Compass Pose & the Long Way Around: 12 Years of Listening to My Body

Some poses grow with you.

Compass Pose (Parivrtta Surya Yantrasana) has been one of those mirrors for me — not because it’s advanced, but because it refuses to be rushed.

Twelve years ago, I approached this pose with ambition. I wanted the shape. I wanted the photo. I wanted to feel like I was “doing yoga right.” My body responded the way bodies often do when they’re not being listened to. With resistance, frustration, and tightness that no amount of forcing could soften.

Over time, Compass taught me something quieter.

It taught me patience.

It taught me how to sit with sensation instead of overpowering it.

It taught me that flexibility isn’t linear and neither is growth.

Some years the pose felt expansive. Other years, it felt distant. Sometimes my hamstrings opened easily while my side body held stories I wasn’t ready to unravel yet. Sometimes the physical expression came easily, but the emotional readiness didn’t.

And that, too, was part of the practice.

Compass is a twist, a bind, a stretch but more than anything, it’s a conversation. A negotiation between strength and surrender. Between where you’ve been and where you’re going. Between effort and compassion.

What I love most about revisiting this pose over the years is seeing how I have changed. Not just in range of motion, but in mindset. I no longer ask my body to perform. I ask it how it’s feeling today.

This is the long way around.

The way of listening.

The way of staying.

Yoga isn’t about mastering poses. It’s about building a relationship with yourself that can hold change, aging, softness, and power all at once.

Compass continues to remind me:

The path is not straight.

And that’s where the beauty lives.

Always with love,

Tameka Chanel