BKS Iyengar calls this the hardest pose to do, because it’s the do-nothing pose. You just have to lie here! How hard could that be, you ask? Well...hrm… hmmm... There are so many reasons, and they are all at the heart of why I hope the @yogajournal article on lengthening your spine up, up, and away from #technology was helpful for you.

First, practices like #yoganidra have surged in recent years is because we are so tired. Yoga nidra begins with savasana. It’s actually savasana plus. Our adrenals and other organs are depleted because our sleep is disrupted/decreased, and because of overuse of mobile and other devices #bluelight. Therefore, any opportunity you take to lie down on the floor and relax, undisturbed, is the best first step toward replenishing your parasympathetic nervous system. Unfortuatnely, it’s also sort of foreign to the body these days because of all the interference we’re daily/hourly putting in there!

Second, and fundamental to the essence of the pose, the “work” is for the mind to observe the process of letting go. Not to sleep, and, on the vast other hand, not to lie there and take the opportunity to run through your to-do list or rehash a conversation with a co-worker. It’s straight down the middle, and it’s actually nothing. Whereas meditation is the practice of sitting upright and tuning in to the internal world, to stay there and lean into it and feel and see love, savsasana is practice of letting even that practice go. It’s the practice of letting every single solid thing ego, even your body, for the moment. It is to be so still as to be, at once, motionless in nothing and everything.