yoga Monday

It's funny to me when life and yoga intersect. Saturday I was talking to a friend about feeling grounded, or not grounded as the case may be. And today in yoga, that theme comes up again.
We were doing crescent lunge...or I was trying to do crescent lunge. This pose gets me every time. It's sort of like mile repeats at track or certain tasks at work. I'm well aware that it's as much of a mental game as it is a physical thing. But this morning my work was cut out for me as I tried to engage both mentally and physically. Mentally, I was elsewhere. A place that is not helpful to be when you're supposed to be in yoga class! Physically, my legs were tired and tight from our weekend's workouts. I was hoping that yoga would help but I wasn't sure that crescent lunge was the answer!
So as I was mapping out the most graceful way to fall out of this pose without taking out my neighbor should it come to that, our teacher Malia says, "Ground your back leg and let your heart open up and lead the way." Inner dialogue: "That's a lovely thought but really, I'm just trying to stay upright here." But something must have sunk in because I kept thinking about it all day. And as I looked into this pose a little more, supposedly one of its benefits is that it gives a sense of freedom since the heart is open and lifting upward but all the while you are grounded and rooted in the earth beneath you as you seek to maintain balance.
And maybe that's the message to me...I can still feel freedom even if I'm grounded. I can still be grounded even if my heart is open and free. The question for me is always - what am I grounded in? And what is my heart opening up to? I guess the latter , and maybe the former, will reveal itself in good time. Although I think I know more about my grounding than I do about what I'm opening up to...but I'd like to trust in both what's beneath me and where my heart is taking me.
In the meantime, I'll feel victorious at not having made this a "falling moon" lunge!