Savasana
shah-VAHS-ah-nah • शवासन • "Corpse Pose"Savasana is often called yoga's most difficult pose—which seems absurd when you look at it. You're just lying there. But that's precisely the challenge: to lie completely still, completely awake, completely surrendered. No effort. No agenda. No holding on to anything at all.
The Final Rest
This final pose completes every yoga practice, allowing the work of all preceding poses to integrate into your being. It's not just rest but a particular quality of conscious relaxation—awake enough to experience, relaxed enough to release. The body lies still as if dead; the mind remains alert as if watching.
Etymology
Shava (शव) means "corpse" in Sanskrit. Asana means "pose" or "seat." The name points directly at the practice: to assume the stillness of death while remaining conscious—a rehearsal for the ultimate letting go.
How to Practice
The physical setup is simple. The real practice happens in the quality of your attention and release.
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Lie on your back with legs extended, feet mat-width apart, letting them fall naturally outward
- Extend arms at your sides, away from your body at roughly 45 degrees, palms facing up
- Lengthen your spine by gently tucking your tailbone and allowing your lower back to release toward the floor
- Roll your shoulders back and down, opening the chest without forcing
- Let your head be neutral—chin neither tucked nor lifted, face pointing straight up
- Close your eyes and let them rest in their sockets, gaze soft
- Release all muscular effort—jaw, tongue, throat, belly, hands, everything
- Allow breath to be natural—neither controlling nor ignoring it
- Remain still—the practice is one of non-doing, receiving whatever arises
The Practice of Non-Doing
Savasana isn't about making relaxation happen—it's about getting out of the way and allowing relaxation to occur. The active work is releasing the subtle effort we habitually maintain, even when we think we're resting. Let gravity do its work. Let the floor hold you.
Benefits of Practice
Though it appears passive, Savasana offers profound benefits—both immediate and cumulative with regular practice.
Integrates Practice
Allows the effects of preceding poses to settle and be absorbed by the body and nervous system
Activates Parasympathetic Response
Shifts the nervous system from "fight or flight" to "rest and digest," reducing cortisol and stress hormones
Reduces Blood Pressure
The combination of stillness, horizontal position, and conscious relaxation supports cardiovascular health
Releases Muscular Tension
Systematic relaxation allows chronic holding patterns to release—tension you may not know you carry
Calms Mental Activity
Creates space for the mind to settle naturally, without the effort of meditation techniques
Restores Energy
Even a few minutes of true Savasana can provide restoration equivalent to much longer ordinary rest
Making Savasana Comfortable
If you're uncomfortable, you can't relax. Proper support transforms Savasana from endurance into ease.
Bolster Under Knees
Takes strain off the lower back by allowing the lumbar spine to release. Essential if you have any back sensitivity.
Blanket Under Head
A folded blanket lifts the head slightly, keeping the cervical spine neutral and allowing the throat to relax.
Eye Cover
A folded towel or eye pillow blocks light and adds gentle weight that helps the eyes fully release.
Blanket for Warmth
Body temperature drops during deep relaxation. Being slightly cool prevents full surrender.
The Challenges of Stillness
If Savasana feels difficult, you're not alone. The challenges are nearly universal—and they're why this pose is considered so valuable.
Common Obstacles
- Restlessness: The urge to move, fidget, or end early. Practice: acknowledge the impulse without acting on it
- Mind-wandering: Planning, reviewing, fantasizing. Practice: notice when you've drifted, gently return to present sensation
- Falling asleep: Losing consciousness entirely. Practice: maintain a thread of awareness, perhaps at the breath
- Impatience: Feeling like you "should" be doing something productive. Practice: recognize this as cultural conditioning, not truth
- Discomfort: Physical distraction prevents mental release. Practice: use props liberally, adjust before settling
- Emotional surfacing: Stillness sometimes releases buried feelings. Practice: let them arise without narrative, breathe
Duration and Timing
How long should Savasana last? There's no single answer, but guidelines help:
Timing Principles
- Minimum: 5 minutes—enough to begin the shift from activity to rest
- Standard: 10-15 minutes—allows deeper integration after a full practice
- Extended: 20-30 minutes—approaches Yoga Nidra territory, deeply restorative
- Proportion: Roughly 5 minutes per 30 minutes of active practice
- Never skip: Even 2-3 minutes is better than rushing straight from practice to activity
The transition out of Savasana matters too. Return gradually—first deepening breath, then small movements, then turning to your side, finally pressing up to sitting. Rushing this transition squanders much of what Savasana provides.
Savasana as Practice
Teachers often say Savasana is the whole point—that the other poses simply prepare the body to lie still. There's truth in this. What we practice on the mat is what we cultivate in life: the capacity to be present, to release effort, to accept what is.
The corpse has no agenda. No image to maintain. No future to worry about. Nothing to prove. In Savasana, we practice dying to all of that—the constant effort of being someone, going somewhere, achieving something. What remains when all that falls away?
A Daily Death
Ancient texts suggest that practicing Savasana regularly prepares us for the ultimate surrender—death itself. Not morbidly, but wisely. The meditator who has practiced releasing moment after moment, breath after breath, approaches life's final release with familiarity rather than terror.
You don't need to believe in anything metaphysical to benefit from this practice. At the very least, Savasana teaches us that we can stop—that the world continues turning when we're not pushing it, that rest is not weakness but wisdom, that doing nothing is itself something profound.
So when your teacher says "now come into Savasana," resist the urge to dismiss these final minutes as mere formality. This is the pose where everything integrates. Where you receive the benefits of your practice. Where you practice the most fundamental skill of all: letting go.
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