Tragedy of the Studio (commons)

Tragedy of the Commons: In my Yoga Studio

     

This photo depicts the ideal setting in which I would like to practice my yoga rituals. What can be more serene than this? Surrounded by nature, hearing only the animals dwelling in the forest, feeling the cool breeze on your skin and not worrying about anyone but yourself and your practice. Being a college student in the city of Cincinnati, this dream is hard to come by. I am forced to pay money and go to an inside studio surrounded with other students. 

The dilemma is this: Belonging to a yoga studio can be very expensive. So finding one for a reasonable price is hard to come by. I did, however, manage to do this. I now belong to a hot yoga studio within walking distance from my dorm and campus that only cost 35$ a month for unlimited classes! How can you beat that? I am not the only student to find this amazing deal though. Every time I go to a class I have to make sure that I am a good half an hour early to get a spot where I can see myself in the mirror before the crowd enters. As I lay on my matt in shavasana before class, other "yogis" enter in packs of twos, threes, sometimes five at a time! I wonder " Do they ever stop letting people in?" 

 Here is the studio where I practice yoga. As you can see it is more than packed. The reason is that yoga is becoming a more and more trendy thing to do. Hot stores such as Lululemon over glorify yoga with their trendy, in-style workout clothes and images of models doing yoga in the store. As nice as it is to share the love of binding one's body with others, I need room to breath and put my body in places where I don't have to worry about touching my neighbor. When I attend class, I am smack dab in the front next to the teacher's matt taking up a space from another student and blocking the usage of the mirror for others. If I do not attend class my spot is open and I miss out on an hour devoted to myself. 

I would not be able to do this position in the crowded studio. 

This story exemplifies Hogan's Tragedy; the fact that this studio is so convenient and cheap creates a tragedy of the commons. The front of the room is a common pool area because we all want to see what we are looking like during our practice and have plenty of room to do as we please. This spot is hard to come by because of the incredibly affordable classes that are offered by the studio and the number of increasing yogis in an urban city. The studio needs to allocate their profit by offering more classes for beginners, and/or advanced classes, or more classes in general instead of mushing all levels of ability together and having a packed studio. Because one day I want to be able to do this:

 And I need all the space and attention I paid for.