The importance of Shavasana
All too often I have observed people leaving Yoga class before Shavasana and wondered why. It wasn’t until I spoke to a friend who said, ‘You just lie there, what is the point of that?’, that I realised that there is an information gap here. If people truly knew all the benefits of Shavasana they may be more inclined to stay.
Shavasana helps us reap the benefits of the Yoga
While we do Yoga, ideally we are listening deeply to our bodies and finding a balance between effort and ease. (If we aren’t pushing just a little bit past comfort we aren’t growing, but if we push too hard we are likely to hurt ourselves.) After all that hard work of mindful twisting, balancing, stretching and compressing, Shavasana asks us to release all tension and allow the fluids of the body to move where they need to go.
A lot is happening in our body due to the stillness; What we practiced is being stored in muscle memory. The brain, spine, heart, lungs and nerves all return to baseline activity and, given enough time in this state of rest, where the conscious mind is not making demands of the body, the body’s inherent intelligence is able to act. This allows us to assimilate the benefits of our Yoga practice.
Shavasana teaches Balance
Shavasana asks us to find a balance which is not physical. Perhaps this is why it is often referred to as the most difficult posture. Shavasana offers the Yin ‘being’ as a contrast to the activity, strain and Yang ‘doing’ in the rest of the Yoga class. We are busy people — being ‘on the go’ without breaks, rest or relaxation is glorified in our culture. (We can also see where it leads us in the long term with our own health, relationships, and in our interaction with our environment.) We carry this imbalance of our lives and culture into our Yoga classes.
If we see Yoga as ‘just a physical work out’ of course ‘lying around at the end’ sounds like something you can skip. Yoga most definitely works on your muscles, bones, joints and internal organs. Yoga is physical. But Yoga is just as much about learning how to relax, how to breathe, how to feel into our bodies and reconnect with our emotions and spirituality. By its very meaning it is about yoking all aspects of yourself together in balance. In order to find balance between activity and rest, day and night, doing and being in our lives, we can start by experiencing the balance in Yoga class. Balance makes our endeavours sustainable in the long run. Balance feels wonderful.
Shavasana teaches Stillness
In Shavasana you lie down vertebra by vertebra, laying out the spine on the mat. You have your arms to your side, palms facing up, your feet apart, turned naturally outward. Your shoulder blades are slightly tucked under so your heart can be open and there is a slight tucking of chin towards your chest to allow the spine to rest while the neck is soft. In the book ‘Light of Yoga’ BKS Iyengar dedicates an entire chapter to the detailed instruction of the physical pose.
In this posture, you can let all physical movement and effort cease. This is the physical stillness. For many, this can be hard to achieve in and of itself, but when it does happen, this physical stillness is a remarkable experience. Many report feeling a lightness, a sense of the physical body disappearing, and others feel themselves melting into the earth; a sense of heavy relaxation.
But Shavasana asks that the mind also be still. This is harder for most of us. In class, teachers often guide us through a sequential relaxation, also known as a body scan, from feet to head or head to feet, and may leave us to our own mind for a short while. When we practise on our own though, the noise in our minds becomes quite apparent. The stillness often brings us face to face with inconvenient thoughts and feelings that easily hide themselves during busy activity. Being gentle with ourselves and allowing what rises to come and go without actively engaging in it, can be greatly beneficial to our physical wellbeing, our ability to regulate our emotions, and even our attentional and cognitive systems.
Shavasana offers us an opportunity to cultivate stillness and grounding the more often we practice it. This can be beneficial at any time. There is no need to save it only for after a Yoga class. It can help you close any exercise and can also help you fall into more deep, restorative sleep at night.
Truly doing Shavasana may look simple but it is not necessarily easy. The effort is, if anything, to be effortless. Experiencing Shavasana can be gratifying when practiced with intent and understanding. Given the various benefits it offers, I hope you find yourself more curious to practice it.