How do people especially teachers deal with AF - Acute Flatulence during classes? This is serious post before anyone thinks what the heck.
At local class I was attending, a woman started coming to it that would bottom burp violently in a sustained manner during the class especially during transition to certain poses. Other class members some laughed whilst others were more stunned and thought rather dusgusting behaviour but gradually over next few weeks other class members would distance themselves from her as the smell which I experienced first hand was often like rotten eggs and tear gas combined, really foul and a thick pungent smell that hanged around for some minutes after each episode, worse in a warm hall with not great air conditioning.
This went on for few weeks, eventually the rest of the class all complained to the Instructor, he was very reluctant to say anything to the woman as it was just plain embarrassing to do so but when other class members said they would be looking for another class if this women was not removed from class or at least spoken to, he took action. After a class he asked her to wait and speak with him in private, later he told us he just came out with it andsaid other class members were complaining about the audible bottom burping disturbing their Yoga practice and the smell was putting them off. The lady in question apologised profusely and said due to stomach problems and excess acid her Doctor had said she had Acute Flatulence, and that it may stay long term or may go there was no certainty either way, despite tablets from the Doctor she still had outbreaks especially during lot of movement such as exercise. The woman did not come back to the class of her own accord and was fine with that, she was not angry with him or anything.
What is the best way to deal professionally as a Yoga Instructor with such issues? Are there set guidelines. I’m hoping to teach in the future but really would not have known what to do if it had happened in my class. Or even things such as someone having strong body odour, you speak to someone and they get angry with you as I’m sure some would, it could also generate negative publicity for your classes i.e. someone saying ‘I got thrown out their Yoga class for body odour personal hygiene’.
Friend in London that teaches, had few teenagers that would come into her class and delibarately do as they termed them ‘Rattlers’ - rattling flatulence off mats or hard surfaces to create a rattling type sound. One of their friends who watched the class told her after it they were doing ‘Rattlers’ (their term) on purpose, and she was initially bemused as to what a Rattler was until the friend explained it. They never came back to classes, only attending 3 and not even consecutive weeks, they must have just thought it a laugh to do so then got bored with it and moved on to other things.
Only other incident I’ve heard of was when someone bottom burped aggressively during a class, was too embarrassed to apologise say sorry or excuse me and they actually pointed at another member of the class and blamed it on them, this creates a terrible atmosphere especially in a Yoga class when people are lying and blaming things on another person.