Tadasana, Yoga at Nava: St. Pete's Beach, FL: February 2, 2016

The grass-is-greener mind warp is visible, alarming, and slightly amusing. I'm a beach person, to be sure. And here I am for a week during our downtime and the moment I hit the mat this morning I found myself missing the Sierra Nevada mountains of home.

And I've spent innumerable moments at home in the mountians in a near panic because the beach is one state away.

The case of happiness "over there" or anywhere but here is alive and well. Looking outside myself for happiness has caused much mischief in my life and the healing of that suffering feels like one of my prime karmic directives of this life.

In class today was a small moment with with powerful help to assist in aligning with the here and now. Its an instruction I've heard before, and likely even taught, but hearing and feeling the beat of my own heart in tadasana pose dropped me down and in so I could practice more authentically being with my own heart.

Dropping into a city always keeps my body a little on high alert, even if I"ve been here before which is the case of St. Pete's Beach. Its helpful to have our posse with me, but I"m here alone and I can detect a slight anxiety.

So many classes emphasize linking movement with breath, but what's more interesting for me is linking the breath to the heart. No wonder yogis suggest practices on how to cleanse the heart because truly one's heart is the primary relationship with everything.

I've known you can never escape yourself for many years, but today this lesson became embodied as I moved closer in to being at home with myself whether at the ocean, the mountains, in fear or in love.

The 2 mile walk down the beach back to hotel was stunning and like coming home to the ocean for the very first time.