If you have attended classes with me, in real life or online, you will probably have heard me say “to skip Savasana, is like writing an essay and not click save”.
But why? Isn’t Savasana just a waste of time? Im a busy human being with things to do and laying still is not productive.
This is a classic western world idea; if you don’t look busy, you are not productive… stillness equals laziness. I wonder why we are a country full of stress-ridden anxious people?? ..
Ok, lets get nerdy: Consciously moving in between movement and stillness is like controlled flexibility training for your nervous system. Movement is (healthy) stress and will bring you into a fight or flight mode (sympathetic state); your body floods with adrenaline and cortisol and shuts down all but critical functions. This mode of stress is often looked at as something negative, but the truth is, we need it.. yes I said it: WE NEED STRESS!! The problem is when fight or flight mode becomes our neutral, when we can no longer switch it off, and we end up being, what we generally refer to as “stressed” or anxious and we might even end up with panic attacks or a full-on nervous breakdown.
When we finish our workout with Savasana, we consciously move ourselves from fight or flight into rest mode. Rest mode (also known as para-sympathetic state) promotes sleep, digestion and calmness. It helps your organs return to regular function and lowers your blood pressure. WE ALSO NEED REST!!
The more we can seamlessly move in between the sympathetic and para-sympathetic states, the more functional we are. The more equipped we are to deal with life.
When we exercise, we purposely put ourselves in a sympathetic state, it therefore makes total sense to also purposely put ourselves in a para-sympathetic state; we train the transition between the two!
Beyond taking care of our nervous system, stillness after yoga movement is great because your body and mind are ready for it. All the aches and creakiness has been worked out, your mind has moved away from all the chitter-chatter in your brain and instead focused on the movement. This was the original purpose of asana; preparing your body and mind for meditation. Skipping this, is like skipping the ending of the movie; you just spent an hour preparing your body for it, and then you decide to not finish… talk about wasting your time!!
Please think of this the next time you think about skipping Savasana… and then don’t!!