is wrong and we are always right and no one learns anything, we just fight.

Spirituality 101: are we interested in growing, accountability, learning, joy, love…

…or are we interested in defending ourselves, self-righteousness, excuses, blaming others? ~ ed.

Multi-tasking Yogis on Phones don’t care about Community or Space, oh my?

Quote of Boulder’s Day: (walking out of yoga class alongside another young lady, who’s singing a mantra while turning a corner, down stairs, while checking her phone): “Are you singing a mantra while walking down stairs while checking your phone!? Impressive.”

Not really. It’s depressive.

After every yoga class, half of everyone is talking, connecting, getting their boots and coats on. It’s community! I love it. But half of everyone else is doubled over, already on the phone, zoned out, catching up. I get it, we’re busy.
But yoga is here to remind us to breathe, to re-lax and re-unite into Nature, and with the present moment–it’s not fucking crossfit or aerobics. It’s not meant to be another tetris piece in our daily busy-ness.

Comment fun:

Amber
preach

Donna
I actually have a difficult time getting *into* yoga class…. I think yoga in nature would make much more sense, but unfortunately not convenient to implement.

Waylon Lewis
Best article on elephant, ever:
Buddhism vs. Speed: Busyness is Laziness, by Dr. Reggie Ray.

Michelle
Two monks were on a pilgrimage. One day, they came to a deep river. At the edge of the river, a young woman sat weeping, because she was afraid to cross the river without help. She begged the two monks to help her. The younger monk turned his back. The members of their order were forbidden to touch a woman.
But the older monk picked up the woman without a word and carried her across the river. He put her down on the far side and continued his journey. The younger monk came after him, scolding him and berating him for breaking his vows. He went on this way for a long time.
Finally, at the end of the day the older monk turned to the younger one. “I only carried her across the river. You have been carrying her all day.”

Naomi
The worst is driving to yoga feeling “late” and angry. I have to remind myself that it is exactly that which is wrong with the world. We just can’t be in this moment and breathe.

Starre
You know what’s worse? Someone trying to chat with you right after yoga class. I spend all that time being in the moment and then someone has to jolt me out of it with inane conversation about the weather or something.

(My point with the above comment? YOU might value the ‘community’ of post-yoga chatter, but I do not. You don’t value someone else’s time on their phone but they do. Same diff. We all have different ways of living, and you have no idea what’s going on in that person’s life. Yeah, maybe they are inanely checking their phone, or maybe they’re sending a message to their cancer-ridden parent about something amazing they realized in yoga class. Point is, you HAVE NO IDEA.)

Suzanne
They need a retreat with Jon Kabat-Zinn!

Waylon Lewis

Starre, before we get into a Zuckerbergian debate, read the above link? I think you’ll love it and get where I’m coming from.

Geoffrey
Home practice gets more attractive every day.

Starre

Alan
at the end of yoga class, the last thing i want to do is chit chat with people pulling on their shoes.

Jamie
But hey crossfit or aerobics, or singing a mantra while walking downstairs checking the phone might be mindfulness practice for some people. It might not LOOK very mindful but perhaps that is miles ahead for them already. Perhaps they were even more distracted and scatterbrained before and even going to a yoga class is a vast improvement for them. I go to aerobics dance classes and I use them as my “quiet” mindfulness time when I get in tune with the movement of my body, the way I am moving in sync with the class, being aware of the movements and space of others in the class, stay focused on the next steps of the choreography, tuning in to every beat of the music. I know people who do crossfit or weight training or run marathons who engage with their physical exercise/activity in the same way. It saddens me that people are so quick to dismiss what *is* or *isn’t* mindfulness practice or community because if it’s done correctly, you could be practising mindfulness anywhere in anything you are engaged in, however it may look like to others.

Btw I’m not necessarily saying you’re doing that but responding to a feeling I’ve been getting more and more from yoga practitioners / communities that this practice is more superior than others, that other physical activity or meditation practices just don’t cut it/aren’t on par and that if you’re not practising in a particular way as is advocated in the yoga circles, then you’re somehow “not as good” a practitioner/going to get less results/shouldn’t even be here. I’m sure that’s not at all what is intended but comments youve made in response to that girl singing mantras while checking her phone etc for example, can also be received or experienced by others as judgey and intimidating (which may be precisely why they don’t want to hang around and chat after class – what one person views as community could also be experienced by someone else as cliquishness and intimidating/condescending). I’m just really tired of one group of practitioners (of aerobics or ashtanga/hatha yoga or crossfit or whatever) slagging off other practices. There are different things that suit the mental/spiritual/emotional/physical growth of different people. If someone is happy, healthy and safe doing what they are doing (even if they are checking their phones while walking own stairs) then can we please just leave them alone? (Or perhaps, to be friendly and inclusive on our side, to just give them a warning to walk carefully and not fall down the stairs! )

Waylon Lewis
Oh god.

Hutchinson
Waylon I’m w her

Charles
well said

Joseph
Well said. Worshipping the golden calf of “connectedness.”

Waylon Lewis
Joseph, don’t follow?

PS, everyone, Megatron just weighed in on this general subject:

Megatron Speaks the Truth

Ralph
Tres judgementy, Walen.

Waylon Lewis
Ralph, judgement or prajna is important. We do it every day when we decide to walk or drive or bike or eat an organic apple or a conventional apple or support fracking or not. It’s a new agey thing to think “judgement” is bad. In Western thought judgement is symbolized by the blind goddess, who judges all equally with the weights, you know? You’re talking about prejudgement–prejudice–preconception, and that’s a problem, yes.

Ralph
Never mind

Eric
I will go ahead and agree with this

Britton
Prajna is discernment, not judgement.

Waylon Lewis
Britton, you judge correctly: New Agey types, ironically, love to accuse others of “judging.”