In this workshop with guest expert Lauren Gray, we explore a part of sequencing many yoga teachers overlook: mudrās.
When inspiration feels low, mudrās can become a simple but powerful way to generate fresh class themes, shape the felt experience of an āsana, and bring more subtlety into your teaching. Rather than seeing mudrās as something separate from movement, meditation, or prāṇāyāma, this workshop invites us to use them as a creative thread running through the whole class.
What is a mudrā?
At its simplest, a mudrā is a hand gesture.
But in yoga, it is more than hand placement. A mudrā can be a way of directing attention, shaping energy, and deepening communication between body and mind. Just as we feel different qualities in āsana, such as grounding, spaciousness, steadiness, or uplift, we can also feel those qualities through the hands.
That is what makes mudrās so useful in sequencing. They are not just an add on at the end of class. They can become the seed of the whole practice.
Why use mudrās in yoga class sequencing?
Many teachers hit moments where sequencing feels stale. Mudrās offer another doorway into inspiration.
A mudrā can give you a clear energetic theme for class. It can help you decide the emotional tone of the practice. It can shape how a pose is experienced, not just what pose is taught. It can also bring more coherence between your opening, your āsana sequence, your prāṇāyāma, your meditation, and your Śavāsana.
Instead of asking, “What pose should I teach this week?”, you can ask, “What quality does this mudrā evoke, and how could I build a class around that?”
The five elements in the fingers
One of the reasons mudrās are so rich for sequencing is that each finger is associated with one of the mahābhūtas, the great elements.
The thumb relates to fire. The index finger relates to air. The middle finger relates to space. The ring finger relates to earth. The little finger relates to water.
Once you know this, your hands stop feeling random. They become a subtle map. A mudrā can then highlight a particular elemental quality, and that gives you immediate class inspiration.
If you are working with earth, you may sequence for steadiness, rooting, and containment. If you are working with air, you might explore lightness, lift, and fluid transitions. If you are working with space, you may bring attention to pauses, breath, and the felt sense of openness in the body.
Let the mudrā lead the sequence
A really useful approach is to practise the mudrā first yourself and ask what it actually feels like in your body.
Does it create steadiness, softness, alertness, containment, or expansion? Does it make you aware of your heart space, your back body, your breath, or the spaces between the limbs? Once you know that, you can let the sequence grow from the experience rather than from theory alone.
For example, Haḳinī mudrā, with all fingertips touching, might evoke spaciousness, clarity, and a sense of expansion between the fingers. One teacher may sequence from that into poses that emphasise lightness and breath. Another may feel strength through the back body and build a class around that. The same mudrā can lead to different classes because the felt experience is part of the teaching.
That is what makes sequencing with mudrās both intelligent and creative.
Mudrās in āsana, not only meditation
Mudrās are often taught in isolation, but they can be woven into movement very effectively.
You can introduce the mudrā in seated practice, let students experience it clearly, and then revisit it in selected āsanas. A mudrā might appear in Vīrabhadrāsana, Vṛkṣāsana, Goddess Pose, or a seated fold. It may then return again in meditation or Śavāsana, giving the whole class a sense of continuity.
The key is clarity. Teach the mudrā first. Let students feel it when they are stable and not overloaded with instruction. Then layer it into the sequence in a way that supports rather than confuses.
Mudrās, mythology, and meaning
Mudrās can also open the door to story.
If a mudrā connects with a deity, a symbol, or an image, that can become another layer in the class theme. Garuḍa mudrā might inspire a sequence around wingspan, perspective, and strength. Gaṇeśa mudrā might evoke obstacles, courage, and determination. A mudrā associated with the heart could support a class on giving and receiving.
This does not mean you need to present yourself as an expert in mythology. It is enough to be honest that you are learning, exploring, and sharing what is inspiring you. Often, teaching becomes one of the best ways to deepen your own understanding.
A practical way to begin
If you want to start sequencing with mudrās, keep it simple.
Choose one mudrā. Sit with it. Notice what it does in your body, breath, and attention. Read a little about its symbolism and elemental qualities. Then build a class around one or two core feelings it evokes.
You do not need ten mudrās in one class. One is enough. Introduce it clearly, revisit it two or three times, and let it return in the closing practice. That alone can make your sequencing feel fresher, more integrated, and more thoughtful.
Find out more about Lauren’s work: https://www.laurengray-yoga.com/
RELATED: Mudrā as Living Sādhana: From Gesture to Presence
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Conclusion
Mudrās offer yoga teachers another source of sequencing inspiration that is subtle, embodied, and deeply connected to the wider tradition of yoga.
They can help you move beyond pose based planning and into energy, symbolism, and felt experience. They can support your students to experience a pose differently, and they can help you create classes with more depth and coherence.
When inspiration feels thin, a mudrā can be enough to begin again.
