Yoga and personal space

Listen, yoga is not for sissies. You cannot be dédaigneux. Especially if you do Ashtanga yoga, which frequently requires a partner.

In the last two weeks alone, I have:

• Balanced my pelvis on someone's feet (think Superman, with arms and legs fully extended)
• Had some ginger man put his hands on my bum to help me fold over with greater ease
• Scooted my bum near someone's head in order to climb on their back with my feet (double downward dog - it looks cooler than it sounds)
• Had someone's fingers firmly pressed in the creases of my thighs to help me engage my groins and lift my hips into handstand

And because it's partner yoga, that means I also provided the same service for my partner. Yes, they left a little sweat on my mat. I probably left a little sweat on theirs. However, as yoga is supposed to teach greater knowledge of and greater comfort with your body, there will inevitably be contact with other bodies.

There's this one girl I often see around my studio. Dark black hair always pulled into a neat ponytail and doubly secured with a headband. Petite frame swathed in impeccably matched - and spotless - clothing. The most perfectly manicured eyebrows you could imagine. If this girl were a package, she's have smartly folded corners and a taut string.

So last week, we had an acro yoga class with plenty of partner positions. Poor thing looked traumatised throughout, and when the class was over, she dabbed her mat with a squarely-folded paper towel to sponge off her partner's sweat.

Like that would do anything.

Now if my mother had been there, she would have hosed me and the mat down before leaving, as well as scolded me for not being more hygiene-conscious like that other girl with the nice eyebrows.

But it seems to me that sometimes you have to let a little sweat into your life - whether it be your own or someone else's. Go home and shower, wash your mat frequently, but being overly attentive to maintaining an absolutely clean and prim appearance at all times will ultimately distance you from the here and now and what you're feeling at this precise moment.

Too bad for Miss Eyebrows - she missed a really great yoga class.