try sunbathing on your sides

In the previous thing to try, I suggested that sunbathing is an ideal meditation form. And here, we're going to build on that.

Many people, when sunbathing, lie on their front and on their back, and leave it at that. If you notice, though, this doesn't give the perfect tan. The sides of the body are slightly lighter, not so tanned. There's a bit of a stripey feel to the tan. By also including some sunbathing on your sides, you will overcome this and end up with a more even tan.

But here, of course, I'm not really talking about tanning. There are other benefits to sunbathing on your sides.

Whilst lying on your side, bring your awareness to the different sensations in the two sides of your body. The lower side – the side on the ground – will feel stable, solid, grounded. It has a secure feeling to it. And yet, because of the pressure, and because of that groundedness, there probably won't be much energy flow up and down that side of the body.

Whereas the other side – the side that is uppermost – will have a completely different feeling to it. The sensations will not be the same at all. Of course, the sun will be beaming down on this uppermost side, so it will be feeling that warmth as the sun soaks in. But also, being away from the ground, this side of the body might feel lighter and less pressed. And with this freedom, you may find that energy flows more easily up and down this side of the body. This side of the body is becoming more energised in this position.

Of course, to get a balanced energy in the body, you want to sunbathe some of the time on one side, and some of the time on the other. And you might go for an equal amount of time on each side.

But there's a further subtlety to this meditation. And that is to do with the balance of energies between the left side and the right side of the body. Most people have an imbalance of energy between one side and the other. This is the normal energetic state for us humans.

The right side of the body represents the masculine, and the left side the feminine. So most men, if their masculine is more developed than their feminine, will have more awareness and more energy in the right side of their body. And for many women, the opposite will be true, with more energy and more awareness in their left side.

But it may be the other way around for you. If you sit still in a chair, upright, and feel into your body with some sensitivity, you should be able to become aware of which side of your body dominates in this way. And part of the spiritual journey involves us balancing the masculine and feminine within us. So if you find that one side of your body is less energetic, has less awareness in it, and is less developed, then you can give that some bias. You can sunbathe with that less developed side uppermost for longer. You should still give the other side a few minutes. But you can spend much longer with the less developed side receiving that energy from the sun, and being in a state where energy is free to flow more easily.

Incidentally, I should add, for this freedom of energy flow, it's really great to be naked. Clothing obstructs, or at least restricts, energy flows. I long for the day when we are all naked all day long. We will all be so much healthier for it. Until then we have to cover our bodies most of the time. But for these meditations, especially ones involving energy like this one, try to be naked.

As an aside, for this left-right balancing, you will also find a guided meditation on the website, which attempts to address the same question of balancing the energy in the left and right side of the body, by a different approach. But here, why not stick with this simple sunbathing technique? And if nothing else, you'll end up with a better tan.

So try it: try sunbathing on your sides.