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| I have trouble relaxing during savasana, I practice hatha and vinyasa. My body can rest and relax but my mind is not at calm. It help when I practice breathing through my chakras it keeps my focus on my breathing. Any other suggestions?
Brigitte B |
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| If I can get my eyes and forehead to relax, I'm good. If I don't keep a check on them they scrunch back up. I have to keep going back there and relaxing mostly my eyes, until it sticks. I love savasana though. |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
    
| Hi Brigitte - in savasana, the whole goal is to relax and not "work" on anything, including focusing the breath. Are you practicing on your own or in a class? If you are talking about home practice on your own, I have to say that savasana at home alone is much more challenging for me, as well. Having a teacher talk you through the relaxation is always easier. Another thing to consider, if you are on your own, is to tweak your practice so that you have more quieting and calming asana near the end to prepare you for savasana. Let us know how it goes  |
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| Brig, it was over two years before I'd even stay in a public class for savasana. Wasn't until I spent two weeks in an ashram that I finally "got it." No defining moment really--believe you just have to set the intent and practice. |
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| Try the following:
Gently but deeply inhale through your nose and count 50 to yourself.
Exhale through your nose and count 49.
Inhale, 48.
Exhale, 47.
Continue until you reach 19 and then only count on exhales.
When you reach zero, remain quiet as long as you like. Allow thoughts to surface and disappear like bubbles in a glass of champagne. Do not suppress thoughts or hold on to them.
Visualize your mind like a blackboard and erase the writing. Consciously relax your toes, feet, heels, ankles, shins, calves, knees, thighs, hamstrings, hips, tailbone, lower back, abdomen, upper back, chest, fingers, hands, thumbs, wrists, forearms, elbows, biceps, triceps, shoulders, back of your neck, throat, jaw, tongue, back of your head, top of your head, forehead, eyebrows, eyes, mind. Allow thoughts to surface and disappear like bubbles in a glass of champagne. Do not suppress thoughts or hold on to them.
Edited by jimg 2008-01-14 12:33 PM
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| Hello Brigitte,
Welcome to the space.
Usually this sort of thing is an agitation of the nervous system (or agitated nervous system). It can come from a practice inappropriate for the practitioner, or from an appropriate practice done in an inappropriate way. Or the nervous system can be effected from some external source as in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Sadly the "confused" nervous system is common in our modern day society. Many students do not understand the value of keeping the eyes open during active poses and closed during inactive poses. It is not an exclusive "rule" as it is possible for intermediate to advanced students to do such things and use it for feeling more deeply. However, for the rest of us, eyes open when doing.
Consider altering your asana practice in such a way that you are keeping the eyes open in the poses where you are "doing" (active poses). In this way, over time, you will begin the process of reprogram the nervous system so that it is not confused in Savasana.
If you feel it might be inappropriate practice or practice methods (other than this one I'm sharing) then by all means consult a qualified senior teacher. |
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| After my first year of practicing I asked this very same question of my Iyengar teacher. I was upset that it seemed I could only go for maybe 60 seconds in savasana without the absence of thought. She laughed and said that if I can go 60 seconds I'm doing really well. The point she made, which I still cherish to this day, is that it's always a work in progress, and whatever benefit you can get is helping.
People also have different opinions on "clearing the mind" - one of my fellow teachers sees it not as clearing the mind of thoughts but rather as opening the mind to new possibilities.
So, there is no "right or wrong" about final relaxation, but some of the techniques mentioned here are really useful. Just think of all the different ways people meditation: labyrinth walking, creating or staring at a mandala, shamanic journeys, etc. and you will realize that there are lots of possibilities and eventually you will find your own.
Eventually you will find a way that works best for you to help you calm down in final rest.
I know that if my mind is still jumpy in final rest, I need to do a headstand or a tough-for-me balance pose like bird of paradise to get my mind to snap to attention and focus before allowing it to rest. |
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| The point of savasana is relaxation, not the cessation of thought. Focus your attention on your mind/body/energy and don't worry about whether your mind is calm or not. If your mind is not calm, just be with it the way it is. Don't try to make reality into something else. Don't filter out what you don't like and try to hold on to what you do like. As long as you are judging yourself against some sort of ideal (ie your mind "should be" calm) you are working against yourself. It is like using muscular force to go deeper into a pose instead of breathing and relaxing. Once you stop trying to make your mind be calm or whatever, and pay attention to what is actually happening, you will transform your savasana. That which is looking at your mind and determining that it is not "calm" is also your mind. This mental duality is conflict between the ideal and the actual and that conflict makes calm impossible. You cannot find "calm" through seeking, as seeking is effort and real calm is the absence of effort. Don't try to do anything. Don't try to be anything. Just pay attention to what is actually happening at that particular moment. |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
| Great posts, jim and kimberlee. I will just add this little thought to continue jim's explanation. When you settle your body into savasana, you make certain adjustments (more for Iyengar students, perhaps fewer for others...) to adapt your body to the floor and make your flesh and bones comfortable enough to completely relax. There is a tendency sometimes to continue this adjusting and fidgeting to get it "right" and enjoy the "perfect" savasana. Attempting to control your thoughts is a similar fidgeting. At some point, and you will know when that is, you must say "This is my savasana today. Here I am and this is it, for better or for worse." Of course, one does not remain in the pose if there is gross physical discomfort and one does not remain in the pose if there is gross mental discomfort. I have personally had more than a few savasanas where the only "peace" would be gained by getting up and getting my butt out of the pose...   But you do have to come to a place where you accept where you are, how you feel and what is present in your mind. If we all waited for perfection, we would all still be on our backs in the first class we ever went to - waiting! |
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| My trick- and I do this at night too is to do what is done at the end of Sivananda style classes- They basically start from the toes and work their way to the head, you say in your mind- "I will relax my toes, Mytoes are relaxed"- and it is this "Auto-suggestion" that allows me to let go further than I thought possible, my muscles litterally drop and melt further. Then when you've gone through the whole body- (and don't go too into detail- like their is no need to do every muscle and organ in the body- just the general area is fine. ) then you do the mind- "I will relax my mind and be presently here, My mind is ... gone"
THe best is when you do a little tension and release excersice before the auto-suggestion, ie. bring one leg 2 " off the ground tense, point toe, flex, then release it down- and go through the whole body doing this- the face is the best- squish muscles of face towards the nose, make a funny face, then open mouth stick tongue out, open eyes upwards- stretch whole face, and then release, close eyes.
I love this- it is the only way to calm my mind at night and get me to sleep when I've had an eventful day.
Om Namah Shivaya!
L |
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| A similar technique to relaxing each body part is to imagine thame getting heavier and sinking into the floor.
My former Sivananda teacher used to say that rather than have no thoughts, try to allow them to come and go without emotional attachment to them. That is, observe your thoughts rather than participate in them.
My Satyamvida teacher takes the opposite approach and gets you to imagine a 6-pointed star above your head that's radiating a golden light down onto your head that you then breath in and allow to spread throughout your body, intensifying where your body needs it the most. This focus allows you to empty your mind of other thoughts.
My Iyengar and Sivananda teachers also used a variety of breathing techniques and breath awareness to slow the mind prior to deeper forms of relaxation, meditation, or yoga nidra.
I think you have to experiment a little to find out which sort of technique works for you and under what circumstance. Some people find visualisation techniques more effective than breath focus for example.
Bear in mind that some days will always work 'better' than others. On very good days, I actually feel an energy flow in the part of the body I am focussing on during body visualisation type yoga nidra. On bad days, I don't even get further than lying on my back, relaxed, but with kangaroo mind! One thing I will say though... in addition to condusive sequencing of asana as mentioned above, I find kangaroo mind's fairly indicative of my needing to have burnt off more energy prior to savasana
Fee |
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Relaxing during savasana
