Lasagna Savasana
Sedef Dion who co-created our Pre-Grounded program shared with me the story of a four year old girl who in the cutest way mistakenly called Savasana….Lasagna. This inspired me to write a Savasana visualization with a Lasagna theme that I recently used to connect with our Fernbank Elementary Yoga Club students. After we did our practice complete with the Lasagna Savasana, one of our students..the Principal’s five year old daughter said…”that was so relaxing…this could help me fall asleep at night”. Since it was her birthday that day, we wanted to put together a recording that her parents could play for her as she settles down for a good night rest after a long day. The artwork in the slideshow is that of our Fernbank students expressing themselves after the Savasana.
{vimeo}33306907{/vimeo}
Prepare your body for lasagna.
Lie on your back with your legs out long in front of you.
Allow your feet to fall open.
Bring your arms out to the sides of your body, palms facing up.
Look ready to be baked. Close your eyes.
Settle and get heavy, descending your weight to the bottom of your pan.
Tune into the rising and falling of your breath. Create long, deep warm breaths.
Focus on a point in the middle of your forehead between your closed eyes. Imagine a rectangle in this spot and slowly begin to expand it with each breath that you take.
As you continue to breathe, your rectangle begins to grow and grow, getting larger and larger, until you and the rectangle are one.
Become aware of any frozen or congealed sensations in your feet…legs… belly…, chest…, shoulders…., back…..arms…, elbows…, wrists…, hands…, neck.., jaw…, face…
Notice any fears, doubts, attitudes, quandaries, conversations, or memories that are uncomfortably stored or perhaps even bubbling up to the surface.
Imagine a cardboard box next to your pan.
Silently, allow any bitter, stale, or sour bits of ingredients to emerge one by one.
As each bit appears, put it into the box until you feel softer. Knowing that the sweetness is still inside of you. Your box of course will be recycled into healing compost.
In the space of your rectangle begin to sense the ingredients that represent your highest, best self.
Notice the tomato red stability across your base, followed by the flow of carrot orange creativity below your belly button, above is the shiny pineapple yellow of confidence, bright leafy green love at your heart center, the solid blueberry truth at your throat, indigo black berried imagination between your closed eyes, and pomegranate purple connection to something bigger at the top.
Invite in delicious warm sauce to coat you. Top with a heavy layer of noodles. Drizzle heaps of delicious white love on top.
Experience your inner colors, textures, smells, sounds, and how your body feels in this place and in this time.
Continue to layer more of what you need…until you find the place inside where you are steady, heavy, and held by something bigger.
Soften every noodle. Settle, secure and grounded in the lasagna of your presence. Know that you are completely and totally supported in the Universal Oven, as you lie here warm and cozy.
In your final baking moments of lasagna notice what could bring out your individual flavors more fully. Add them to jazz yourself up Notice how sweetly melted you are below your eyes, your throat, your heart
Notice how delicious you smell, how hearty you feel and how tender you are.
Keep your eyes soft as you bend your knees into your chest and sweetly roll to the side. You are still cooking Press up with your hands to a seated position. Keep your eyes soft and place your hands together in front of your heart.
Serve.
In celebrating Dr. Seuss’ birthday we learned how to work our feet and our hands. Just as Suess’ Mr. Brown Can Moo!, Mrs. Cat can MEOW! In “Mrs. Cat Can Meow! Can You?” A Poem of Wacky, Wonderful Noises – While Clawing the Mat we allowed our inner animal out on the mat while paying close attention to our hands and feet. Are they wacky? Are they flat? Are they clawing the mat? When practicing this wacky flow while making Suesserrific noises you too will learn the importance of clawing the mat. In playing “Stop Foot, Go” (a zany spin on the all time favorite game, Musical Chairs) and studying the 4 corners of our feet we checked on our left foot and our right foot making sure they were fuzzy fur feet. While “Roaring”, “split – splatting” and “meowing” along with Mrs. Cat we learned that when our four paws are aligned we feel more steady, more grounded, and in balance with the universe.
As Earth Day approaches this year, I am struck by what it means to truly foster Peace on this planet. I remember as a child, learning about anti-nuclear protestors who chained themselves to fences and were forcibly removed and jailed. These brave souls became my heroines and heroes in the late 1970’s and 1980’s. I was moved to tears singing Dylan’s “Blowing in the Wind” and hearing stories of civil disobedience and the message of non-violent resistance. Later in the 1990’s, when I danced barefoot on my very first Earth Day, a lump would form in my throat when I celebrated each small victory (and the Gigantic Hearts) of environmental protestors who sacrificed so much to save a single tree and worked to preserve open space for our children’s children. Peace.
