We’ve all been there: you’re lying motionless on the mat, but your brain is running a mile a minute. You know you’re supposed to be letting go, but you’re taking this rest from sensation and stretch to run through your to-do list. Or your grocery list. Or your studying. Or an argument. Or, or, or… There’s any number of things that can occupy us when we’re “supposed” to be deep in the calm of our SAVASANA. And you know what? That’s okay.

It’s okay to be anxious and distracted. It’s okay for your brain to default to busyness. There is this strange myth about relaxation that it should be “natural”; that it needs to come easily. For most of us, it doesn’t. For most of us, surrendering to the stillness of savasana has to be a deliberate, conscious act. Think of it this way: in order to let something go, your brain has to tell your hand to open first.

So let your brain let go and to open up to stillness. If your mind starts wandering, kindly call it back. If your brain gets busy, have it gently tell itself to slow down. This isn’t wrong and it’s nothing you should feel bad about. If you have to do it once, twice, or even ten times, that’s okay. This is, after all, a practice.

And in this practice it’s not perfection you’re striving for—it’s peace.