Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Hold it there, freeze (Week 6)

Another week past in the blink of an eye. We are officially two-thirds the way through training and the remaining three weeks will undoubtedly be over before we know it. I'm enjoying this experience more than I ever thought possible and am starting to think that my breakdown will happen once I leave the yoga bubble and have to integrate back into the real world. I'm trying to hold on to each moment as much as I can. Just like in Cobra pose, I want to "hold it there, freeze."

Week 6 was all about posture clinics. We had them everyday and on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, twice a day. I delivered four postures: Wind Removing, Cobra, Locust, and Full Locust. The latter was my best yet -- I finally achieved the right balance between dialogue and energy. Felt great!

Spending so much time in posture clinic meant that my group really bonded. We're quite an eclectic bunch -- each of us coming from different places and stages in our lives. The one thing that unites us is our love for Bikram Yoga and our desire to share the yoga with others through teaching. Regardless of where we are with the dialogue, we support and cheer each other on and it's amazing to see how close we've become over the past several weeks.
Group 3! Best group ever! (I'm on the bottom row, second from the left.)

On Friday evening we had a dress up Bikram Yoga class to celebrate Halloween. With little time to prepare and a lack of imagination, I simply wore a black and orange yoga outfit. Other trainees, however, went all out. There were the Three Little Pigs, Little Red Riding Hood, Miss Piggy, and the usual suspects -- devils, witches, and zombies. Even Bikram dressed up! Kudos to the trainees who kept their costumes on throughout the class! Later that evening we had a pizza party and danced to Bikram's Lounge CD. A fun time was had by all.

Halloween dress up class.
Bikram's Halloween Costume
Halloween dance party!
One last thing that helped make Week 6 memorable is that I got my teaching schedule for when I return. I'm teaching seven classes my first week back! I wasn't expecting so many classes, but am thrilled that I'll be able to get up on the podium that many times. I'll be feeling my groove long before Christmas rolls around.

66 classes down and 33 to go. What an amazing ride!

5 comments:

  1. What a party your post is! You sound radiant, and that's wonderful, given where you are and what you're accomplishing.

    Keep enjoying it, keep eating a lot! You need it.

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  2. wow 7classes first week back home!!! that is amazing-you must have a great home studio who supports you:) can i ask do you go on a scale for pay when u get home? eg- first 3months lower pay and then after 5-6months u go up to diff pay? I am just curious as I know they do that at studio i go to(i am not a teacher)...
    Sounds like you are really powering on - i have been reading your blog each week....not long left now!!!!

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  3. You'll be psyched to get those first 10 classes under your belt FOR REAL!!! Congrats, keep it up, I've been a little absent on the blogosphere (I'm preggers!) but I'm cheering you on girlie!!!

    Enjoy. Oh... pay attn. when Lynn gets the mic at the end, and gives her timing sheet.

    You'll have very few time points to check when you teach but they're so essential. For me it's 25 min at party time, hit the floor at 50 minutes (this is where you know you're f'd if you hit at 55)

    Start camel by 15 minutes to go and you might just get all those postures in in 90 minutes!

    And... first week - GET EM IN GET EM OUT do not worry about nailing all the dialogue.

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  4. @Kylie Thanks for reading my blog! I believe all teachers make the same rate in Toronto for the first little while. More senior teachers make more, but not sure when the increase happens.

    @Anna Congrats on your big news! That's fantastic! Thanks for breaking down the timing. I will definitely keep that in mind when I start doing my practice runs.

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  5. You're going to miss it SO MUCH when you leave, you'll just have to keep going back and visiting... wink wink. But it's great that you're teaching right out of the gate. That'll help with the separation anxiety for sure! Still all yoga, all the time!

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