r/yoga
Eating during class?
This is Ashtanga Yoga Tech Support. Real questions from the yoga community, answered.
The Question
In the middle of a Hatha class yesterday, this guy in front of me pulls out a bag of pretzels from his yoga bag, opens them loudly, and starts eating during our poses. And it wasn’t like he just had a bite and moved on – throughout the class he kept reaching for the bag and crunching on pretzels very loudly. It was super disruptive and the teacher was watching him but never said anything, just kept teaching. It’s a small studio, so everyone was turning their heads to look when he’d rustle the ba…
— via r/yoga
Our Response
Okay.
First: not your problem to solve.
The teacher saw it. The teacher chose not to say anything. That's on them.
You can't control pretzel guy. You can't control the teacher. You can only control what you do with your attention.
This is the practice.
Someone's crunching. Someone's breathing weird. Someone's mat smells like feet. The room's too hot. Your neighbor's too close.
All of it is the same test: can you stay with yourself?
That doesn't mean you have to like it. It means you notice you're annoyed, and you come back to your breath anyway.
If it's truly unbearable, you can leave. You can find another studio. You can talk to the teacher after class.
But in the moment? Let it be ridiculous. Let pretzel guy be pretzel guy.
Your practice is learning to be undisturbed when things are disturbing.
That's it. That's the whole thing.
Not sure where to start?
Chat with the intake assistant — tell it about your practice and it’ll point you to what fits.
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