It’s All About Shavasana

I’ve seen tote bags saying “It’s All About Shavasana” and I couldn’t agree more.  Although those of you who follow me regularly know that it’s also all about the tailbone.  But that’s another article to be written….

Shavasana means “corpse pose”. Those of us in the west are largely afraid of death, so you’ll hear it being translated as “relaxation pose” quite regularly.  Life isn’t a linear thing, although we’d like to think or even argue that it is – with a beginning, middle and end.  If you look at it that way, that would seem to make the most sense.

There’s so much more happening.  We go through mini births, growths, maturation, and deaths throughout life, always circling back around to the beginning.  So it’s a cycle.  You even see this with the change of the seasons – the birthing of Spring, the growth into the maturation and then the dying away…. all to fertilize for the new upcoming birth.  Fertile women go through this cycle every single month.  And for those of us on a Spiritual path, we go through this cycle, repeatedly, on an ongoing basis.  Even for those of us not on a so-called Spiritual path will go through this cycle over and over again throughout life.

So then, what is Chetanasana?

Well, Chetana means Awareness and so Chetanasana is more about a state – it’s the state or the pose of Awareness, of witnessing the flow of life – the flow of the cycle as it amps up and as it slows down and dies.  So we practice Chetanasana in Shavasana.  To distinguish between the two, you could say that Chetanasana is the entering into the state of Consciousness, of Awareness itself.  It can be practiced anywhere, anytime.  Chetanasana can also be called Self-Referral, where we refer to the Self, our True Nature in any given moment.  And our True Nature can be silent and it can be dynamic.  Or both at the same time, outside and inside.

And, there is a process called Yoga Nidra.

Yoga Nidra is the practice or process of dropping into state of timelessness, eternity, and infinity (yoga calls this transcendence) and it is the yogic practice of being aware of whatever is happening, the way it is happening, while it is happening.  Chetana is Witness, Asana is Pose.  We practice Yoga Nidra in Chetanasana, which looks exactly like Shavasana pose, but with Awareness or Witness Consciousness.

Yoga Nidra and Sound Healing (both instrumental and/or with mantra) lead you to profound states of harmony through the embodiment of pure Awareness. Another article down the road will be about Healing through Sound. The benefits of these two practices alone and together are many and it is through the softening and dropping out of the sympathetic nervous system that fosters the much needed blessings of your inner harmony and homeostasis coming back into balance.

After you will leave feeling:

• deeply relaxed
• an elimination of stress
• the healing and resolving of traumas
• the harmonizing of anxiety, fear, anger and depression
• the deepening into the solving of personal and interpersonal issues
• an invitation into deeper states of inquiry

I periodically hold online live events collaborating with sound healers and guiding you into Yoga Nidra.  You are also welcome to download my free MP3 mantra sound healing.  You’ll be taken to the home page where you can click on the button and get started right away.