Back Pain and Its Cure

What I am about to explain may not be applicable to your own back problem. But I will describe some simple processess that have transformed my back health in case you too can find the same relief.

For years I suffered paralysing back pain that re-occurred about every four to six weeks. At those times it was very difficult to move around, and getting in and out of a car took a very long time.

Because I had worked for many years in the building industry I thought there was no possibility of cure because my back had been well worn and injured. Carrying heavy sacks of cement, sand and other building materials had, I thought, done permanent injury.

This whole concept changed one day when a friend asked me to help her in her garden. At the time I was experiencing one of my frequent back pain attacks, so I was taking things very carefully and slowly. I thought that if I sat down and rested every few minutes it would be okay.

We had trimmed some of my friend’s hedges and she had to go off somewhere urgently. This left me with the problem of having to pick up the trimmings and put them in sacks. There was quite a lot to pick up. However, as said, I thought I would do it slowly and rest often.

This may sound strange that with back pain I would even consider doing work in a garden. I say this because I know many people suffering pain completely stop any activity and take painkillers. Fortunately this wasn’t my attitude, and because of that I discovered what has now left me free of back pain for many years.

If you want to beat back pain touch your toes says controversial health guru. By PETA BEE – Few of us have been spared the agony of back pain. In the past 12 months alone, over a third of the population has suffered back problems, says the charity BackCare. For some the agony is fleeting, but for many it can last for weeks, months, and even years. Why has back pain become so common? According to leading physiotherapist Sarah Key, our sedentary lifestyle, and the fact that we are taller and heavier than we used to be, are to blame.

So I started picking up the trimmings and putting them in plastic bags. This meant bending down to pick the stuff off the ground, then straightening up and putting the trimmings in the bag. I felt, at the time, because of the amount of trimmings, I would never be able to finish it. But, as I progressed into about the second bag I noticed my back pain was easier. So I gently carried on picking up the trimmings until I had in fact cleared the whole garden – and there were about sixty metres of hedge.

At the end of that work my back was completely healed. I was honestly amazed. I had always believed the body is a system designed to work, but the amount of pain I suffered gave me the sense that there was a real problem there that work would only further injure through what doctors call wear and tear. How wrong I was. My body loved that movement of bending and straightening.

What I gathered from the experience was that in my daily life – and I am quite an active person – I am not bending and straightening my spine often enough. So now, at least twice a week, I stand with my feet about a foot apart, and then touch the floor and straighten fifty times.

That revolutionary change occurred five years ago. Since then I have not had a single return of the painful back problem.

Also, a posture that helps is the yoga child posture. The reason it helps is because it gently lengthens the spine – something we seldom do in everyday life.

Another position that may be more helpful even than the child posture, but a bit more difficult to set up is what I call the cradle position. I intuitively found this position once when I had put a vertebrae out while lifting an oven down stairs. I was barely able to move and crawled about on hands and kness. I went to see an osteopath but she told me that I was in so much pain and tension so she dare not work on me – I still had to pay her fee though!

In trying to find some relief from the pain, I set up large cushions on the floor to support my head and shoulders, and used a low settee to slightly lift my hips and support my legs. What is used isn’t important, the thing aimed for is to use a setting that both enables you to relax, and also gently lengthens the spine in the sort of spinal bend shown in the child posture, but without the legs pulled to the chest.

The second day I used this setup I felt and heard a thump in my body. The vertebrae had gone back into position. The cure was instant. Immediately I was free of pain.

I couldn’t find a good picture to illustrate the position, but if you imagine a mother  supporting her baby with one big hand under it’s head and shoulders, and another under its pelvis, and slightly stretching apart, that is what is aimed for.

In some cases however it is the gentle backward stretch that will help the vertebrae to re-position. This can be done over a pile of pillows, or one of those big exercise balls. I haven’t tried this, but I guess you could use the exercise ball for the cradle position also. In other words lie across it on your tummy.

It is important to remember though that the spine cannot re-adjust itself if there is still pain or tension. There has to be enough relaxation of the muscles to enable the spine to lengthen. So it would be good to experiment with what is suggested until you find what works for you.

The Anger Block

For about twenty years I worked as a therapist using a variety of approaches. One of these was linked with emotional and energy release. During those years I dealt with cases of extreme back pain that were caused, or made worse, by suppressed anger. Literally the people were holding enormous energy in their back. This caused such tension it led to back pain. See Life’s Little Secrets

A simple self help approach that might relieve this is to use a technique that can enable you to express repressed anger in a safe way.

To do this you need something like a toy baseball bat or tennis racquet. You use one of these to hit something like a settee or a pile of pillows – something that can take a real beating without damage.
If you know what you are angry about you can use the bat to express the anger as you whack the target. But many angers are unconscious, so it is helpful to start whacking the target mechanically. Just start hitting the target. Then, as you get into the movement see if you can let some of your back pain express through the movement.

When succesful this gradually hooks any internal anger and the whacking becomes full of feelings and sometimes shouted abuse.

If possible, even if the whacking is mechanical, try to let the pain in your back or elsewhere, or any feelings connected with it be expressed with the whacks. Allow the pain and feelings to flow into the way you are hitting the target.

Remember you are not hurting anyone by doing this. In fact by releasing any repressed anger you are flushing out the energy that is making you ill and can lead to less pleasure in dealing with other people.

This may take several sessions to really get things out of you that may have been held in place for years. Anger is one of those emotions we are often trained since childhood to suppress. Even if you feel you express anger well, it often has depths you might not have allowed release. It is therefore worth trying the technique a few times to see if it hooks stuff you have hidden away.

Also, lower back pain specialists have found that often there is no one solution to back pain, so you need to use a variety of methods, anger release being one of them. Remember that pain is not always due to damage or infection like a toothache. Dr. Andrea Brandt says, “Swallowing one’s anger can cause problems over time. In turn, the anger simply gets buried alive. Over the course of time, the pressure of anger can accumulate and lead to a great eruption of rage and, more commonly, the individual may also suffer physical consequences. Buried anger can cause ulcers, heart disease, hypertension, headaches, back pain, depression, guilt and fatigue.” See People’s Experience of LifeStream.