PoopGroup: Yoga Gas

I recently enrolled in an introductory offer at an amazing yoga studio where one can take unlimited classes for a week. I have done a smattering of yoga over the past few years, but mostly just Pilates (and a brief six-month period of ballet, which I somehow feel compelled to mention here). This place is awesome. I had never really been much of a believer of materialized goodness before. It is a space totally free of judgment, run by a host of eloquent and inspiring and intelligent instructors, which has produced the closest thing to a religious experience for me that I’ve ever come to. I’m hooked, obviously.

But more importantly, I’m intrigued by the notion of yoga gas. My inquiry has to do with the acknowledgment. In everyday life, not many of us acknowledge our farts unless we’re in familiar company, and even then it’s a pretty rare occurrence. But in yoga—you’re finding your center, and the bountiful love within, letting go of fear, etc., etc.—and wouldn’t you think that if there ever were a welcome environment for one to comfortably own up to one’s farts, that a yoga studio would be it? And given the ways bodies move in yoga classes [One day, Meghan and I are going to compile a chart of positions for which to best release pent up gas; she gave me pointers once and really knows a lot about this kind of stuff.], you’d think it to be a completely common occurrence. And you would think, too, that a yoga fart would be sort of like a shower fart in terms of decibel level—it would be hard for everyone else in the class to ignore. I haven’t seen it happen in yoga yet, but once in Pilates I let one rip, much against my will, actually, and I didn’t own up to it. Everyone tried to pretend that it didn’t happen, which was weird because it totally reverberated throughout the room. But Pilates doesn’t tap into the spiritual stuff. (Are you supposed to acknowledge a fart if it happens in church?) I’d really like to know: In yoga, is it better to own up to a fart than not to?

Namaste.