At some point in a yoga class you may have heard the teacher say, “Savasana is the most important pose“. Depending on your reason for practicing yoga you may have found this statement confusing. Why would sava (corpse), sometimes called mrti (death), asana (pose) be more important than dynamic standing poses like warrior one, or strength building postures like boat pose? And why would a pose that asks you to lie still on your back be useful when you came to class to learn how to move?

In most schools of Hatha yoga, the corpse pose brings us to closure by asking us to completely surrender our physical practice. We’re told to relax our muscles, to turn our gaze inwards, to quiet our minds and eventually even cease the effort in the breath. This pose isn’t for sleeping, it’s to practice being a corpse. A corpse no longer worries about things that might have felt important in life but were, in fact, temporary. A corpse ceases to resist union with the earth and gives up its weight completely to become the earth. A corpse does not effort to move towards or away from likes and dislikes, hopes and fears. A corpse gives itself to the movement of the organism that surrounds it and eventually becomes indistinguishable from the organism. A corpse is not the separation that most of us feel in most situations, a corpse has found yoga (union) with the earth and the air. A corpse is not concerned with the past or the future, it is not concerned at all.

In a standard yoga class you’ll practice standing poses first, then move to the floor and practice forward and backward bending and then lie down to finish with supine postures and end in Savasana. In some ways each yoga class takes us backward through the life cycle. In yoga asana we first  learn to stand, then we learn to sit, then we learn to withdraw our senses, and then we learn to rest in awareness. Your life cycle generally goes the other way. Interesting isn’t it? We practice yoga to come back to our inherent stillness and perception, our intimacy with what is.

Practice a few minutes of Savasana every day. Find somewhere to lie down comfortably and feel your body connect with the earth below you, your skin breathe in and communicate with the universe around you. If you are anxious try to deepen your inhales and imagine bringing in clarity. With your exhales try to feel gratitude for something, it doesn’t matter what. Scan your body and notice the places of tension, discomfort and holding on. Approach these places with love; extending appreciation to your body for its efforts, for its strengths and for the challenges you feel, remembering that if you didn’t have challenges you wouldn’t learn. Let your breath, your kindness, and attention spread through each part of your body and imagine that your are saying goodbye to a dear friend, feeling your appreciation and love as you let go. Try not to fall asleep, but stay with the sensations of your body as they become more subtle and as the breath ceases to be an effort. Let your eyes rest back into your skull, there is no need to look outside of yourself. Release your lower jaw and let the tongue fall back in the throat, there is no need to talk. Soften the sinuses, the cheekbones, the ears and turn your senses inwards.

Listen to your inner cues, you’ll know when you’ve stayed long enough. To come out of Savasana, come out with same care and attentiveness you came in with. Deepen your breath into your belly and let it spread out to subtle movements in your fingers, toes, arms, legs, and face. Reach your arms up beside your ears to take a long deep breath and welcome life back into your body. Roll over on to one side and spend a moment noticing what you see and feeling equilibrium in your limbs. Press yourself into a seat and take a few minutes with care to feel your place in the space around you. Try to take the peacefulness and equanimity of your Savasana into the rest of your day and night.

“That is the end of your practice for today, but it’s not
the end of awareness.” – Patricia Walden

One of the best detoxifying poses is Mayurasana. This pose is one of the first 15 asanas ever to be written down. The first Yogis practicing asana understood its tremendous health benefits.

Here’s what Svatmarama wrote about mayurasana in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika:
“Mayurasana quickly alleviates all diseases like enlargement of the glands, dropsy (edema) and other stomach disorders. It rectifies imbalance of the humours (vata, pitta and kapha). It reduces to ashes all food taken indiscriminately, kindles the gastric fire and enables destruction of kalakuta (toxins). “– HYP 1.31

This pose is named Peacock not only because of the shape of the pose, but because its strong, tonifying effect on the digestive system. Do mayurasana and you can have a stomach like a peacock’s…

That probably doesn’t mean much to those of us in the west haven’t spent much time observing peacocks, but did you know that peacocks can eat a wide range of foods including poisonous snakes, insects and scorpions and that they are able to digest the poison of these animals without harm? I’m not suggesting practicing this pose should inspire you to partake in a peacock’s dietary habits – but it will help you improve your digestion.

Benefits of Mayurasana
•    Powerful digestive tonic
•    Promotes elimination of toxins, especially from the liver
•    Invigorates the entire body
•    Increases blood circulation throughout the abdominal organs
•    Relieves many digestive ailments
•    Massages and strengthens the stomach and spleen
•    Beneficial to those with diabetes
•    Revitalizes the pancreas
•    Relieves menstrual disorders and painful menstruation
•    Tones and supports the reproductive organs and sexual function
•    Decreases acidity in the blood, especially when performed in the morning
•    Strengthens wrists, elbows and shoulders

Contraindications
Any powerful yoga practice should be used with respect. If you have wrist, elbow or shoulder issues, be very careful about placing your entire body weight in your wrists. Some other common sense contraindications include: pregnancy, menstruation and serious intestinal problems. It also should be avoided if you are dealing with an ulcer, hernia, heart disease, high blood pressure, brain tumors and ear, eye, or nose infections. Because this pose is deeply detoxifying and can release built up toxins into the system, notice if you don’t feel well after practicing it. Reduce the amount of time and the repetitions of this pose and work on cleansing through diet before building up to longer holds.

Instructions:

Kneel on the ground with your knees spread as wide as your sticky mat.

Bring your forearms together and place your hands, palm down, on the mat with the little finger side of the hands towards each other so that the fingers turn back in the direction of your feet. (Experiment in your pose with the spacing between the hands, from the little fingers touch to the hands a few inches apart.)

Squeeze your elbows in towards each other and place your abdomen on your upper arms with your elbows situated at or just below your navel. (Women with large breasts will have some trouble adjusting for this one, some rearranging and humor is required.)

Look forwards and begin to shift your weight from your legs into your arms. At first keep your knees bending out to the sides. With time as you gain balance and strength you will be able to straighten your legs behind you and hold them above the ground. (Another variation is to fold the legs into padmasana or full lotus pose.)

Hold as long as you can maintaining a steady breath. If you are unable to breath then practice keeping your legs on the floor, gradually taking more weight into the arms and pressure into the abdomen. Once you can hold the posture calmly and breathe easily, hold for 10-30 breaths at a time.

Preparations for the Mayurasana
For the wrists:
Extend one arm forwards and with your other hand pull your fingers towards the floor so that the top side of your wrist joint opens, hold for five breaths. Then pull your hand and fingers back so that the underside of your wrist opens and the top side is compressed. Hold for five breaths and repeat on the other side.

Extend one arm forwards with the thumb side of your hand upwards, bring your thumb down into your palm and wrap your four fingers around the thumb to make a fist. Keeping the thumb side of your hand upwards, bring to tilt your hand down towards the floor. You’ll feel a stretch on the inside of your right wrist, be conservative, this connective issue shouldn’t be overstretched. Hold for five breaths and repeat on the left side.

For the arms:
Bring your palms together with your thumbs touching your forehead, squeeze your forearms and elbows together. Without tensing the shoulders or neck begin to move your forearms away from the face but keep the forearms and elbows squeezing together. Practice this movement while standing or kneeling and be mindful to keep your belly and your back organized, resist jutting the ribs forward and collapsing the mid-back.

To strengthen the back, legs and torso practice Salabhasana
To reduce abdominal discomfort and tone the digestive organs practice Nauli Kriya
Approaching the full pose of Mayurasana it can be helpful in developing the arm and wrist rotation to practice downward facing dog and upward facing dog with the hands turned backwards.

(Here’s Julian practicing Mayurasana with his legs in Padmasana. If you can fold your legs into lotus, the weight of the legs is contained and easier to lift from the ground!)

Salabhasana variations are simple backbends performed while lying prone (on the belly) that prepare the body for deeper backbending practice by strengthening and lengthening the muscles of the back, legs and “core”.

There are many variations of Salabhasana, here are a few:

To prepare, first lie on your belly with your fingertips below the shoulders. Concentrate on lengthening the tailbone towards the heels, there should be a slight pressure of the pubic bone towards the floor, which will cause the naval to rise away from the floor, maintain these actions while practicing the variations. Activate the legs by pressing the toenails down, the inner thighs spiral in and up.

Ekapada Salabhasana (one leg locust pose)

Lie on the belly with the legs extended backwards, the inner ankles together. Extend the arms forwards on the floor beside the ears, the palms turned down.
On the inhalation, lift the head, chest, right arm and right leg. Do not flex the head too far backwards, keep the neck long and relaxed and the right should drawing away from the right ear.
Try to keep the frontal hip bones on the mat and the shoulders even, so the right side of the body does not tilt upwards, rather the muscles of the back and leg lift upwards.
Keep the knees straight, the right arms elongating from the shoulder joint and the right leg elongating back from the lumbar spine.
Hold for five breaths and release on the exhalation. Repeat on the opposite side. Practice 1-3 times on each side.

Salabhasana A and B from the Intermediate Series of the Ashtanga Tradition

Lie on the belly resting on your chin with your hands palms up along your sides, the legs together with the edges of the big toes touching, heels slightly apart so that the inner thighs spiral in and upwards. Follow the same alignment principles for Ekapada Salabhasana.
For Salabhasana A roll the shoulders up and back as you slide the shoulder blades down and in. With an inhale, lift the head and legs using your back muscles to arch up. Keep your arms to your sides, using the tops of your hands to press down into the floor broadening the shoulders and the collar bones.
Keep the neck level, the legs strong and gently squeezing together, and your tailbone lengthening. After 4-5 breaths, lower with an exhale. You can rest with your forehead to the floor, or on one side of your face.

For Salabhasana B, from the A variation, slide the hands forward, palms down, until the forearms are 90 degrees to the floor. Press the hands down and back and slightly out to the sides as if you were trying to scoot forwards on your belly. Keep reaching out through inner legs. Hold for 4-5 breaths and release on the exhalation.

Bhujangasana (snake or serpent pose)

Begin lying on the belly with the legs extended hip-distance apart and the hands spread wide underneath the shoulders. Draw the elbows in close to the ribcage.
On an inhalation, firmly press the pubic bone, tops of the feet, and thighs into the floor, lift the shoulders up and back as you press into the palms to lift the chest off of the floor.
Maintain a connection in the front of the body between the lower ribcage and the top of the hips, engaging from the pubic bone to the belly button. Allow the tailbone to slightly drop down, as you try not to over engage the buttocks muscles. Lift from the sternum to the top of the head, maintaining an equal openness through out the spine. Stay for up to 30 seconds breaths. On an exhalation, reach through the crown as you lower the chest back to the floor. Keep the elbows hugging close to the body to engage the tricep muscles and avoid the shoulders rounding forward.

For an advanced variation of this pose and to increase the stretch in the thighs, bend both knees bringing the feet towards the head. Make sure to maintain connection to the pelvic floor and deep abdominal muscles.

Benefits
•    Strengthens the muscles of the spine, buttocks, and backs of the arms and legs
•    Stretches the shoulders, chest, belly, and thighs
•    Improves posture
•    Stimulates abdominal organs
•    Helps relieve stress

Contraindications/Cautions
•    Headache
•    Pregnancy
•    Serious back injury
•    Students with neck injuries should keep their head in a neutral position by looking down at the floor; they might also support the forehead on a thickly folded blanket.

Watch out for
•    Jutting rib cage
•    Shoulders in the ears or tensed  trapezius
•    Lifting too high on the arms and over stretching in the low back
•    Collapsing in the lower back and losing connection with the legs and pubic bone
•    Tensed face, keep your gaze downward cast towards the nose to relax the optic nerve

Absolutely Ashtanga is a great website and asana resource run by Sacramento Yogi and teacher Bill Counter. Happy Bending!

An assortment of 4th and 5th series Ashtanga postures. Practice safely please! (All pictures and yogis are featured on Absolutely Ashtanga!)

(Raji Thron is pictured here demonstrating Ashtangasana. Please don’t try this one at home, unprepared or unsupervised.)

Ever wonder what pose is which one, where and how? Good thing there’s this kick-asana (ooh…) web index of asana variations complete with notes, references, instructions and bibliography.

And if you’re wondering what to do with all these poses, check out Yoga Journal’s online sequence builder!!

Sit back to back with your partner in crossed legged positions. Spend at least a minute like this breathing deeply and connecting to the sensation of your partner at your back. Try to let yourself relax completely into their presence, letting your shoulders release, your neck lengthen and the skin of your face and jaw soften.

When you are ready reach out your left hand and bring your fingertips to the floor, reach your right arm up and over to your left. Breath into your right ribs and enjoy the side-bend for a few breaths.

Then reach all the way to the right and begin to arch back bringing your right arm up and back and releasing your back onto your partner’s right thigh. Relax both of your arms and enjoy the sensation of your friend’s body supporting yours. Feel free to make any necessary adjustments.

Spend as long as you like in the stretch and when you are ready, come out the way you came in by reaching your right arm back and then over to the left, side-bending. Use your left hand to press yourself back into a seated position. Spend a few breaths sitting back to back and then repeat on the other side.

Demonstrated by Alexandra Becker-Black and me (Renee)

Darren Rhodes performs every asana from Tadasana to Savasana for the making of the poster. Very inspiring!

http://vimeo.com/2516383