Compass pose with Alexandra: Uptown Yoga: Dallas, Texas: January 27. 2016

I'm pretty sure I'm the oldest person in this class at Uptown Yoga today. By about 20 years. Not only because of the music that is played, but also because the pace of the class and the difficulty of the poses. I've been practicing, generally speaking, must slower and less complicated poses in the past decade, and checking in several "granny yoga" classes.

And usually the slower practice is deeper for me. But today as I was whipping around in poses I was at the top of my awareness so that I wouldn't hurt myself. I hadn't practiced this many hard poses in a string in a long time and it was hard, and demanding, and a hell of a lot of fun.

My new favorite pose is compass.

Here's how Alexandra sequenced it:

Pigeon
Swing your back straight leg forward and straighten it
Half happy baby with other leg
Compass
and to counter pose
bend extended leg at the knee
cross the other foot around
roll forward and swing out to astravakrasana

As my teacher Ravi Ravindra points out all the time, the mind tends to be up and out. The practices of yoga bring us down, in, and deep. Where the wisdom is.

While touring is taking me far and wide, the practices of yoga help me to stay grounded and deep.

Lord knows I need it!

Namaste.