I’ve been thinking about transitions a lot lately. Ann Arbor is a transient town. In the past few weeks, I’ve said goodbye to several yoga students whom I teach at the Y. Some professors and current students are going away for the summer, some are leaving Ann Arbor because they’ve graduated and have jobs elsewhere, and some have made the decision to move away because they feel it’s time for change. Our chats about what’s next for them usually are full of hope, optimism, and a healthy dose of nervousness. That’s the thing about transitions—they mean change, which we all know is so good…and so hard.

Because transitions bring up uncomfortable emotions, we may find ourselves wanting to rush through them to get to the other side, to get on with things. But the transitions in our days, weeks, months, and lives are as important to experience as our destinations.

This month, we transition from spring to summer in the northern hemisphere, with the summer solstice on June 20th. Derived from Latin, sol means “sun,” and sistere means “to stand still.” Can we follow nature’s cue and take pause? Can we allow ourselves to truly experience this time of year when everything warms up and naturally begins to slow down.

Whether you are a parent whose kids are now off for the summer and you have to figure out all the new routines, or you’re a teacher who is finally getting the respite you deserve, or maybe you’ve recently left the professional world with all of its built-in rhythms, it can be sweet and a little salty when the pace shifts and the need to transition to new ways of being presents itself.

There’s something about this summer season that invites deeper honesty and a chance to take stock. But only if we pause, notice, and resist the urge to hurry, attempting to muscle our way to a “new normal.”

Of course, this brings me to our yoga practice. Transitions are an integral part of a vinyasa class. Each vinyasa is a transition between our sequences. Each part of the vinyasa has its own transition. We flow between poses using transitions. Some of these are nice and easy, think down dog to child’s pose (ahhhhh). Others are more challenging, think Warrior I to Warrior III (eeeeeek).

This summer, we will practice taking our transitions slowly and mindfully. When we want to use momentum to get ourselves into a bigger pose, we will breathe, pause, and move as slowly as we can. Our muscles may shake, our balance may not hold, and our thinking mind may go into overdrive. This is our practice, this is where the learning and wisdom of yoga find their way into our bodies, minds, and spirits. When we honor the transition as much as we celebrate the pose itself, we complete an important circle. We understand where we started, how we felt along the way, and how being in the pose offers us a way into our deeper selves.

During these next few months, may we slow down, may we stand still, may we feel the heat of the sun along with the cooling of the moon. May we be blessed with moments to consider how we want to feel this summer—not just what we want to do. May we savor the transitions within each day and within this season of warmth and beauty.

May we continue to bloom.