Clothes do matter -- Hot shorts!

Whenever I brought a friend home, my brother would embarrass me with threats of digging the old "Pre-Teen America" videos out from the bottom of the VHS drawer. I was usually able to quell the enthusiasm that followed by giving in and telling at least one embarrassing moment from said event in exchange for not pressing "play". The favorite was my answer during the Q and A session amongst the last finalists. (Although the most embarrassing was my rendition of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", where I freaked out and ended up lip syncing...yikes! I knew better than to mention that as that would ensure the tape be played.) So I'm up on stage and I have to pick a question out of a fishbowl full of folded up pieces of paper. My question reads "Do the clothes make the woman or does the woman make the clothes?" Ah but the answer was so easy, so obvious! And yet, when I opened my mouth, I opened with the opposite response -- "The clothes make the woman" -- followed by my explanation of how it is what is inside that counts. Right.

Some Mormon dairy farmer's daughter in a horrific Easter dress from JC Penny's ended up winning, with me in 3rd or 4th place. But now I see that my Freudian slip was kind of true, at least as applies to yoga practice.

Huh?

In a previous post, I talked a bit about yoga clothing and the three gunas. As much as I would like to wear whatever, practice on whatever, and have it not matter because my practice is too "real" or "strong" or whatever to be effected by superficial real-world nonsense, it is just not entirely true. When I wear clothes that are baggy, sloppy, or ill-fitting, I am distracted, uncomfortable, and feel "heavy". It's like standing next to someone who is really put together while you are wearing grey sweatpants with oil stains, sandals with socks, and an over sized T-shirt. What I wear doesn't make or break my practice, I don't obsess about it or anything, but when I purchase yoga clothing, I keep in mind how it will make me feel during practice. As much as I like the loose fitting Be Present pants, for example, the drawstring waist hikes up too high or too low, I get wedgies, and all that extra flapping around me is a "drag"--pun intended.

Sloppy yoga clothes don't work for me. Also as a yoga teacher, it is better when students avoid looser clothing because the teacher can better see what is happening in each asana. (PS- I have seen a lot of underwear and g-strings exposed by the Be Present pants.)

On the opposite end of the spectrum, too little clothing doesn't work out either. Today the shala is closed, so I practiced primary at home--in my underwear. Well, at least that's what I would consider it. But it seems that there are plenty of people who look totally normal practicing while wearing almost the same getup...

Kundalini teacher Ana Brett
Yoga Journal's 2008 Calendar


Of course, we have all also seen plenty of shirtless men with their itty bitty black spandex shorts. They don't look naked, right?

Am I just not used to so much exposed flesh in practice? Do I not have the right body for it? All questions yet to be answered. Still, there is so much skin on skin friction. And if I was sweating a lot, I imagine I'd feel like I'd turned into a slimy salamander.

Not too tight not too loose--I guess that for me, even when picking practice clothing, the middle path also applies.

Oh, and I didn't use my mat. I do that once in a while.

--"Three Gunas" post from last year: http://mysoremusings.blogspot.com/2007/07/yoga-clothing-and-3-gunas.html