Relaxation Pose - Shavasana

Regrettable as it may be, we are immersed in a tension-filled world. It is this very tension that forms the basis for many psychosomatic disturbances. Psychiatry offers tranquillizers but Hatha Yoga offers drugless, inner relaxation through the thousands-years-old process known as ‘Shavasana’.

Shavasana, also known as the corpse pose (Shava — Corpse; Asana — Pose) and it has also been called ‘Mritasana’ or ‘Dead Pose’ (Mrit - Dead), or Relaxation Pose is a very important yoga asana and involves total relaxation while lying, “corpse-like,” on the ground. Shavasana is a surprisingly challenging pose. It isn’t easy to lie still! Relaxation Pose is a resting pose that helps you to be aware of yourself, revitalized and free from tension. You may find this pose useful for relaxing your mind and body. It is important to perform this pose at the end of each yoga practice. Performing Shavasana, the Relaxation Pose can help relieve stress and mild depression. This pose can also help reduce ailments such as headaches, fatigue and insomnia. While performing this pose, you should think about relaxing each part of your body individually, from your head down to your feet. To help yourself relax, focus on your breathing, especially on exhaling as you relax your body to the floor. When your mind wanders to other thoughts, bring your attention back to your breath and body. If you perform the pose for several minutes, you may want to cover your body with a blanket, since your body temperature may drop. If you have back problems, you should place a prop under your knees or put your calves up on the seat of a chair.

Yoga Nidra …

Hardly ever do you find physical tension apart from mental tension and curiously enough mental tension always arises first and is the cause of physical tension. Shavasana, like Sukhasana, reverses the usual mind-body bend and teaches the individual to gain conscious control over the vital zones of his body and thus relax the mind into ‘Yoga-Nidra’ (Yogi sleep) through first relaxing the physical body.

This again confirms the elementary Hatha principle that the mind and the body are linked and whatever happens to one will affect the other as surely as goading one of two yoked oxen will force the other to move along with it. Knowing this we may confidently proceed to use Shavasana as a specific solution for such psychosomatic ailments as neuras¬thenia, hypertension, insomnia, and high blood-pressure.

Specific Advantages
1. A deep state of muscular relaxation is brought about.
2. The blood-pressure is lowered (individuals with unusually low blood-pressure may suffer discomfort from practice of Savasana) while at the same time heart-beat and respiration are considerably slowed.
3. A transfer of ‘Prana’ (nervous energy) to the internal organs takes place.
4. The nervous system is rested and rejuvenated.
5. The mind is brought to the point of complete relaxation from which it may go into a deep, dreamless sleep. (This is optional depending on the student’s desire.)
The practice of Savasana is most conveniently divided into two steps or stages.

Beginning Technique
At this stage you learn to relax the body as a unit and give in completely to the force of gravity. If you observe a cat or a baby sleeping you will see that upon awakening they leave a deep impression in the cushion or mat slept upon. Animals and babies instinctively let go completely and allow gravity to do the work.

Shavasana introductory technique

1. Lie supine (face up) on the floor upon a suitable folded blanket. Loose clothing should be worn and the room temperature comfortably warm.
2. Place your feet about twenty inches apart and allow the ankles and toes to relax to the outside.
3. Place the hands, palm up, about ten inches out from the body on either side.
4. Check that the shoulders are flat and the small of the back relaxed into the floor.
5. Adjust the head to a comfortable position.
6. Completely surrender your body weight to the floor.
7. Commence concentrating upon your upper and lower extremities (i.e., the arms and legs) and with each exhalation (normal expiration) feel your arms and legs becoming heavier and heavier. Imagine yourself sinking into the floor.

It should be noted that the placing of the extremities permits the individual to take maximum advantage of the natural pull of gravity. Hatha Yoga teaches, as a fundamental tenet, the use of natural forces such as gravity.
This exercise should be practiced for a minimum of ten to fifteen minutes and should be performed for a week before starting the second phase of Shavasana.

Advanced Relaxing Technique
In the advanced step we learn to localize each part of the body and systematically relax and inhibit afferent and efferent (sensory and motor) nervous impulses. This is accomplished through commencing concentration at the feet and slowly working up to the head.
The Yogins (whose knowledge of neuro-anatomy was gained by introspection) long ago discovered the secret nerve zones of the human body and divided them into sixteen major areas called ‘Marmasthanani’. These positions are as follows:
(1) Feet, (2) Shins, (3) Knee-caps, (4) Thighs, (5) Abdomen, (6) Solar Plexus, (7) Upper Chest, (8) Spine, (9) Hands, (10) Forearms, (11) Upper Arms, (12) Throat, (13) Back of Head, (14) Jaw, (15) Eyes, (16) Scalp or ‘Bramapura’.

1. Repeat steps one to five as in Shavasana introductory technique.
2. Begin with the first Marmasthanani, the feet, and:
(a) Create a mental picture of your toes and ankles.
(b) Increase your self-consciousness or self-awareness of the area by concentrating upon feeling internally the bone, muscle, sinew and blood,
(c) Having increased your awareness of the area, mentally will a state of relaxation, heaviness and sinking into that particular spot.
3. Switch your attention to the next zone and repeat parts a, b, and c of step two. Work you way up over the whole body in this fashion.

Allow at least half a minute for each zone and go over the body repeatedly until you relax so completely that you fall into ‘Yoga Nidra’.
Shavasana is the ancient and natural contribution of Yoga to this very modern problem of tension and insomnia. Because of the effect Shavasana has in slowing the metabolic processes while at the same time conserving nervous energy, it is one of the hidden keys to the many medically authenticated cases of hibernation involving the burying alive of Yogins for weeks at a time.
A mastery of Shavasana will enable the student to gain conscious control over his muscular and nervous system. A good test of mastery of this technique is the ability to sleep within three minutes.