Most people move through their day without noticing one of the most fundamental rhythms of the body:
The transition between lying down and standing up.
This simple daily cycle — waking and sleeping — shapes how we experience gravity, movement, and even emotion.
In somatic practices, this shift between horizontal and vertical states is key to understanding how awareness forms in the body.
There are two major phenomena that occur in our bodies every day.
The first is waking up in the morning.
The second is going to sleep at night.
Two very simple acts.
Our life unfolds between these two events.
The human animal evolved from being on its belly to being on its feet.
Our evolution embodies two aspects of living:
The life of horizontal stability
And the life of vertical mobility
When lying horizontally, the body feels full contact with the ground.
The weight of gravity becomes more apparent.
The head and torso share the same plane.
When standing vertically, contact with the ground is reduced to the feet.
The head moves away from the ground.
The body opens outward to meet the world.
And in this meeting with the world, movement is formed.
Our vertical expansion creates patterns of emotion and locomotion.
It expresses our human condition through the awareness of being upright.
In many spiritual traditions, this verticality is symbolized by the erect spine — associated with the elevation of consciousness.
In contrast, Western psychoanalysis often uses the horizontal position — lying down — to access deeper layers of the psyche.
In truth, life unfolds between these two movements:
Grounding horizontally, returning to source
And expanding vertically, engaging with the world
This is somatic intelligence.
In between, there is awareness.
There is you.
A simple somatic practice to explore this
Try this:
1. Lie down on the floor
2. Notice the contact of your body with the ground
3. Feel the weight of your back, head, and pelvis
4. Slowly come to standing
5. Notice what changes in your perception
Ask yourself:
• Where do I feel more supported?
• What happens to my breath?
• How does my attention shift?
This is the beginning of somatic awareness.
Eutonia for Dancers is an online somatic movement practice where we explore these subtle shifts in perception through guided sessions.