Sanskrit Name: Savasana
Good for: Back, stress, depression etc.
Benefits
- Calming for the brain
- Helps alleviate stress
- Manages mild depression
- Relaxes the body
- Diminishes headache, fatigue, and insomnia
- Aids in lowering the blood pressure
Guidelines
- In Savasana it’s essential that the body be placed in a neutral position
- Sit on the floor with your knees bent, feet on the floor, and lean back onto your forearms
- Lift your pelvis slightly off the floor and, with your hands, push the back of the pelvis toward the tailbone, then return the pelvis to the floor
- Inhale and slowly extend the right leg, then the left, pushing through the heels
- Release both legs, softening the groins, and see that the legs are angled evenly relative to the mid-line of the torso, and that the feet turn out equally
- Narrow the front pelvis and soften (but don’t flatten) the lower back
- With your hands lift the base of the skull away from the back of the neck and release the back of the neck down toward the tailbone
- If you have any difficulty doing this, support the back of the head and neck on a folded blanket
- Broaden the base of the skull too, and lift the crease of the neck diagonally into the center of the head
- Make sure your ears are equidistant from your shoulders
- Reach your arms towards the ceiling, perpendicular to the floor
- Rock slightly from side to side
- Broaden the back ribs and the shoulder blades away from the spine
- Then release the arms to the floor, angled evenly relative to the mid-line of torso
- Turn the arms outward and stretch them away from the space between the shoulder blades
- Rest the backs of the hands on the floor as close as you comfortably can to the index finger knuckles
- Make sure the shoulder blades are resting evenly on the floor
- Imagine the lower tips of the shoulder blades are lifting diagonally into your back toward the top of the sternum
- From here, spread the collarbones
- Soften the root of the tongue, the wings of the nose, the channels of the inner ears, and the skin of the forehead, especially around the bridge of the nose between the eyebrows
- Let the eyes sink to the back of the head
- Turn them downward to gaze at the heart
- Release your brain to the back of the head
- Stay in this pose for 5 minutes for every 30 minutes of practice
- To exit, first roll gently with an exhalation onto one side, preferably the right
- Take 2 or 3 breaths
- With another exhalation press your hands against the floor
- Lift your torso, dragging your head slowly after
- The head should always come up last
Good to know
- In case of any back injury or discomfort do this pose with your knees bent and your feet on the floor, hip-distance apart; either bind the thighs parallel to each other with a strap
- Be careful that you do not position the heels too close to the buttocks
- Do not support the bent knees on a bolster
- In case of pregnancy raise your head and chest on a bolster
- For beginners it’s difficult to release the heads of the thigh bones and soften the groins in this pose creating tension in the body and restricting breath therefore take 2 ten pounds sand bags and put them one each on the top of your thigh parallel to the crease of the groin
- During this posture imagine that the heads of the thigh bones are sinking away from the weight, down into the floor
By : Natural Health News
