What is Savasana?

Shavasana is the pose of deep rest, and so oftentimes we refer to Shavasana as corpse pose. I like to think of it as an invitation to practice consciously dying, practice this conscious relaxation, this conscious letting go and being with what is. My very first Shavasana was in my very first yoga class, and I didn't even know, I remember when the teacher said, Shavas, and I looked around the room and I was like, what am I supposed to do? I just copied everyone else and I went to lie down and I found that I surprisingly got pretty quiet right away. And then the next thing I remember a voice saying, bring your attention towards your breath.

And it was that moment where I woke up, I felt like I woke up and it was the first time that I had ever, I noticed that I could consciously bring my attention towards my breath, and it was this experience of what just happened. And then when I came out of it and went home, I felt so happy, I felt so free and open. And I think it was the Shavasana that drew me back to the yoga class. It's like, I want more of that, whatever that is, I couldn't put my finger on it. I think my very first experience of Shavasana, there was a pure sense of wonder.

And then of course the mind was like, oh, I want that again. I had to chase that, it was amazing and mysterious. So it's been a process, I think, over the last 20 or so years of getting back to that state of like wonder. There's so many benefits to Shavasana, the one that feels really true for me is Shavasana helps me to digest, assimilate and integrate all of the sort of chaos of life, the fullness of life. And when we begin to quiet the usual chatter, we can be surprised by the creativity that flows through, new insights, feelings, and we're more receptive to these cosmic downloads that are constantly wanting to move through us all the time.

But oftentimes the mind, there's so much chatter going on and the mind is everywhere, everywhere other than here, we're not able to really be with ourselves and receive the creativity, the insight, the intuition. I think the root of our resistance to the Shavasana is stopping the doing and essentially to dying a little bit. There's this fear, there can be this fear that if I relax, everything will fall apart. And then what happens? And so relaxation is a skill, it's an incredible skill because we're wired to be constantly doing and active and busy.

And so to take the time to really begin to relax takes practice. This question of do we die or who dies, it's such a personal question and investigation. My current idea or sense is that the death of the body is not the death of the being or the soul. And I truly feel and believe that, but my deepest sense is that there is something beyond what we can actually conceive of and understand. And that there's this continuation of energy that keeps moving and has a life of its own.

I do believe that yogic training prepares us for this daily death, not in the literal sense but in the spiritual sense. And I think it starts with this quieting or stilling of the fluctuations of the mind going back to that Sutra one point two, yoga is the quieting of the mind. And Shavasana is that invitation to start with that in a conscious way. So my experience with coming out of Shavasana, initially of course there is some resistance and this desire to want to linger in whatever is happening. And so this opportunity, this moment of rolling to my side, I think of it as precious.

It feels like this tender moment and opportunity to do my best to translate it into my daily life, to bring it into whatever I'm doing next. And so allowing myself to linger in that state as I come out. And then that moment of opening my eyes for the first time and letting the light come in and feeling a new sensitivity to color, to sounds coming in, to taste, that first sip of water, textures, there's like a whole new vibrancy that comes after Shavasana. How do I know my Shavasana has been successful when there's sometimes when there's tears streaming down my face or I come out of it and somehow I look in the mirror and I recognize myself. I think my face feels just a bit more open and relaxed and I'm surprised by what I find myself saying or how I'm reacting.

There's this quality that's a bit more at ease and actually more alive and more spontaneous. Oftentimes I think that when we go into a yoga class, we either, we can't wait to get to Shavasana or we don't have time for it. We need to end our practice and then run on to the next thing. So my sincere hope is that we can begin to fall in love with who we are in that state of quiet, spacious, emptiness.