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Welcome to the November newsletter.

💡Here you'll find this month's article SAVASANA: How long is long enough? Thoughts on the importance of relaxation at the end of a yoga practice, and how long it should be.

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Article:

SAVASANA: How long is long enough?

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If I ask my students what they like most about their yoga class, they will often say the relaxation at the end. I’ve had some tell me that they’d happily skip everything else and just lie down for the whole session!

As I always tell my students, they wouldn’t relax so well if they hadn’t done the asana work first. The physical practice helps them to experience a much deeper relaxation.

Relaxation practice in Savasana at the end of an asana practice is an important part of a yoga class, but it often gets cut short if we run over time for some reason.

It’s worth remembering why relaxation is important and to ensure we allow enough time for it.

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Time to relax, restore and focus

A period of relaxation gives the body and the nervous system time to settle after the active part of the class. It’s also a chance for students of all ages to process and integrate what they have just done with their bodies and their breath, rather than rushing out of the door and on to the next thing.

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Hormesis is the biological principle where a small or moderate amount of stress stimulates beneficial adaptive responses. Wild water swimming is an example where the cold water gives the body a little shock, and the bounce back from that helps make the body more resilient.

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In a similar way, yoga practice can provide a series of mild, manageable physiological challenges that stimulate adaptive responses in the body. Asana and breathwork provide a challenge to the system.

When we give the body some time to rest afterwards, the nervous system has a chance to learn, process and develop resilience in response.

Relaxation is also an opportunity to teach students how to train the ‘monkey mind’ to focus.

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Practices to settle the mind are not easy for many, and are more often accessible in Savasana than in seated meditation.
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Learning to relax at will

Guided relaxation practices teach students how to relax at will, which is a very valuable life skill.

For many people, the only time they try to relax deeply in everyday life is when they go to bed at night. Using techniques learned from their yoga class to calm the mind and relax the body can help people with sleep difficulties.

Being able to relax at will is a skill that can help in other situations too. For example, if you’re at the dentist having treatment, you’re unlikely to relax completely! But relaxation skills can help you to take the edge off fearful feelings or pain, so it’s not quite as stressful as it would otherwise be.

When students find it hard

Some students love lying in Savasana. Others find it the hardest part of the class. They find it boring, can’t see the point of it, or find it really difficult to be still.

It’s important to emphasise that relaxing at will is a skill you learn with practice.

If there’s fidgetiness, simply acknowledging that and just letting it be, rather than trying to force yourself to be still, is also a part of the learning.

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Generally, I like to leave students to settle silently on their own and I allow time for this. I give intermittent guidance to the whole group as they prepare, rather than to individuals, unless someone specifically needs it. Many develop their own little ritual which on its own can become a trigger to the mind to relax.

So how long is long enough?

The length of the relaxation you decide upon depends on the nature of the practice leading up to it, the needs of your group, and your teaching aims. You may want to help them experience a deeper state of relaxation, or teach specific mental practices, refine and adapt the Savasana pose, help them to let go, or simply take some time to rebalance after asana practice or breathwork.

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In a 90 minute class I usually plan for 15 minutes’ relaxation, or 10 minutes for a 60 minute class. Sometimes I will plan 20 minutes for relaxation if I’m including a specific longer style of relaxation practice, and if it follows on naturally from the theme of the asana practice.

Within the time allocated for relaxation is the time needed for students to lie down. Some students take extra time positioning bolsters, blocks or eye pillows. Some aren’t comfortable lying on the floor and need a little guidance. Someone in a chair might need support from a block under their feet. In winter in a colder room they may also have extra blankets and clothing to organise. All this can take longer.

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If the asana work is taking longer than expected, we can either modify our plan as we go to ensure there is enough time for the relaxation, or we can use an adaptable relaxation practice that can be shortened as needed.

These teaching decisions involve making changes on the hoof, and depend on a number of factors such as the people in the group, the theme of the lesson, the weather, and most importantly your judgement about what sort of relaxation will serve those students best at the end of that practice.

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If this happens regularly, it's worth assessing why this is happening, and thinking it through at lesson planning stage. Planning as accurately as you can makes teaching easier and sticking to a well-timed plan ensures that students aren't missing out on relaxation time.
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Having options in your back pocket

Sometimes things happen in class that lead you to decide to modify your plan. You might add something in or miss something out, or spend longer on something that the students ask questions about. For this reason it’s useful to be familiar with how long the relaxation practices you use take to deliver so that you can switch to a more useful or time-permitting one if need be.

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I really like a passive progressive muscular relaxation practice. You start by becoming aware of the ground, and the rhythm of the breath, then direct your attention to the feet. Each time you breathe out, you let go of the feet a little bit more - actively looking for tension as you inhale, and releasing it as you exhale. Then you focus on the lower legs, the knees, the thighs, the hips, and working slowly and systematically all the way up through the whole body.

But this practice is quite time consuming. So I’ll make sure I've planned plenty of time for it and I'll only start it if I know there’s enough time to finish. It's not something to be rushed.

When I’ve got less time, I have a number of relaxation practices that can more easily be condensed while still feeling worthwhile. One nice practice I like to use is imagining a light at your heart centre. A healing light. It could be white, it could be golden, or whatever colour you like.

Each time you breathe in, the light shines a little more brightly. As you breathe out, you send that healing light to every part of your body, every tissue and cell.

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It’s helpful to have a variety of practices of varying lengths ready 'in your back pocket'. That way, whether the time allocated for relaxation turns out to be longer or shorter than expected, you can easily adapt.
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Relaxation is time well spent, and time worth protecting in your lesson planning and delivery. The experience students have in Savasana, and the quiet skills they learn from your teaching, can stay with them long after they’ve rolled up their mats.

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