The CranioSacral System

What is our CranioSacral system (CSS)?

It’s our central nervous system, it’s protective outer layers, the cerebrospinal fluid inside, and the peripheral nerves entering and exiting from all parts of the body.

What is our CSS like in its optimum state?

It’s calm, quiet and present.

It’s relaxed but not asleep, aware and absorbing information but not on high alert. It’s ready to act, communicating easily, and content to rest.

What is our CSS like in a compromised state?

It’s stuck, in full or in part, in a hyper-reactive posture; hair-triggered, agitated, feeling threatened, and working overtime.

It’s stealing energy from our immune system, reproductive functions, digestion/elimination, and our ability to learn, express and develop.

In this state we may experience symptoms like spasm, tics, chronic tension, visceral dysfunction, teeth grinding, neuralgic pains, tingling, anxiety, insomnia, migraines, a feeling of being sped up, or difficulty with focus.

When part of our CSS has been over reactive to stimulus for too long or the restriction is too great; it may shut down, check out, become frozen, vacant, and deadened. Ability to respond is absent.

In this state we may experience symptoms like numbness, incoordination, atrophy, weakness, depression, developmental delay, forgetfulness, or a slowing down of our ability to answer questions.

How does our CSS become compromised?

Experiences in utero, during our birth, and throughout life that occur when we don’t have sufficient resources to fully process and recover from them.

For example toxins may breach the blood brain barrier or our toxin load is greater then what we can filter. We may have a physical injury or surgery leaving us with scar tissue, bone remodeling, or misalignment. We may not have gotten the benefit of an ideal trip through the vaginal canal at birth due to an assisted delivery or the pelvic restrictions/misalignments of our mother. We may have poor hydration or imbalanced nutrition. We may have been emotionally wounded in a trauma or unable to bounce back from the hurts and insults of childhood.