Transitions in yoga—and life—can be choppy, unstable and erratic. As yoga practitioners this is good news because it gives us something to practice.

Yoga poses have three distinct stages, just as every story has a beginning, middle and end, and every day has a morning, afternoon and night. The three stages of a yoga pose are: moving into, sustaining and releasing. The transitions are poses or movements to move from one asana to the next. Just like the individual asanas, they have a purpose: They prepare the body for the next pose.

"Transitions between poses are the most difficult times to stay focused and mindful. They are the times when people often get hurt. We go on autopilot. We space out and simply stop being attentive at the moment when our presence matters most. Even when we’re coming out of Savasana, we tend to jerk the body up and don’t leave time for a considered reinstating of movement.

That’s why we tell students to go deeper into a pose just before coming out; it’s in order to keep ourselves attentive to those critical in-between moments. For instance, I’ll offer an alignment instruction learned from the Iyengars: “Continue to externally rotate the standing leg knee while coming into and out of Half Moon pose.”

This isn’t just filler; these instructions are crucial for both the body and the mind. This is the micro for the macro. Transitions between yoga poses are metaphors for transitions in life. We are always transitioning.

Yoga shows us that becoming mindful and comfortable during these transitions will open the way to more meaningful and full human experiences." ~~Coleen Saidman Yee