Cross Crawl Technique
What is Cross Crawl?
Cross Crawl is a rhythmic movement that involves touching opposite limbs—right hand to left knee, left hand to right knee—much like walking or marching in place. It mimics the natural movement pattern we use while walking and helps re-integrate the brain and body when that pattern has become disrupted due to stress, trauma, or injury.
Why Cross Crawl Works
Moving in a cross-lateral way (right arm/left leg), activates both hemispheres of the brain.
This has many benefits, including:
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Improve neurological communication
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Rebalance energy flow in the meridians
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Support coordination and proprioception
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Encourages nervous system regulation
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Help integrate emotions, memory, and sensory information
When To Cross Crawl
When to Use It
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When walking feels tiring, or aches and pains arise from walking
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You feel stressed, foggy, anxious
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Disconnected from your body or low energy
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Emotionally dysregulated or triggered
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Physically uncoordinated or off balance
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You’ve been sitting too long
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After a difficult conversation or shift
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Before learning, speaking, problem-solving, or healing
🌀 If walking makes you feel more tired or achy, it might be a sign your body isn't integrating movement well. Cross Crawl helps restore that balance.
How To Cross Crawl
How To Do It
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Stand or sit comfortably.
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Tap your right hand to left knee, then left hand to right knee.
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Keep alternating for 30–60 seconds at a slow, steady pace.
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Keep your head still and breathe normally as you move.
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Optional: Try looking left, right, up, or down with your eyes only, and notice what feels easier or harder.
💡 Tip: Go slow. Quality over speed! You’re not doing jumping jacks—you’re reconnecting your nervous system. Use your muscles to move your limbs, not just momentum and gravity.
Optional Variations
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Cross crawl while humming
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Tap ankles or reach behind you
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Go faster or slower
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Use larger or smaller arm swings
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Eyes open or eyes closed
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Change Position – try it seated or laying down
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With Affirmations – Reinforce positive mental states.
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Make it playful—invent your own version!
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Daily Practice Reminder
“Cross Crawl is like brushing your teeth for your brain and nervous system.
Use it often—between shifts, before sleep, or any time you want to re-center. It only takes a minute, but the effects can last all day.”
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The Cross Crawl Secret
The Nervous System Reset
When you are cross crawling—arms swinging and eyes looking around—your body receives a powerful message:
“I’m safe. I can move. I belong here.”
Cross Crawl helps your system complete the stress cycle, restore calm, and re-enter a regulated state. Use it as a mini reset anytime.
Try This
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Do a quick body scan before and after.
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Try Cross Crawl after a stressful moment or before a big task.
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Use it as a daily rhythm-reset, especially if you sit for long periods.
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The Body Needs To Move
You don’t have to think your way out of stress—sometimes you just need to move.
Cross Crawl helps your body release what it’s holding and shift from surviving to thriving.
When your arms are swinging and your eyes are scanning, your nervous system is wired to interpret that as ‘everything’s okay.’
Use Cross Crawl to tap into this hardwired safety loop—anytime you need it!
Energetic Benefits of Cross Crawl
In Energy Kinesiology and Traditional Chinese Medicine, Cross Crawl activates and balances the Central and Governing meridians—the core energy channels that influence brain function, emotional regulation, and overall vitality.
This movement helps re-establish flow between yin and yang, reset the body’s internal compass, and restore the left/right integration essential for energetic harmony.
Cross Crawl is often used after shock, trauma, or overwhelm to gently reintegrate the body’s systems and reconnect a person to their center.
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It is especially helpful for coming out of the void state—a state of disconnection, numbness, or shut-down that occurs when the nervous system is overwhelmed or frozen. By engaging rhythm, breath, and bilateral movement, Cross Crawl signals the body that it is safe to reconnect, regulate, and begin moving forward again.
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💡 Tip: While you cross crawl, gently place your tongue on the roof of your mouth to enhance the flow and connection between Central and Governing meridians.
Part of HigherCx
Cross Crawl is one of the foundational techniques used in HigherCx™ Restorative Facilitation—a holistic approach that helps the body come out of chronic stress states and reconnect with its natural capacity to heal, regulate, and integrate change.
HigherCx works with the body’s energy, movement patterns, and nervous system responses to restore life force, balance trauma, and support resilience. It’s designed for people recovering from long-term stress, complex conditions like Long COVID, and anyone seeking deeper mind-body integration.
Cross Crawl is one of many techniques used in this method to re-establish brain-body communication, support trauma integration, and bring the system out of what we call the “void state”—a place of energetic disconnection and overwhelm.
🔬 Research Opportunity
We’re currently preparing a clinical study on HigherCx for individuals with Long COVID or symptoms of the "void state," focusing on the protocol’s impact on symptoms, energy, and recovery.