Cranial Segment Meditations

Stillness Meditation Practice:

This practice centers on the cranial nerves.  Like any electrical system, nerves that are not grounded build up static and noise.  This practice is to let them to drain their charge.

Segment I:      olfactory

• Let yourself have a nose.  Leave it be.

Segment II:     optic

• Don’t interpret anything you see.
• See from the upper rear of your head.
• Open your gaze to include what is around you.

Segment III:   trigeminal

• Let your face touch the air.
• Stop preparing to say words.
• Give weight to your jaw.

Segment IV:   facial / vestibular / cochlear

• Listen for what is behind or beyond sound.
• Remain at your midline.

Segment V:     glossopharyngeal

• Enter a fast from food.
• Let your saliva clear.

Segments VI & VII:   vagus

• Allow your breathing.  Leave it alone.
• Leave your pulse alone.
• Leave your digestion alone.
• Rest your voice.

Segment VIII:   accessory / hypoglossal

• Let the inside of your throat be tall.
• Let your tongue sink to the floor of your mouth.

Movement Meditation Practice:

This is a practice of following specific movements to see what experiences they lead to.

Segment I:      olfactory

• Get close to the ground, close your eyes, and follow what you smell.

Segment II:     optic

• Allow light to come toward your eyes.
• Keep letting light further and further into you.
• As you let it in, focus further and further away.
• Move lightly out toward light as you let it move deeply into you.

Segment III:   trigeminal

• As you touch your face, letting your mouth open and your eyes roll up,
• explore your urge to bite.

Segment IV:   facial / vestibular / cochlear

• Gradually and softly, let the scope of your vision widen to your horizons.
• Let a smile spread from the center line of your face out your ears.
• Let pressure waves of sound come into you, and smile to them.

Segment V:     glossopharyngeal

• Imagine taking food that you love into your mouth, swallowing after
• every taste, moving from one delicacy to the next.

Segments VI & VII:   vagus

• Touch fingertips lightly but continuously behind your earlobes.
• Let your voice sound:  mmmmm………
• The food and air you have taken in is moving through you; follow its movement.

Segment VIII:               accessory / hypoglossal

• Notice the space inside your throat:  aaaaahhhh…….
• Let your tongue dance, and follow its dance.
• (Segment IX:  accessory / suboccipital
• Let your head float freely up from your neck.
• Let your gaze meander without stopping anywhere.

©Erik Bendix 2007