Sequencing: How long should I have my students sitting at the start of my class?

This is a great question, and like with many of these questions, the answer is really up to you as the teacher. Consider what you enjoy when you go to classes. Do you like sitting for a longer period at the beginning of the class? Does that feel good in your body? Are you able to engage in pranayama and/or meditation at the start of a class or do these types of practices feel better once you have moved your body first?

It is definitely important to begin every class with some type of centering and grounding practice, whether that be introducing a theme or intention for the class, or encouraging your students to drop into their bodies and into their practice by beginning to dissolve any external distractions or stimuli. Perhaps this includes a body scan or a breath awareness exercise. However, it does not need to be an excessively long portion of the class, it just needs to be long enough to set the tone for the class and the opportunity for your students to begin to move inwards.

Maybe you choose to introduce a pranayama or meditation practice a little later in the class when the body might feel more receptive to deeper breathing or moments of sitting in stillness. An option could be to integrate these practices nearer the end of class before guiding your students into reclined asana, preparing the body for Savasana.

If you do choose to begin the class with a longer opening, maybe with pranayama and meditation at the start of class. Consider bringing the students into a reclined position, as this may help them to drop into a place of grounding more quickly, and be able to find stillness and engage in these practices with more ease than they would from a seated position. Or consider doing one of these practices, such as pranayama, in a reclined position, and then bringing the students into Sukhasana for meditation. That way the students are not sitting for a considerable length of time at the start of the class.