By Rachel Cline · July 21, 2026

Wellspring · The Art of Teaching From Within

Years ago, I took a yoga class built around effort and ease, strength and grace. The truth is, I didn’t have that balance in my life. And oh, did I want it. I wanted it so much it ached.

I went home that night and wrote those words in my journal with a big circle around them. I didn’t understand it yet, but that was the first time I felt how a few words could stay with a person long after class. That class followed me home. Honestly, it might be a big part of why I wanted to share this practice at all.

Welcome to Wellspring, the corner of my world built just for yoga teachers. This first letter is about the thing that class taught me, the real power of a well-chosen theme, and why it so often slips off our plates anyway.

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That was the first time I felt how a few words could stay with a person long after class.

Why theming falls off the list

Most of us know we “should” build thoughtful themes. I’ve heard it from my fellow YTT grads. And still, let’s be real. We’re fitting our love of teaching into very full lives. Building a theme that fits your personality and your class flow takes time, and that’s time you could be spending with your family, on your own goals, or the hundred other things you’re carrying.

So we do one of two things. We skip the theme, which is completely okay when it’s a choice. Sometimes the sequence is the theme. Or we come back to the breath, which is always valid and something most of us could stand to practice more anyway.

Both have their place.

What a woven theme actually does

And still, when a theme is woven through a class, even lightly, something shifts. You’ve felt it. It’s the student who finds you afterward and says “that really resonated,” or “I needed to hear that today,” or “that one stayed with me.”

That’s the practice reaching past the mat. That’s teaching someone to fish so they can find their own way.

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That’s the practice reaching past the mat. That’s teaching someone to fish so they can find their own way.

A free place to start

That’s why I made the Theme Seed Packet. It’s 25 theme seeds. Each one is a spark and a question, so you can grow it into something that sounds like you.

There’s also one theme grown all the way to bloom, so you can see what a fully woven theme might look like from the first hello to the last word. It’s here to give you your summer back, so you can spend the time on what matters most to you.

And if you’d rather skip the growing and walk in with the whole thing done, there’s the Iris Collection, 15 summer themes built out for you from the first hello to the last word, in a fully editable Google Doc. It’s the bloom to these seeds.

Questions teachers ask

Do I need a theme for every class?

No. A class can be complete without a spoken theme. Sometimes the sequence itself is the theme, and coming back to the breath is always enough. A theme is a way to deepen the experience when you have the capacity for it, not a rule you have to follow.

How do I come up with yoga class themes?

Start with something true for you right now, a feeling, a season, a line of poetry, a piece of yoga philosophy. Then weave it lightly through the class, in how you open, a cue or two during movement, and the words you land on in stillness. If you’d like a running head start, the Theme Seed Packet gives you 25 to begin with.

What’s the difference between the Theme Seed Packet and the Iris Collection?

The Theme Seed Packet is free, and it hands you 25 sparks to grow your own themes. The Iris Collection is the done-for-you version, 15 themes built out start to finish in an editable Google Doc, ready to teach as they are or adjust to sound like you.

How much time does theming really take with these?

It really depends. Some yoga class themes take just a few minutes to pull together while others take considerably more time. The seeds cut the blank-page time to minutes, and Iris takes it to almost none, since the words are already there. You spend a few minutes making it yours instead of a whole evening building from scratch. Start with the free Theme Seed Packet here.

Walking this journey with you,
Rachel

p.s. What’s your biggest challenge with planning class themes? I’d love to know, so I can support you deeper. Write me at [email protected].