Peeled Earth and SKY

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Rest



Often times the most important asana (pose or posture) of the day is savasana (resting pose). For the first 24 years of my life I thought resting was nothing more than a punishment. Only when sick does one choose to lie down in the middle of their day and rest!

As an interested student of yoga I decided to try and open up around this idea of mandatory resting at the end of each yoga class. In my world it was basically five to ten minutes of totally forced space out time. I felt strange lying so still and quiet. The buzz of New York pulsed through me as I tried to ignore the classic jack hammers outside and honking horns aplenty. I would have pretend conversations and food fantasies for each one of those minutes allocated towards 'resting'....Not even the most soothing music could help me escape from the noise outside on the streets of NYC and the noise inside my head... I would count my breaths, I would tap my fingers, I would really try!! And nothing worked.... until I stopped trying. It was only a matter of time before I was able to find deep satisfaction in savasana. Feeling my body become heavy, my breath quiet. The energy of the outside world became white noise and cradled me into deeper rest. With this small amount of rest I was able to find space in my mind, almost a re-boot of my brain and body. Savasana was genius.

So here I am, Thursday evening, eighteen yoga classes taught so far since Monday and I am planning for tomorrow a full day around savasana. I will take a rest between each class. The phone will be off, my computer un-plugged. No, I will not answer the door if you knock, and yes, I will be lying on my floor doing absolutely nothing.

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