Yoga Cultural Artifacts
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| Flexibility and Strength Yoga's culture had expectations or social norms that the participants had to be strong and flexible. |
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| Yoga Lingo The culture of yoga consisted of many different terms that I was unfamiliar with. I have a chart showing some of the basic positions of yoga and the weird names they are given like downward facing dog, the chair, warrior I or pigeon. To be able to participate in yoga you have to have a basic understanding of this lingo or someone willing to explain it. |
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| Supplies Yoga's culture revolves around established social norms including the type of clothes you wear to class, the things you use in class like mats and blocks or the body type you need to fit in with the other yoga participants. |
Reflection
I attended a yoga class at the Pleasant Grove rec center. The class took place in a large room with a single
window facing eastward. There were sinks along the south wall. There were only
three people in the class, including myself, and the instructor. It was dark
outside because it was still early in the morning and almost all the lights in
the classroom were turned off to create a relaxing atmosphere, but it was hard
for me to feel relaxed when I felt so out of place. It was a new experience for
me getting up so early to participate in the yoga class because I don’t
regularly exercise in the morning. After arriving, I asked someone in the
class where the best place was to set up my yoga mat and one of the other woman who attended was very
helpful. Even though she was helpful, I felt like I started the class already
behind due to my lack of experience. I didn’t know anything about yoga except
that I would need a yoga mat. As the class started, we didn’t really interact again
and the room fell silent. I sat on my mat watching and listening to the
instructor and tried my very best to preform the different positions. Unlike
the members of the class, I did not understand what the different terms like
downward facing dog, sleeping pigeon, chair, or warrior II meant so I had to
watch the instructor every time she instructed us to change positions. This made
me stand out from the other people in the class who seemed very relaxed while preforming
all of the positions from the prescribed yoga terms. I felt
like they were all yoga experts and I felt like the bumbling outsider who
couldn’t do yoga. I was sure that I was exactly what they thought about me too. I
also really struggled with learning how to breathe like the instructor asked us
to because it was a hard work out for me. I am terribly out of shape and it showed. My
body is not flexible and so it was difficult to do many of the yoga positions.
The instructor would often walk around while we were doing cycles of different
positions and two or three times the instructor came over to me and
correct something about my position. She even had to pull foam blocks out of
the closet to help modify the yoga positions so I could do them. I found
this a little embarrassing and alienating, but I couldn’t fully participate
without them. This made me feel like an outsider and I felt like the other
members of the class were annoyed at me. It did
not take long before I was completely winded and struggling to keep moving from
position to position. My wrists are very weak and so it wasn't long until it was hard to hold my body weight. That made me start taking breaks more frequently,
again alienating myself from the other members of the class who were seemingly yoga
experts. At the end of the class the instructor asked if it was my first
time doing yoga and, although it was embarrassing that it was so obvious, I admitted that it was indeed my first time.
This was an interesting
experience being the "other one". I was initially scared to go by myself. I
was afraid that it would be lonely and embarrassing, but I didn’t think it would
be as hard as it was. I felt alone, awkward because I felt like I couldn’t ever do yoga simply because I had never gone to a
yoga class before. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be – making the
class even more difficult because I didn’t start working out in advance or prepare
in any way. There will be students in my classrooms that will feel the same way
because they don’t know Biology. Such students could be taking it as their first high school science class
or they may not have ever done well in school. These disadvantaged students will feel
awkward, alone and incapable of learning, but I have to reach out to these
students. If I help them feel more comfortable, then they will hopefully see that they can do
anything they put their mind to.
