Corpse Pose + Healthy Fall Chocolate Cake Surprise

Corpse pose or Shavasana is a great Hatha yoga way to reset new intentions for the rest of this year, so you can enter your new year with a bang! 🎉 I share my yoga thoughts below…

And today’s fall daylight savings (happy fall back hour!) preps us for additional fall back rest. Now is a good time to rest up, store up the acorns 🐿 and spices for the winter holiday weeks.

Make warm soup and spice blends to warm your soul… like I did with this healthy plant-based potato based black bean soup with tofu and 15 spices (that’s good for us and the planet).

As part of the weekly R&R, I made a mini bite-size chocolate cake. This one has a gooey dark chocolate middle in a chocolate cake made from cocoa, peanut butter (that’s always a good flavor), and seasonal fall pomegranates. The recipe is below. 🥮

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While making this, I’m reminded how often we stand stationary with some kind of tool in front of us, whether it’s a standing desk computer or a kitchen tool like a mixer.

We measure our standing time vs. our sitting time.

We forget to measure our resting time. And Corpse Pose is one of the most relaxing and restorative yoga poses.

And to mix it up, it’s a good idea to lay flat back, shoulder blades flat, and consciously awake on a mat in a yoga pose, that’s different than reclining or napping in a recliner. Remember when you saw those often in older homes?

Taking a few extra minutes to not rush around can revive your entire day. Those moments are enhanced when there’s no distraction like a computer or a television. Be in calm silence.

Laying down, you’re looking at the ceiling or sky above you.

Corpse Pose Benefits

This is actually a productive yoga pose even though you’re not moving on your yoga mat. You’re almost like a frozen angel in the snow but not moving your arm wings up and down.

…Any normal twitches feels like a sudden movement. 

So much of our work and out-in-life day is full of being de-sensitized to our bodies and minds, and this resting pose is the opposite. You get to feel yourself as part of this Universe and not just the corporate external person you show up as to people you work with and interact with.

Rested, your heart is also rested and your blood pressure drops in the seconds and minutes you’re in this pose. Don’t be in a hurry to get up.

All the tension is left behind at least for the minutes you’re in this calming pose.

You can eliminate temporary headaches as you think calm, positive, and happy thoughts. 

And as more minutes go by, you’ll also feel your body temperature drop especially if you’re the Vata or Kapha body type. Or if you’re leaning into Vata season and your Vata-ness!

You would’ve commonly done this Shavasana or Corpse pose as an ending close in an in-person Hatha or more relaxed yoga class.

And maybe even the teacher came around with a light lavender spray mist to get you in the mood of laying still and quieting the mind.

The lavender scent calms your mind and the fine mist feels like a refreshing soft touch. It’s a nice way to bring special joy to your day.

Laying stretched out without moving on a mat that you can do anywhere helps melt the stress away into the floor or beach sand if that’s where you’re at.

And gives you a few moments of peace to get your second wind and ground you for the rest of the day.

Your blood pressure and heartbeat slow down. And this healthy mind-body cycle reset can help bring many more healthy new years.

Keep in mind, you are not your body. And your body is on a different clock than you are… with a different ticker than what’s on your agenda or to-do’s.

So it’s good to remind yourself to slow it down.

Besides sleeping at night, daytime Corpse Pose lets your body rest from overdrive.

You give your systems a midday break, so any one of part of it doesn’t break one day. It’s good body maintenance if you want to think about it that way.

There are more heart attacks in the winter than in the happy-go-lucky summer, so now durng this season is a good time to try out a Shavasana pose habit.

Try to fit it in, in between your daily activities or from morning to afternoon activities

And with a short rest break, your mind has a chance to reset.

When you’re in an activity for a little while, when that first negative or worry thought enters or you stop thinking productively, that’s when it’s good to take an adult timeout and get into your Shavasana or Corpse pose.

Corpse Pose Tips

Have a folded blanket near near you if you’re using props. Your body temperature drops, so you’ll want the comfort of a blanket or thin yoga top layter you peeled off earlier especially if it’s typical fall or cooler season weather.

Remember to breathe normal. You can pinpoint if your breath through your nose is naturally shallow or deep.

One time in the spring, I found that when I paid attention to my breath laying down I was only breathing out of one nostril because of allergy season.

That’s why I was feeling tired because I wasn’t getting full air. And when I added and turned on the humidifier and used homeopathic decongestant and sinus tips I recommend but needed to be reminded of, that helped. But I wouldn’t have observed that had I not been in my awareness yoga mode.

Also, keep your phone off your mat! 😉 That’s one of the rules that will help with your balance of 80/20 real life vs. virtual world digital life.

In live yoga classes, you don’t want to be caught with a phone in the room because it’s embarrasing if a notification vibration goes off. Rings are unheard of these days.

In a yoga studio, you can hear a pin drop.

If you feel restless in the beginning, similar to meditative rest, keep trying. Your body appreciates your yoga gesture.

Leaving Your Rested Pose

If you’re in a class, often you’re led to turn to one side of the body. And slowly start moving the arms and legs.

You’d gradually get up when you’re ready. This can sound like a daily morning ritual getting out of bed, but it more purposeful. Because you weren’t sleeping just a few minutes ago.

So transitioning yourself back to the world can be a little jolting if you just rushed through.

And when you take this slowly rising time, when you’re back out in traffic your mind remembers how calm everything was for you just a few minutes ago on your mat. It feels good!

We learned that from the post-dot com eras in the early 2000s when it was common that adult Americans worked over 50 hours per week, rarely took a vacation, and slept less, burning the candle on both ends to get more done.

That often leads to burnout.

So if you feel like you need more of the Corpse Pose after you leave or feel like a million bucks after leaving your yoga class, do more!

…And do more often! Add this your yoga practice. That’s what your mind-body is calling you to in this season and maybe year-round. It’s intuitive and if you need something, it will let you know by these feelings.

Also pair yoga with enough sleep. The sleep type of rested pose is different because the purpose is different. And it’s usually night time so you’re shutting down.

In both getting sleep and the rested yoga pose, after we get up we feel better and are more productive in the day.

Corpse Pose (aka resting pose) practiced awake didn’t come into daily society until at least a decade later. It’s different than napping where you could be curled up.

I once practiced Corpse Pose on a mat on a cold catering office floor. And the warmest time was on the beach sand catching some rays before the pose had a name 😉. You too? 

…What are your interesting resting pose memories?

These are good reset reminders for our busy lives where we forget to slow down often. It’s not an automatic response.

It’s like when our phone needs to be reset but we don’t automatically choose that option. We’d rather wonder why our phone is slow and we keep trying the same task over and over, instead of rebooting, saving us minutes and frustration.

And while we’re there, maybe we just keep it off for a few minutes and remind ourselves how our society and some of us used to live without our devices that I’d add: today have become more important to us than our keys.

We often use our phones more than our minds. Shavasana can help recapture and bring back some of those mindful minutes.

And we can take a few gratitude moments and appreciate what we have in the busy era we’re in…

These days vs. 2020 and in real life (vs, digital life), we’ve gotten better at doing what matters to us and less with just mindlessly following the pack.

We have more opportunities to change and choose different paths.

Our society is less competitive than it was and is more collaborative as a whole. We need it for our world to come together. 🌎

And these days we’re challenged to adapt quicker and be well versed in more topics. Trends are made in milliseconds and then forgotten the next day whether we like it or not.

Metrics aren’t what they used to be. But despite these changes and life disruptors, one thing hasn’t changed… we still get to make choices.

And slowing down our tempo gives us advantages so we can keep up. That’s what Corpse Pose can do for you. And it can be a reminder.

We can make better lifestyle choices to live longer, happy quality lives. That’s a good optimal goal to set out for.

And with that thought, I’ll leave you with two questions to think about:

At this point, what would make your year optimal? Idea: you can make an appointment with yourself in Shavasana Corpse pose to think about this.

And, what would help you to make your next year brighter? Think of what change or improvements in you would make things different and better.

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