Meditation: Side-to-Side Roll

Side-to-Side Roll is pure magic. It refreshes spine, hip sockets, and organs, and enlivens fascial communications. It doesn’t require anything special. Any relatively clean rug will do. Throw down a thick, clean blanket and you’re ready to go. For time, this works at ten minutes but may seduce you into going a lot longer. This is an excellent practice when you are traveling. It fits onto most hotel beds or floor. If you are a house guest, it won’t disrupt any host anywhere.

• Put a squishy thick blanket down on the floor.
• Choose smooth music without lyrics, not too quiet and not too active. Preferably, the music should be seamless. A mix without silence spaces is best, and it should extend for an hour to give you plenty of time. (You may want to set a timer. Set it for at least ten minutes.)
• Begin lying on your back, knees bent, feet on the floor. Bring your awareness to your breathing. Be aware of the floor. Take a few moments to release any overt tension. Breathe…Relax…Breathe…
• Now, languidly draw your knees up toward your chest, feet loose in the air, a bit sloppy, hip sockets soft, arms on the floor. You can move gently here to get your orientation, to get a sense of your back on the floor.
• Now bit by bit relax over toward one side, letting the arm that trails behind gently join you. Let it sleepily tag along as your roll onto your side. Take your time. Be aware of your breathing. Maybe take a moment, when you are on your side, to feel where everything contacts the ground. Your shoulder, ribs, side of your hip, your forehead. Breathing. As you begin to roll back to center you might be aware of your skull’s roundness against the ground. Breathe as you go.
• Pass through center and roll slowly toward the other side. Feel every little contact with the ground.
• As you continue rolling from one side to the other and back, breathing, breathing, feel the floor. Feel your body melt. Feel your flesh become thick and blob-like. Jelly in a sack. Even the bones soften. The floor touches more and more of you, the ground reaching up to gather you down onto it.
• As you continue, your awareness opens, your breath expands, the space within and between bones and muscles and organs awakens and grows resilient, and you may move more slowly, savoring the deliciousness. Rasa.
• Continue for a while. Then, let your body explore however it wishes.
• After a while, let the movement subside and rest.