Today’s class was in the evening, a 6 pm pranayama class. After chanting the invocation we were instructed to come up to the stage to watch a demonstration of savasana. The demo took between five and ten minutes and was done, purposefully, by another teacher, with just a blanket under the head. Once back on the mat Navaz (I am sure I am spelling that incorrectly), our teacher for the evening, talked us through it. Bend one knee into the chest, wait, put the foot on the floor, wait. We repeated each leg three times in a methodical, orderly fashion adding the thumb pushing in the crease of the thigh the last two times. Then both legs. After lengthening the back of the skull manually we bent our arms, elbows on the floor, palms facing headward and lifted the sternum, opening the chest. Hands down, legs long, in savasana. We were probably there for 20-25 minutes. All the while she talked about the breath guiding our awareness while the cars, motorcycles and other vehicles honked and sped through the street below.
Coming out, again methodically and gently, we rolled to the right, then left, then right, then left, then right and sat up to transition to seated pranayama. We did a little viloma, following her instructions and then five cycles on our own. The ending savasana was with the bolster on the root of the thighs. Coming out she had us roll from side to side again and when we sat up she said “That’s enough”. It was 7:15.
