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 yoga relaxation encourages this.

1. Relaxation

2. The Yoga relaxation is
primarily the spiritual
strand in the thread of
Yoga. Yoga relaxation
promotes a time
where the body, mind
and spirit can rest as
one. It creates a time Source: http://www.mind-and-body-yoga.com/image-files/yogabreathing.jpg
where you can just be.

3. 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
yoga relaxation encourages this.

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

5. 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
blood to the uterus in
women and blood flow to
the prostrate gland in men.
Supta badddha konasana
removes heaviness off the
pelvic organs, creating space
for the liver, spleen, heart &
lungs.

6. 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
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.

7. “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
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.

8. 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.
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.

9. 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
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.

10. 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
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.

11. 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
that soaks it up. Savasana is literally a bath in
atmospheric prana. For this to happen we must
let go completely.

12. 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.”
(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).

13. “Our body is created by nature & not by us.”
Patanjali Sutras IV.2 & IV.3
If 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
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.

14. 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.
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.

15. 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 is eternal, the true self.

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

18. 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
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.

19. 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:
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.

20. 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
the benefits of the community and look
forward to sharing with you our extensive
knowledge of Yoga in all its wonderful forms!
Namasté
http://silentlightyoga.com