Robert Steven Williams hasn’t been to a yoga class since he was injured in August, but that doesn’t mean he expected to stay out of touch.
Since getting injured in a yoga class back in August, I’ve done my own practice at home. I’ve taken over a thousand classes by numerous instructors so I have a sense of what to do, as well as how to vary the experience depending on my energy level.
In many ways, doing my own practice after years of taking classes is an excellent opportunity for growth. There’s something liberating about doing the postures you want to do, when you want to do them. A home practice also allowed me to work around my injury. On the other hand, despite my best intentions, I never pushed myself for as hard or as long.
I often did shorter sessions more frequently through the day. I have no idea if this is better or worse, but I noticed that a bit of yoga throughout the day improved my energy level and refocused my attention.
I certainly missed the collective experience of a class, the assists from instructors, as well as the interaction with people. I’m a freelance writer and communication consultant and I’m often working from home.
You hear a lot about the yoga community and the support it provides. I enjoyed going to class daily, talking to instructors and fellow yogis. I miss that interaction. It’s been almost three months.
It’s ironic that I got injured in a yoga class. I also I found it surprising that the owners of the yoga studio never checked in to see how I was doing—not a single instructor did either. I was a member of the center for 11 months and took classes daily.
From a community perspective, it would have been nice if someone had checked in. From a business perspective, it just makes good business sense. I got injured in a class and regardless of what waivers I may have signed, there’s still the potential that I could sue.
I had no interest in litigation, but they didn’t know that.
Perhaps they didn’t want to appear that crass, checking in on the pretenses of community, knowing full well that what they were really doing was making sure that I wasn’t thinking about suing.
They say no news is good news, but I always assume no news means something awful.
Yoga is a growth industry, business is probably good, so there’s no need for the owners to reach out. But if the practice of yoga is also about community, who is responsible for nurturing this ecosystem? What role does the studio owner have? What is my responsibility?
I’m ready to take classes again, but I’m not sure I’ll be returning to that place. Perhaps it just wasn’t the right fit. Perhaps I wasn’t worthy or experienced enough. Perhaps I was expecting too much. Maybe I should have reached out to them.
The more likely reason I never heard from anyone is this: out of sight, out of mind. When I return, odds are, they will welcome me warmly.
At the end of the day, it’s my practice. Community is a nice add-on feature. I haven’t made a decision yet, but maybe at another place, I will find both.
—Photo lululemon athletica/Flickr
Hi Robert, I appreciate your latest newsletter. A couple thoughts to concure with part of your findings. People are busy. And they tend to focus on what is in front of them. Your coment about out of sight, out of mind, is probably spot on. Especially in our community, where most people feeel overwhelmed most of the time. The owners of these studios have so many balls they’re jugling, it really is not easy for them to focus on one individual for more than a few minutes. I think the best we can hope for is that we discover and… Read more »