[vc_row padding_top=”0px” padding_bottom=”0px”][vc_column fade_animation_offset=”45px”][vc_column_text]You’re going through your morning yoga routine, feeling happy that you made it to class, just in time to finish, shower, change and head to work. Then when it comes to the end of class and finishing in Savasana (Corpse Pose), you think “I don’t have time to lie down”. Maybe you want a few extra minutes to shower and get ready for the day or maybe you want to keep focused and energised, rather than relaxing and maybe even falling asleep. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row padding_top=”0px” padding_bottom=”0px”][vc_column fade_animation_offset=”45px”][vc_column_text]Now, there’s a lot of things wrong with this whole scenario (these thoughts shouldn’t be running through your mind in the first place) but the most important thing to realise is the benefits of finishing your yoga practice with Savasana. It’s another part of understanding the benefits of yoga.
Last time we spoke
about how your yoga practice can sometimes only go halfway up the mountain, when you’re not properly dealing with your emotions that come out on the yoga mat. But to truly reach the top of the mountain, you need to consider what you are doing in the moments after your practice, whether that’s Savasana or not.
Savasana isn’t just a relaxation pose, it should be used as a system of absorption. When we don’t take the time to do Savasana, or when we just do our yoga practice and run, we are expecting that this post-yoga absorption will take place at any time during that day or week, but it doesn’t.
Good absorption of your yoga practice only happens straight afterwards.
Savasana might seem like the easier part of your practice, but it can in fact be quite difficult. It is afterall still an asana. It requires a delicate balance of relaxation of your body and mind, but still with focus and attention. In saying that, this means you could also switch Savasana for a seated pose or however else you feel comfortable. So whether you’re doing Savasana or not is not really the problem, but it’s about the moments right after your practice that are the most important and should be taken seriously.
In the book Essentialism, Greg McKeown offers practical solutions for prioritising and ways to basically eliminate the junk in your routine that is keeping you from being truly fulfilled. He talks about creating a space and time to absorb what we need to, in a restful way. In this sense, Savasana should also be used as a way to fully function and make your priorities clear. As McKeown says, ‘essentialism isn’t one more thing; it is a different way of doing everything.’ Savasana shouldn’t be one more thing or step in your routine, it should be applied effortlessly to get more out of your yoga, day and life.
When you begin a yoga class and set your intention for the day,
it’s important to know that Savasana plays a key role in seeing that intention through. Whatever was put in motion at the beginning of class, or as a ‘win’ for your practice, will make use of Savasana if it still needs time to cycle through the body and maybe encourage blockages to pass, that we might not have dealt with during the practice.
So we need to be able to be really observant in Savasana.
Once we are able to practice this final pose and allow ourselves to absorb, not only through our bodies, but also to allow our minds to navigate this absorption, it will become more powerful to us.
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