At the end of each yoga class, we practice a pose called “savasana.” I usually tell beginning students it is “final relaxation.” But, technically the Sanskrit word translates directly as “corpse pose.”
I heard myself calling it “final relaxation” the other day, and then I thought about it…asking myself why I don’t just call it “corpse pose.”
I guess I’ve been afraid that the word “corpse” or the implication of dying would be off-putting to some people. I would never want to say anything right before relaxation that might cause someone to tense up or to have fear.
When practicing yoga at a studio in London, the teacher told us to relax on the floor with our arms outstretched “in the shape of Jesus Christ being crucified on the cross.” Yikes! The image of execution by crucifixion did not exactly elicit the relaxation response for me.
Still, I got a good laugh out of it. It is funny how one man’s corpse pose is another man’s (or woman’s) final relaxation.
I stumbled across an article that spells out why this particular pose is so potent, and why it is not as easy as it looks.
Check it out here.