Friday Q&A: Savasana Vs. Seated Meditation

Q: I've gone through all your articles regarding meditation and savasan :) What is the difference between the state of mind during the centering in the beginning of yoga practice (meditation) and savasan? The different position of the body is obvious, but what about the mind? Thank you and namaste, Linda

A: What a fascinating question! And also, it turns out, a tricky one. In fact, it led to an interesting email exchange between me, Nina, and Dr. Timothy McCall. Before I share that exchange with you, I’d like to say that in comparing seated mediation with the practice of Savasana, it is important to understand that:

• The short meditation done at the beginning of a yoga class, though “centering,” is not the full practice of seated meditation, which is traditionally done for much longer periods of time.
• The short Savasana (Corpse pose or Relaxation pose) done at the end of a yoga class, though relaxing, is not the full practice of the pose, which is traditionally done for much longer periods of time and always has a mental focus (such as the breath, a physical sensation of the body, a peaceful image, progressive relaxation, or even a mantra) and is not just “lying down in Savasana.” Of course, if you tend to fall asleep in Savasana, then you are indeed just sleeping and therefore your mental state in the pose can’t be compared with that of seated meditation.

Done properly, both these practices have been shown to lead to state of conscious relaxation. Scientists who have studied conscious relaxation have found that alpha waves (slow brain waves) increase in intensity and frequency during conscious relaxation, but are not commonly found during sleep. During Savasana or meditation our brain waves may slow to the alpha rhythm (8-12 cycles per second), during which we remain quietly aware of ourselves and our surroundings without a lot of self-directed mental processing, or they may slow even further to the theta rhythm (4-7 cycles per second), during which we may get a “floating” feeling, dreamlike mental imagery, and withdrawal from the outside world. Much is still unknown about these unique states, but what it is known is that regular practice of conscious relaxation helps foster ongoing feelings of serenity, contentment, and even happiness.

Now for the debate!

Nina: Timothy, I was wondering if you had any thoughts about this question. I was going to answer it, saying that with a mental focus (breath, progressive relaxation, yoga nidra, mantras, whatever), Savasana creates a similar state of mind to seated meditation. However, without a mental focus, it is primarily physical relaxation (with the body in anatomic neutral) enhanced by a postural relaxation response (because you assume the position for sleeping, which is less stimulating to the nervous system than sitting upright or standing). But I wanted to check with you to see if you had any other thoughts about it.

Timothy: I think the mental relaxation you can get in Savasana is fabulous but to me it's qualitatively different from what happens in the long-term practice of meditation, which I view, as traditional yogic thought says, potentially deeply transformational. Of course the state you can achieve in a brief check-in before yoga isn't really meditation, but just coming inside for a minute, so a good Savasana is probably way deeper than that. Savasana, of course, can also be transformational in its way, but to me it's different. I agree that some kind of awareness, which can even be just mindfulness of whatever arises as in Vipassana, is crucial to Savasana, or otherwise it's mostly a nice rest!

Nina: So why would your physical position make a difference? I feel confused about this. If you practiced lying down meditation every day for 20 minutes, would that not have the same effect as seated meditation?

I don't agree that Savasana is mostly a nice rest. That's just how most people use it these days. When I was working on our book proposal for Savasana, we interviewed all kinds of long-time teachers who told us about getting into meditative states with Savasana (done properly). Old descriptions of the pose include reciting mantras as you moved your consciousness to different parts of the body, etc.

I might include your quote while saying there are different points of view on this one (unless you can explain to me how/why it is qualitatively different).

Timothy: No I'm saying it's only a nice rest if you space out. If you maintain relaxed awareness, or use some of the tools you mentioned, it's definitely much more than that. Most yoga experts I've heard believe that sitting meditation is different. One theory I've heard it that the vertical arrangement of the chakras is important. I've heard others, including Desikachar, who I interviewed in Chennai one year, say that you can meditate lying down if sitting is not possible, and indeed I did that for a while when I had the thoracic outlet syndrome, and you can do it. I guess what I'm talking about is the effects of a regular long practice. So after I finish pranayama every morning, I sit for one hour, and I've been doing that much or almost that much daily for a long time. The cumulative effect of that seems very different to me that what I've had for doing briefer Savasanas after asana practice for about 15 years. I'm sure some advanced yogis (partially from doing seated mediation I'd guess) can reach some amazing meditative states in supine positions. So yes, there's some difference of opinions, and it's all valuable, so I normally don't obsess on all this hair splitting. Good luck!

Readers: Do you have any thoughts about this? And, Linda, perhaps you should try doing some experiments!