Elemental: Why to Theme Your Classes

This year, my word is "elemental." I've been theming my classes around one element each month. Being a chemist, this is a little amusing, because every once in a while I think "maybe May should be Beryllium" or something equally absurd. (By the way, why so serious?)

January started out with Earth, and remembering how we are fully supported. The structure that Earth gives us allows us to act because we have a feeling of safety. February was Fire, which sounds odd but the cold, short month is often one of the hardest to get through. Fire gives us the spark of action and the motivation to follow through. We burn through our old stories to make room for the new ones. March was Air: light and playful, all movement. April is Water. The most dynamic and powerful element (have you SEEN the Grand Canyon?) it nurtures (April showers bring May flowers!) and cleans.

These are great! But why? Using some kind of theming makes your classes more cohesive, even if you don't specifically call out your theming during class. Often it's helpful to tell your clients what you're doing, but you always need to address the people in the room without being slavishly devoted to explaining yourself. When you're using a theme, you can work on specifics that fit into it. Earth, for example, cues us into feeling the ground beneath us in every pose, no matter how tenuous the connection might feel. So throughout the month, you can use your theme to develop the idea of support (props! variations! assists where appropriate! muscle and bone as the structure of our asana! yamas and niyamas as the bedrock structure of Patanjali's eight limbs!) while getting into some places it's harder to address (Chakra correspondence, Koshas, Nadis and Granthis.)

Ideally, having this structure or theming will keep people coming back. Some will come to know what you have to say about it this week, for instance. Others will like the emphasis on particular asanas that might go along (heart opening for Air, as an example.) No matter why they come back, having that theme change regularly but not too often is helpful because you can keep things fresh while developing more deeply. If you're a good storyteller, you can incorporate past themes AND foreshadow upcoming ones as you go. Admittedly, this isn't easy and will often get set aside in service of the "regular" stuff that needs to be said, like cueing for newer folks or reminders that asana is not the end of the practice, but a beginning.

Your own theming can be whatever you choose, but I like the idea of something with enough parts to have some consistency. When you think about the elements, there aren't that many (I add Time as an element, for lots of reasons, so that gives me six for a half year.) But I intend to revisit the theming during the second half of the year. I think it will give those who have been with me all year a chance to see how things change over time and explore things they might not have been able to the first time through.

You might choose to go through the Yamas and Niyamas, the Eight Limbs, do a rotation by season, or use the meridians if you primarily teach Yin Yoga. There are endless ways to do this, and you can choose the one that fits you best. It's never too late to begin, and it can help you to plan your sequences more effectively while offering your clients a new, fresh perspective.

Have you done theming? Do you still do it? How do you like it? Let me know what you think!