SIX LINES OF ENERGY, SEVEN POINTS OF BALANCE

Begin by lying supine (on your back) on the floor, extend your arms and legs away on the diagonals. Deepen your breath, bring your attention to your abdomen, and to the gentle rise of fall that occurs with each inhalation and exhalation. Drop your breath right down into your pelvis and imagine your pelvis expanding like a balloon as you inhale and deflating as you exhale. Allow this expansion to occur in your mind in three dimensions, so that you see and perhaps begin to feel all the bones and tissue of the pelvis moving away and toward center with each phase of breath.

Once you have got a good sense of where the ‘center’ of your pelvis is, imagine six lines of energy radiating from this point and out towards the tips of the fingers on each hand, the tips of the toes on each foot, the top of the head and the tip of the tailbone. Activate these lines of energy and allow them to extend past the boundaries of your skin, and as far into space as possible. Practice inhaling to activate each line of energy and stretch each end point away from the center of the pelvis. Start with each line individually and then work across the diagonals – left fingers stretching away from right toes, and the opposite – as well as up and down the center line – stretching top of the head and tip of the tailbone away from each other. Inhale to activate and stretch the line and the exhale to release and relax. Lastly, try activating and then releasing all six lines simultaneously. As you do this, make a conscious choice as to whether you attempt to keep the sine neutral, or allow it to open toward extension on the inhalation and activation. 

The above exercise by itself is delicious and beneficial, but you can then bring this awareness of these six lines of energy into your everyday vertical alignment, whether sitting or standing, in stillness or locomotion. Bring awareness to how the movement of top of head and tip of tailbone away from each other can energize you if you have been sitting for a long time and counteract the spinal compression that is a reality of life with gravity. How can reaching up to get something from a high shelf feel safer by drawing a line of energy from your hand, through the center of your pelvis to the opposite foot? Observe how lifting a heavy object feels easier once you connect your hand right into the center of your pelvis and lift from your core. Play with walking up stairs with the awareness of planting each foot and then lengthening the line of energy from the center of the pelvis and out of the heel and in opposition out the top of the head.

Beyond this, take your six lines of energy into dance class and watch how balancing begins to feel lighter and more effortless once you keep the energy flowing through all six channels, both toward and away from your center. When we live, move and dance from center, then we can truly fly!