Before teaching yoga, I taught computer science workshops for about five years. One standard teaching practice was to make a website with all the necessary instructions and files. Our websites were valuable resources for students and teachers during and after the workshop. This practice of making all the educational resources freely available is called “open source education”.

When I started teaching yoga, I wanted to bring a similar approach to my yoga classes. So, for every class I teach, I write a blog post that includes details about when and where, a general description, the theme of the class, an outline of the sequence of poses, and a link to the Spotify playlist.

My yoga classes usually follow an arc of opening awareness, warm-up stretches, balancing poses, inversions, twists, grounding poses, and relaxation. I chose songs that fit the energy level and speed of the flow. For instance, I usually start with songs without words during the welcome and meditation. When we start moving our bodies, I play songs with lyrics that match the poses or beats that flow nicely with the breath. Here is one example of an outline of poses and the corresponding playlist from a mindful beach yoga class.

Like many yoga instructors, I write down yoga sequences in my journal for reference during class, but I also love having a digital version that is easily accessible and sharable. I often refer back to past classes when I need inspiration, have special requests, or want to re-teach a previous class.

Check it out and let me know what you think. Could you teach a class with this outline or maybe use it as a guide for a home practice? Let me know!