211 - Five Ways to Shake Up Your Sequencing

When we teach something new, something that demands a different attention, it gets us out of our heads and into our bodies.

As teachers, I really believe that part of the gift that we get to give is that of moving  people, not just through space but within and through themselves.  We get to witness as they move and are moved.

Part of how we're able to support this is through keeping things interesting for the brain and body. Today we talk about some ways to do just that. 

Weekly stories by email from Bonnie’s HERE

Connect with Bonnie: Instagram, Email (hello@bonnieweeks.com), Website
Listen to Bonnie's other podcast Sexy Sunday HERE

The music for this episode is Threads by The Light Meeting.
Produced by: Grey Tanner

Transcript

Hello, welcome to the podcast today, where today I have a couple teaching tips for you. So this is especially for you as a yoga teacher and your particular attention you might be giving towards cueing. At this very current moment, I'm about to enter the last meeting for Online Flow School, round 11. And gearing up next week for Round 12 of Flow School, which is in person in Portland, Oregon. And I have spent the last several days putting together a calendar, a calendar plans for 2024 for online and in real-life experiences. 

So this is speaking directly to yoga teachers today and specifically to sequencing, which I have found myself landed in. I love the land of sequencing. So first off, let's just talk about this is choreography. Really, sequencing is how do we thread things together so that they can make sense and make something with our bodies in our movement that we can do with awareness, with this combination of effort and ease and find play in it. And it's something that not all teacher training spend very much time on. And that's fine. Ish. I might have some thoughts about that.

Um, my job exists because, um, because there needs to be more time on it. And a 200 hour training is not going to give us everything that we need. And so it's awesome that I can provide something like this and there can be other programs and trainings and courses and things out there for everybody to then kind of pick and choose the things that really interest them in regards to teaching. I think if we're moving bodies, it feels really important to me that we are taking the time to think about what we're sequencing, why and how.

And even with that, do I teach classes where I walk away and think that could have been done better? Hell yes. I a hundred percent do. So I am in the same practice of, of working through the things and, and trying them on and seeing what lands and what doesn't and how to do it better. So I love flow school. I love supporting teachers in their discovery of their own voice.

Bonnie (02:26.922)

How they own the room, how they give clear, concise, and commanding cueing in a compassionate way, and how they are able to string together postures that make sense and really hit all the different ways the body wants to move. Really gives a big holistic sort of experience for the body. Holistic means, like, just all the parts. But today...

We're not going to dive into all of the things. It's never possible to dive into all of the things, capital letter, All. That's kind of funny to even think about. But if you're a teacher and you're thinking, wow, I just want to shake up what I'm doing. And maybe you've practiced with me in Flow School. Maybe you've practiced with me on Studio B, which is my online studio. Anybody can join it. If you're a teacher, you, and you want to learn from me, you're welcome to. You do not have to be a teacher to join flow school or to join Studio B, sorry, Studio B.

So maybe you've moved with me there, but maybe at this moment you're like, man, I don't want any of those things. Just give me a quick drop in of five ways that I could kind of shake up the sequencing that I've been doing. And how can I make that a little bit more fun for me, a little bit more fun for my students and give me a different sort of awareness and attention to focus on that calls in this experience of your students really being able to drop in from their head into their body. So I think when we teach something new, something that demands a different attention, it gets us out of our heads and into our bodies. 



And as teachers, I really believe that that's a part of the gift that we get to give is can we move people or invite and encourage people to find that awareness of where they're thinking, what they're like kind of ruminating on and move that focus and attention from their head to their body, and then witness and watch as they move into their body and then out of their body. And when I say that, I really think it, I'm really thinking about the feeling of it, where you're not worried about the way your arms are placed in certain postures, but you're then all of a sudden in the feeling of it. 



And the feeling of it that's not necessarily the effort, but the way that things are put together as a dance. And I like using the word choreography that really is synonymous with sequencing. And it is this thread together and a story that we're telling with our sequencing. Okay, with that set up, five ways to shake up your sequencing that I'm gonna drop for you and that you then can take and play with. Number one. Number one is to begin a different place on the mat than you usually do.

What I mean by this is let's take very traditional kind of vinyasa class. Where do you usually, most usually find chair pose?

Do you find it at the top of the mat? Yes, you do. Chair pose at the top of the mat. Think Tadasana, forward fold, chair pose. It happens so often at the top of the mat. So your first invitation is to begin that same pose at a different place in the mat. So if you're like, wow, I just want to sequence in an interesting sort of way, take chair pose, use chair pose, and now put it in the middle of the mat.

Stand in the very middle of the mat, facing forward, chair pose. Now, what are you going to do next after that? So you have to pause, you have to stay there and you have to say, you have to ask yourself some question, be like, ooh, how do I move from chair pose? I'm gonna stay centered on the mat. I'm gonna honor the mat as like my middle ground. So I really think it's important that if we move students off the mat, that we get them back to center. So if you do move off the mat, fine, but move them back into center in a way that's...

not awkward and not a weird shuffle. So you're standing in the middle of the mat facing forward. Or take that chair pose all the way to the back. What if you're standing at the back of the mat in chair pose? How does that change the next pose's use sequence? Because I guarantee you, you stand at chair at the top of the mat, chair in the middle of the mat, chair at the back of the mat. The next poses you sequence are gonna be totally different from each other. Okay, let's shake it up just a little bit more. We're still at number one. I want you to stand at the back of the mat in chair pose, but now I want you to turn yourself

Bonnie (06:59.662)

sideways to the long edge of the mat. Do chair pose right there. What do you do next? How do you reorient yourself on the mat? What poses come in line after that? Put on some good music. Don't worry about planning a class for a moment. Go put yourself in chair at a different place on the mat and see what happens. Number two, second way to shake up your sequencing. I want you to think about something.

And you can look back at your notes if you are a note taker for your classes. I really like taking notes so I remember what I do so I can repeat it and so I can refine it. So if you don't, then think about it or look at your notes and say, what is something that you have been doing so much of? And I want you to make a rule that you cannot do that. So what's a movement pattern that you're seeing and.

If you're working in a studio and you're like, wow, everybody's teaching this particular movement pattern right now, this like transition, then how could you, you could even take that and say like, well, how can I do it different? Right? I want you to make a rule for yourself, just for this week, just for this time, you're gonna go to the mat, you're gonna play, you're gonna put on good music, you're not taking your planning notebook, this is you just moving for you. That's such an important part of teaching, you moving for you. I want you to...

Give yourself a rule, oh yeah, I've been doing this. I've been moving from reverse triangle to extended side angle so many times. And maybe if that's one you haven't tried, then you can try that. Hey, but whatever it is, whatever it is that you have been moving through a lot, make it a rule that you cannot and then see what happens. Because if it's showing up every time, then shake it up. Number three.

I want you to use the middle, middle of the mat. And I'm going to like say in here, don't use chair because chair is a different thing. So don't put chair in the, in the middle, middle of the mat, but introduce it to your classes like this at the very beginning. Say like, Hey y'all's welcome to class today. I am going to cue the middle, middle of the mat and what I'm going to mean by that. So let's just take a peek at our mats here. If you go front to back, side to side, and you have to draw lines in the middle, going both directions, where they intersect in the middle of the mat. That's the middle, middle.

Bonnie (09:21.598)

And call it the middle middle, because that's a fun way to say it. Not just the middle, but the middle middle. It's middle one way and middle the other way. Middle middle of the mat. Okay? And then you'll say, when I get there, then you'll know the middle middle. So there you go. You can have them sit and begin in the middle of the mat. And your mission then for this third way to shake up your sequencing is to use the middle of the mat. Maybe an.

Elbow goes down there at some time. Maybe you step a foot from the middle of the mat. Maybe you're a wild thing and you step a foot over with that foot, the floating back leg or like the back foot of wild thing. You step that back on the mat in the middle, middle of the mat. Maybe you are, maybe you're at the back of the mat and you're in a double toe squat and you extend one leg forward to the middle, middle of the mat and stand up.

Maybe you are at the top of the mat in a warrior three and you set your back foot down and then you shift your weight to that leg and then you're standing in the middle of the mat. There's three ideas for you. Number four, fourth way to shake up your sequencing is to include a posture that's often considered a, quote, relaxed or held posture like chill, hang out, no big deal, here we are. And like,

So that's going to be that. And I have to make a note and say, there are no postures like that. There are no postures that are like no big deal. All of them are a big deal in some way. So like, let's make sure that we like are aware of that because Chad's pose is a hell of a posture to hold for a long time. I do not like holding child's pose for a long time. It's a lot of flexion we are asking for people. It's not a chill posture at all. So if you, I'm just going to put this caveat out there. If you're like saying, yeah, you can go to child's pose as much as you want.

No, no, no. If you wanna give people the permission to take a restorative posture that makes sense for them, that would be better language than saying, you can take child's pose as much as you want. Child's pose is hard. That's not like actually making it easier. So if there's a moment where you wanna give permission to be like, if you at any point wanna take a restful posture, whatever that means to you in the moment, please take it. Like there's a bigger language we could use here besides just saying,

Bonnie (11:48.002)

the catch-all child's pose. So I just wanna say that first. And our fourth way to shake up our sequencing is to think about the postures that are commonly held for longer time periods. Think about child's pose. Think about pigeon. Think about tree or a supine twist where you're laying on your back or sphinx when you're in your belly or staff or dandasana where you're sitting down as your legs are extended or if you're laying down. I put supine pose but also if you're just laying all the way down on your back.

Think about these postures, and there could be more that you might think about. Think of perhaps, I was gonna say cow face, cow face could be one. Just think about postures that you might more commonly hold for a longer time, and instead of holding them, include them in flow, include them in flow. So you're gonna go into it.

And then you're gonna use that posture to help direct you to go to another posture. How to use Dandasana, see it as daft pose, right? Or not see it, just daft pose. How do you use that posture to then move to something else and then get back to it to move to the other side? So that's kind of the thing. How do you get to pigeon pose? Where do you go from pigeon pose to let it move to the next thing and then come on loop all the way back around to the other side and let it again move to the next thing.

So use those poses that might be considered like chill, hang out, be here, but use them in flow instead. Last thing I'm gonna give you for today, there's so many more ways I could talk about shaking up your sequencing, this is why I love flow school. I give you prompts, prompts similar to this, but a little bit more specific. But our fifth thing that I'm gonna give you is to use a block as a prop in a new way.

So very commonly a block is used as, you know, raise the ground for a half moon pose to have your hand underneath it. Or down facing dog, it's so helpful to have blocks underneath your hands in order to step up to the top of the mat. I really think that should be just used way more often because stepping up to the top of the mat is hell hard, hell hard and really difficult for people when they are trying to flow, if that is not something that is accessible in their mobility and flexibility of their body yet.

Bonnie (14:07.046)

So that all said, it's often used in the supportive sort of way as pigeon, you know, put it underneath your ass. So instead, I want you to think about using a block as a prop in a new way, something that is a part of the flow. Maybe you step up onto it and it's a balance challenge. Maybe it's something where you're going to touch it and you just make the rule. You're like, okay, this entire flow, I have to touch. I have to touch a block.

with some part of my body, this entire flow. And it can be set down. And then like, you know, if you're switching, like you're putting it down from a hand, and then the next thing you're stepping up onto it, that's fine. But like you're constantly like in navigation of using that block. There was a, when I was just in Texas in two months ago now with a group of teachers and we were talking about sequencing cause wherever I go to do a workshop, if you are listening to this and you...

want somebody to come and host workshops, I do that. And a part of it is always a teacher workshop for the weekend on top of workshops for anybody to join that's not just teachers. But we were talking about teaching and one of the other teachers there shared how every October she calls it Blocktober. As I'm creating this, it's not October anymore. So it's November, so Block-vember. I don't know, like make it up.

and make it up. But play with this idea of what happens when you think beyond what that prop is typically used for and how does that change your sequencing and add an element of play. And think about, you know, when I was in, I can't remember if I was in a workshop or a training or I can't remember if it was a teacher training or a workshop, but we were doing headstands.

And we had a bunch of blocks and then we would pick up the block with our feet and headstand and pick it all the way up overhead and then set it in another pile. And so we removed the blocks and you know, it was one way to play with blocks. And that wasn't in any sort of way supporting my headstand, but it was a way to play with it. I know Cecily who teaches with Yoga Detour, there's a podcast here in Yoga Strong with her and talked about how in...

Bonnie (16:34.642)

I can't remember if it was in Half Moon or Warrior III. If you reach down, you have to get a block or evolved Half Moon, something like that. Where you have to bend down, hinge, you're in a hinge motion and you come all the way back up. This idea it's a single leg and then the block, you have to set it down and pick it back up. Set it down, pick it back up and in between, you have to stand up and then you're moving it all around you. So you're really practicing this experience of hinging and finding your balance and then standing all the way back up. So.

There are a lot of ways like those things. I have knelt on blocks, I've stepped up on blocks. You can have a block. Think about if you're standing at the top of the mat and you reach your left hand up and over your head. Flex your hand. So as if you're trying to put your hand up on the ceiling, put a block on top of that hand. You can't grip the block. It just has to be resting like a tray, your serving tray, right? So you're serving block. Serve block. Take your right hand down alongside your body. So your left hand is up with the block.

You're into dasana at the top of the mat, so you're standing. And then from here, you're gonna bend over, take your right hand down to the ground, but keep your left hand reaching up towards the ceiling. And so you're gonna have to open up, your shoulder's gonna rotate, you don't wanna drop that block, your elbow's gonna stay straight, and you're gonna be in a twisted position. Now you can bring your right fingertips all the way to the ground and step your right foot to the back of the mat. So now you're in a twisted low lunge. Now where do you go from there?

So now you have this block in your hand and really it's gonna feel good to get upright. Your head's kind of down. So like, where are you gonna stand up if you have that right foot step back, where are you gonna open to? What happens if you step back and you open up to warrior two? How does that your top hand have to rotate without gripping the block to be able to hold the block up? So it challenges and changes the focus of the flow and it makes it a little bit more of a game. And I so much think about like gamifying our movement.

And we can be serious about this practice. We can be serious about all the body movements that we really want to encourage awareness of and self-awareness of both our bodies and our internal experience and our sense of safety, right? And yes, we're staying away from pain, but discomfort's okay, and how do we like have this balance of work and play? All of these things together can exist.

Bonnie (18:52.486)

And so much more, it's so much more interesting, I think, to think about gamifying the experience where it is hard work to be in our bodies and moving our bodies and doing new things. And commonly, if you're throwing kind of like these, these five ways to shake it up, right? Like people's brains, I say often, please take this user, I'm like, okay, brain games. This is some brain games we're doing.

There's a word game in it. So this is a game and use the word like “experiment.” So say these things as you move into this and allows people to think about new ways to connect stuff. It lets you as a teacher connect things in your practice, in your teaching and in your delivery that you might not have connected before that then changes the entire experience. That's what we're here for. How can we build bigger awareness of ourselves?

Of our connection to the world around us, of the people in that world and the world. This is what we're here for, right? And I think so much of that exists within our play and our questions of how we're doing the thing. So in your questions of how you're doing the thing, these are five ways to shake up your sequencing. You could take these, you have enough things if you do all five of these.

And I gave multiple examples or some of these. You probably have enough content that you could teach a six months worth of classes here, as you're gonna repeat those classes more than once. You're gonna teach it for at least two weeks, yeah? So play with it, try it on. I would love to hear about it. So if you use any of these tips, send me a message. Send me an email, helloatbonnieweeks.com.

Drop me a note on Instagram, look me up at carrot underscore bowl underscore Bonnie. Carrots like you eat, the orange crunchy things, yes. Thought I was gonna be a food blogger, not a food blogger, carrot-bowl Bonnie. Also you can leave a note or a review on the podcast and be like, oh my gosh, I just did five ways to get your sequencing. I did this, leave a note, leave a review on it. I would love to hear more. It means a whole ton to me to know that this is helpful for you. Go, be the weirdest one in the room.

And have a ton of fun. ‘Till next time.