Let me share a secret with you...most of the time when I go practice yoga, I leave before we get to Savasana. While the excuse of getting home after a 6am practice so that my partner can leave for work is a piece of it, the more honest explanation comes in my discomfort with the pose.
Savasana, is also called Mrtasana. Mrta means death. And death is something that I fear.
Yoga teaches us to witness and revel in opposite in order to understand how they truly belong together. We need to notice and feel the dark in order to appreciate the light. Learn how to cultivate stillness and softness while knowing when and where to be steadfast and strong. And how to appreciate movement and the flow of life as well as the stillness of death.
In Savasana, we practice the death of the ego, of separateness from the whole and of disconnection to Self. We are gifted these mini-moments of silence to feel in order to heal and to dissolve away all that no longer serves. Our rebirth from this posture, if we are present to it, affords us greater access to the path of fully living.
As this week has brought the passing of a dear friend, I am reminded that yoga is a celebration of both life and death. I have visited my practice often over the last two days as a grounding force. I even stayed for Savasana.
This blog post is dedicated in loving memory to my friend and mentor Trevor Tice.