Darrin's Wednesday evening 7.30pm class was very different to last week's 'pranayama' class.

Tonight lots of standing balances, but not holding anything for too long, 3 breaths maximum. I struggled with two poses: Vasisthasana 2 and Visvamitrasana, the rest were quite easy. The girl directly in front of me couldn't balance in anything, Garudasana, Ardha Chandrasana, Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana to the wall, not even Vrksasana. Being so close behind her, my focus was challenged as she teetered and toppled and tumbled through all the poses. I had to consciously direct my drishti and all my energy in to my core to stay centred in the poses, which was, in itself, a valuable practice.

Towards the end, after Supta Padangusthasana, while still laying on the floor, we drew the feet together into Supta Baddha Konasana, slid our hands under thighs and held onto our ankles from underneath. I'd never done this before so it was nice to find a tiny new thing. It seemed a very easy restful variation until I noticed the girl behind me (who did a much better Vashistasana 2 than me) getting frustrated because she couldn't reach her ankles.

I'm delightfully surprised when I come across new poses, or new versions of old ones - in last night's self practice a new pose found me - I was doing Triang Mukhaikapada Paschimottanasana (no spell check) and found my body adding a twist.
On the first side (left leg extended and right leg in Virasana), I leaned forward and placed my right elbow outside my left knee, palm facing upwards next to the ankle, then bent forward with a lower abdominal twist to the left, while looking over my left shoulder. I'd never seen or done that one before but it just sort of emerged out of nowhere and took it's place in the sequence.

In keeping with my intention to observe the effect of each yoga practice (thanks to Samantha) I noticed anxiety and tightness in my stomach before practice while driving to Darrin's class tonight. We are having dinner together tomorrow night and I must be a bit nervous about it. But the yoga class and Darrin's soothing manner settled me down - I left feeling very strong and centred and as if all the discordant parts were singing in tune again.