Shavasana: why absolutely everyone should do it

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

The perfect finish for any workout and beyond.

What is savasana

Shavasana, or corpse pose, is a yoga asana that is used for total relaxation and is used during breathing exercises and meditation.

It represents a supine position with legs slightly apart and arms freely directed along the body, palms up. For convenience, some practitioners place rolled blankets or pillows under their neck, back, or thighs.

Any unprepared person can perform shavasana, but at the same time, the pose is often called the most difficult to master, and not without reason.

Why savasana is not easy to master

Firstly, in this position you need to relax as much as possible, and this is not possible for every person and requires some training.

Despite complete immobility and the desire to achieve absolute rest, many beginners maintain muscle tension. For example, you may notice how the muscles of your forehead or lips contract, your closed eyes continue to squint, or your clenched shoulders lift automatically.

In response to your conscious efforts, the "stubborn" parts of the body may relax, but as soon as the focus of attention shifts, they will automatically shrink again. Therefore, savasana requires constant control over the state of your body.

Secondly, the corpse pose is often used for meditation, and this is not the easiest activity for an unprepared person. Meditation is continuous concentration on an object or event, such as the breath or state of mind. Untrained people often lose focus, start thinking randomly about everything in a row, or just fall asleep.

At the same time, the ability to concentrate for a long time on the position of your body or breathing provides many benefits, both during the practice and after completion.

Why do shavasana

Any stress, whether it's a fight, a grueling workout, or anxiety about an upcoming exam, increases the activity of the sympathetic nervous system. It is a division of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) that includes the fight-or-flight response.

Your production of the hormones adrenaline, norepinephrine and cortisol increases, your heart rate increases and your blood pressure rises, your pupils dilate, blood leaves your digestive organs and rushes to your muscles.

When you calm down, the activity of the parasympathetic part of the ANS increases, as a result of which the pressure decreases, the pulse normalizes, and the blood returns to the digestive organs.

Ideally, these divisions balance each other, but constant stress and excitement can lead to hyperactivity of the sympathetic nervous system. This, in turn, increases inflammation in the body, impairs immunity, and increases the risk of depression, hypertension and cardiovascular disease.

Corpse Pose helps to reduce the activity of the sympathetic part of the ANS and return to a calm state after any stress or exercise. In one study, after 30 minutes of shavasana, participants experienced significant reductions in blood pressure and heart rate, cardiac output, and peripheral resistance. Scientists have concluded that the pose is effective against stress and shifts the balance towards the parasympathetic, “calm” part of the nervous system.

Thus, lying in a corpse posture after training, you will quickly relieve arousal and calm your mind. This is especially important if you are engaged in the morning and there is still a whole day of ordinary worries and anxieties that need to be met in a calm state.

Shavasana helps not only to calm down anxiety after stressful events, but also to better cope with new experiences. In one experiment, after 10 minutes of this practice, people reacted significantly less to the stress of immersing their hands in cold water.

And this effect was even more pronounced after four weeks of daily 10-minute sessions.

How to take a pose correctly

Place a rug or blanket on the floor to soften it and lie on your back. If necessary, place a thin pillow or rolled up blanket under your head.

Keep your legs slightly apart, and place your hands loosely on the sides of your body, palms up. Close your eyes and completely relax all parts of your body.

Breathe slowly and deeply, focusing on the state of mind and body sensations. Imagine how energy fills you with each breath, and as you exhale, stress and tension are released. Don't fall asleep.

What to do in savasana

There are many mental practices that can be done in the corpse pose. We will present some of them.

Relaxation of all parts of the body in turn

This practice will help you keep track of whether your body is calm enough and whether there are areas of constant tension in it.

After you settle into a pose, begin to consciously relax your muscles, moving your focus of attention from the bottom up. First, feel complete rest in your toes, then move on to your calves, knees, hips, and so on. You can imagine how your body parts are filled with a warm viscous substance or become water and spread across the floor.

Walk up to the very top of the head, pay special attention to the muscles of the face - as a rule, they hardly relax.

Breathing counting

This is a great way to start your meditation. Breathe deeply at an equal rate. For example, draw air into your lungs for eight counts, then release it for the same amount.

You can also try triangle or square breathing using an equal number of counts. In the first case, you count inhalation, holding and exhalation; in the second, you add another hold after exhalation.

Example (triangle of pranayama): inhale - six counts; delay - six counts; exhalation - six counts.

Meditation on a state of mind

Try the technique described by Yonge Mingyur Rinpoche in Buddha, the Brain and the Neurophysiology of Happiness. How to change your life for the better”- objectless shine meditation.

Relax in shavasana and just observe what is happening in your head without getting involved in the chains of thoughts and emerging emotions or trying to suppress them. Just note their presence and observe further, without shifting the focus of attention from the general picture of what is happening and without leaving the "moment of now" in fantasy and dreams.

Shine meditation is best done after breathing practices. They serve as a kind of warm-up, help to tune in to concentration and not get immersed in fantasies.

How can shavasana be modified

To make the pose more comfortable, many yoga teachers suggest placing rolled blankets or even blocks under different parts of the body: head, thoracic spine, lower back.

However, the goal of shavasana is complete relaxation and stress relief, not stretching or posture correction. Therefore, any intervention, after which you feel uncomfortable and even more painful, deprives the pose of all meaning.

Attempts to make shavasana more convenient are acceptable, but here it is also important not to overdo it, so as not to leave the body in an unnatural position.

Here are some safe ways to increase posture comfort from Dr. Ariele Foster, physical therapist and yoga teacher.

Place a blanket under your thighs

If you feel low back discomfort, try rolling up a blanket and placing the resulting bump under your thighs just below your pelvis.

Due to this, the lower back will naturally fall onto the mat and the tension will go away. If that doesn't work, try placing a large pillow or blankets under your thighs so that the entire hip space from the pelvis to the knees rests on them.

Place a blanket under your head

If you feel tension in your neck, place a thin blanket under your head. It is important that the neck is in the natural position it is when you are standing straight.

Do not use yoga blocks or high pillows that will force your head forward.

How often and how much to do shavasana

Make sure to do shavasana every day. Choose a technique that you will use in the pose and try doing it for 5-10 minutes without stopping.

Use shavasana after any workout, at the end of the day (before going to bed), and before any stressful event that requires calmness and focus.

Try to devote at least 10 minutes a day to this pose. There is no upper bound. If you have free time and desire, you can spend half an hour, an hour or even more in shavasana.