Yoga is supposed to make you feel calm. So why does it make me feel angry?
I went to a yoga class for the first time in a while the other day, and was surprised by how irritated I felt during and afterwards. I'd forgotten about that.
The hatha yoga classes I go to are gentle and slow-paced, so why does yoga make me feel angry? It's not the physical irritations like noisy breathing or people getting in my way or hitting me with their limbs; it's something mental. You'd think that would be hard to separate from the physical annoyances, but here are two examples of things that irritate me in ways that seem entirely mental:
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When someone else is doing a pose that looks like it hurts, but they're pretending it doesn't. In particular, when they're pretending nothing is wrong while grimacing or groaning or making some other obvious sign that they're in pain. Why do they think they need to pretend?
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The way people tend to laugh when they get into certain positions like headstands, as if they've done something silly rather than something difficult. It makes it hard for me not to think of them as silly people.