I knew I wasn't alone!

Catherine Price, writing in Salon about "Why I Hate Partner Yoga":

As I drove home from the class, I thought back on something my favorite teacher from Brooklyn told me. She explained that, according to some yogic philosophies, the physical poses are preparation for meditation (that is, a way to get the body ready to sit still); in others, the movement itself is the meditation. In either case, she thinks partner exercises interrupt students' concentration and thrust them back into what Buddhists call the "monkey mind" -- where your thoughts jump around like a monkey hopping from branch to branch.

That was it: I didn't like the forced intimacy with strangers, but mostly, the partner exercises took me out of whatever fragile moment of internal calm I might have cultivated and pushed me back into my normal, hyperactive mind. Maybe other people have better attention spans; my brain, however, is as frisky as a chimpanzee, and will take any excuse it can get to run away. When I go to yoga, it's because I crave solitude. I do not want to think about other people and their potential foot fungus. I do not want small talk. I want to be left alone.

This is why I've stopped going to meditation classes and just started practicing on my own. I got tired of the false intimacy with others, the "I'm-going-to-give-you-a-gift" sort of talks. For me, that gift is one of solace, not forced community. Thank you, Ms. Price, for outing we introverts at heart.