Being The "Other"

Yoga Cultural Artifacts

Flexibility and Strength
Yoga's culture had expectations or social norms that the participants had to be strong and flexible.

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.

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.