Diaphragmatic breathing for better sleep with a guided Shavasana practice. Relax your body, calm your mind, and deepen your breath for restful nights.
Here you’ll learn the practice of Shavasana (Corpse Pose) and Supine Abdominal Breathing to help you relax your body, calm your mind, and deepen your breathing. Shavasana is a restorative yoga pose that encourages relaxation and mindfulness, while abdominal breathing teaches us how to engage the diaphragm and return to our natural breath pattern.
Step 1: Set Up for Shavasana
Start by lying down on your back in Shavasana, also known as the Corpse Pose. To enhance the experience, place a heavy pillow or any other weighted object on your belly. This helps create awareness of your breath.
- Spread your hands wide apart from your body, with palms facing upward.
- Let your feet fall to the sides naturally, and place your legs slightly wider than your hips for comfort.
- You can place a thin pillow behind your head for extra support, and if you’re cold, cover yourself with a blanket.
- Once you’re comfortable, close your eyes, soften your face, and prepare to relax.
Step 2: Focus on Your Breath
As you settle in, begin to bring your attention to your breath. Notice the sensation of air flowing in and out of your nostrils. Allow yourself to breathe slowly and naturally. Your goal is to direct your breath toward your belly so that you can feel the pillow rising and falling with each inhale and exhale.
Everything in your body should be relaxed—your shoulders, glutes, and chest. Try to keep your chest stable and focus only on belly breathing.
- As you inhale, feel the diaphragm moving down, expanding the lungs.
- As you exhale, the diaphragm moves up, helping the lungs contract.
This process of diaphragmatic breathing is crucial for deep relaxation.
Step 3: Lengthen Your Breaths
Now, start making each inhale and exhale longer, softer, and calmer. You want to create a rhythm where your exhalations are slightly longer than your inhalations. This technique helps activate the parasympathetic nervous system, also known as the “rest and digest” system, allowing you to reconnect with your body and mind.
- With each inhale, imagine a wave of energy revitalizing every part of your body.
- With each exhale, feel all your worries and tension floating away.
Step 4: Release Facial Tension
As you continue breathing, direct your attention to specific areas of your face and body that might be holding tension. Focus on softening:
- Your forehead and the space between your eyebrows.
- Your eyes, jaw, and cheekbones.
- Even the space inside your mouth and ear canals.
Let go of any tension in these areas, and keep your awareness of the gentle rise and fall of your belly with each breath.
Step 5: Sink into the Experience
As you deepen your breath, notice how your body starts to feel both heavy and light at the same time. You are sinking into the ground, but also feeling as if you are floating in the air. Stay connected to your breath, and allow yourself to fully experience this sense of weightlessness.
This is a place of pure awareness—a moment where you are present with yourself. You can always come back to this space whenever you need to relax and reconnect.
Step 6: Conclude the Practice
When you are ready to end the practice, you can either stay in Shavasana for as long as you like or respond to the sound of a bell if you’re using an audio guide. As you finish:
Warm your palms by rubbing them together, and place them over your closed eyes. Slowly open your eyes inside your hands, allowing yourself to gently transition back into your day.”abdominal breathing is associated with the movement of the diaphragm and the outer wall of the abdomen.
Slowly introduce small movements to your extremities, such as wiggling your fingers and toes.
Turn to your left side if you want to feel more energized after the practice. Alternatively, turn to your right side if you want to maintain a state of relaxation.
Take your time—there’s no need to rush.
When you’re ready, push yourself up using your hands while keeping your eyes closed.
When relaxed, this muscle arches upwards towards the chest. During inhalation, it flattens as it moves downwards, compressing the abdominal organs and eventually pushing the front wall, the belly, of the abdomen outwards.
This movement enlarges the chest cavity downwards, allowing the lungs to expand and thereby draw in air from the surroundings.
Relaxation of the muscles that pull the diaphragm downwards allows the diaphragm to move upwards again to reduce the volume in the chest cavity, causing exhalation.
This form of breathing draws in the greatest amount of air for the least muscular effort. However, it is often hampered by tight belts and clothing which prevent the movement of the belly outwards.”
Mythology of Savasana Position
In Shakta mythology, Shiva is actually shava (a dead body) until the goddess Kali dances on him. Without a Goddess, he is as good as a corpse.
This popular story embodies the dichotomy between matter and the mind, or matter without a soul.
Shiva is considered the lord of the ghosts (Bhuteshwara): the spirit without substance.
The Goddess is believed to be substance without spirit. Only when the two come together is life created.
Sources
Yoga Mythology by Devdutt Pattanaik with Matthew Rulli, p. 197, 198
A Systematic Course in the Ancient Tantric Techniques of Yoga and Kriya by Swami Satyananda Saraswati, p. 26