Savasana- the easiest or most difficult pose?

I have always loved Savasana – “corpse pose” – the final resting place at the end of every class. A beautiful posture that is waiting for us like a treat after all our hard asana work.  We lie down on our backs and some of us drift off immediately into a sleep-like state of total relaxation.  I have been to some yoga classes, many years ago, where, when it came to Savasana, people just got up and left the class … unbelievable to my mind as this posture is considered the most important pose in yoga and the one that is the reason for the class. The purpose of yoga is to relax the body and clear the mind ready for meditation and Savasana is the first step in Meditation.

The idea behind Savasana is to let go of the body and allow it to be as motionless as possible .. like a corpse .. while the mind stays alert and yet deeply calm.  As you can imagine, falling asleep defeats this purpose, although if you do fall asleep, do not beat yourself up over it, you obviously need that sleep more than Savasana. Remaining so still allows us disconnect from the outer senses – touch, sight, sound  – and this allows us to connect to and drop into a place deep within us.  It brings a quieting of the mind and a connection with our body, heart and spirit. It also gives us the opportunity to connect to our emotional feelings, something that can be difficult, particularly at challenging times of our lives.

Savasana is not easy and some people find it extremely uncomfortable at first.  Being with yourself quietly with your focus turned inward, purely on yourself – it can be tough. Our minds are unruly and have a “mind of their own”. Normally when we are awake our minds play tricks on us to help us avoid difficult or painful feelings and sensations and when we are asleep the subconscious spins into an uncontrollable dream world. When in Savasana, however, our mind has nowhere to run and hide – it is there for us to transparently observe, and by doing this we learn and grow. It is therefore necessary  to practice this skill of dropping into stillness, hone the connection with silence and listen deeply to ourselves beyond our mind and outer senses.

Buddha said, “No matter how hard the past, you can always begin again”. We can begin again every time we step onto our yoga mats. At this point we are given the opportunity to wipe the slate clean .. to have a new beginning.   By experiencing a yoga flow I believe we experience a hint of our true selves, beyond our body, mind and all the achievements, labels and qualifications we have acquired throughout our life.  We are given the opportunity, for a brief time, “outside of time”, to take ourselves off autopilot, pause the hamster-wheel-repetitive loop of our habits, and instead open ourselves up to the present moment and listen to everything with new ears.  So when we lie down in Savasana at the end of the class, it is like a small death that we have to experience before we can open our eyes again and see the world as a newborn child.