Ep 101: Sequencing - Why Repetition and Intention Matter More Than Novelty

In this episode, we explore two of the most common myths that get in your way when it comes to creating effective sequences. If you believe that every class must be brand new to keep students engaged, or that sequencing should revolve around what feels good in your own body, well, that's just not true! 

We'll examine why constant novelty is not only unrealistic but also counterproductive for student learning and nervous system regulation. Learn why repetition and familiarity are actually essential for developing strength, stability, and proprioception, especially for students with pain, injuries, or limited mobility. 

We also explore the limitations of sequencing based solely on your personal practice. While your own body can be a helpful reference point, it cannot reflect the wide range of experiences and needs present in a group class. You’ll hear how this mindset might lead to gaps in your teaching and unintentionally exclude students who move differently than you. 

Instead of chasing creativity for creativity’s sake, this episode will help you shift toward purpose, clarity, and progressive sequencing that meets students where they are.

Most importantly, it encourages you to see that effective sequencing does not come from being flashy or inventive; it comes from being intentional, observant, and aligned with what your students actually need.

Transcript

Monica: 0:00

In this episode, let's explore two of the most common myths that keep you feeling overwhelmed, unsure, and stuck when it comes to creating sequences. If you believe that every class must be brand new to keep students engaged, or that sequencing should revolve around what feels good in your own body. Trust me. These beliefs are widespread among yoga teachers, but they often create unnecessary pressure and ultimately will prevent you from developing meaningful, intentional sequences that truly support the diverse needs of your students. I'll explain why constant novelty is not only unrealistic, but also counterproductive for student learning and nervous system regulation. Plus, learn why repetition and familiarity are actually. Essential for developing strength, stability, and proprioception, especially for students with pain injuries or limited mobility. I'm so excited for this conversation. Welcome to the Essential Conversations for Yoga Teachers Podcast with me. I'm Monica Bright and I've been teaching yoga and running my yoga business for over a decade. This is the podcast for you. If you are a yoga teacher, you're looking for support. You love to be in conversation, and you're a lifelong student. In this podcast, I'll share with you. My life as a yoga teacher, the lessons I've learned, my process for building my business and helpful ideas, tools, strategies and systems I use and you can use so that your business thrives. We'll cover a diverse range of topics that will help you, whether you're just starting out or you've got years under your belt and you wanna dive deep and set yourself up for success. I am so glad you're here. Listen, I don't take myself too seriously, so expect to hear some laughs along the way. Now let's do this together. Welcome back to the podcast. I'm Monica, and I'm so glad you're here. Here we talk about the anatomy, the injuries, the nervous system insights, plus all the real life knowledge you wish had been included in your yoga teacher training. Listen, we have passed a huge milestone, 101 episodes, and it's not about numbers and it kind of is. Too, but it's more about the idea of starting something, sticking to it, and allowing it to unfold. Over the last two years, I've discussed topics that I believe yoga teachers need more conversations around. And you've proved me right as I read the emails you send me and see the podcast grow. So I wanna say thank you again for being here. I truly. Appreciate you today. Let's jump into two of the most common myths yoga teachers believe to be true about sequencing. These myths are not just harmless misunderstandings. They create pressure, insecurity, and confusion about what it means to offer a. Skillfully designed class, and even more importantly, if you believe these myths, they can keep you from feeling confident in your work and keep your students from feeling fully supported by you. The first myth is that every class has gotta be brand new. It's gotta be different, or it's gotta be exciting to keep students coming back. Many teachers have this expectation often without realizing it. If you think your students will get bored or judge the class as repetitive, or assume you have become complacent, then let me tell you this is not true. However, the pressure to always reinvent the wheel can turn your sequencing into a performative act rather than a teaching process that's purposeful and intentional. But here's the truth. Human bodies do not learn best from novelty. They learn from repetition, refinement, and familiarity. When you repeat movement patterns with variations that are intentional, the nervous system begins to understand those patterns more clearly. Trust begins to deepen because students can anticipate and prepare. Students build proprioception because they're given consistent opportunities to feel where they are in space. This is why the belief that new equals better becomes a roadblock. Many teachers forget that what feels repetitive to them is often exactly what their students need to grow and feel steady. You probably take multiple classes a week, experiment in your personal practice, study movement constantly and generally live inside your body with a high degree of awareness students, however. Rarely move in this way outside of class. They need time with the sequence. They need space to explore. And here's something you may rarely ask yourself. Are my students asking for variety or am I assuming they are? when you ponder this, honestly, the pressure often dissolves. Students crave clarity. Not constant creativity. They crave safety, not surprise. They crave understanding, not performance. If you wanna explore this for yourself, try asking yourself these questions. What would change in my teaching if I no longer believed Every class had to be brand new? What if repetition was not a sign of stagnation, but a sign of intention? And what if students are not bored at all, but actually grateful for consistency? Get your journal and reflect on those questions. You might find that you change your own mind about this myth once you sit and contemplate it. Now let's have a look at a second myth, which is the belief that sequencing should be based on what feels good in your body or what you personally prefer to practice. This is incredibly common, especially if you're in the early years of your teaching career. Why? Because our own body is the easiest and most familiar reference point. But while this is understandable, it creates an incomplete approach to teaching. When sequencing is based only on your experiences, It inevitably reflects your body rather than the diverse needs of the students in your classes. If you are hypermobile, you might just unintentionally sequence for spaciousness rather than stability. If you are naturally strong, you may lean towards more challenge rather than practices that support the nervous system. If you avoid an entire category of poses because they feel difficult in your body, your students may miss valuable movement patterns that. They need. This does not make you a bad teacher. It simply highlights a very real truth. Your body is not the blueprint. It's one data point, a helpful data point, but not the whole picture. I remember when I had frozen shoulder, I literally could not move my shoulder in ways that my students needed to in their bodies, but just because I couldn't do it, didn't mean I didn't teach it. I still needed to teach them shoulder focused classes. I simply could not just only teach classes that are focused on the hips, the spine, or feet, for two and a half years, they needed that shoulder movement, even though I couldn't perform it in my own body. A more powerful approach to sequencing will emerge when you shift the focus from your preferences to the needs of your students. This is what transforms you from a teacher who teaches poses into a teacher who teaches people When you observe your class, listen to your students and respond to what they are communicating Through movement, your sequence becomes more intentional, more accessible, and more supportive of real human. Bodies. If you wanna explore where you are on this spectrum, ask yourself these questions. How do I sequence based on what feels good to me versus what would benefit my students? What movements do I rarely include because they feel difficult in my body, And are my students missing something because of that? And what would change if I saw my personal practice and my teaching as too related, but separate experiences? Another layer to this conversation is the belief that you cannot teach poses that you cannot personally do. This belief keeps you avoiding entire families of movement that you could actually guide safely. The truth is that mastery is not the same as performance. Many of the most skilled teachers in the world do not demonstrate everything they know how to teach through language, observation and understanding rather than personal execution. If you can explain a pose, break it down, adapt it, and observe it, you can teach it. So what are more effective ways to think about sequencing that make these myths irrelevant? The first is intention based sequencing. When you begin with an intention, everything starts to align. Instead of asking what poses you should teach, you ask what purpose your sequence serves. Maybe you're preparing your students' bodies for hip stability. Maybe you are exploring spinal rotation. Maybe you're helping your students prepare their nervous system for downregulation. When you sequence with intention, repetition becomes meaningful rather than boring. And students learn rather than simply following along. Another approach is progressive sequencing. Rather than thinking of a class as a list of poses, think of it as a pathway or a roadmap. You begin with foundational patterns, layer in complexity slowly, and build towards something that requires more awareness or coordination. This approach supports students with injuries because it respects their need for gradual loading. It supports beginners because it allows them to understand how one movement leads to another, and it supports experienced practitioners because it refines their skills with purpose rather than novelty. A third approach to sequencing is adaptability. You might believe that changing what you've prepared for class means that you're unprepared when in fact, adaptability is a sign of mastery. When you understand movement deeply, you can shift based on who arrives, what energy your students bring, or what. Injuries your students have when they come to class. Adaptability is not improvisation. It's responsive, and it's one of the most valuable qualities you can develop. So if you're listening to this and you have ever felt pressure to entertain or pressure to be creative, or pressure to teach. Only what feels good in your own body. I want to invite you to reflect what if effective sequencing was never about constant innovation, but about thoughtful repetition. What if your teaching became less about personal expression and more about collective support? And what if simplifying your sequencing actually made you a more advanced teacher? Your value as a yoga teacher is not measured by how inventive you can be. It's measured by how clearly you can teach, how intentionally you can sequence, and how compassionately you can support the real students in your classes And those skills come from understanding movement, paying attention, and having the confidence to teach from purpose instead of pressure. When you throw these myths into the wind, you make more room for confidence, for clarity, and genuine connection with your students in your teaching, and that is what students are truly looking for. The biggest lesson from today's conversation is that effective sequencing is not built on constant creativity or whether a pose feels good in your own body. It's built on intentional choices that support how real students move, learn, and adapt over time. when you realize the pressure to reinvent every class, you create space for thoughtful repetition, nervous system safety, and progressive sequencing. And when you move away from sequencing based solely on your personal practice, You begin designing classes that honor the full spectrum of students' bodies and their experiences in your classes Moving forward, here are some next steps for you. Choose one sequence you already teach and refine it for clarity and what's the purpose. Observe your students' responses rather than relying on your preferences and begin asking yourself what each poses for in the context of your larger teaching goals. These small shifts will help you become more confident in your sequencing goals. They'll help you create an environment for more supportive classes and help you create a more grounded teaching experience for both you and your students. Understanding anatomy, biomechanics, and the effects yoga Asana have on the body helps you help your students. If you've been enjoying these episodes, I know that you're a yoga teacher who's ready to teach with more intention and less fear around injuries. Let's continue to raise the bar for how yoga supports real bodies in real life. It's so important for us to have this conversation so that you remember that students of all shapes, sizes, alignment, and abilities come to your classes and you can serve all of them. You know that my goal is for you to love the yoga teaching life. It's important to understand movement and the issues students come to your classes with. Subscribe to the podcast so you're always in the know when a new episode drops. And share it with another yoga teacher who you think would love to be in on these conversations. And finally, thank you for helping to spread the word about this podcast. Alright, thank you for listening. That's it for now. Bye.