As far as I know, every branch of yoga will have a savasana at some point in the practice sequence. Savasana is “corpse pose,” an actual pose which many say can be the most difficult because it involves lying absolutely still and focusing on the breath. Not scratching. Not fidgeting. Not thinking about how you’d like to move and how much longer will this be going on and did I remember to buy bread? Just lying there, in stillness, with yourself.

In Bikram yoga, savasana is a little different. Instead of having one savasana at the end, there is a savasana between each and every posture. This is because, as the instructors remind us, the idea is to give 150% of yourself over to the posture, and hold nothing back in your pursuit of complete focus, and then to enter into savasana and “let that go.” As in, the posture’s over—let that go. Your effort is done now. You recharge your energy so that you can give 150% to the next posture.

I like the times when the instructor adds “Let that go.” It’s a beautiful reminder to just relax my muscles entirely, to just release, to stop thinking, “How did I ever hold that posture? And now we’re going to do it again? oh man…”

This practice of taking savasana has been translating from the yoga mat to my life in the past few months. I began to realize that during the week, Monday through Friday, I was giving everything I was doing 150%. It was my most honest intention and effort to respond to every email, to honor the person writing me, to be of service, to offer more, to learn more, to stretch more, to give more.

And then, after that heavy week? Friday would come and it was time to take my savasana. Time to watch ridiculous amounts of television. To read for long periods. To not even touch the computer. To hang out with friends (or not hang out with anyone). To sit in the sun and stare at nothing. To walk along the beach.

I realize now that the times when I have hit the road for Italy in the past few years have also been me “Taking my savasana.” I live with intensity. I feel things deeply—my anger, my joy, my sadness, my heartache, my hopelessness, my possibility. All of it. For many years I fed myself the line that my family sometimes fed me: “You’re too sensitive.” I’ve met others along the way who heard the same thing.

Now I realize that those of us who live all the way are not “too sensitive.” I have an open heart, a heart that loves so big and wide and who wants good things for herself and people and the world so much that it is hard not to get sucked into expectations. To love with that intensity is to live with that intensity. I have wanted to, as Thoreau says, “live deep and suck out all the marrow of life,” though I haven’t chosen to do it through living an esoteric existence on Walden Pond.

And the key to doing this, and not driving myself to exhaustion? Taking my full savasana.

Not a sort-of savasana, where maybe I’m still yet I’m mentally planning, thinking, doing.

We need these spaces in our lives where we drop all of it—ALL. OF. IT.—and embrace periods of doing only that which our hearts desire, that which will refuel us. Some of us do need to go to Walden Pond. (Personally, I need Italy.) Some of us can even find different kinds of solace and rest and refueling in both.

There are so many objections to taking this time for oneself. Children. Money. Time. But here’s the thing—my retreats to Italy, seemingly “doing nothing”? Truly, they paved the way for the life I am living today. It was in that space of big dreaming that I first thought, “What if I lead a retreat here?” And now it’s happening.

So much of the writing that I have done in the past year has come out of that trip. Frankly, who I am today has come out of that trip. When I got all of this time away from my life, sadness came up. I birthed something on the cool stone floor of my studio apartment last summer, crying often in the dark. On the other side of that intense sadness was joy like I’d never known.

I don’t know who you are, reading this, or what you want out of life. But I do feel fairly comfortable saying that you probably could use a savasana, because most of us do and most of us don’t take them. A small daily dose is a wonderful start—a five-minute breathing space while staring out a window, for instance. (Never underestimate the power of five minutes.)

But I want to encourage you to go farther than that and find at least one day, maybe even a week, in your year where you just get away from everything.

Objection: “But it’s so expensive!” A thought: This need not be expensive. There are housing swaps via Craigslist, or staying at a friend’s house while they’re going to be away and feeding their cat, or pitching a tent somewhere, or sleeping in your car if that’s what it takes. Arranging to use vacation time or sick time. Borrowing money. Praying and seeing what comes in. Putting it on the credit card anyway because your life is worth more than the interest payments. Working three weeks straight rather than taking off weekends, and then using those “weekend days” in one long, continuous string. Take your savasana.

Objection: “But I have kids!” A thought: I recently heard a woman say “Make your kids your reason, not your excuse.” That hit me really powerfully. It occurred to me that when I was a kid, I would have liked to have seen adults who made time for self-care. They would have likely been much more patient with me. By giving to themselves, they would have more to give. Take your savasana.

Objection: “I can’t get that time off of work.” A thought: What if you could? Employers love finding ways to cut costs. Or what if there are double shifts for a week and then you get this entire week off? Or what if you use a sick day and trust that you’re less likely to get sick because you took time for self-care? Take your savasana.

Objection: “Only someone with a lot of privilege would make it seem so easy. Some people have responsibilities. I’m disgusted that you would even suggest that I can drop all of them, in the midst of this economy.” A thought: I’m not suggesting that people drop their responsibilities. Nonetheless, you’re entitled to your Story. I invite you, in particular, all the more to take your savasana, because when we don’t feel balanced in our lives, it is this kind of disdain that comes out. I send you my tenderness and love. (And P.S. that voice is not one that’s loving. Do you really want to keep it?)

BIG THINGS happen in those spaces where we are seemingly “doing nothing.” It’s because I’ve witnessed in myself and others the beautiful things that come out of space just to breathe and be, that I lovingly invite you into taking your savasana, claiming that space that is wholly yours.

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Two spaces are open in my Italy retreat, October 11^th-15^th! Please contact me at kate@yourcourageouslife.com with “Italy” in the subject line for more details. I’m also opening 5 spaces for people to attend the classes I’ll be including in this retreat!