When I was in college, I had a friend who I loved to hang out with but did not enjoy playing music with. He was a total stress case when we played in orchestra – he would cuss, fuss, and (in my opinion) play too loud. I would spend two hours sitting next to him hating it until we could pack up our horns and music to decide where we were going for beers.
I brought it up to my teacher because I felt his behavior was affecting my performance in the section. As always, my teacher got quiet, thought for a moment, and offered up a solution I have kept with me my whole life:
“Sometimes, you have to imagine there’s a really big steel cone around you – but it has a filter. You choose what can make it in and what has to stay outside. Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and turn on the force field.”
I was reminded of this lesson when I was practicing the other night. The teacher was mellow, but encouraging us to work hard and had an all-U2 class. Fifteen minutes into class, the woman next to me started cussing like a sailor. Not “Fuck! Can you believe how long we’re holding this! lol!” No. This woman was banishing demons one pose at a time, tossing them off her, throwing them all over the room:
Teacher: Warrior one
Woman: Fuck!
Teacher: Vinyasa through to downdog
Woman: Shit!
Sometimes, when he walked close to us, she would utter a curse and then kind of blend it in with singing a song: “FUCKI stilllll haven’t found what I’m looking for…” I opened up too much on balancing half moon and scooted a little off my mat before recovery, laughing at myself, and I thought she was going to hit me. Instead got a Goddammit hurled at me.
Throughout the practice, I remembered the words of my teacher from all those years ago and tried to build a cone of serenity around me. I decided to find this funny, my first experience with Yoga Rage/Agroyoga.
We can all lighten up a bit – seriously, it’s just yoga.
