As an introduction to what that means, I thought it would be good to offer something you can use right now, so here’s a hello to the mighty skullhinge.

The skllhinge is a small part of the body, but it wields a whole lot of power around perceptual abilities, balance, strength, well-being and response times. Not bad, hey? So enough bragging already, the skullhinge is the joint at the point where the skull meets the spine. It’s a rather complicated joint that merits a full post simply on how it works, but for now I’ll just offer a practical introduction to what it can do when included in a powernap.

To start, the simplest way to relax the skullhinge is to relax the eyeballs. The skullhinge is located directly behind the eyes, and there are a lot of muscular connections between them.

One good way to relax the eyeballs is to massage around the eyes. Start at the bridge of the nose and massage the ocular ridge gently outwards, finishing with the temples. Do this a few times—over, then under the eyes. The eyeballs are suspended and controlled by muscles, and are themselves quite soft. If you feel brave, press the heels of your palms against your closed lids and press inwards with a steady pressure until you see stars, then lift your hands away gently. Repeat until you feel the eyeballs release.

Now, do whatever you might ordinarily do to get comfortable and take a nap: lie down, lean back on a couch, rest your head on the desk, whatever you find most relaxing. Close your eyes (after finishing this post!) So far so good. Now, here’s the special trick: when you close your eyes, keep relaxing them.

Maintain a light attention on your eyeballs and keep thinking about them relaxing. This will in turn release your skullhinge and allow your rest to be much more revitalizing.

After trying a few times, you should find that a 10-minute nap leaves you feeling as if you’ve slept an hour.

This is just a basic introduction to the skullhinge. I’ll follow it up with a bit more on why, and some other things to back up some of the bragging above. Until then, happy napping!

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