I'm rocking right now, in fact. I rock almost all the time when I'm alone (if I don't pace, that is - cause pacing is my favorite stim). When I was a kid, I couldn't stop myself from rocking in front of other people, but now I've somehow managed to reduce this - so, when I'm with other people, I'll tap my feet, wring my hands, twirl my fingers, play with my hair... I'm quite a sight
I rock only forward-backwards. When I was a kid, I used to stand upright in the middle of the room and rock left to right with the upper half of my body, but my parents managed to prevent me from doing this. That's when I took up pacing, in order to replace it and I subsequently found out that pacing is more pleasurable. Now that I've found out about my autistic self, I've tried to do this again, just to see how it feels, but I haven't been able to do it. I don't know why, it just doesn't feel right...
When I rock, I'm usually not aware of what I'm doing. It almost always starts unconsciously, except for when I choose to sit cross-legged on the sofa, like SilkySifaka described, and do it on purpose. Then, it feels so nice, an almost erotic pleasure...
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Probably 75% Aspie, 25% NT... and 100% ADHD
Aspie-quiz results:
Aspie score: 138 of 200 / NT score: 78 of 200 => Very likely an Aspie.