Why You Shouldn’t Skip Final Rest {Savasana/Sukhasana} after Yoga Practice

This is a really special time.

Peace family, it's Christina.

And today we're talking about savasana or final rest, and why you should never skip it after practice. So savasana is one of the names for final rest in the end of yoga practice. And so the what you know, if you've ever been to a yoga class, usually a teacher will have you lay down at the end. Generally, they'll ask that you stretch the legs unless the back is a little bit tight - then they may tell you to bend the knees, which is cool. And then you'll have the hands facing upwards, maybe you'll close the eyes. And then sometimes they'll even do some other type of stuff after that, like maybe they'll light some incense or some palo santo they might even play music or not. But the point, final rest, or savasana is simply to allow the body to rejuvenate, but also to receive information or to connect with the divine.

You can say that during the time that you take final rest, this is a really special time, especially for your energetic body. So when we practice asanas, and do physical yoga postures and pranayama, and all of this stuff, a lot of times it feels like we're just working our bones and our muscles right in our lungs. But what we're really working on is our energetic or our spiritual body as well. And maybe even more so.

If you think about everything, physical matter manifestation of something that was on the spiritual realm or on the more subtle realms before a thought. And so even physical pain illness in the body is a manifestation of something that existed beforehand, whether that it was mental anguish, pain, guilt, it could be a lot of things that manifests in our physical bodies. And so what happens is we do all of these postures, we do all of this breath, removing energy, that's really what we're doing, we're creating a blockage, you know, and then we're releasing it, we're creating a blockage. And then we're releasing it. And when that happens, it's like, almost like wringing out toxins. So all of a sudden, the body is flush with all of these things that have been released, physical, but also spiritual, sometimes emotional, it can even be habits that we're releasing through our practice, things we're becoming aware of about ourselves through our practice.

When you lay down, it's a moment for all of these things to settle into digest. On every different level, on the physical level, it's a chance for the blood pressure to reset the heart rate to reset for the kidneys to start pulling all of the blood through, and to maybe take out some of the ways which you'll notice after yoga class, sometimes you'll have to go to the restroom, because your digestive system starts to get engaged, right. And now there's all the stuff in the bloodstream that needs to get removed. But also, it's the same things happening on the subtle body in the mind. Let's say you did a practice, and you really worked on the shoulders and discovered something about external rotation of the shoulders. Well, that's physical. But it's also something that the mind is learning a new habit, maybe it just released an old habit of closing inward, you know, or something like that could have happened. And so during savasana, or final rest, the mind is even processing everything that it learned, and is incorporating those things into his body, and then the spirit.

When you lay in final rest on your back with the palms facing upward, this is a very receptive position, when we're putting the body in alignment. So the body is in one long line. And we're facing upward toward the sky toward the heavens or toward the divine. And this is a very receptive position for us to receive information and to connect, commune with our higher selves or with the divine. It can be a powerful moment. You might even notice that you'll receive insights around this time, or that things seem to start to become clearer for you, or even that your mind finally starts to relax as everything starts to come into alignment here.

It's super important not to skip final rest after yoga practice, because when you don't allow for final rest, it can create a chaos within the body or it can leave the body kind of feeling in a discombobulated state. So we've moved a bunch of stuff around, moved a bunch of stuff around, moved a bunch of stuff around got all this stuff. Falling, and then just get up and go, that can be sometimes difficult for the nervous system. And so we've changed habits we've changed, you know some things about the mind, we've broken through some things. And then to just go off into the world without resting can be jarring for the nervous system, and can actually create like anxiety can make it difficult to sleep and things like that.

So it's really good to go ahead and just take that rest, so that the nervous system in the body and the mind and the spirit can all kind of re-harmonize before you go back into the world. And when you do that, usually you'll find that you have a really beautiful I call it the yoga high, or just a really relaxed, beautiful and peaceful feeling that can last with you for some time after practice, but you have to kind of let it sink in. So I hope that was helpful with the why we do final rest and hopefully that will encourage you to please take a few minutes I would say three to five minutes if you can even longer I took I've taken very long shavasana at times if you have the time and if you feel that you need it. Sometimes it's good to take that final rest. So as always, I love you guys and I will see you the next one.

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Peace & Pineapples!