Savasana – Corpse Pose

Corpse pose (or Savasana) is a great pose for meditation practice and ideal if you need to chill out.

Illustrator Erin and yoga teacher Naomi have combined forces to give you some yoga inspiration to get you onto your yoga mat with beautifully illustrated yoga poses you can practice at home.

This week’s pose and illustration is the last in the series and based on the

seventh chakra, the crown chakra (otherwise known as Sahasrara chakra). Its colour is deep violet and sometimes depicted giving off pure white light and rainbow hues.

This chakra is linked with our higher consciousness, the understanding of our pure nature and transcendence. It is often shown as a lotus flower bursting open allowing us to experience enlightenment and a taste of the divine.

Corpse pose (or Savasana) is the last pose in our yoga practice. This final relaxation allows the body and mind to completely surrender the the experience of rest.

Step 1
Lying down on your mat, have your feet a little wider than hip-width apart. Lift your hips, lengthening your tailbone away from you and then placing your pelvis back down on the mat. This creates space around your lower back.

Step 2
Now rest your hands alongside your body, wrists slightly wider than shoulder-width apart and palms facing up. Lifting your shoulder blades, slide them back and down to create space around the neck and across the chest.

Step 3
Drawing your chin slightly towards the chest, lengthen the back of the neck into your mat. Check in with any tension you may be holding in the facial muscles. Soften the forehead, the eyelids and release the jaw.

Step 4
From here start to bring your attention towards your breath and settle into a deep sense of stillness. Feeling heavy into your mat, switch off and relax here for at least 5 minutes. The longer in savasana the better though so get comfy, lie back and reap the benefits.

A little bit more about Naomi and Erin

Naomi Costantino
Naomi has been teaching for over 10 years, originally training as a dancer and working on stage, TV and film. It was through the emotional ups and downs of life and physical injury that Naomi discovered yoga and the transformational quality it can have on mind, body and spirit. Naomi shares her passion and understanding of working with the physical body as a gateway to healing through her teaching and writing.

Erin Petson
With a pale face like a Bronte heroine and delicate hands, Erin Petson draws like a botanist on a light box, illuminating a sleeve, a hem or a wisp of hair with a nuanced precision that swiftly blurs into abstraction.

Having worked with Dior, Selfridges, Vogue, Victoria Beckham, Swarovski, Diane Von Furstenberg, Moncler, Lancome, The New York Times, The Guardian, Elle, Harvey Nichols, and Penguin, Petson’s story is a modern day fable of drawing your dreams on the sky and making them all come true, one by one.