Corpse Pose (Savasana): The Ultimate Rest and Renewal

Savasana is the pose where you lie down on your back, let go of everything, and do, deliberately, absolutely nothing. It sounds like the easiest pose in yoga. For a lot of people it is secretly one of the hardest.

Sava means corpse, and the name is about as literal as yoga naming gets. You lie there like you're not using your body for anything at all.

The Hatha Yoga Pradipika keeps its description refreshingly short: lying down like a corpse removes fatigue and rests the mind. No embellishment needed.

It's suitable for absolutely everyone, which is rare for a yoga pose, and it's usually practiced at the end of a session rather than in the middle of one.

Savasana is a supine resting pose. You lie flat on your back, arms and legs relaxed away from the body, and let everything go still.

Unlike every other pose in this batch, there's no seated posture family to compare it against. It stands alone as the classical relaxation pose, typically used at the close of a practice.

It's used for conscious rest and stillness rather than for meditation technique or pranayama, though it pairs naturally with both.

उत्तानं शवदद्भूमौ शयनं तच्छवासनम्

शवासनं श्रान्तिहरं चित्तविश्रान्तिकारकम्

Transliteration:

uttanam sabavadbhumau sayanam tachchavasanam

savasanam srantiharam chittavisrantikarakam

Hatha Yoga Pradipika, chapter 1, verse 34 (in Pancham Sinh's 1914 translation, English edition).

Pancham Sinh's 1914 translation reads: "Lying down on the ground, like a corpse, is called Sava-asana. It removes fatigue and gives rest to the mind."

Short, direct, and honestly a little refreshing after some of the more elaborate verses in this text.

• Gives the body and mind a genuine chance to rest after practice
• Helps settle the nervous system after more active postures
• Supports integration of whatever you just practiced, rather than rushing straight off the mat
• Builds the skill of consciously relaxing, which is harder than it sounds
• Works as a short reset even outside of a full practice session

• Lie flat on your back on your mat.
• Let your legs fall open slightly, feet relaxing out to the sides.
• Rest your arms a little away from your body, palms facing up.
• Close your eyes and let your jaw, shoulders and belly soften.
• Let your breath happen on its own, without trying to control it.
• Stay for five to fifteen minutes, or longer if you have the time and inclination.
• To come out, gently wiggle your fingers and toes, take a few deeper breaths, and roll to one side before slowly sitting up.

• Natural breath awareness, simply noticing the breath without adjusting it
• Body scanning, moving attention slowly through the body to notice and release tension
• A natural landing spot after seated meditation or pranayama practice
• Short mindfulness resets, even five minutes of Savasana can shift how the rest of your day feels

• Place a rolled blanket under the knees to ease lower back tension
• Use a folded blanket under the head for neck support
• Cover yourself with a light blanket. Body temperature tends to drop during stillness
• Lie on your side instead if lying flat on the back isn't comfortable, especially during pregnancy

• Treating it as optional and skipping it to save time
• Staying mentally busy, planning the rest of your day instead of actually resting
• Holding tension in the jaw, hands or shoulders without noticing
• Rushing back up the second it's over instead of transitioning out gently

• Late pregnancy, where lying flat on the back for extended periods is generally avoided
• Lower back discomfort while lying flat, which a knee support usually resolves
• Significant breathing difficulty while lying flat, in which case a slightly propped up position works better

This is about as low risk as yoga poses get. Most of the "precautions" here are really just comfort adjustments.

• Savasana. Full supine relaxation, lying flat on the back. Difficulty: beginner.
• Child's Pose (Balasana). A folded, grounding rest pose on the knees. Difficulty: beginner.

Savasana looks like the easy part and often turns out to be the real practice. Give it the same attention you'd give any other pose, and don't skip it just because it doesn't look like you're doing much. You are. You're just doing it quietly.