Oops ... Sorry!

If you’ve tried the skullhinge powernap you know that it’s a mighty good way to catch some midday zzzz’s. But what & where & why & all that jazz?

The skullhinge is a name for the general area where the skull and the spine meet. The bones involved are the skull, and the two top vertebrae, the atlas and the axis. No, nothing evil going on here, just a little rotation. The axis, atlas & skull fit together ingeniously in such a way as to allow the head to turn and tilt to angles limited only by the musculature & the neighboring spinal & collarbones, which are quite far away, after all.

The skullhinge is most easily accessed through the back of the neck, but its components are actually quite deep inside the neck. We always think of the spine as being on the back, but in fact those points that poke out your backside are simply that: points. The vertebral column itself is actually quite deep under the back muscles, and goes forward to about halfway through your body, to about the widest point. So it’s much larger & much deeper than most of us think.

Why am I going on about this? Because the skull is balanced on top of the spine much in the way a ball can be balanced on a finger: at the centre of gravity. The face extends down below the point of the skullhinge, which creates the illusion of weight at the front of the head, but in fact the heaviest thing in the skull is the brain, which extends far enough behind it so that, with good posture, the head balances perfectly on top of the spinal column.

And there’s the rub: good posture. So many important things run through the skullhinge that the difference between good posture and bad posture can affect our sense perceptions, reflexes and strength for better or worse. This list is by no means complete, but important things that run through or directly touch the skullhinge include major blood vessels, the windpipe, esophagus, and main trunk of the central nervous system.

When the neck is tense, all of these things are constricted, meaning there is less space for blood to flow to the brain, for communication between the brain and the rest of the body to occur, for air to enter and leave the body, and for food to be swallowed. On the other hand, when the muscles of the neck are loose, breathing is easier, blood flows more freely to the brain, and the central nervous system functions better. The vocal chords are also involved here, which means that our voice can change dramatically depending on the relative openness of this whole area.

Of all the effects above, the most important of these (in my view) is with the nervous system. When it’s constricted the entire nervous system—central, somatic and autonomic—is compromised.

When the central nervous system is constricted, it effects our sight, hearing, taste, and ability to distinguish subtleties of smell and touch. The vividness of the RED flower above is, well, not so vivid. When the somatic nervous system is squeezed at this juncture, our reflexes are slowed. When the autonomic nervous system is compromised in this way, the fight-or-flight response is activated, putting us in a constant state of stressed-outness.

Heck, if there were no other reason to relax the skullhinge this would do it for me!

That’s a cursory introduction, which you are more than welcome to add to or debate. Next time I’ll focus on a few ways to relax the skullhinge, then go on to a few rants about posture and the scourge of the computer…

Post by Aaron Bihari, Trainer & managing partner
Cross-posted at Cross-Pollination.