Why is Savasana (Corpse Pose) a valuable part of yoga practice?

Why does yoga include the cheery-sounding Corpse Pose??

I talked about the arc of practice here, - how we guide ourselves through the phases of tuning in to the breath and body sensations, then to active movement and a fuller breath rhythm, then to slower movement, gentler breathing and REST. 

WHAT IS SAVASANA

The rest part is an actual official yoga pose called Savasana (Corpse Pose, pronounced ‘shavasana’) — our final lie-down at the end of class or your own practice. It’s the part of yoga that is easy to skip when people practice at home or online (so people often tell me 😳). 

Savasana is generally considered one of the most important and skilful poses! Yes, just lying down, doing nothing….. why?

WHY IS SAVASANA A VALUABLE PART OF YOUR PRACTICE?

By lying down flat, arms on the floor, you do indeed resemble a corpse laid out - though this name is also alluding to the possibility of quiet rest giving you the chance to let go of all your usual thinking, your sense of self and all your life at that moment, and to simply be a (breathing) body.

Literally, give yourself a break.

In Savasana, we create a pause in our day — these few minutes to rest our full attention in the body, right here in the present moment, letting our usual ‘mindstuff’ recede. We become more receptive, feeling what's there. There is an open, relaxed quality to receptivity. This might be what is generally called ‘letting go’.

It’s also where our nervous system or mind+ body can integrate all the e we have done in our practice and sens emuscular reelase of tension.

We can use the breath as our anchor — feeling its rise and fall in the body as a tool to stay aware in our body, to ground ourselves in the present moment experience.

And that can feel deeply restful.
No demands.
No need to think about what’s happened or what’s coming next.
Just feeling all the parts of the body grounded and at ease.

Time spent in Savasana allows the nervous system to complete that arc from more activated with sympathetic nervous system drive, to parasympathetic response, turning on the healing, ‘rest and digest’ activity of the body. It takes some minutes for this shift to take place, for the heart rate to slow, blood flow lessen to the muscles in the limbs, more to the priming of the digestive system, immune function, and reproductive system. Rest helps to lower blood pressure and the brain waves shift from beta to alpha, creating more calm and perspective. Deep rest like this is valuable, I would even say vital for your mental and physical wellbeing and recovery from the ups and downs of life.

SAVASANA AS RADICAL REST

And yet. Savasana isn’t so easy… the mind can be uncooperative and want to keep going! Our thinking is enough to keep us in activated mode, heart rate rising again.

Have you heard the phrase, “attention economy”? The idea that in our contemporary world, so many competing distractions pull us in different directions all day long, likely leaving us feeling scattered, fractious, and tense (overstimulated). 

I think a lot of us turn up to our yoga in this state. So it can take some regular practice for the busy mind and nervous system to kind of ‘give in’ when we get to Savasana.

This week, while practicing with my son, I was telling him how radical yoga has always been in the Indian traditions (not just a boring Mum kind of thing to do 😌). Yoga has always been about going “against the stream”, and in today’s attention economy, choosing to lie down still, and simply breathe while staying awake and aware is, you could say, a radical act.

I like thinking of Savasana in this way — as a small act of rebellion. Saying:
No, I don’t want to take in more information.
I don’t need to look, listen, talk, or do anything right now. Excuse me, I’m resting, just for myself.

That’s what our yoga practice can offer us. Instead of our attention being constantly pulled outward, we create the arc to guide us gradually to Savasana, where we redirect attention inward thereby reclaiming our energy and awareness. 

With the screen culture most of us live in, it feels very needed.

In that space of pause, we can find the kind of rest that’s healing for the body and the mind (which are, of course, the same organism).

Coming together in class makes this even more powerful. Going against the stream and pausing can feel challenging (and easy to skip and get on with things). We support one another in the shared practice of it. A room full of quiet, calming bodies, co-regulating each other.

That’s why, at the end of class, I like to remind us to appreciate the energy of the group — how it holds and supports us, all the way to radical rest.

WHAT IF SAVASANA DOESN’T FEEL OK FOR YOU?

If Savasana doesn’t feel comfortable or restful for you, you're definitely not alone. Sometimes it takes a bit of practice to stay with it. Sometimes lying down still is just not the most effective way to lead to rest for some people. For some, it might feel too much just to start with, or at particular times in your life. It might feel agitating, or you just note a lot of resistance. You can give it a try, a minute or two at a time, but, take care of yourself, no overpushing required.

You can always stay sitting up, as comfortably as possible, and/or keep your eyes open, find any number of ways to focus and have quiet, calm attention, like awareness of sounds, your space, making a quiet sound exhaling through the lips, counting on fingers, and so on. Any awareness of softening and relaxing somewhere particular in your body can help to find relative slowing down and rest in mind +body. Experiment to find what works for you.