Corpse Pose Yoga Connects With a Natural Part of Living: Dying

Lie on the ground. Breathe in and out. Feel your body supported by the floor, by the earth. Breathe again.

That’s corpse pose, or Shavasana, familiar to most yoga practitioners and used for relaxation and meditation.

When Veronica Wiley became a certified end-of-life doula late last year, the longtime yoga instructor combined that experience with death doula work and nature therapy facilitation into one practice: corpse pose yoga.

Whether someone is dealing with a personal loss, overwhelmed by the amount of human loss in the world or struggling to contemplate ecological loss, Wiley wants the corpse pose yoga workshops to offer people a place to get comfortable with those feelings.

“The intention with corpse pose yoga is more about just connecting people with their own experiences…