HEALTH: Yoga's classic resting pose

Free your mind


Yoga
Lee Kennedy

Savasana, or ‘Corpse Pose’, is simply a rest after all that bending, stretching, and twisting of the body into various shapes. At first, it looks like just another pose, but seemingly void of technique, concept and application.
Rather than trying to create an experience, it makes room to allow experience happen. The breath is free, and the mind is free.
When the breath is allowed to move naturally, the mind settles into itself. When the mind relaxes, the tongue and palate become spacious, the roof of the mouth lifts and hollows and the central core of the body opens.
Savasana calms the brain and helps relieve stress, headache, fatigue and mild depression.
It also relaxes the whole body and helps to lower blood pressure.If you suffer from a back injury or experience discomfort, you can keep your knees bent for this.
Check with your yoga teacher if you are pregnant as there are different variations of this pose for different stages of your pregnancy.

Savasana
>   Sit on the floor with your knees bent, feet on the floor, and slowly release back onto your forearms.
>   Lift your pelvis off the floor and, with your hands, push the flesh at the back of the pelvis toward the tailbone, then place the pelvis on the floor.
>   Inhale and slowly extend both legs along the floor, pushing through the heels, keep the heels together and allow the toes fall to the side.
>   Lift the base of the skull away from the back of the neck and release the back of the neck down toward the tailbone. If this feels uncomfortable support the back of the head and neck on a folded blanket.
>  Extend both arms alongside the torso, palms facing up.
>   In addition to quieting the physical body in Savasana, it’s also necessary to pacify the sense organs. Release your brain to the back of the skull, soften the channels of the inner ears and the skin of the forehead, especially around the bridge of the nose between the eyebrows. Let the eyes sink to the back into their sockets, then turn the inner gaze towards the heart area, release the nostrils in the nose, allow the tongue to sit on the soft palate of the mouth.

Stay in this pose for five minutes for every 30 minutes of practice.
To come out, first roll gently with an exhalation onto one side, preferably the right. Stay there for as long as you need to, then come up, raising your head last.