I Learned Dialogue?

I know. I know. I haven't posted my Week 9 update. That's because I haven't done it yet. I decided I wanted to wait until after I teach my first class on Thursday morning.

And I am totally freaked out about that.

I truly and sincerely (no fucking shit) can NOT remember the dialogue. At all. All I can recall are the order of each pose, and the Sanskrit name. But the dialogue? Nothing but Sit-Up and Savasana are in my brain. I have been up tonight studying. And I will study tomorrow when I can... But holy shit... My first class won't contain much dialogue. My brain is too full.

It's funny... I look at the words for the dialogue now, and I wonder, "Did I actually recite this in posture clinic? Did I actually do a good job on it, like everyone has told me I did? Because I don't ever recall saying these words."

That's the thing about training and posture clinic... The dialogue truly is only in your short-term memory. People keep telling me, "You'll be fine! The words will flow out of your mouth like diarrhea."

But I think my brain is constipated. Badly.

We'll see what happens in class on Thursday AM... I apologize in advance for the shitastic class, if you attend. But I promise to work hard to get better.

Posture Clinics... DONE!

Yay! Hooray!

We are DONE with Posture Clinics!

We finished up this afternoon with Ardha Matsyendrasana, the Spine Twist pose. We got all 45 people between the two groups through the posture... Which was amazing as we only usually get like 18-25 people through the dialogue during posture clinics.

Now it is time to go back and begin work on retaining the dialogue in our heads permanently. My first class is in exactly two weeks.

AHH!

Group 10!

Just a quick shout-out to my Teacher Training posture clinic group...



GROUP 10!!!

Week Three, Moving Fast!

Week three started today. And we are moving fast.

FAST!

Bikram is out of town for the next two weeks, which means we won't be having late-night lectures and movies. In place, though, we will be going full force with anatomy lessons (with tests) AND doing at least (I imagine) six postures...

• Awkward
• Eagle
• Standing Head to Knee
• Standing Bow
• Balancing Stick
• Standing Separate Leg Head to Knee

EEP!!!!

I know Awkward, all three parts. Eagle is in my brain too. But the rest? Uh... Umm... Uh... Yeah. I will be staying up late to get those stuck in my head.

My goal for tonight is to get Eagle verbatim. I will do Awkward tomorrow, and hopefully Eagle by Thursday at the latest. As soon as I deliver Awkward, I will also get Standing Head to Knee in my head verbatim.

Once Eagle is delivered, I'll add Standing Bow.

Once Standing Head to Knee is delivered, I'll add Balancing Stick... And so on.

The goal for the next two weeks is to stay two postures ahead. But once the fifth week hits, that will all change. I will need to be at least three postures ahead, as we could conceivably have to deliver three postures in one day.

Ahh!!!!

Okay. Time to stop writing and start studying. Wish me luck!!!

Shooting For Every Syllable.

Argh!!!

I am working on cleaning up the first few postures this week, now that I finally have some time to sit and think about them. (Work was insane up until this week.) I have Half Moon down... But...

I keep leaving out words. Little ones.

It's mostly just small words... Like using "you are" instead of "you're" or using "the" instead of "your." It may seem small... But it is annoying to me. I want to know every. Single. Syllable.

I know at this point I will probably only have Half Moon with Hands to Feet, Awkward and Eagle down pat before I go in three weeks. But I will have read through the full dialogue hundreds of times. I know bits and pieces of everything. But verbatim? I only will (probably) know just the first three postures that way.

"Your" Leaning Against the Wall.

Just reviewing Awkward pose... And now have a question.

Can "leaning" ever be a thing? Instead of a verb?

I guess it can be, as in "leanings." As in, "I have leanings towards vegetarianism from time to time."

So, when it is used as a noun, it is okay to say "Your leaning is towards vegetarianism." But in this instance, "You're leaning towards vegetarianism" (as a verb) would be correct too.

But I am slightly thrown off by how it is used in a sentence of the dialogue... "Your leaning against the wall."

Shouldn't it be "You're leaning against the wall"?

Or am I getting too far into trying to understand each and every syllable in the dialogue that I am missing the point?

Dialogue Tips From Boston.

The Bikram community in Boston is amazing. A-MAY-ZING.

Not that the one in Toronto (where I live now) isn't fantastic too. But in Boston, my old home studio (Bikram Yoga Boston) begins prepping #BKTT attendees as soon as someone decides they want to go. A study group is formed, and teachers crack the whip on students with the dialogue.

Melissa from Boston (whom I never met while I lived there, funny enough) wrote me today to give me the low-down on what exactly they are doing in Beantown to prep...

"We actually stand up on the podium and use the microphone. Standing up, hearing your voice through a sound system, and announcing it to others feels wildly different than lounging on a couch - I've started practicing standing up and enunciating in a loud voice now. Cheesy, yes, but helpful :)

The only time I've completely drawn a blank is on the second part of awkward. I got nervous having the other future teacher trainees hanging on and waiting for my words. I crumbled under the pressure of their shaky knees. So getting friends to do it while you call it out is definitely helpful!

For poses like awkward and balancing stick, we focused on speaking rapidly/clearly without hesitation or any pauses so students don't have time to "think" about how long they've been in the posture. The goal is to have their bodies simply react to your words without time to ponder.

During the week, we all have our own memorization strategies. Some of the ones we all seem to like are: (1) just reading it a ton of times the first day to have everything sink in, without actively trying to memorize anything, (2) writing out the first letter of every word and saying the dialogue looking at that sheet, (3) saying it while others do it (if you're lucky enough to have other bikram friends you can recruit), (4) recording yourself saying it and then playing it back to make sure you got it entirely right and aren't stuck in a robotic monotone."

These are great tips!

Maybe I should try to get The Husband (whose never done Bikram before) to do the poses while I recite them? Or perhaps I should crack the whip on my team members at work, and force them to help me out during a lunch break?

Thanks Melissa!

Bikram Yoga Teacher Training Tips.

I am fortunate to have paid well in advance of training beginning this Fall.

Many people who go to teacher training do not decide to go until about six weeks before it begins. And they don't issue you your copy of the dialogue until after you have been accepted and pay in full. So now that I have the dialogue, I am doing all I can to memorize as many of the great number of pages before I get on the plane to San Diego. And here are some of the ways I am doing it...

• Write down the poses by hand. Or you could type them, I guess. Either way, it helps me with remembering which phrases come after the other.
• Study in a group. Regular study sessions to help demo the poses and memorize the dialogue in groups helps. Some studios even start a study group for the students planning to attend training at some point in the future.
• Record myself reciting the poses. This has been really helpful. I play them back on my commute to work each morning, while at the gym and even while I am falling asleep. (Learning through osmosis!)

Anyone else got any other memorization techniques???

Official Bikram Yoga Dialogue!

This arrived in the mail today...

It is my receipt and my official copy of the Bikram yoga dialogue!

YAY!!!

This is all I can really show you of the dialogue...

Yep, it is trademarked. So I am not allowed to share it. But trust me, it's intense! It is 45 pages long!

Now off to memorize to begin memorizing!