Emotional Release · “Die to Be Reborn”
The Wayne Cook Posture
To clear mental fog, calm emotional overwhelm, and restore clear thinking when ‘beside yourself’ — by holding a crossed-limb posture with paced breathing, then tracing figure-eights, to ‘re-cross’ tangled energies.
Wayne Cook Posture in 5 lines: Sit. Cross ankles; extend arms, cross wrists, clasp fingers, tuck hands to chest. Breathe slow ~5 breaths — tongue on the roof of the mouth on the inhale, down on the exhale. Switch which ankle and wrist cross on top; ~5 more breaths. Then steeple fingers, thumbs to the brow, and trace figure-eights out across the forehead a few times. Sit quietly and notice the calm.
What it is
The Wayne Cook Posture is the move Donna Eden teaches for when you are “beside yourself” — flooded by anxiety, anger, or panic, unable to think straight, or mentally foggy.
It is a short seated sequence of crossing the limbs in a specific way while breathing slowly, then switching the cross, and finally tracing figure-eights across the face and body.
Eden names it after Wayne Cook, a researcher of bioenergetics, and presents it as one of her most powerful tools to untangle “scrambled” energies, settle strong emotion, and clear the head so you can think and respond rather than react.
The Method
Eden’s instructions (from Energy Medicine), done seated: Part 1 — First cross:
- Cross the ankles — one ankle over the other.
- Extend your arms in front, backs of the hands together, thumbs pointing down. Then cross one wrist over the other so the palms meet, and interlace the fingers.
- Fold the clasped hands down and in, tucking them up against the chest (rolling the hands under and up toward the heart).
- Breathe in this posture. As you inhale slowly through the nose, let the tongue rest on the roof of the mouth (just behind the front teeth); as you exhale through the mouth, let the tongue drop. Keep the breath slow and full. Hold the posture for about 5 deep breaths. Part 2 — Second cross:
- Uncross and re-cross the opposite way — switch which ankle is on top, and switch which wrist crosses over — then again tuck the clasped hands to the chest and breathe slowly for ~5 breaths, tongue up on the inhale, down on the exhale. Part 3 — Figure-eights:
- Uncross everything. Put fingertips together in a “steeple” (or rest hands on the thighs). Then bring the thumbs to the “third eye” between the eyebrows.
- Breathe deeply, and on a slow exhale draw the thumbs/hands apart, tracing a figure-eight (infinity) shape across the forehead and out, smoothing across the brow. Repeat the figure-eight tracing a few times.
- Finish by sitting quietly for a breath, noticing the settling. Eden says you will often feel a distinct shift to calm and clarity by the end, and frames the whole sequence as re-crossing energies that get “homolateral” (running straight up the sides) when you are stressed, restoring the natural crossover pattern. (Sourcing note: the cross-the-ankles / cross-the-wrists / tuck-to-chest hold, the tongue-up-on-inhale breathing, the side-switch, and the figure-eight finish are Eden’s documented instructions, faithfully paraphrased. Variants exist — some teach a standing version and a longer figure-eight “swing into the aura”; the seated form above is the core book version.)
Source & Lineage
Donna Eden (b. 1943) adapted and named this posture after Wayne Cook, an early researcher into bioenergetic/electromagnetic fields, and made it a centerpiece of her Daily Energy Routine.
It appears in Energy Medicine (with David Feinstein, PhD; Tarcher/Putnam, 1998). → (Eden, Donna). The crossed-midline premise overlaps with Educational Kinesiology / Brain Gym (Paul Dennison) and Touch for Health “cross-crawl” ideas; the figure-eight tracing is shared across several energy-balancing systems.
The Traditions' versions
Brain Gym / Educational Kinesiology — “Cook’s Hook-Ups” and cross-lateral moves for calming and focus; closely related lineage.
- Yoga pranayama with breath retention — paced breath plus a held posture to steady the mind.
- Self-hug / butterfly hug (somatic, EMDR) — crossed-arm self-holding with breathing to down-regulate distress.
- Bilateral / midline-crossing movement — used to settle arousal and integrate after a stress spike.
Common refinements
Forcing the breath-holds / over-breathing. Keep the breathing slow and easy; straining can cause dizziness and defeats the calming purpose.
- Skipping the side-switch. Both crosses are part of the design; do both halves.
- Tense, rushed hands. The tuck-to-chest should feel like a gentle self-hold, not a wrestling grip.
- Doing it only once in a crisis and expecting magic. It’s a reliable interrupt, best when you actually slow down and complete all three parts.