You Are NOT the Teacher!!

I took the first class of an educational/practical yoga series this evening, and it was taught by an amazing woman who has studied all over the world many ethnic as well as traditional forms of yoga and priesthood. It was educational and fantastic. I would have enjoyed it even more if the woman on the mat next to me had the respect and decency to shut up and just listen to the teacher like the rest of us did.

She was a woman in her late 50's to early 60's, I estimate, and most likely has been all over the planet, is overly educated, and because of that, thinks she knows EVERYTHING, and God forbid anyone around her isn't made privy to it. I find it hard to tolerate people like that, because they always seem to think that it's their job to educate anyone else they come in contact with. Whether you like it or not.

Here we sat, listening to the yogini explain the origins of yoga from different parts of the world, elaborating on the different spiritual aspects, how they began in this form and that, who did it and why, and this woman next to me, for some reason, decides that she's also part of the lecture. Every few sentences, she would pipe in "and the aboriginies believed such and such", "it's said that the so and so's practiced it this way because", "when I was in India and saw the this and that"..... and on, and on, and ON! She could not just shut up and LET THE TEACHER TEACH!! What the hell? And here I was, trying to be on my best yoga like behavior, trying to tune it out, trying not to judge her (but I did anyway), and wishing that she could see how arrogant and disrespectful she really was! The audacity! Nobody else in the class was doing that. We knew better!

I didn't pay to come and hear her. None of us did. I guess she didn't get that email. And then, during the practical segment, she's calling out "heels out or in?", "spine round or long?", "isolate the such and such, right?". I'm just like, "STFU PLEASE, and just observe like the rest of us!" In my head, of course. ;)

There was another woman on the other side of me, also in the same age range as the first. At the beginning of the class, she began talking across me to the first woman. She actually reached out her arm and waved at the other when she came in, her hand wiggling right in my face. They know each other. Lovely! During the lecture, while the yogini is talking, this other one is having ADD moments, where she looks across to try to get the loud one's attention for whatever reason. I'm like "where the hell am I? I SO thought this was a yoga class. Why are these two acting so inappropriately?" I had to focus and meditate real hard to push away my annoyance.

The first woman that kept talking during the lecture and the class bugged me more, though. I have 5 more weeks of this yoga course I'm taking, and I know right now that this woman is a test for me, because I was probably more annoyed by her than anyone else in the room. I have little to no tolerance for loud, rude, arrogant, disrespectful people, especially not in a class setting. I just learned to behave differently in such situations. When a teacher is teaching, you shut up and listen. You don't interrupt just to show off what YOU know. It's not about what you know. You're there to learn. I wanted to put a sock in her mouth! That's probably why the divine one put her right next to me! ;)

I know that every situation you're put into is meant to teach you something. I know that until you learn it, you are doomed to repeat the experience. I do not want to repeat this experience! ;)
I must work on my patience. That's what it is, in a nutshell. I must also work on my tolerance. I must not judge. Okay. I get it. Okay. I will try!

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