Friday, November 27, 2015

Chair Yoga and Tolerance

The Hatfield Senior Center offers Chair Yoga on Tuesday mornings. I've been going for a couple of years now. I'd prefer to practice "full-blown" mat Yoga, but this is free and convenient. It's also more of a workout than one might think.

Whether on a mat or chair, a Yoga practitioner is to remain focused on his/her own body and not watch what others are doing (or not doing). That's part of the discipline.

There is a woman named D. who often attends the class. She usually arrives a few minutes after we've begun, and I find it a little distracting. If there is not an empty chair, the instructor has to fetch two more. (We use two chairs for several of the postures.) D. has many physical limitations and cannot lift even a light chair.

D. also chooses to do a couple of the postures standing. She uses a neoprene knee support for some, but not all, of them. The knee support attaches with velcro which makes a distinctive sound as she puts it on and takes it off.

I have to admit to getting annoyed. Is D. oblivious to the multiple distractions she creates for the others in the group? Or am I the only person who feels this way?

I try to remember that D. is often in pain, that she comes to Chair Yoga to help mitigate that pain and to try to keep her body functioning as well as it can. I try to treat the distractions she causes as a challenge and keep focused on my own postures. After all, that's part of the discipline.

I do, however, wish she would arrive on time.

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