r/ashtanga
Why do people not ask for consent when taking pictures/videos of others during practice?
This is Ashtanga Yoga Tech Support. Real questions from the yoga community, answered.
The Question
I am relatively new to ashtanga mysore, and I absolutely love it. One thing though that is bothering me is practitioners often take pictures/videos of others while practicing without consent. I’ve been to four different shalas in different countries and it has been the same everywhere. I guess people use it for their social media channels. To me, this practice is special and very intimate and I’m always very bothered realising that others take photos/videos while I’m practicing — especially because I haven’t consented to it. Has anyone else noticed that as well? What are your thoughts?
— via r/ashtanga
Our Response
Yeah. This is a problem.
And you're not wrong to be bothered by it.
The Mysore room should be a container. Private. Protected. You're doing deep work in there.
Some teachers ban phones entirely. Some allow them for self-documentation only. But everywhere I've practiced, the baseline rule is the same: you don't film other people without asking.
If someone's got their phone out and you're in the frame, that's not okay.
Here's what you do.
Talk to your teacher. Tell them what you told us. A good teacher will address it. They'll remind the room. Or they'll have a conversation with whoever's doing it.
If the teacher won't handle it, that tells you something about the shala.
And if you catch someone filming you directly, you can just say it. "Hey, I'd rather not be in that." Most people will apologize. They're not trying to be creepy. They're just not thinking.
But you don't have to tolerate it.
The practice is yours.
Not sure where to start?
Chat with the intake assistant — tell it about your practice and it’ll point you to what fits.
Talk to the Intake Bot →
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