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Abdominal Release Breath Breath & Movement Practice & Play Rib Swing

Roll-Down

Stand upright, sensing moment by moment for a dynamic, active alignment in your bones.

Allow the chin to fall toward the chest. Slowly, breath by breath and vertebra by vertebra, allow the spine to follow the crown of the head downward into a forward fold. Make sure that the joints of the legs are bending to support you on the way down. Rather than using the core to control your descent, try to maintain ease and balance at each phase of the roll-down, releasing the belly and breath and allowing the skeleton to balance over the feet in support of the evolving shape. 

Take a few breaths at the bottom of the roll-down, allowing gravity to work on the spine. Hang from the hip joints, and allow the breath to travel all the way up to the pelvic floor as it arrives, then fall right back out toward the floor.

Continue allowing the belly and breath to release as you slowly roll up the spine. Once again, let the bend in your leg joints and the balance of the skeleton do the work. Your legs should feel more engaged than your core.

Let the head be the last thing that arrives at upright. Your jaw might not ever make it. Feel a dynamic head-spine relationship and encourage spaciousness and fluidity in the place where your spine enters the skull, just behind your throat.

Try to take your work with you into the next thing you do.