Just now, I was about to hop on my bike to go to my usual 4 p.m. yoga class in the neighborhood when I was gripped by this incredible reluctance, almost like a force holding me back. For some unfathomable reason, I just didn't want to go. But I talked myself into it, saddled up and starting rolling down the hill.
That's when I realized: it's not my usual teacher. It's that other guy whose class I went to accidentally last week. And he was playing music. Pop and rock music. Loud pop and rock music. And something deep down inside me didn't want to repeat that experience.
I've been a student of yoga and other meditative practices for over 10 years now, so I have a good sense of what works for me in a class and what doesn't.
I'm also a practicing hypnotherapist and lapsed neuroscientist who understands some of the workings of the human mind. In this case, I'm convinced that playing loud pop music during a yoga class is potentially harmful. In this letter to all my past and future teachers, I'll enumerate the reasons why.
Here, I'm assuming a few basic understandings about yoga. First, that yoga is an inner practice, chiefly aimed at allowing us to go within. This aligns with the second of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras: yogas chitta vritti nirodhah -- the purpose of yoga is to calm the fluctuations of the mind.
Second, that yoga does not engage in harm -- the principle of ahimsa. In my reasons below, I explain how certain features of loud pop music violate the first or second principle.
Of course, it is fully within your rights as a teacher to conduct classes however you want. But if you're interested in imparting the maximum benefit to your students without doing any harm, you would do well to read this article and implement its suggestions.
1) Music, especially when it contains words, makes it more difficult to focus on the yoga practice.
Music is a terrific stimulant for the brain. This is why people love to listen to it and pay huge sums to purchase music, stereos and concert tickets. Extensive studies show that music lights up vast swaths of your brain -- not just the auditory centers, but also the emotional ones. Add to that the lyrics from a song, and all the language areas of the brain light up, too. In fact, there's hardly anything that activates more of your brain than a good song.
All of this means that music is also a tremendous distraction to the task of going within. With all that interesting sound coming at you and your brain figuring out pitch, intervals, melody, harmony, the meaning of the words and the appropriate emotional response to them, it becomes much more challenging to focus on the orientation of your thigh in Warrior I pose, the rhythm of your breathing, or the subtle opening of your heart chakra.
It also defeats one of the highest purposes of yoga -- that of a moving meditation. I'm not an expert at meditation, but no meditative practice I've studied believes loud music or talking enhances one's ability to concentrate -- not Buddhist, not Zen, not yogic, not mantra-based. Silence is a better choice.
Speaking of talking, the lyrics in pop music also constitute a conversation. It's as if someone is talking on a cell phone really loud, accompanied by drums and guitar, and I have no choice but to listen. Conversation detracts from concentration. If you subscribe to yogas chitta vritti nirodhah, then loud verbal music increases the fluctuations of the mind-stuff.
2) Lyrics can have unintentionally harmful side effects.
Psychologist John Bargh did an experiment in which subjects were asked to make sentences out of a list of jumbled words as quickly as possible, ostensibly being tested for speed and accuracy. In fact, there were two tests: one which contained words such as 'grey', 'bingo', 'wrinkle', 'old', and 'Florida', and another which contained no such words.
What the experimenters were really measuring was not performance on the quiz, but the time it took for the subjects to leave the testing room and to get to the front door of the building after completing the quiz. What they found was both startling and enlightening: those who had words in their quizzes connoting old age got to the front door 30% slower than those who didn't. This means that for a brief interval following the quiz sprinkled with those words, they behaved as if they had gotten older.
It's amazing that something as subtle as words sprinkled in a test can affect a person's behavior measurably. This effect is amplified when the subject is in a highly suggestible meditative state. As such, in my hypnotherapy practice, I use embedded commands to change behavior -- "Doesn't it feel great to quit smoking forever, John?" It's a standard implement in any hypnotherapist's toolbox, and it works.
Yoga students are in a meditative and therefore highly suggestible state. So when the pop song blares "just can't take the pain" or "without you I cannot live" (or rather confusingly in one hip-hop song, "get offa my boy"), it's sending commands straight to your unconscious to do -- who knows what. All I know is that it's not what I signed up for.
3) Students have to strain to hear the teacher over loud music.
It takes a tremendous amount of cognitive resources to make sense of what someone is saying in an environment with competing noise. So when a yoga teacher plays loud music, I have to strain to understand the instructions. For me, this introduces unnecessary strain, detracting from the ease, concentration and flow of the practice.
4) Loud music is innately stressful.
You've heard the trope that we're born with two innate fears -- those of heights and loud noises. As such, loud noises are absolutely, definitely stressors. Exposure to loudness rapidly activates your sympathetic nervous response and pours adrenaline and cortisol into your bloodstream.
In some of the yoga classes I attend, the music volume can get exceptionally loud -- to the point that I'm almost compelled to cover my ears. Loudness of over 100dB is stressful and uncomfortable. Perhaps it was motivating in my boxing class, but in yoga class, it feels out of place.
That said, music does have its time and place and can be a great adjunct to a yoga class when used judiciously. If you'd like music to enhance your yoga class rather than detract from it, here are some suggestions:
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I do love the occasional jam session, practicing to my favorite songs no matter the genre, but those are definitely the days I have to be really careful not to tune out and hurt myself. I wouldn't try it with students.
In general, I find that certain instrumental music really helps the brain settle down and focus. Four Tet, Brian Eno, Ratatat... it has to be positive, and soothing. Brian Eno said “Ambient Music must be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular; it must be as ignorable as it is interesting.” I think that goes for good yoga music, too.
Gotta do whats right for you.
"Comment rules: Please keep it civilized -- we're looking for intelligent exchange of ideas here, not a dumping ground for the accumulated venom of your psyche. Pointless snarkiness or name-calling will get you deleted instantly. "
There are people who like to stir up trouble, yes. I feel maybe by putting this in here...if those people are of the mind to read the italics at the end of your article this might make them want to put something snarky in here more...(think imbedded command to prove one's self autonomous).
At the same time those who read the article for well intended purposes (the ones who are perhaps more likely to read the article in its entirety) may get discouraged at the subtle cue that there are people that would respond very negatively to your well thought out article.
Is there anything in your article that you think people could react negatively to? Have you talked to the yoga teacher personally?
...there is nothing offensive or offputting about your article...why would you think people thought there was?
Is this a defense mechanism, a warning...what is feared? Snarky people don't have any true effect on you...do they?
Venom...is the word that really got to me...those who spew venom, what is their intent? Why? What would Patanjali say (kinda like WWJD lol)?
Thank you for the lovely article.
I wrote a lengthy critique of the class and turned it in at the front desk, but I did seem to be the only one disturbed by this.
I love yoga, especially Iyengar, and I will never forget that one class. It's been years, and I still shake my head when I think of it.
Thank you for this article. For all that some instructors may have the best of intentions, the fact is--if you call it a yoga class, then loud music of any sort and/or preaching the Good Word about Jesus are not appropriate. Silence, breathing, presence, and mindfulness are what make yoga the gift that it is.
In the 80's and 90's, physiotherapists were busy treating injuries from aerobics classes. Now, they're busy treating injuries from yoga classes. Correct instruction is even more important in Yoga, since it deals with more sublime energies and energy channels.
Great article, Ali ... and great advice for instructors as well !
I believe part of my job as a teacher is to help a student cultivate their inner perceptual awareness that is the first step towards leading them to a state of meditation and finally the state of yoga (union). So in the classroom, my cues are to turn inwards. Instructions are "What is the state of breath right now?". "What is the speed of your mind, right now?" "How does that feel in your body, right now?". "Notice your points of foundation -- where do you connect with the earth?" These cues need to be given more frequently to beginners because they're not used to this process. More experienced students don't need the cues often and I'm careful to make sure that I don't become one of their distractions by speaking too much or too often. I'm keenly aware of the fact that everytime I open my mouth, I pull them away from their inner experience and so I do it with some thought.
My opinion only .. but yoga "teachers" who play loud music in a class may have studied the forms but I think they have not studied the philosophy to any degree.
http://grumpyyogi.blogspot.com/2010/07/god-hates-yoga-music.html
That wouldn't be yoga, it would be calisthenics. But then, many seem to approach "spirituality" as if it were a competitive athletic event, so maybe it's more apt than I imagine...