Posture Clinic: Savasana

May 6, 2011 12:00 am

Bikram’s Words: “Savasana seems ridiculously simple: relax and breath, breathe and relax, while maintaining total stillness. Teaching it takes all of 10 seconds. Yet when properly performed, Savasana is the most important posture in Hatha Yoga… For many people, this is also the most difficult asana. The mind will be rebellious and disobedient at first. It takes time.”

 Benefits:

  • this posture will return your blood circulation to normal and facillitates powerful blood flow throughout the body
  • allows circulation to return to normal and magnifies the benefits of the posture before it
  • allows for internal cleansing
  • relaxes central nervous system/calms mind
  • true state of meditation – a shift from doing to being, consciousness to awareness, making the body do something to observing the body
  • helps relieve stress
  • relaxes body
  • decreases beta brain waves and shifts to slower brain waves which helps reduce insomnia and improves sleep
  • reduces headache and fatigue
  • helps relieve depression
  • improves the absorption of nutrients

 

Frequently Asked Questions:

1. Sometimes I feel like my mind just won’t stop – What can I do to slow it down and stop panicking?

Teachers often say breathe in for 5 counts and out for 7 counts to slow your heart rate – this will help you relax. You don’t need to do anything or go anywhere, just be in the posture and don’t judge it or how you are in it. Return to your breathe, put a soft gaze on the ceiling or wall, and lay there.

 

2. Sometimes I feel like my shoulders are slouching in Savasana, if I try to I avoid this I feel like I can’t fully relax. What should I do?

Lie down on your back in the way the dialogue says – if that means you need to avoid slouching, then make a correction. But once you are in place, relax fully. Do not hold any tension in the body. Try to feel like your whole body is being absorbed by the floor – the sensation of truly relaxing. Sometimes we don’t notice that we are holding tension in our arms and legs in Savasana, again, the point is to truly relax and let go.

 

3. Are my arms touching my sides or away from my body?

Your arms are relaxed by your sides, go wherever they naturally fall and this should be relatively close to the body. Don’t over think it.

 

4. Does swallowing or blinking my eyes count as moving?

No. Just stop moving, be still, and relax.

 

5. The teacher’s voice can be really frustrating/irritating when I am relaxing in Savasana. How am I supposed to stop thinking if they are talking the entire time? 

Relax but stay present. Agitation is normal in the beginning and in time this will reduce and things will not bother you as much.

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