This past Friday, a lovely moment of peace was shared across continents with a short yoga class led by High Atlas Foundation-University of Virginia Intern, Catrin Waters. The HAF members and trainees present were able to collaborate to create a multilingual and restorative few minutes of presence, with HAF President Yossef Ben-Meir translating the class live for participants.
The generally-set precedent of participants remaining muted during live or recorded events can make it unsettling when they wish to voice their comments or questions. There can also definitely be more trepidation with being perceived online in any form, and it is often true that the material covered in a yoga session is deep. Thus, teachers and presenters might feel unable to fully reply to comments, questions, and concerns within the moment and prefer to take some time for reflection before responding.
The whole foundation of yoga can be really fascinating, and there’s so much to learn in each interaction that it might also be difficult for session leaders to be proactive about participant communication. For that reason, there might be longer silences as space is made for students who want to speak up.
On this particular day, after a few guided communal movements and shared inhalations and exhalations, the session concluded with all feeling more prepared to take on the day with a heightened depth of awareness.