Savasana (Corpse pose)
At a first glance you seem to be lying on the floor. Not much to it, right? Turns out savasana is a deceptively involved 
pose. Rather than relying on your strength or flexibility, instead you need to turn inwards and work to quiet your mind as you release tension from your body.
In most cases as the teacher begins to guide the class into final relaxation people will begin to pack up and leave. Usually they’re new to the practice rushing to get on with their day. Or if they do attempt the relaxation they’ll spend the time thinking of what they’re going onto do next or events that happened earlier in the day, their body may have stilled but their mind is still whirling away. The objective of this pose is that you want to bring stillness to your mind just as much as you want to stop yourself from fidgeting and fussing in your physical body.
Corpse pose can be practiced at any time. At the beginning of your practice it will help you to center yourself, brining your awareness to your self and your breathing. At the end of your practice savasana will help tie together the day’s session, or if you’re feeling tired and need a pick me up savasana is a more energizing alternative to a nap as you let go of the days stresses. The key to this pose is letting go. As thoughts flitter into your mind, allow them to pass, you can’t stop them coming but you don’t have to pay them any attention.
The whole point of savasana or any relaxation pose in a yoga practice is the restorative properties it brings. Too often people look to overachieve, pushing themselves physically – they forget that yoga is about overall health and wellbeing – and part of that is the ability to bring about an inner peace can only come from getting to know yourself and this is done by meditating on who you are. Which is what you’re doing when you’re in a relaxation pose in a yoga class.
How to do it
Before you start you may want to grab a blanket, socks or a sweater to keep yourself warm. Especially at the end of your practice when your body can be quite warm your body will cool off quickly and you don’t want to be distracted by feelings of cold when you’re trying to bring quiet to your being.
* To bring stillness to your physical self you’ll want to lay on your mat, feet hip width apart, allowing your feet to fall to the sides.
* Let your arms fall alongside your body leaving plenty of space for the underside of your arms to breathe, let your hands fall open.
* Your entire body should be in contact with the ground, including the small of your lower back.
* If you’re experiencing any back pain or discomfort you’ll want to bend your knees up as this will help to help press your lower back into the ground.
* Once your body is comfortably in place you’ll want to venture inside yourself. By going inside you can assess where there is pain, discomfort or lingering tension and let it go.
There are a few ways to rid your body of residual tension – the right way is finding what works for you. When I first started practicing yoga, a teacher lead me through a guided relaxation where we were asked to imagine a white ball of energy moving through our bodies from toe to top and as this ball of energy passes your body becomes more and more relaxed. This bit of visualisation has always worked for me. I don’t expect it’ll have the same effect for everyone.
Some of the most common methods for aiding your relaxation include:
1. Music – If you’re scheduling a 10-minute relaxation have quiet, calming music play for the first few minutes to ease yourself into a silent relaxation. After a few minutes you’ll already have started to calm and relax so you’re less likely to be distracted by the absolute quiet.
2. Focus – Find a focus to continually come back to, whether it’s your breath or your heart centre. When thoughts try to take over your concentration come back to your focus and let go.
3. Tense and relax – Tense your entire body, tense every muscles as tight as you can get it, hold it here for a few seconds. Now – let go. Let go of all the tension you were holding onto. Many people don’t know what it means to be relaxed, this method allows you to feel the difference between the opposites of tensed and relaxed.
4. Visualisation – As with the example I highlighted that works for me above, using a white ball or energy or feeling a wave of calm rolling in to collect all your stress and tension and rolling out again to release it.
5. Point by point – As you mentally say a body part feel a release in this area. You can stick with the main points of joining so hips, elbow, knees, etc or you can get into the details – eyes, small toe, upper arm, etc just start at the top and work your way down naming and releasing each point in your body.
Finally, as with any pose, this may not come easily to you – if that’s the case you’ll want to start slow, build up your tolerance and at all times exercise compassion towards yourself.
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