Someone in class today pointed out that this is personal not presecriptive which really resonated with me so I wanted to elaborate on it.

As teachers, many of us move between the worlds of fitness and yoga. If you’ve ever taught or attended Body Balance, you’ll know how beautifully constructed it is, music-driven, tightly choreographed, and universally replicable. Everyone across the globe is doing the same class, at the same pace, to the same track. It’s slick, it’s consistent, and it works BUT it’s also a formula.

Freestyle Yoga is the opposite. There is no set choreography, no beat-to-beat script, no external structure telling us when to inhale, when to lunge, when to rise. Instead, we invite people into their own process. We hold the space, offer options, and allow them to explore what their bodies need in that moment. The flow emerges from within rather than being imposed from the outside.

This difference is subtle but profound. In Body Balance, the measure of success is uniformity, how well participants follow, how closely the class mirrors the choreography. In freestyle yoga, the measure of success is individuality, how deeply participants connect with themselves, how they merge breath, body, and awareness into a seamless flow.

For us as teachers, this changes everything. We move away from the role of instructor, the one who tells people what to do; into the role of facilitator. We observe, guide, and encourage. We create an environment where strength, mobility, balance, and mindfulness happen naturally without being prescribed.

And here’s the beauty, when we teach in this way, yoga’s philosophy merges with your individual message. We don’t need to add it in as a lecture or a script. It is lived through choice, breath, awareness, and freedom in movement.

So next time you step into the studio, notice where you sit as a teacher. Are you directing the external, or are you creating space for the internal? Both have value. But in a world where everything is increasingly prescribed, the opportunity to teach yoga freestyle is a gift, for our participants and for ourselves.

Jayne Nicholls

Jayne Nicholls, multi award winning owner and director of GXT.