I love the feeling of muscles releasing their tension. It usually happens just before I fall asleep or if I am reclining for savasana or yoga nidra. Relaxation is an essential, but often missed, action of the muscular system. Fortunately, yoga is an excellent way to experience muscle relaxation AND teach the body to receive it more easily. 

Have you ever noticed the deeper layers of tension that often exist in the body? Even when we think we’re relaxing, we’re still gripping and holding different parts of the body. Maybe it’s a place where we have an injury or chronic pain, or it might just be a place where tension likes to regularly reside in our body. Happily, if we’re aware of these places, we can actually send our attention there so we can soften and release.

Here are two ways to practice muscle relaxation through yoga:

First, go through a yoga session and end with at least 15 minutes of savasana. Here’s the magic of yoga: it begins with breathing or meditation to corral the energy (prana), gets the body moving in all directions to spread the prana, then gently pulls the prana back just enough to balance the nervous system through relaxation. If you skip savasana at the end, you still get the stretch and strength, but you don’t get the relaxation, and the yoga session is not complete.

Second, you can practice guided relaxation. There are two ways to do this: One is active and the second is passive. The active approach is called progressive relaxation where you squeeze a muscle group (like an arm or leg), hold it in the contraction for several seconds, then completely let it go. You move progressively through the body until you end with squeezing the whole body at the same time, finally releasing into full body relaxation.

The passive approach is used in yoga nidra, a guided meditation that brings peace to body, mind and spirit. In this practice the leader invites you to bring your awareness to multiple points in the body known as “marma points,” or vital energy points. You might be asked to take a breath at each point, place an image or sound at each point, or simply place your awareness there. I find it hard to do this practice without falling asleep.

The best part about these practices is that they are also training for the times when we really want to relax, such as when we’re trying to get to sleep at night. Give them a try and discover the magic of yoga for yourself.

The 20 minutes I spend in savasana have become favorite minutes of the day for me. Pronounced SHAH-VAH-SAH-NAH, it means “corpse pose” in Sanskrit. I schedule into my day this dedicated time to be still, rest and reflect. Even though I am busy and often have to schedule it in between other activities, I have been doing it long enough that I really can drop into relaxation for that short, sweet time.

Savasana is the pose of deep relaxation in Yoga. We are supported by the earth, which grounds us and balances our energy. If lying flat on the ground is not comfortable, we can support our body with props. My favorite are a pillow or folded blanket under the head/neck/shoulders; a rolled blanket or bolster under the thighs/knees; a light blanket over the body; an eye covering/washcloth/scarf over the eyes. Set the timer for 20 minutes and ahhhh.

We are all quite busy during the day, either through moving the body or engaging the mind. The part of the nervous system most active at this time is called sympathetic, also known as the “fight or flight response.” Savasana quiets the sympathetic system by activating the complementary system known as parasympathetic, also known as the “rest and digest response.” As its name suggests, the parasympathetic response encourages better digestion, elimination, breathing and sleeping.

And when you practice Savasana every day, all of these crucial body functions become more regulated.

You might like to take the Savasana challenge, practicing every day for 21 days or even 40 days. What benefits do you hope for? What changes actually occur? I’d love to hear about your experience, but please wait 20 minutes to get in touch with me.