Have you ever looked up to someone who ended up disappointing you terribly? Perhaps it was a trusted minister who spoke every Sunday on “how to love” and then filed for divorce.
Or the local health food fanatic you spied at a fast-food restaurant chowing down on fries.
Or maybe it was the soft-spoken Martha Stewie down the block who you happened to overhear screaming full throttle at her kids. What a voice!
And what a struggle life can be.
Where to turn? There’s got to be someone out there who has it ALL together? But just when you find someone or something so incredibly good and true, something happens that rattles the bliss. That off-the-chart goodness moves into a B-flat minor … almost … not completely … ahh, forget it.
Life happens. Rust eventually settles in. And the hunt for utopia begins yet again and again.
Until, ultimately, we come to final relaxation or “the corpse pose.” What a weird name for a yoga pose. What’s the purpose in posing like a corpse? Life is where it’s at! All together now: Long Live Life!
Yet life and death are inseparable. You and I, or any life form out there, can’t have life without the inevitable death. In learning corpse pose, one actually is learning to live. It’s about releasing outer tensions and traveling into the realms of inner peace.
Here are directions for the infamous corpse pose. It can be done sitting or lying on your back.
Start with your feet. Wiggle and tense them. Bring your awareness fully to your feet. Then release the tension, stop their movement, and for several breaths think “relax the feet.”
Next move to the legs. Tense them slightly to bring your focus there. And then release the tension and for several breaths think “relax the legs.
Continue the process of tense, release, breathe, relax throughout your body.
The torso: Tense, release, breathe. Relax the torso.
The arms: Tense, release, breathe. Relax the arms.
The shoulders: Tense, release, breathe. Relax the shoulders.
The neck: Tense, release, breathe. Relax the neck.
The mouth: Tense, release, breathe. Relax the mouth.
The eyes: Tense, release, breathe. Relax the eyes.
The ears: Tense, release, breathe. Relax the ears.
The head: Tense, release, breathe. Relax the head.
The mind: Watch the breath to relax the mind.
When a thought comes along, let it glide away with the exhale.
Release thoughts by simply watching the breath going in and out.
Awareness on the breath
Breath
Simple
Awareness
Joan Budilovsky can be reached at editorial@kcchronicle.com Her website is Yoyoga.com.