This week's follow up takes a closer look at SAVASANA.
This week our e-lesson theme is proprioception.
What exactly is proprioception and why is it so important (and so overlooked!) in pain management and movement improvement programs?
Yoga Q of the Week:
While a lot of students think of Savasana as a well-earned "nap time," many prominent schools of yoga consider savasana to be one of the most - if not THE MOST - important posture in yoga repertoire.
Q: What exactly is the point of SAVASANA?
A: Savasana is the final relaxation pose of a yoga class.
Savasana is the practice of relaxed alertness.
Executed correctly, Savasana delivers benefits way beyond that of a simple nap {and I love naps!}
How many times you got so relaxed in Savasana that you drifted off to sleep?
How many times you felt antsy, unable to settle down?
It takes time and practice.
Eventually our nervous system learns how to function outside the limits of hyper-adrenilized, frazzled state of rushed schedules, dead lines, lack of sleep, and persistent pain.
We learn to be able to relax yet stay alert.
We learn to feel sensations yet not tense up.
Ultimately, Savasana builds resiliency - an ability to not only function with relaxed awareness, but to return to that relaxed awareness whenever our life circumstances force us off balance - and to know what that balance feels like...
Once the feeling of alertness while relaxed is experienced, we can carry it through and cultivate it in our movement practice, and, eventually, in our life off the mat.
Starting Savasana in a position that feels comfortable is a great first step toward building body awareness and also receiving the full benefit of Savasana practice. (Did you know that correct use of props calms the frazzled nerves?)
Lying on your back is just one option.
Here are some other ones - these can be also used at the start of the class for breathing and centering part of our practice:
