A TIME TO SLOW DOWN, A TIME TO RESET. I have chosen SAVASANA as the pose of the month. Because nothing encapsulates the fragility of human life quite the way, the ‘corpse’ pose does.
Every yoga practice is but a preparation for the final pose… SAVASANA! In fact, often it is the pose we are most looking forward to after a busy day of work and an intense yoga practice. And much like our otherwise busy lives, we are now ‘officially’ in a phase of slowing down and resetting. So, why not lean in and listen to the signs and follow the call to inward reflection?
From the time of the Greeks, to the Hindu Yama and the Egyptian Osiris, death was never seen as an end but simply as a passage, a time of transition. I feel as if this time, is much like that for us. We are transitioning through an unknown phase in time and space. With no structure, no boundaries and no real schedule to our days, we are, as if, in an unknown sphere for this time.
Savasana is an invitation to meditate. To turn down the volume and tune in to our own frequency. It is a time to be brave and sit next to one’s utter vulnerability and lack of control. As the Tao wisely says :
Everything under heaven is a sacred vessel
and cannot be controlled.
To tamper with it is to spoil it.
To grasp it is to lose it.
Inevitably, what arises in meditation or savasana is often the very thing we have been avoiding. As one of my favorite psychologists, Carl Jung says: “What you resist, persists.” And as my teacher Dr. Lorin Roche advises, we must allow whatever is arising to wash over us.
Open the door and invite what arises. You don’t have to force yourself to be still or respond with struggle. Rumi, the 13th century mystic would guide us to become good hosts to whatever emotion is entering the doorway of the heart as a guest. “Welcome it, offer it some tea.” Rumi says. Meaning, be kind to your heart. This sacred pause is the best time to practice that much needed tenderness that we spend too much time seeking outside in the world. Instead, turn in and connect to the tenderness within your heart.
So rest, release, let go, just as the world has finally let go. This is our collective exhale! Let your body drop down to the earth that still sings with flowers that continue to bloom, and birdsong that fills the air. It’s quite likely that in our lifetimes, this kind of a collective pause may never come again. Needless to say, using this as a personal pause, and slowing down also ensures the curve remains flattened.
Stay safe, stay blessed.
