Shavasana.
Shavasana offers a transition between the practice on our mats into the practice of our daily lives because it is a pose of surrender.
It is embodying the understanding that we are powerless over what happens outside of ourselves and it is resting in the ever-changing nature of what comes up within us.
Our feelings,
Thoughts,
Emotions,
Perceptions,
Resting as we watch them come and go.
Shavasana also reminds us of the essential balance between work and rest.
Start by lying down on your back,
Legs slightly separated from the midline of the body.
It can allow the feet to roll out towards the floor.
The arms can stretch out away from the body.
The palms can face upward or slightly inward.
You may want to tuck the shoulder blades slightly down underneath you to find a feeling of openness through the chest,
The collarbones and the shoulders.
Ensure that you are comfortable here.
Make any adjustments to your position so that you can remain still.
To allow yourself to settle into this position,
Take three rounds of deep breaths.
Inhaling slowly and gradually,
Filling up.
And a feeling of letting go,
Releasing with a slow breath out.
And inhaling gradually,
Filling up the chest and the ribs,
The belly.
Releasing the breath,
Releasing your body weight into the surface beneath you.
One more full inhale,
Gradual,
No rush.
And fully releasing the breath,
Fully letting go with your breath out.
Allowing your breath to come back to its natural rhythm.
No need to control it.
Breathe just as much as you need to.
Relax.
Soften the whole body.
Take your attention to the space between your shoulder blades.
Relax here.
Soften.
Allow that sensation to travel upwards,
Letting the shoulders drop down,
Falling into their width.
Relax on the tops of the shoulders.
Relax the sides of the neck.
Let your attention travel up the back of the neck with your inhale.
Feel the place where your head is connected to the surface beneath you.
Relax your scalp.
Soften.
Take your attention to the crown of the head.
Pull your attention upward and outward to the crown of the head.
A drawing up,
A lifting of the energy.
Allow this drawing upward of attention and energy to create some space in the mind.
The mind is naturally open and spacious.
Let me connect to that feeling here.
Letting everything else come and go naturally.
As easily as the breath enters and releases.
Feel the muscles in the forehead soften.
A feeling of release through the eyebrows.
Letting them soften outward and down.
Soften the corners of the eyes.
Relax the eyelids.
Let the cheeks soften.
And the jaw.
Soften the back of the tongue.
Feel the gums,
Sensation inside the mouth.
Feel the corners of the mouth release.
Notice sensation where the lips are gently pressed together.
Feel your body breathe.
No need to change it.
Everything's all right.
Become a witness to the thoughts that pass through the open space of your mind.
Become a witness to the sensations that arise in your body.
Open up.
With your next inhale let your attention be drawn to your chest.
See if you can feel your heart beating.
Start to create more space in the chest by deepening your breath in.
What is it like to draw more breath into the chest?
Witness it.
Create more space in the body by deepening the breath,
Drawing energy in.
Start to reawaken.
Maybe making gentle movements,
Just stretching the toes and the fingers.
You can let the head gently rock side to side.
Gradually making the movements bigger,
Rolling at the wrists and the ankles.
You'll be walking the feet in towards the hips to prepare to roll onto either side.
Lying on your side with the knees stacked on top of each other,
One palm pressed towards the floor.
In the first shape your body ever made,
Resting in the comfort here.
Being reborn from this position as you press up,
Arriving in a seated position,
The spine long,
The body relaxed.
Maybe drawing the corners of the mouth upward,
And a gentle smile.
Bring the palms to press together in prayer pose.
Hands at heart center,
Or drawing the thumbs up to the forehead center,
Your third eye point.
Breathing in,
Connecting to this place,
And bowing forward in the act of giving yourself up.
Namaste.
