Yoga is changing us, are we changing it?
Themes, lesson plans, creating an intelligent flow and formatting a safe class for yoga practice is a blend of art, science and trust. When I began writing out my lesson plans for my classes back in 2008 as a brand new teacher, I used the template I was taught then to create a class flow around one focal point. This can be a theme, a peak posture, or intention. Surrounding this center point of intention is an intelligent way to sequence a Vinyasa flow starting with integration then often Sun A into a Sun B followed by a Crescent or Balancing Series, Hip-Opening, Spine-Strengthening and then a proper slow down into Savasana. Not everyone follows this exact format. For years I used this as a blueprint for all my lesson plans, having written down every-single class I have ever taught until around my 15th year of teaching when I started to face a new challenge of letting this format go and trusting the process that my years of teaching and being a student have molded and shaped me into knowing. My classes are more intuitive to the moment and who I am sharing a space with and moving around this organic energy.
Recently, I’ve been inspired to challenge myself to tether myself to a sequence for a few classes rather than making each theme a one-hit-wonder and moving on to the next. I’ve consulted my stacks of journals telling stories of the 10,000 hours of themes, sequences, peak poses, inspiration and lesson plans.
Starting with the “simple” yet ever so sweet, focus on the breath.
For years, I clung to the chakras as an ongoing theme and understanding of my students figuring out their lives pose by pose on the mat. We grounded our bodies, nurtured our souls. We flowed with intention and open hearts. We tasted life in our breath. We expressed ourselves and became more insightful as we opened our minds to something more.
Tuning in with “om” or “Ong namo guru dev namo.”
Offering invocations like “Lokah Samastah Skhino Bhavantu.”
Teaching seasonally according to the Ayurvedic doshas.
Quotes that moved us beyond the world like in 2009 on January 13th (a Tuesday) when I themed to Martin Luther King Jr.’s quote, “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
Understanding there’s more to yoga than asana and opening up the 8-limbs of yoga like opening Pandora’s box.
Awakening to the idea of spontaneous fulfillment of desire.
Sequencing inspired by Darren Main’s book, “Yoga and the Path of the Urban Mystic.”
Then Covid happened and teaching shifted to online, virtual, on-demand, from home, from the office, while traveling. There was this intrinsic call to simplify. I rooted back to the simple beginning of what mattered most to me on my own mat, my breath. Prana. For months after we returned to our mats in the studio, it was about breath. We didn’t move the same before the pandemic because we weren’t the same. Every class was extra sweet because when everything changed - when the shift of yoga community adapted to being behind a screen, we learned to savor, to be more grateful for every breath in motion. Every pose held a different tune.
The yoga blueprint was rebuilt with a different foundation after the pandemic. In the last five years teaching in the studio, primarily, online and also in private sessions, I witnessed the transformation. Students shifted. I shifted.
I sensed the desire for yoga AND… this notion that we still need movement that is mindful… and in a world where we are up against more stress and invasive technology, we are the practice of ourselves. We take form and shape our environment provides. So we need mindful movement to balance stress and have a pathway to the inner self (truth, bliss, joy, soul, samadhi) AND we need more fun, joy and purpose within the movement. I started incorporating more of my mat pilates training, took on teaching Yoga Sculpt, sprinkled in more yin and restorative sequencing into my vinyasa flow, became certified in Animal Flow* and became certified in being “Rewire Yoga” utilizing non-physical aspects of yoga, inspired by the book, Hardwired for Happiness by Ashish Kothari.
This exploration of mixed and mindful movement brought me closer to my source as a yoga instructor and closer to my students. I am not yet clear on the future of yoga and yoga studios and organized classes, and I know I will continue to live my days practicing yoga as the world continues to shift, as I shift.
On August 4, 2026 I returned to Hawaii after a few years of hoping this pathway would lead me back, and it has. I set the intention to return and the path was revealed. Something is being formed and shaped, inspired by yoga and soon it will be rolled out on my mat with me, with you.
Stay tuned… for now, stay connected with me here and keep following for new online classes or reach out if you want to set up a 1-1 livestream meditation or yoga session.
Yoga doesn’t take time, it gives time.
