RelaxationRelaxation

� The Yoga relaxation is primarily the spiritual strand in the thread of Yoga. Yoga relaxation promotes a time promotes a time where the body, mind and spirit can rest as one. It creates a time where you can just be.

Source: http://www.mind-and-body-yoga.com/image-files/yogabreathing.jpg

� To de-stress, dissolve tensions, relax completely and simply be. A time where you can connect to a deeper part of yourself and just let go of everything. Our spiritual health is as important as our physical and mental and as important as our physical and mental and yoga relaxation encourages this.

� YOGA is about being physically alive, mentally stable and spiritually connected. Experience the real Experience the real benefits of Yoga with some of these simple but effective poses!

� A perfect posture to start one’s yoga practice as it opens the front body and creates space for all the major organs. A perfect pose for reproductive health in both women and men. It supplies fresh oxygenated supplies fresh oxygenated blood to the uterus in women and blood flow to the prostrate gland in men. Supta badddha konasanaremoves heaviness off the pelvic organs, creating space for the liver, spleen, heart & lungs.

� Savasana: Total Relaxation Pose

“Lying full length on the back on the ground like a corpse is called SAVASANA. This removes tiredness caused by other asanas & brings calmness of mind.” HATHA YOGA PRADIPIKA

According to the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, lying down on the ground like a corpse is called Savasana. The GHERANDA SAMHITA agrees & calls the asana MRITASANA or death pose. It also states “The posture destroys fatigue & quietens the agitated mind.” Both treatises attribute to this asana not only & quietens the agitated mind.” Both treatises attribute to this asana not only recuperation but also the important function of calming the mind.

Savasana is an intrinsic part of the yoga practice. Through the asana practice we heat & purify the gross physical body & stimulate the subtle energetic body.

After the practice the body needs time to cool & settle. To get straight up and commence our daily activities can make one agitated. The calming, centering, soothing effect of the yoga practice can only arise when proper rest is taken afterwards. During the asana practice we are absorbed with the doing. In Savasana it is time to be established in the non-doing; time to simply be.

� “The soul that moves in the world of the senses and yet keeps the senses in harmony…finds rest in quietness.”BHAGAVAD GITA

� HOW TO PLACE THE BODY IN SAVASANA

Savasana is to lay the body out horizontally & resembles a corpse. It is where the body is placed face up, is completely motionless, passive & relaxed. The eyes close, senses turned inwards & face becomes soft. The arms are placed beside the body, palms turned up & the legs stretched out & feet fall away.

All physical action is released & one surrenders the weight of the All physical action is released & one surrenders the weight of the body completely.Here, there is stillness in the face where all facades & personas are gone. It a matter of letting go, instead of holding on; of not doing, rather than doing. It is the posture of complete rest; rest of the body, mind & spirit.

In Savasana, one learns to surrender the material body & the mind completely. The only indication of life is the breath which becomes so clam, so soft, it is like you are hardly breathing at all.

� For some the idea of resembling a corpse may be confronting, however when you look at it a just stepping out of your everyday life for a while it becomes an easier pose to adopt. Because let’s face it, relaxation is a natural state & this posture is just a way to encourage the process.

In Savasana, you don’t need to hold yourself up anymore. You have the opportunity to let go of all muscular action, to let go of your skeleton, your organs, your muscles, all your tendons & ligaments, your skin & most importantly your mind. This pose is also about letting go of all armor, all facades, determination, trying, striving, all effort. It is about letting go of your name, your job, your family, friends, possessions, experiences, memories, fears, hopes, dreams; it is letting go of everything. It is about shedding everything & just being & when you let go of everything, there is nothing to think about.everything. It is about shedding everything & just being & when you let go of everything, there is nothing to think about.

Learning to relax can be a difficult process for many as they feel they are wasting time. Relaxation is never about wasting time, it is about being fully present, it is about residing in the moment where you gain access to the very essence of who you are. When the noise of the mind is turned off & habits tensions released, when all doing ceases, we a tune to a part of ourselves that is calm, peaceful & yet fully alive. This is what the yogi’s call our true self, our inner most being or God nature.

� As you relax the body & breathing slows, certain physiological changes occur. Less oxygen is consumed & less carbon dioxide eliminated, muscle tension is reduced & there is a decrease in the activity of the sympathetic nervous system and an increase in the para-sympathetic activity.

All action is the result of thought originating in the mind All action is the result of thought originating in the mind consciously or sub-consciously. Just as we send a message to the muscles to contract, we can send a message to the muscles to relax. This relaxation message is know as auto-suggestion. During auto-suggestion, the conscious mind sends a message to a particular part of the body and there is a vibration of relaxed energy directed there. The effect is profound and cellular memory absorbs the relaxation.

� Savasana is not simply stillness. It is the surrender of one’s ego awareness & then opening up to a receptive awareness of the divinity locked within one ’s self. For achievement of this state, the brain cells have to descend passively. The brain cells will not experience this descending movement if the senses have not learnt to withdraw within themselves. Most of our organs of sense are located in the head and the entire struggle for control takes place on the face from the throat upwards, where the impressions gathered by the senses are experienced. Through consciously withdrawing the senses of perception and sending relaxed energy to them, there is a response and they surrender from the external world to rest to stillness within.

Unless, the senses can turn off from external stimuli, there will be Unless, the senses can turn off from external stimuli, there will be no true rest. The relaxation of the body is also important for the assimilation of prana. This is why practice is recommended at sunrise & sunset when pranic levels are at their highest.

Only through accumulated prana is it possible to sustain the body for a long period of time. Life is sustained primarily by prana and the yoga practice is designed to increase pranic reserves in the energetic body. There are testimonies of yogi’s having been buried under the ground for up to a year and still being alive when disinterred. Although such feats are not the purpose of yoga, they are interesting in the context.

� The practice of asanas, ujjahi breathing, the activation of the bandhas & through Savasana, prana is increased and stored in the subtle body and we become healthier. Savasana gives us an opportunity to assimilate this prana. Through relaxation, the body, after it has been prepared through practice, become a receptive sponge through practice, become a receptive sponge that soaks it up. Savasana is literally a bath in atmospheric prana. For this to happen we must let go completely.

� The pose is called Savasana because it prepares us for death. It teaches us to completely surrender & let go. When the time comes to die, this ability to completely cease doing – to surrender totally – will enable us to abandon all identification with this body, this personality & this ego. Then we can separate from this life as “easily as a cucumber separates form the vine.” life as “easily as a cucumber separates form the vine.” (Indian Prayer.) Only the concepts we have of ourselves that cause us to desire some things & reject others, the I-am-ness, make us believe that this is our body. It is not ours at all. Have we created it? Even after centuries of scientific research we still cannot understand all aspects of the body, nor can we create a body. We have no certificate of ownership. When it is time to leave this world behind, we surrender this body back to nature (prakrti).

� “Our body is created by nature & not by us.” Patanjali Sutras IV.2 & IV.3If we let the butterfly take off then we can abide in our own true nature. (Sutra 1.3)

In Savasana all effort, all determination, all will, fall away from us. This falling away, this complete surrender stimulates the process that needs to occur at death. We can say that each Savasana is a occur at death. We can say that each Savasana is a preparation for the moment when not us but our corpse is doing the posture. Death may be frightening if we think we are the body. If we surrender, if we hand ourselves over, then it is an invitation to return to the true natural state, which is consciousness.

� The ancient masters taught that we are not the body, which is subject to death, but rather that we are unborn, uncreated & unchanging. The death of our body is the opportunity to come back to our true nature, which is consciousness. The letting go of artificial identification with what is impermanent is Savasana & when done properly – as the letting go of everything – shows us what we truly are & this is the all-pervading, all-powerful, all-peaceful & joyful self of pure consciousness within. All the sources of power, knowledge, peace & strength are in the soul (which resides in the heart centre) not the body.knowledge, peace & strength are in the soul (which resides in the heart centre) not the body.

The mind is simply the vehicle of consciousness & when the brain is perfectly quiet & the intellectual centre is stilled, the mind appears as the Self in the heart centre. The awareness of “I” is transmuted into awareness of the Creator. That is why identifying with oneself as pure consciousness brings us back home. Both the Yoga Sutras & the Bhagavad Gita state that pure existence, pure awareness, pure being that is left at the end of the body is without beginning and end.

� It cannot be cut by knives,

� It cannot be pierced by thorns,

� It cannot be burned by fire,

� It cannot be drowned in water.� It cannot be drowned in water.

� It is eternal, the true self.

Jacqueline Brumley & Shimon Tchobutaru are a husband & wife team who teach Yoga in Melbourne, Australia.

� Yoga is about coming home to your self. It is about being physically alive, mentally stable and spiritually connected. It is about creating a time for your creating a time for your self where you spend a quality hour on your self. It is a present you give your self. Yoga benefits us in three ways: physically, mentally & spiritually.

� SILENT LIGHT YOGA create DVDs that approach the practice of Yoga in a balanced way. Our Yoga DVDs are based on the 3 key components of Yoga: components of Yoga: mental, physical and spiritual. We believe that Yoga is about living life in a healthy way –about being physically alive, mentally stable and spiritually connected.

� It's with great pleasure that we welcome you all to our new Yoga community Silent Light Yoga! Our aim is unify people across the globe who are passionate about Yoga, health, spirituality and wellness.We hope you enjoy all spirituality and wellness.We hope you enjoy all the benefits of the community and look forward to sharing with you our extensive knowledge of Yoga in all its wonderful forms!

Namasté

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