Who would have thought that you need instructions to come out of Savasana?! Don’t you just get up off the floor? Do I really need to be told how to do that?
Yoga is a practice of intention, of being aware of what you are doing and how you are doing it, not just while you are in the pose, but before you come into it and after you come out of it. How you come into the pose affects how you are in the pose and how you come out of the pose defines how much of the pose you take with you.
Your asana practice challenges you physically; to stretch and to be strong, and mentally to be present and to be discriminating. Most students tell me that they feel calmer after their yoga practice. That is because the practice works not just on our bodies, but our minds as well. We enter a calmer mental state. Another way to put that is to say that your asana practice can take you out of a mental state of high alert, also known as fight or flight, and put you into a calmer and more relaxed state, also known as rest and digest.
How you come out of Savasana after your yoga practice can either keep you in that calmer state, or jolt you right back into fight or flight. Let’s take a look at what can happen.
Hopefully, you have been able to drop into a deep state of relaxation in Savasana. Your body is still, your mind is quiet and your breathing has slowed down and become very soft and subtle.
The first instruction for coming back from Savasana is to begin to increase your breath. The breath is prana, or energy and as such, it begins to energize the body. I usually guide my students to breathe into their arms and legs and up into their neck and head. When you feel the energy of the breath in these areas of the body you can begin to move and stretch by starting with small movements in the fingers and toes, moving up to the wrists and ankles. At this point you can begin to bend your knees and elbows and turn your chin from side to side.
When you are ready you can roll to your side and pause for a moment, drawing your knees up into your chest in a fetal position and cradling your head on your arm. When you are ready to sit up, roll towards the floor and use your hands to push yourself up, allowing the head to come up last.
If you come up in this manner, you will still be in that sense of calmness and quietude cultivated through the combination of your practice and Savasana. This will help preserve the sense of rest and digest that is equated with a more relaxed mental state.
However, some students may not be able to relax and drop into a restful state in Savasana.
Sometimes students lie still through the instructions for coming back from Savasana and instead of coming up gradually, they sit bolt upright by doing a quick abdominal crunch. Have these students been able to relax? Maybe these students obediently lie back during Savasana but instead of relaxing they are waiting to be “released” from the pose.
Coming up from Savasana in this manner quickly jolts your system out of rest and digest into the state of fight or flight. This is done by a combination of quickly contracting the abdominal muscles and hip flexors which send a message of danger to the brain. This is an action most animals take to protect their visceral organs from being attacked. And although we are not being attacked the reflex action sends off a cascade of nerve signals which triggers the brain into a highly alert state. While most of us will eventually get back to this state on our own, there is no need to rush the process.
So, the next time you are in savasana, try to relax. If you can’t relax, at least lie still and breathe as slowly, deeply and as evenly as you can without creating any stress. And when you come out, do so gradually and notice how you feel.
Yoga means to yoke the body, mind and the spirit. Allow your yoga practice to work on more than just your body by paying attention to how you come out of Savasana.