Bringing One's Mind & Body into Savasana

Savasana-Corpse asana is an opportunity to relax and release all the roles & responsibilities, thoughts & distractions in you life... while strengthening your brain, body & emotional resistance. Redirecting our mind inward. 

If you find yourself struggling in savasana make a sankalpa. A sankalpa, which is a personal or spiritual mantra, may help give your mind & body what they need to put efforts into staying present. 

"Savasana--Corpse pose-- is the dress rehearsal for death. We drop the solidity of our physical bodies, the heaviness of our mental space into the mat. We surrender all the bits of ourselves and our lives that we love and hold dear into the earth that holds us. 

And then we come back to life, rejuvenated. Savasana allows us to appreciate the weight of everything that we have; it allows us--for a moment--to lay that weight to rest. 

When we pick it up again, we are refreshed.

We know it's a weight we carry willingly, until the time comes to let it go. (Huntly)

I listened and participated in a most wonderful webinar with the renouned Judith Lasater and her daughter Lizzie. The mother-daughter team are most known for their passion for Restorative Yoga. Today's topic was "Savasana."  Judith Lasater sees Savasana as this state-this place where we can,  "Imagine this sense of quiet; a place where one can let the stress in our lives drain out.  A place where we can teach ourselves what silence, stillness & receptivity feels like on our nervous system." 

At the end of a yoga sequence the teacher takes us into Savasana. For some it is sweet bliss and for others it is all they can do to not leave before it begins. For some, the act of "not doing" negates the practice they just went through. As we move through our yoga practice we are "doing" something.... in Savasana we are "undoing." We are in the present moment, not thinking about the future or what happened five minutes earlier. 

Lasater related to those attending the webinar that there are spiritual, physical, emotional and mental benefits to Savasana. 

• Spiritually
• It is the act we give ourselves and the world. As we practice Savasana regular patience arises within us. We don't get so flustered by the day to day stressors.
• Physically
• There are zero negative side effects to the physical body. All side effects are positive.
• Emotionally
• We become less reactionary emotionally. We stay in the present. And, we are not so exhausted
• Mentally
• Thinking becomes less dominant. We begin to recognize a thought.... and then step back from it. We begin to see the space between the thought & the self. 
• We identify with that spaciousness.. we recognize that we can choose our thoughts & we can choose to go elsewhere.. the only moments we have is the present. 

As you are in Savasana, Ms. Lasater would have you imagine a door.. unlock the door & go thru.... We need Savasana for this moment & the next. So unlock the door.... loose all attachments and hold yourself in your own being. 

Props: 

2 -3 Blankets, bolster, blocks, eye pillow, pillow (if available) socks... 

Resources:

https://www.elephantjournal.com/2013/11/words-to-breathe-by-10-poems-to-ignite-your-yoga-practice-liz-huntly/

Savasana webinar with Judith Lasater & Lizzie Lasater