“The art of sequencing is the art of transitions.” ― Melina Meza, my “art of teaching” yoga teacher
Melina shared these wise words early on in my yoga training. Since then, I’ve put effort in building parts of myself that I consider fundamental to showing up fully in the world. I launched this website which required development and writing, two very different skills; started teaching a Sunday class to my loved ones; and switched gears back into my entrepreneurial venture. All this while still in active physical recovery from life events. I have a tendency to spin a lot of plates at the same time. This time however I’m not only spinning plates that are new to me, I’m asking myself to exercise varied skills and tend to a spectrum of practices within a compressed timeframe. So, I’ve been transitioning a lot. Constantly walking from one room of creation to another, each room requiring me to lead with a different part of myself.
Effective yoga sequences ensure one pose transitions to the next thoughtfully so there is a through-line, a semblance of continuity to help us plant ourselves into a practice and not get uprooted by jarring changes. For instance, one would rarely change focus and altitude abruptly by going directly from a very active standing pose to a challenging supine pose without any transitional poses in between. If we did that, it would feel more like a discrete set of poses and less like a seamless sequence where one pose contributes to the next.
This idea of transitions has helped me better structure my new practices. I’ve started viewing my writing as a warm-up for the day, the new business work as a collection of active poses, and the Sunday yoga classes as the cool down from the week where I integrate ideas and reconstitute myself with a trusted community. Viewing aspects of the work with a lens of sequencing makes it possible to align them with my natural rhythms and allocate appropriate focus to each practice without risking the whole sequence. I’m still learning and struggle some days to keep the plates spinning but the idea of transitions has been useful in shifting the gears and resourcing myself repeatedly with intention.
Transitions are hard because it’s far easier to stay moving in the same direction, but our lives and days are filled with them. Knowing that a transition has arrived helps us switch to a different pose with more skill and maybe even tap into micro moments of rest.
“Every object will remain at rest or in uniform motion in a straight line unless compelled to change its state by the action of an external force.” ― Isaac Newton (Newton’s first law of motion)
