The Line

Cooper Park at sunset

You uniquely perceive the environment within and beyond your body. Dr Ida Rolf named this vertical orienting to our horizontal physical environment “the line”. The line is a personal experience moment by moment. There is no one or any correct way to find your line.

Finding your line is a process of Inquiry. Some people call it Mystery School. It’s literally finding yourself and noticing the world above and all around.

It helps to slow down as you read this next part. Ask to feel a physical, individual, moment by moment relationship to the ground and sky. Listen and look; use all your senses. Keep turning to your senses though reading this. Include feeling the air on your face. Orient to the environment within and beyond your body. Find the very top of your head by going straight up the sides of your head from the center of each ear. Find a spot that might feel slightly sensitive towards the back of your dome. Rest your arms, notice the texture of whatever your palms are touching. Notice breath movement. Not necessarily a deep breath, just something that allows movement of your ribcage and includes a complete exhale. Beyond the rib movement, notice spine: cranium to sacrum. Layer noticing your free and easy breath together with sensing the top of your head. Free flowing breath, plus a sensation of support under you. Free breath scalp to feet, and support to rest into. Expand your ribcage out to the sides. Can you stay rested into the support while reaching to each side? What is it like to find more support through the inner line of the leg? Support from the front of the spine? Support and length and freedom in the inner line of the leg and the front of the spine? Does your sacrum move with your relaxed spine on the inhale and exhale without you trying to move it? Can your cranium feel more of that wave of breath also?

Put it all together and try things out. What is it like to notice that wave of breath or the endlessly strong support underneath you while you read this? Lengthen and shorten your spine with support from below. Listen to one gentle inhale and exhale as you take in the space you have above, behind, and all around you. You are this incredible dimensional being! Take your line for a walk to notice cranium to sacrum to heels.

“Noticing my line, I feel instantly different, and I move differently. Structural Integration has helped me to expand what I can perceive in myself and the world around me. It sounds so far out, and it is. What it does for me makes it practical.”

-Sarah

A poem for the ground:

Earth like your body

Full of mystery

Alive with activity

and fiery at the center

You’re with a living earth right now

Lets imagine earth is a sentient being and

loves you

Earths gravity is always

pulling you close because

you are so loved

Imagine earth breathing slowly under you

Give your weight generously

earth loves to feel you rest into them

Here it is

all the time

unconditional support