Laying like a corpse on your mat seems quite easy, but for many of us, Savasana is one of the hardest poses in the Yoga practice. It requires you to completely relax and find stillness so that the body can move into a deep meditative state. With the mind at rest, we can focus on our breath and release all of the tension and thoughts running through our minds. This brings us to a place of blissful nothingness.
Why is Savasana so important?
Savasana gives us the opportunity to pause, time to stop, listen and to breathe. It is the yin to our more active yang practice. We have harmony in life when both internal and external forces are in balance. If things are spiraling out of control usually it’s because the scales are tipped beyond the point of balance. Savasana gives us balance. It is like a 5-minute power nap for your soul, the reward after 55 minutes of a more active yoga practice. It may be short, but it is very sweet.
Students often report that after Savasana, things become clearer and they feel less anxious, more at ease in their body and more able to manage stress. But perhaps the best thing to take from this pose is the lesson it teaches us; to surrender and let go.
“We don’t have to go anywhere to obtain the truth. We only need to be still and things will reveal themselves in the still water of our heart.” Thich Nhat Hanh
So exactly how do we quieten the mind?
In order to move into the blissful place of nothingness, we must first learn how to find stillness (surrender) and secondly how to quieten the Monkey Mind (let go). If you’re not familiar with this term, the monkey mind is the ego part of the brain. It is the noisy monkey swinging from branch to branch trying to gain your attention. The thoughts that pop up are sometimes also referred to as the inner critic or the inner dialog of the ego.
Within minutes or maybe even seconds of Savasana, thoughts will come to mind. The key to remaining still is not to let yourself get carried away with the monkeys (thoughts). Instead, we can learn to detach from our thoughts and become an observer of our thoughts.
The steps to a sweet Savasana are as follows:
1. Settle into the mat.
Take your feet as wide as the mat, allow the feet to comfortably splay out to the sides. Take the arms away from the body and turn the palms up. Tuck the shoulder blades underneath you to expand through the chest. Close the eyes, and soften the face.
2. Take a large long breath.
Breathe deeply in through your nose and fill your lungs completely from the bottom of the lungs to the collarbones. Notice a subtle pause at the top of the breath and then exhale back out through the nose. Continue to breathe like this until you can find a balance between the length of the inhale and the length of the exhale.
3. Scan for tension
Take your awareness around your body and see if you are holding any tension or tightness in the body. Try to consciously soften and release any tension in your muscles and ligaments. Allow yourself to surrender fully to the mat. Pay attention to only what is happening inside your body, in the present moment.
4. Notice and label
Within minutes, or even seconds, you will notice thoughts drifting into your mind. The idea is to simply observe them and refrain from engaging with those thoughts. Simply notice them, and let them go. You may find it useful as the observer of these thoughts to use labels to describe them. For example: useful or not useful, memory, fear, planning, judgement or sensation.
5. Tune into the breath
When you find the mind has wandered off, you’ve had a thought and labeled it, then bring your attention back to the breath. Try to tune into the inner sound of the breath as the air is inhaled and exhaled. Alternatively, you can focus on sensation, specifically the sensations at the tip of the nose, the difference in temperature between the inhale and the exhaled air.
6. Take your time coming back up to a seated position.
Keep your eyes closed and slowly reawaken the body when instructed by your teacher. Wiggle the fingers and toes and take a few deep breaths. Roll to your right side to allow the blood pressure time to regulate and the body time to adjust before coming up. Continue to notice the breath.
Be patient, it isn’t easy to find stillness especially at first, but it does get easier over time. The rewards you will reap as a result of learning how to let go will make the journey worthwhile. Next time when you set an intention for your practice, why not set it to surrender completely in Savasana.
Namaste.
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