Week 6: Falling in Love with the Dialogue

Week 6 came and went with a blink of an eye. Even though we had lectures from Dr. Das for three afternoons, 11 yoga classes, and endless posture clinics, the week flew by. This was by far the most exhausting week and we didn't even spend any late nights with Bikram and his endless supply of Hindi movies. What made it exhausting was spending up to 6 hours a day in posture clinics that ended as late as midnight. Emotionally, I'm pretty sick of being here in this yoga bubble and what helped get me through the week was knowing I was going to see my family on Saturday. It's nice to have things to look forward to.

Posture clinics were the focal point this week. Someone mentioned that we need to fall in love with the dialogue. I'm not sure if I'm in love with it yet, but I think it's safe to say we've at least reached first base. I understand the importance of the dialogue and respect the need to memorize it well in order to be ready to teach upon leaving here. The staff really kicked up the pace and I delivered dialogue for 6 postures (as opposed to 3 last week). They really had people on their toes with the quick pace and by Thursday and Friday, many people were stressed about memorizing up to two postures in one day. Fortunately, we're still covering postures I memorized before training started, so I just needed to review and work on my presentation. I found that challenging enough, and again, I'm so glad I worked on the dialogue before I got here. I had a range of feedback from the teachers regarding my dialogue. Some said I needed to be more commanding (even going as far as saying I sound like a kindergarten teacher!) while others said I was very commanding and confident. Go figure! I've given up trying to understand what each teacher is looking for. What makes this process difficult, is you rarely deliver your dialogue to the same teacher two days in a row, so the teachers can't really get a feel for your progress. I've changed my attitude about trying to deliver the dialogue perfectly. Now, I'm just trying to have fun and let a little more of my personality show. I did this when I delivered my last piece of dialogue for the week and felt the most comfortable.

I don't think posture clinic is going to be as intense this week because we will have lectures from another doctor and Rajashree. We'll see.

Dan and the kids got here around noon on Saturday and I took a much needed break from this hotel. The Desert Springs is quite the party hotel on the weekends and it was nice to get away from the crowds of drunk people. We stayed at the Westin Villas and had a lovely time. The kids enjoyed the pool and waterslide, and I enjoyed catching up with Dan and not thinking about yoga for a wonderful 24 hours.

I think the next two weeks are going to be even more intense around here because there's still quite a bit they need to cram in and we only have three weeks left. The light at the end of the tunnel is dim, but it's now visible and will only get brighter with each passing day. In the meantime, I'm going to make the most of the rest of my time here and soak up any knowledge thrown at me that will help me become a good Bikram yoga teacher. It's time to romance that dialogue again!