By Kathryn Boland
Have you noticed yourself, or your own teachers, closing
classes without smooth transitions from peak poses or significant hip-opening
postures into Savasana? Perhaps
you’ve served students for whom the traditional Savasana shape, Corpse Posture, is not sufficiently grounding or
comforting? In a prior article, I offered some poses that can be fresh ways to
open up classes, apart from the common Child’s Pose and Easy Pose, that still
effectively open up classes.
The same is true of closing classes; sometimes there can be
a lack of grounding, de-escalating poses that effectively lead into Savasana, and the traditional Corpse
Posture shape fails to lead some students into the integration and calm that Savasana can offer. Read on to learn of
three such poses that can be incorporated into the ends of classes, as lead-ins
to Savasana, or be the final posture
for students to take in class. Namaste!
1) Viparita Karani
This mild inversion allows for length and ease through the
spine, as well as a mild inversion effect (if Inversions might not have
effectively fit into the class sequence prior to just before Savanasa, and/or deeper inversions
wouldn’t be appropriate for the students at hand). You can guide students to
their own section of wall, just as one might when teaching Headstand,
Handstand, or Scorpion Pose.
In fact, Viparita
Karani could be an effective way to draw energy down after cueing such poses.
You could also have students place blocks underneath their sacrums and stay
right where they are. If not from those deeper inversions, you could guide
students into Viparita Karani from
supine poses such as Bridge Pose, Supine Twist, and Figure Four. Guide students
to let their backs melt into their mats, and that release to seep into the
front side. Notice the breath and heart-rate begin to lower, and observe the
quality of thoughts.
It is easier, for most people, to keep the mind focused on
the practice when balancing or sinking deeper into Warrior II Pose. For many
people, the true challenge of practice comes with maintaining the mindfulness
in less active poses. From Viparita
Karani, one can smoothly enter into Apanasana
(Knees-Into-Chest Pose), Happy Laughing Baby, or right into Savasana. Allow this pose to be a smooth
bridge from the cannon of yoga postures in a class into its final resting pose.
Or, if against a wall, students could take final relaxation right from here.
2) Supta Baddha
Konasana
Guide students to come unto their backs, if they’re not
already there. Supta Baddha Konasana can
be entered into smoothly from poses including a supine twist variation, Bridge
Pose or its supported version, Fish Pose, or Apanasana. Have them put bottoms of feet together, letting the
knees fall wide - with blocks or a rolled/folded blanket just above the backs
of the knees (very lower thighs).
That supportive prop use isn’t essential to practice the
pose, but it’s advisable for anyone with lower back and/or hamstring
complications. And it can feel restful for anyone, contributing to the effect
of lowering the heart rate in order to have a truly integrative, rejuvenating Savasana. As this article overall is
arguing, our bodies and minds cannot just immediately enter that state of final
relaxation. We need to ease into it. As instructors, it’s our task to create
the conditions in which that can happen.
Energetic cues, such as softening the shoulders, face, and
back body, can help that calming process. Have students face their palms up to
help the shoulder girdle release. From here, to enter Savasana, have students simply lengthen their legs. If they have
props underneath the lower thighs, they’ll need to inch them down to stay in
the same place in the body. Or, if they have that blanket roll or fold there,
they can take a final relaxation here (because of gravity’s effect, taking the
shape unsupported for a long period could be too extreme of hip and inner
thigh-opener).
3) Happy Laughing
Baby/Floating Baddha Konasana
Have students, also on their backs, take their knees outside
of their side bodies (towards their armpits, ankles stacked over feet). Guide
students to have their feet parallel, toes behind heels. If that’s
inaccessible, flexibility-wise, have students take a “floating Baddha
Konasana”, knees very wide and bottoms of feet together in the air. If you
notice that students technically can enter Happy Laughing Baby, but have to
lift their heads and/or lower backs to do so, advise them that it’s better for
them to take Floating Baddha Konasana.
Struggling just to enter the pose will detract from the ease
we mean to build, to lower the heart rate and generally activate the
parasympathetic nervous system, as we enter Savasana.
As with the two prior options, guide students to notice any remaining tension
and attempt releasing it with the exhale. From here they can take a Supta Baddha Konasana, Viparati Karani, or go right into Savasana.
Floating Baddha
Konasana could be a final relaxation shape, if comfortable and relaxing for
a certain student, yet it might be an extreme amount of stretch if sustained. Supta Baddha Konasana could be a more
mild option here. They can know that all they need to do here is breathe and be, just as they are. Their practice, for today - whatever it was - was
enough.
© Copyright – Aura Wellness Center – Publications Division
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