Meditation in Savasana

If physical relaxation were the only consideration, Savasana would be a good position for meditation. However, there are several more-important considerations that rule it out for true meditation (unless one is physically incapacitated and simply must lie down). You mentioned one big one: sleepiness. Here are a couple more:

First, true meditation is a dynamic practice and state of being. It takes a lot of energy to get there, but Savasana is basically a passive, non-dynamic position. It would be much harder, if indeed it’s possible at all, for Savasana to become dynamic. That is one reason why an upright position with a straight spine is greatly preferable.

Second, in Savasana one’s energy tends to spread out all over the body, try though we may to stop it from doing so. However, we need that energy to be concentrated in the spine – and especially at the point between the eyebrows – in order to meditate deeply.

The bottom line is that Savasana actually works against us when it comes to true meditation. It’s good to use it to relax the body, but not to meditate

Meditation 101: Learn How to Meditate in Savasana

Meditation can be challenging. Even after you’ve had a taste of its benefits and long for those sweet moments of inner calm, clarity, and deep connection, it can be hard to just sit. If you’re like most people, you may find that one day your mind is speeding into the future, your body feels agitated, and you can’t sit still, while the next day you’re so lethargic that you can hardly stay awake. Don’t be discouraged. Resting with ease in meditation doesn’t magically happen. But there is a path to help you get there: Through your breath, you can tap into the flow of prana (life force) to increase, decrease, or focus your energy, bringing you into a state of balance and making it easier to sit with relaxed attention in meditation.

Prana flows along energy channels in the body called nadis. The three main nadis are the sushumna, the central channel along the spine through which kundalini, your spiritual energy, ascends; and the ida and pingala, which start on either side of the sushumna and spiral upward in a double-helix pattern around it.

Prana moves with breath and mind (which includes your thoughts, mental images, and emotions). A change in one affects the other. Through the breath, you can open, regulate, and direct the flow of prana, which, in turn, will stabilize the mind and body for meditation.

Depending on your mood and energy level, one of the following asana and pranayama practices can help you move from agitation to relaxation, from lethargy to lightness, from fragmentation to integration—so that you might ease gently into meditation. The emphasis in each of the following practices is on linking slow, mindful movements with the breath and creating dynamic, flowing transitions to integrate mind and body. Each series is repeated several times, during which the length of the exhalation and inhalation—and the pauses in between—change progressively.

Sometimes you need to wake up, and sometimes you need to calm down. Often you need a combination of awakening, calming, and focusing energies. But to understand your needs, it’s essential to spend some time discovering what state your energy is in.

Benefits of Shavasana, the yoga meditation for relaxation

What is that resting pose at the end of yoga called? Many people who are new to yoga mistakenly assume that the final meditation pose called Shavasana or savasana — lying on your back, eyes closed, breathing deeply — is easy. It’s just like taking a nap, right? Not exactly. More experienced yoga students know that Shavasana can actually be the most challenging and beneficial of all the poses. That’s because the essence of Shavasana — similar to other types of meditation — is to relax the mind and body while remaining present and maintaining awareness. Here’s what yoga and meditation do — and don’t — have in common, and why you should never skip out on this essential yoga pose.

What is Shavasana (a.k.a. savasana)?

Shavasana is the pronunciation of the Sanskrit word “savasana.” It’s a resting and restorative pose, or asana, typically used at the end of a yoga session. The Sanskrit word actually means “corpse pose,” because students practicing this pose lie face-up on the ground, arms and legs comfortably spread, eyes closed. The purpose of the pose is to calm the mind and body, releasing stress and grounding the body. Sounds a lot like

What’s the difference between meditation and yoga nidra and Savasana

There are lots of Yogic practices in Yoga that we often get confused between the few. Among those, there are meditation, savasana and yoga nidra. If you are having doubt about these practices, then you are not alone. In this article, we will explain you in detail about these practices.

The first thing you need to consider is that you have to stop worrying about the thing that whether you are practising any of this Yogic practices right which might convince you to stop doing them. Even though there are differences between each of these practices, you don’t have to worry in case they start to seem similar and overlap with each other because they surely will. And it is perfectly fine. You need to keep practising them and engage in self-study in order to learn more about them, and even attend classes if possible in order to deepen your practice of these yogic practices. But again, we have seen people applying the mentality of achievement to yoga, and it doesn’t work in that particular way. There are no rewards given out for these practices. You just need to explore them and enjoy.

Meditation

We could have put in lots of explanation from world’s leading meditation experts, but for the sake of simplicity, we will explain our own version. We are going to give the most straightforward explanations. According to us, meditation is essentially a practice of attaining awareness of your own thoughts. In order to achieve so, you need to sit, close your eyes and turn inward. You need to watch your thoughts.

Meditation is generally practiced in a seated position while savasana is practiced while you are lying down even though some people need to make different choices as per their comfort. According to many schools of thoughts, it is believed that keeping the spine upright during meditation is a great way to “power up” the energy of the body. In general, yogis will sit in lotus position so that in case they dozed off while they are meditating for hours, they wouldn’t be falling over. It is quite great for them, but we generally suggest that you can sit cross-legged with lots of props in order to support you like blanker under your butt and blocks under your knees.

Another essential and key difference is that when it comes to savasana, we are actually practising rest. We are essentially allowing our body to just melt into the yoga mat. In meditation, we are a little bit more intentional. We wish to be comfortable so that our body doesn’t actually disturb us but rest in not the actual primary focus. The main focus in awareness of the mind.

Savasana — Corpse Pose

Savasana literally translates as corpse pose even though according to Western practitioners they prefer it calling rest pose which seems to feel like a little bit less morbid. What this actually means for us is that we have to surrender in savasana. You don’t actually have to worry about your breath or even your thoughts and your body. All you need to perform is let go, and your work is essentially done. There is absolutely nothing for you to do.

The most common question regarding savasana is falling asleep while doing it. It is quite common for the beginners to doze off. But the question arises if this is okay. Well, the answer is that it is perfectly fine if you fall asleep. It essentially means that your body requires sleep. However, sleep and savasana aren’t actually the same thing. Savasana is more about surrender. You are actually awake but essentially at rest. It is about learning about how to remain awake and also at rest which is incredibly important for wellness and stress relief.

In case you fall asleep during the practice of savasana once in a while then it is nothing to worry about. You are just a human being, and it is perfectly alright. If you are falling asleep while doing savasana, then it means that you are most likely experiencing some sort of sleep issues which needs to be more deeply. Healthy sleep is quite important for the wellness of the body.

Savasana

A paradox within yoga is that some of the most advanced and deep-reaching techniques are so simple that if you only read the instructions in a book, then the chance of obtaining a genuine experience is very small. At some point or other, it is a good idea to find a yogi who lives and teaches here and now.

What makes all the difference to the experience is your alertness. Instead of habitually letting the thoughts wander, daydreaming, perhaps planning a little… then you keep your attention with the experience of the whole body lying completely still.

Savasana can help with stress, insomnia, nervousness, etc., but you don’t have to suffer from any of these to get something out of this technique. In the afternoon, for instance, after a long day full of activity, Savasana can be a good way of giving the body and nervous system a much-needed break. Instead of “refueling” with artificial energy, give yourself a conscious break – and afterwards the energy and inspiration will reappear by itself.

In connection with the physical yoga exercises, Savasana also plays a very important part, but it is used in a slightly different way. You will always begin a programmer of yoga poses by lying on the back for a while, while you experience the body and breath calm down. A yoga programmer can consist of several poses complementing each other in pairs, e.g. one forward- and one backward bending pose. Following a group of poses like that, lie in Savasana for a moment before doing the next group.

Savasana should not be confused with Yoga Nidra, meditative deep relaxation, in which you also lie still on the back. In Yoga Nidra, your attention is captured in a far more dynamic way. By listening to the instructions from the teacher or the CD, your awareness is guided throughout the body, to the breath and to various pictures and symbols, at a somewhat brisk but calm pace. This triggers a deep relaxation. Every time you get lost in a thought and forget what you are actually doing, the instructions pick you up again and lead you back. In that way, Yoga Nidra makes it easy, even for beginners, to enter a very deep relaxation. You should have a prior experience with Yoga Nidra to fully appreciate Savasana.

If you meditate, Savasana can enrich your meditation, as the ability to be still is an important prerequisite if you really want to go deep. You will also find various meditation techniques where you meditate on stillness.

In Savasana, you maintain, in a relaxed way, the experience of the whole body lying still for 10 -12 minutes. Sometimes, when you lie down to practice Savasana you might feel restless. Then, you can use breath awareness for about one minute, right in the beginning of the ten minutes, to deepen your state. But only for one minute.

Savasana is silence, the body doesn’t make a sound, it is completely motionless, not a finger moves. It is an experience of stillness in the whole body