bookworm, geek, yoga teacher, yoga student,
massage therapist, writer, reader, blogger, committed partner, baker,
list writer, cataloguer, bad speller, Fibromyalgia sufferer,
woman with a crooked spine, feminist, meditator, bicylcist,
short, skinny, tree hugger,
tea drinker, lover of ridiculous shoes, crazy clothes and shiny things
Every great yoga class or practice ends with Savasana, a supine relaxation which can be as short as 2 minutes or as long as 15 minutes.
Every class I have ever taught ends with at least 5 minutes of stillness, my longer classes and pregnancy classes have 10-15 minutes of Yoga Nidra. When it comes to mum+ baby classes the quiet time at the end usually coincides with feeding time (and also sometimes screaming-your-head-off time but hey, who’s counting?).
Why? Well yoga practice, even a practice that is mostly based in asana, works on the body at many different levels – physically, emotionally, mindfully – and some time of stillness, lying down quietly (or sitting as I know some people don’t like lying ), knowing that for the next 5-10 minutes nothing else matters and nothing can disturb you, allows the Central Nervous System to assimilate the practice before you pull yourself back to the real world and all its distractions.
If we try to live our yoga off our mats (and while I often don’t succeed, I do try!), how can we live our savasana off our mats – after all it’s not always appropriate to just lie down whenever the fancy takes us.
By being, not doing.
So much of modern life is about what we do, what labels we use to define ourselves, how we present ourselves to the outside world.
The list above is just a few of mine!
And there is nothing wrong with that. We deserve respect for our achievements, praise for our good work, pleasure from our hobbies.
But there is so much more to us if we peel away the onion skin and look deeply.
Because ultimately all of these labels we attach to ourselves aren’t who we are, they aren’t what make us happy – they may contribute to our happiness, they may not but they are not the root cause.
Sometimes we need to allow ourselves to be. Allow ourselves to wander without purpose, to sit quietly without the need to do anything, to skip the gym for a couple of days, to allow ourselves (as I did on Monday) to not take clients for just one day, to take a day off work (officially or not – I won’t tell anyone!). To allow ourselves not to be always looking for the next thing and the next thing. And let this be the time we allow our bodies to assimilate the practices, the busyness of our days.
Be not do. Just for today.
And August, when everything is quiet and everyone’s on holiday, is the perfect time for that.
Thank you! That has been a wonderful post to read. I will now breathe and walk tall through the rest of my day.
love this! such a great reminder, thank you
so true. i recently read this described as our “stories” about ourselves. it resonated with me so much…
I have at least noticed that I haven’t let sitting take away from allowing my practice to take hold and settle in my physical and emotional body after practice. i was a little worried that it would allow an excuse to partake in my various “stories”…
but it hasn’t
Thanks for this reminder, I needed it.
I think I’ll join you.