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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that doing yoga in a public place is just attention seeking?

187 replies

UnsuspectedItem · 03/03/2018 16:17

Several times this year I've seen people crack out a mat in the middle of a public place and start doing yoga.
When I say public place, I'm not talking about a park or a beach, but an airport, bus station and a waiting room.
It seems to be a trend on Instagram too, the culprit usually kitted it in something very reveaking.
I love yoga and it's great for being a "portable" exercise but AIBU in thinking that doing it in a place where you stand out is just showing off, and is a little bit wanky?

OP posts:
Dozer · 04/03/2018 14:23

smoking is banned in stations, planes, airports.

Herbalteahippie · 04/03/2018 14:23

Wow... I do yoga, but I don’t take instas of it (unless it’s a lovely beach, so one pic a year) I know I should do more but I’ve had the fear put up me as it seems I’m surrounded by mumsy types giving me the side-eye and suddenly labelled attention seeking?!! I’m aware these wanky yoga types exist but just be aware sometimes WE NEED TO STRETCH!! And yes here’s nothing wrong with that!!

Herbalteahippie · 04/03/2018 14:24
Smile
FrancinePefko · 04/03/2018 14:27

Dozer
smoking is banned in stations, planes, airports

Not on the streets though is it?

It's interesting that Western countries make billions from exporting cigarettes and tobacco addiction to Asia and Africa but we don't make a penny from exporting the millenia old wisdom of yoga to the West.

DamsonOnThisDress · 04/03/2018 14:34

Public yoga. Never seen it myself. Well, there you go.

My heart says good on them, each to their own. How cleansing and fulfilling and lovely.

But my head kind of says, "What are you at, you buck eejit? Would you ever get up out of that!"

Yeah... wanky is a good word for it. And shat on by a pigeon a suitable conclusion.

FrancinePefko · 04/03/2018 14:37

Yeah... wanky is a good word for it. And shat on by a pigeon a suitable conclusion.

I am breathing in all of your judgement and derision and breathing out pure love, acceptance and tolerance.

Om shanti om

Dozer · 04/03/2018 14:37

OP and other posters are not talking about people exercising in parks or on the streets, but airports, stations and things.

Smoking isn’t banned in the open air but I rarely see people smoking on busy pedestrian routes in London.

The comparison / argument doesn’t stand up.

FrancinePefko · 04/03/2018 14:41

You seem to have less of a problem with smoking (which makes billions for 3-5 global corporations and kills millions) than you do with yoga - which promotes health, happiness and fulfilment for all of creation.

LadyMcLadyCrisps · 04/03/2018 14:43

“I am breathing in all of your judgement and derision and breathing out pure love, acceptance and tolerance.”

^^WANKY^^

GrinWink

MaisyPops · 04/03/2018 14:44

You seem to have less of a problem with smoking (which makes billions for 3-5 global corporations and kills millions) than you do with yoga - which promotes health, happiness and fulfilment for all of creation
Ummm because the OP didn't open up a discussion on thr merits of smoking

She was discussing wanky public exercise choices.

I like yoga. I'm also not so mentally tetchy that the only way I could possibly find inner peace and calm if by doing sun salutations in my local train station. The zen of yoga clearly isn't working if you need to down tools and do a public yoga sesh just to feel at peace.

DamsonOnThisDress · 04/03/2018 14:47

Ah good stuff, Francine.

Try another cleansing breath and you might inhale a bit of humour.

Just a bit of ribbing. The pigeon comment on first page made me laugh.

Stretch away. You're doing no harm... except possibly to my ego as I watch thinking I couldn't do that with my clicky hip and inflexible calamity. Can't pull off serenity with a purple face.

LipstickHandbagCoffee · 04/03/2018 14:48

Bendy elastic limbed wanky show offs.park near me folk do yoga
I fastidiously ignore it.face set to screen saver mode

HeyRoly · 04/03/2018 14:51

One of my school mum acquaintances has a collage of herself in a variety of complicated yoga poses as her FB a profile picture Hmm I thought that was wanky and attention whoring too. Look at me! I'm so amazing and I REALLY like to take care of myself!

Grin

Actual public yoga is no different.

Incidentally, I don't get yoga. I do Pilates and enjoy it but it doesn't make me feel spiritual. Why is yoga spiritual?

FrancinePefko · 04/03/2018 14:51

LadyMcLadyCrisps

“I am breathing in all of your judgement and derision and breathing out pure love, acceptance and tolerance.”

WANKY

Grin
Original poster
UnsuspectedItem · 04/03/2018 14:54

I don't remember mentioning smoking at all Confused so how I can seem to be offended by yoga more than smoking is lost on me

OP posts:
FrancinePefko · 04/03/2018 14:57

MaisyPops

You seem to have less of a problem with smoking (which makes billions for 3-5 global corporations and kills millions) than you do with yoga - which promotes health, happiness and fulfilment for all of creation

Ummm because the OP didn't open up a discussion on thr merits of smoking

Yeah I know. I'm just trying to get some perspective on it. FYI Despite all the bans on smoking in workplaces etc in the West, companies like British American Tobacco, Imperial Tobacco etc are making more money than ever by growing "markets" like Bangladesh (which has almost no infrastructure to deal with lung cancer).

It just makes me a little Hmm to see what people in the first world seem to get het up about.

MaisyPops · 04/03/2018 15:00

But still irrelevant to the OP's discussion.
It just makes me a littleHmmto see what people in the first world seem to get het up about.

By that token nobody should be frutated with anything food related because there's starving children in Africa.

Nobody should find anything domestic irritating because some people don't have homes.

It feels a daft way of trying to shush a debate.

FrancinePefko · 04/03/2018 15:02

HeyRoly
Incidentally, I don't get yoga. I do Pilates and enjoy it but it doesn't make me feel spiritual. Why is yoga spiritual?

Because yoga is as much about what is going on with your mind and your heart as it is about your physical body.

FrancinePefko · 04/03/2018 15:07

MaisyPops
It feels a daft way of trying to shush a debate

No intention to sush anything Maisy. Just bringing in a broader perspective.

Personally I think it is far more "wanky" to smoke or drink in public than it is to practice yoga in public. Your country brought smoking to mine. My country brought yoga to yours.

I know which will do more good an which will do more harm.

Dozer · 04/03/2018 15:09

“Mind and body” doesn’t equate to “spiritual” though.

Dozer · 04/03/2018 15:10

I guess it might be all the chakra stuff bit that’s “spiritual”?

FrancinePefko · 04/03/2018 15:19

The word "yoga" means to "join" or "unite". Yogis view this unison in different ways – the unison of body, mind and spirit, uniting all the aspects of yourself, OR uniting with a higher power or force. You can believe in a God or a million gods, or the order of the universe, or the eternity of energy or the nothingness between the stars and the atoms that make you up.

It's all so beautiful.

HeyRoly · 04/03/2018 15:51

Ah, see I find the pooja bells a little bit cultural appropriation-y. I'm not Hindu (although DH's family are) so I'd feel a bit silly using them.

FrancinePefko · 04/03/2018 15:52

I'm not being serious about the pooja bells.

Faultymain5 · 04/03/2018 17:19

OP I think I get it now.

“I am breathing in all of your judgement and derision and breathing out pure love, acceptance and tolerance.”

WANKY

I thought wanky was meant as an insult. Happy to claim wanky in this context.

As Francine says Om shanti om.

Namaste dudes