How to Prepare for and Practice Savasana

by Nina

Savasana certainly gets short shrift these days! It is often just an afterthought for many of us, especially in public classes, where we quickly wrap up a practice by “lying down” for just a few minutes.

But Savasana can be a powerful practice. Practiced with a mental focus, it is one of several ways you can trigger the Relaxation Response, switching your nervous system from Fight or Flight to Rest and Digest (see The Relaxation Response and Yoga). It addition to quieting your nervous system, Savasana allows you to relax your musculoskeletal system in an anatomically neutral position, which provides deep rest for your entire body. And as a form of reclined meditation, Savasana can teach you about the way your mind works, just as seated meditation does.

Recently, we’ve had several interesting posts about Savasana that explored the benefits of practicing Savasana, including interviews with Richard Rosen (The Value of Not Doing), Tias Little (see The Practice of Savasana, Part 1 and Part 2), and Roger Cole (The Mind Coming into Equilibrium and Drawing Inside and Quieting). I’m hoping all this material has piqued your interest in giving this ancient practice more serious attention. So today, I’m going to write a bit about how to actually approach this pose as an intentional practice. 

Preparing to Practice

Typically, although Savasana can be practiced on its own, we do Savasana at the end of an asana practice. That’s because it is often hard for us to lie still for a long period of time if we haven’t exercised much. I have written a sequence to help you prepare for Savasana (see Featured Sequence: Preparing for Savasana), but I also realize that what you should practice before Savasana depends on the time of day and what you have already been doing or not doing.

If you want to practice first thing in the morning or if you have had a sedentary day, you should prepare for Savasana with an active practice. This will tire you out and allow you to rest more comfortably. Strength building sequences with challenging poses or long holds or agility sequences where you move in and out of poses with your breath will be helpful at this time. Examples are Featured Sequence: Lower Body Strength Practice and Featured Sequence: Agility Practice.

On the other hand, if you have had a strenuous day physically, either due to physical labor or standing on your feet all day, a practice focused on gentle stretching is a good way to release held tension from your body. For example, try sequences such as Featured Sequence: Upper Body Flexibility. If you are really exhausted, it may be that a restorative practice is what you need (see Mini Restorative Practice).

Finally, if you are very stressed out, calming your nervous system is your priority, otherwise, it will definitely be hard to lie still. In this case, practicing supported inverted poses will help calm you down enough so that you can lie still. See Featured Sequence: Easy Supported Inverted Poses for a practice. 

In general, before practicing, take some time to consider what feels right to you at that moment and follow your intuition.

Choosing a Version

Most people cannot be truly comfortable lying flat on the floor with no support. So the next step is to choose the right version of Savasana for your body and for the particular day and time. Here are our four recommendation versions:

Classic Version. The classic version of Savasana is good for people who are completely comfortable in the pose and who can keep their heads in a neutral position in the pose (so the chin is pointing slightly down toward the chest, not tipping into a backbend). 

Head Support. If you can’t keep your head in a neutral position without support, use a folded blanket or towel under your head. Make sure that only your head is supported by the prop (not your neck) and that your shoulders are resting comfortably on the ground. Head support can be combined with any other type of support you might choose to add, such as for your legs.

Leg Support. Many people have discomfort in the lower back when lying flat on the floor. In this case, use a bolster or blanket roll behind your knees to support your legs. This option also works well if you have been practicing a lot of backbends, twists, or forward bends and want to rest your entire back more completely.

Constructive Rest. This version is extremely restful for your back, so if you have back problems or soreness, give it a try. Simply bend your knees and place your feet hips-distance apart and far enough away from your sitting bones so your shins can be perpendicular to the floor (not slanting back towards your pelvis). Allow your knees to fall toward each other, so the back of your pelvis widens. If you want to relax without thinking about holding your legs up, you can use a strap just above the knees to loosely bind your legs together.

If you can’t get comfortable on your back or shouldn’t be lying on your back (for example, because you are pregnant), you can try a side-lying position instead. And if you find that lying on your back causes anxiety, you can try a prone position (lying on your belly) such as Makrasana. See Savasana Variations for photos and information on these alternatives.

Practicing Savasana

To practice receive the full benefits of Savasana, you need to practice the pose with intention as you would any pose (rather than just collapsing onto the floor). To do this, commit to:

Aligning your body. Place your legs eight to ten inches apart, turn your arms out so your palms face up and your hands are six to eight inches from the body, and position your head perfectly between your two shoulders, with your eyes about equal distance from the ceiling. None of us are completely symmetrical, but you can adjust your body so it’s as symmetrical as possible and the weight is even on both sides of your body. Now your alignment is close to what medical books call “anatomical neutral,” the position your body naturally assumes when no muscles are being activated. And when you are in this neutral position, you can begin to relax your body completely. 

Remaining still. After aligning your body, make a commitment to stay still. When your body becomes motionless, external stimulation is reduced to a minimum, allowing your nervous system to cool down and your mind to quiet.

Using a mental focus. After you've aligned and quieted your body, turn your awareness inward. Typically the focus for your mind in Savasana is your breath, the gradual relaxation of specific parts of your body (sometimes called a body scan), or a peaceful image (for example, you might imagine your mind is the surface of a lake whose ripples are slowly subsiding). Rather than simply letting your thoughts wander as they would if you were lying on the grass in a park, intentionally keep your mind focused on your object of choice. When you notice your attention wandering, gently return it to that object.

Maintaining your awareness as you come out of the pose. Stay in the pose for at least 10 minutes (it takes 7 or 8 minutes to trigger the Relaxation Response). When you are ready to come out, open your eyes to passively receive the light of the room. Then let your body know you’re ready to begin moving by gently moving just fingers and toes or simply take a couple of deep soft breaths. Next, slowly bend your knees and place the soles of your feet on the ground, and then slowly turn over onto your right side and rest there for a couple of breaths. Then slowly use your hands to push yourself up to a seated position, allowing your head to release downward until you are completely upright. Finally, when you are seated upright, slowly lift your head.

See Savasana (Corpse Pose) for more information on these aspects of practicing Savasana.

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