A Permission to Rest.

How doing nothing can offer an answer to everything.

For a long time I had been suffering with fatigue. I was stressed out, easily irritated & emotional. The volume on my sensitivity had been cranked up, making me feel over prickled most of the time. Plus I had digestive problems & my eye sight was becoming weak :s

How did I get in his predicament? Well, I’m a perfectionist & an efforter by nature. Plus I possess a nasty little voice inside my head that says ‘Rest is for the wicked’ & ‘No pain no gain!’ Good recipe for a burnout!

What’s crappy about this situation though, was that I knew what I needed to do but I had done nothing about it.

Rest! It had been suggested to me time & time again, but I just couldn’t allow myself to do it.

In my defence though, it’s difficult to change the habits of a life time & the imprinting of environmental upbringing. Neurologically it’s burnt into my brain & to change this will take time & practice to create new healthy habits & lay new neural pathways.

…Tiredness I could cope with but eye sight problems had taken it to another level. So I finally accepted defeat & set myself a challenge to do nothing but lay flat on my back, every day, for at least 20 minutes. No matter what!

A Challenge: Practice *Savasãna everyday, during the day, for at least 20 minutes for 4 weeks.

*Savasãna is a practice of surrender. A position of relaxation that allows for rest & healing to occur & named after the posture of a dead body ‘Corpse Pose’. Savasãna is a Sanskrit word & is pronounced: ‘sha vah sana.’ ‘Shava’ means ‘corpse’ & ‘asana’ means ‘pose’. It sounds gruesome, but in death we surrender completely to what is.

Savasãna might look like a nap but it’s actually a fully conscious & active pose of awareness, with the aim of being awake, yet completely relaxed. In Savasãna, you lie flat on your back & learn to relax your body & mind so you may fully assimilate the benefits of the practice… & for anyone like me it is indeed a practice.

If only I had done this sooner!, Within days of taking the rest prescription my frazzled nerves started to relax & I was able to enjoy work & social activities much more &, the physical & mental symptoms started to lessen. Amazing!!!

Having an intention to fix my problems with a set challenge was the only way I was able to commit to this practice. I was then able to plan it into my day & have an explanation for anyone who questioned my moment of rest. Interestingly, no one but I needed an explanation of why I was taking time out during the day to lie down. My self-judgment was harder than that of others… another lesson learned.

A Practice of Savasãna & its Benefits. → The good stuff!

During my challenge I kept notes of how my practice effected my wellbeing & life in general & this is what I learnt:

• Every day is different! You may need time to land, the mind may shout & the body may fidget. But if you a persist the feeling of surrender will eventually come & it’s delicious. Like melting! You will eventually start looking forward to playing dead!
• Practicing during the day will offer you grater benefits than practicing at the beginning or end of the day. It is a moment to check in, observe & adjust so that you can flow in to the reminder of your day. Although, starting & or ending your day with this practice is double bubble good!
• Sitting in active meditation or Savasãna is different to sitting on the sofa allowing the mind to wonder. A meditative state is an active state of conscious awareness & regulation. This is where the magic happens.
• I often find that I need at least 10 minutes to settle in to Savasãna.
• A blanket helps you to settle & stop fidgeting.
• Often when I lie down I feel a whirling & swirling of the energy in my body & my skin prickles & tingles. Eventually though this lessens to a gentle awareness of the senses. There’s a shift & my body settles & my breath finds a deep, slow rhythm on it’s own.
• Becoming aware of the sensations in the body is fascinating because you begin to feel how alive the body is.
• Before I lie down I often don’t realise how frazzled I am.
• The mind can be like a monkey, so give it something to play with! If you are finding it difficult to land try scanning the body with the mind or practicing a slow 5 count breath.
• After 20 minutes I often get up feeling quite happy & refreshed. I feel no more resistance to starting work again & no panic about the long to do list that I maybe working through.
• Use this time to explore uncomfortable feelings, emotions & sensations in the body. Simply feel. Don’t question it or try to understand it. Just feel it & let what ever needs to come out to surface.
• If you can’t practice Savasãna in a silent space but are able to take some time out, sit down, find a soft focus or close your eyes & use tools such as body scanning & 5 count breathing to help centre & relax. This is always better than nothing.
• After Savasãna I feel lighter. The tension in my mind about things I have to do ease. I feel no resistance to continuing with my work & even looked forward to starting again!
• This practice can become an enjoyable exploration of the self, of sensations, thoughts & emotions that need tending too.
• Solutions to problems rise up during rest. So let go of the thoughts, focus on your sensations & breath so that the solutions may come to you.
• You may experienced spontaneous yawning or emotional release. That’s normal & ok. It’s better out than in!
• As your practice is integrated into your daily life you will start to notice when you are going off balance, especially if you have missed a couple of daily practices. Take this seriously & allow yourself to take a short timeout to re-set.
• During my practice I became more tune to my ‘gut feeling’. My mind can get very loud & blocks my ability to tune into my intuition & gut feeling. While in Savasãna I became attune to feeling the sensations of emotions such as anxiety in my body as moving energy, which enabled me to detach from the sticky thoughts. This highlights the fact that the mind is a tool not a master. It is meant to serve but often acts like the master. We often give our mind far too much power. But our mind is geared to the fight flight, trained from birth, to keep us safe. Which means many of our decisions can be fear based if based on thought alone. This is quite a poignant point about how important it is to take a moment to tune in, zen, rest at opportune moment though out the day. But also brings up the question of ‘how often might be moving through life making the wrong decisions’?
• Sometimes resting is the last thing that you should do because you are flustered, stressed & racing against the clock. But I promise that you will benefit from taking a short time out. It seems counter intuitive but from experience, when I have taken my Savasãna prescription during these moments I no longer feel resistance & complete everything with less stress & time to spare. Stress creates resistance & resistance creates stress & waists time.
• Savasãna has taught me about setting boundaries & prioritising my time & energy. When I lay down I regain control, can think clearly, rebalance & regulate my energy & mind. Before laying down I can blamed others for my stress & lack of time. Sorry.
• Gut vs Head. During Savasãna it has becomes very apparent that the head often thinks in pros vs cons, looks to the future or past & is fear based. The Gut is more often than not Truth. Thats why they call it gut instinct.
• Rest before action equals effortless effort & creative flow ! The effects of taking a conscious act of rest, awareness, observation & surrender to the moment has had an incredible effect on my creativity & ability to work, make, do.
• A little extra for when you’re more experienced: Combine Savasãna with bandha activation & central channel breathing. The activation of the energetic body can make this practice quite exciting!

Conclusion.

As simple as it is this stuff really works! In just 20 minutes of down time Savasãna, I found myself back on track, body happy, mind quiet, no more physical or mental tension & work was more pleasurable!

So why not give it a go!?! Set yourself the challenge & find out how this simple practice can benefit you.

• Try a Savasana prescription of 10-30 minuets during the day.
• Focus each day on a different area of the body or mind.
• Keep a journal.
• Enjoy ☺︎