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The Cross Walk

This exercise can be used to help boost your energy, improve your ability to heal, increase your mental comprehension and your physical coordination.

Just as the left side of our brain sends information to the right side of our body, and vice versa, our energies are meant to crossover at the neck as well. Normally, our entire system contains these crossovers. Our DNA is built on this pattern. We thrive when these crossing patterns are fluent in our physical system and our energetic body.

Our energy systems and bodies are hard-wired to provide us with these crossing patterns. As we grow, movements that naturally occur during crawling, walking, and running, stimulate the receptive as well as the expressive hemispheres of the brain.

Unfortunately, our lifestyles do not leave much time for the physical activities that naturally encourage these energy-crossing patterns. Especially if we have been unwell with ME/CFS and have experienced limited physical activity.

Spending a few moments each day doing the Cross Walk exercise facilitates the natural crossover of energy between your brain’s left and right hemispheres. You will find that your energy level, balance, coordination and concentration improve when you Cross Walk consistently each morning.

Instructions for The Cross Walk

1. Whilst standing, perform a natural walking motion – making sure to lift the opposite arm and leg together whilst breathing deeply. This normally involves lifting your right arm and left leg simultaneously. As you lower them, lift your left arm and right leg.
2. If you are not able to walk or stand, you can sit and move the opposite arm and leg together, reaching to touch the opposite knee or ankle with your hand or elbow. This can be done while lying on a bed. You can have someone else move your legs and arms for you if necessary.
3. As you repeat the motion, exaggerate the lift of your leg and the swing of your arm. Even more effective is tapping the opposite knee with your hand or elbow - the important motion here is to cross the mid-line with your arm and leg to the opposite side of your body.
4. Continue this exaggerated march for at least a minute or as much as you can manage at first, breathing deeply in through your nose and out through your mouth.

For best results, perform the Cross Walk at least once daily, preferably twice or 3 times. The positive effects include:

• Improved focus and concentration
• Boosted metabolism and overall energy
• Greater coordination and balance
• Enhanced breathing and stamina
• Better hearing and vision

What if I can't do the Cross Walk?

Some people, however, will not feel immediate positive effects from walking or the Cross walk exercise; in fact, walking will actually weaken them. If this exercise is difficult for you, if you feel uncoordinated lifting your opposite arm and leg together, or if it exhausts you, then your energies are probably running straight up and down instead of crossing.

Experiencing stress and illness can knock our energies into a “homolateral” pattern. This means our energies move straight up and down the body instead of crossing at the neck. Normally, we compensate, and as the trauma passes, our energies begin to cross once again. However, when we are under continual stress, or experience a major trauma, this homolateral pattern can become embedded in our system.

Donna Eden, in her book Energy Medicine, states “Persons who are wheel-chair bound or who suffer enduring or recurring fatigue-type illness often develop a chronic homolateral energy-flow pattern.”

When our energies are no longer able to crossover, we feel slow and sluggish. Our physical body only gets about half the energy it needs on a daily basis, and we are in survival mode. What little energy we have is employed for breathing, digesting, and eliminating waste. As all our physical processes slow down, we feel less alive and we tend toward depression. Our immune system becomes hypervigilant, yet we may be chronically ill and unable to heal for unknown reasons.

Now we need the “Homolateral Correction” to bring us into harmony. Then we can gently teach our system the cross over pattern.

Homolateral Correction

1. Stand in place and perform the walking motion, this time lift the same side arm and leg, first on one side of the body, then on the other side, to a count of twelve on each side. Keep yourself comfortable. If it’s easier to do this while sitting or lying down, that’s OK. If you are ill or weak, another person can lift your arms and legs for you. DO NOT STRAIN as this will send your energies back into homolateral. It’s important to breath deeply and rest when you get tired.
2. Next, perform the Cross Walk motion: lift the opposite arm and leg to a count of twelve on each side.
3. This is one set. Repeat this two more times for a total of three sets.
4. Finish with an additional twelve Cross Walks.

Ideally you could perform this routine at least twice a day for ten to thirty days. If that is not possible, just do what you are comfortable with and build-up the duration and frequency at your own pace. Even though you’ll probably feel immediate benefits, it may take a while for the crossover pattern to stabilise. Once the crossover pattern becomes established, keep doing the Cross Walk on a daily basis to maintain long-term benefits.