Shavasana - the state of complete relaxation

Shavasana is the most important yoga posture you can do. It looks extraordinarily simple, but many beginning students have trouble holding this pose for more than a few minutes. Shavasana literally means “corpse pose” and the goal is to let everything go as if you were dead.

The first stage of this posture is finding the right body position so you can relax into the floor. The arms and legs should be flopped out to the sides, legs slightly apart, arms about forty five degrees from the sides of your body, and the palms face up. The eyes are closed, the breath is slow, smooth and deep.

In the second stage the body relaxes from the toes to the head. This stage combines conscious relaxation and focused awareness, as you need to become aware of tension to be able to release it. Start at the toes, feeling them and letting them relax and release. Then move your awareness up to the foot and let it relax. Slowly move up the body to the ankles, legs, hips, torso, arms, shoulders, neck and head; become aware of each muscle and let it relax. Then have awareness of the whole body, feeling it soft, heavy, and sinking deep into the floor. See if there are any remaining places of tension and let them relax.

Once the muscles of the body are relaxed, then bring your awareness to the internal organs, and let them soften and release any tension. Feel the intestines, stomach, spleen, liver and kidneys soft and relaxed. Feel the heart beating slowly and gently, feel the lungs breathing with as little effort as possible.
Then let the brain and the nervous system relax and release.

Shavasana should be practiced for 5-15 minutes after doing yoga. This posture allows the energy that was created and released in the yoga postures to flow freely through the body allowing it to heal and be nourished. Shavasana releases stress and tension from the body and can be very useful at the end of a hectic day.