Great Yoga sequencing should feel like a good old dance party in the kitchen… Free, flowing, not overly thought out and just good for the soul.

Yoga sequencing should NOT feel stuck, rigid, awkward or forced. 

So how do we find flow?

Here’s my 5  main tips… 

• Use the Vayus (the directions of energy) to consider if your sequence flows through all the ranges of movement. In short the Vayus are… 

1.  Filling up the heart space, 
2. Moving upward, 
3. Moving downward, 
4. Spiraling inwards and 
5. Expanding outwards. 

If your sequence covers all these movements of energy it will naturally feel good. 

• Don’t go back and forward between closed hip movements and open hip movements. Eg: Warrior Two to Warrior one to Half moon to Chair pose feels awkward! Try to sequence so you stay in the range of closed hip for a while and THEN open up to open hip. Eg: Chair pose to Warrior one, to Warrior two to Half moon.  

• Don’t mix short stance postures with long stance postures. Some poses naturally take up more space on the mat, Eg: Warrior two. Whereas others have a narrower stance, Eg: Goddess. If you transition from one to the other you need to do an awkward foot shuffle in or end up feeling ungrounded because your stance is too wide. Better to keep short with short, long with long.  Eg: Goddess with wide leg forward fold or pyramid. Warrior 2 with high lunge or Skandasana.  
• Turn to the long edge of the mat. Sometimes when we are just facing forwards all the time our movements can get a bit repetitive and robotic. Turning to the long end of the mat (the side) allows us to explore lateral moves, twists and more interesting transitions. Eg: Poses such as cleopatra, Skandasana, wide leg forward fold, gate pose, side plank. 
• Repeats and Variations: Use repetition and variations to build familiarity and deepen the practice. For example you could start with a theme of eagle arms in your opening seated position and then theme this into your warm up in low lunge and then into your standing sequence in balancing poses. 

As someone with a background in dancing and choreography I absolutely love the artistry of creating sequences that FEEL good, make sense and flow seamlessly. Over the last decade of teaching I’ve developed heaps of tools and techniques to create sequences that flow effortlessly. 

If you would like to learn more, I’ll be sharing some of these tools in my upcoming masterclass. You can join here….