Savasana Tears
/Have you cried in savasana? I feel like there is something so freeing and safe about savasansa… but it also feels a bit weird sobbing laying down in a silent room. I’ll never forget my last yoga class with Ally Hamilton at Bryan Kest Power Yoga before I moved east in July 2009. I sobbed. Like sobbed uncontrollably and I remember it perfectly. I was so sad to leave something I loved so much. And there have been so many other savasanas that have been tear filled. It’s this time to just let go. You let go of your breath control, let go of using your muscles, you plop down on the ground and let go, and with that it’s so easy to let go of anything bottled up inside, like all the tears and all the emotions.
I taught my last official class at Greatist last week. I’ve been lucky enough to teach my wonderful coworkers every Wednesday at 9am for over a year. Leaving Greatist is a whole other story, but it felt really weird having this teaching chapter come to a close. As a teacher you hold space and guide your students in a class so they can dig deep inside and so they can let go of whatever is bottled inside. My heart opening class opened and closed with reading Rumi’s poem “The Guest House.” And then I CRIED! Are teachers “supposed” to cry? I felt an overwhelming feeling of gratitude. I felt sad to not have this routine. I also realized in that moment how much I absolutely love sharing my love for this practice. As I sniffled through reading the poem and asked everyone to find a deeper breath and find movement in their fingers and toes, I heard other tears in savasana. We were all crying.
Yoga is community, love, freedom, routine, happiness, all the things to me. This moment reminded me of just that. Like my moment in Ally’s class 8 years ago, I will forever remember how special this last class was and I will always feel grateful for my first students who really taught me everything.
“This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.”
