Back Pain Portal Blog

Archive for the ‘Self Help’ Category

This has been a tough year, demanding more of me than I am sometimes able to give. Even with all the tricks in my bag, I can find myself discouraged and get exhausted. A few weeks ago I had the chance to go sit with a yogi coming through town, to meditate and revive the spirit. What a difference it made for my body!

Meditation has a magical way of bringing things back into balance. It becomes clear how we get caught up in mental patterns that cause us pain and suffering, both physical and mental. Plus we don’t sleep well for worrying, and we don’t take care of ourselves when we are out of balance. Meditation seems to put things back into balance.

What does meditation do? Simply, it slows down the raging mind that never has a moments rest. When the mind slows down, the body slows, and we can again breathe and rest. Slowing the body slows the mind, and slowing the mind slows the body. Basically, we need to slow down, Bessy.

How To Meditate
I have been a meditator for many years. Meditation is simple. The hard part is making time to sit still, and staying there long enough to allow the mind to slow down. Just sit or lie down with a straight spine, close the eyes, and breathe in and out. Notice the breath go in and out. Just follow the breath and allow your thoughts to come and go.

Your mind may go berserk with all the things you should be doing, so just say thank you, and let it go. The mind is trying to take care of you but is in an overworked state so it doesn’t function well. So be grateful your mind wants to help you, but let it wait. Stay put for at least 10 minutes if possible, but 20 minutes is better, and work up to an hour. Any amount of time meditating helps, really. In studies they have shown that 5 minutes in alpha state can equate to 8 hours of sleep. But it may take a little while to get to the alpha (slower brain wave) state.

Here are more detailed instructions, and a link discussing meditation difficulties.
Breathing Instructions
Difficulty Meditating

Like exercise, mediation works wonders. As the wise men and women say, just do it!

A neighbor was having a garage sale and I decided to tag along. Time to clean out the closets and garage! I started at 7 pm Friday for a sale starting 9 am Saturday. Yes, you guessed it, lots of lifting and moving into the wee hours of the night. Not good for the old back.

When the alarm rang Saturday morning, I could hardly move. My lower back was in pain. My legs and arms were sore. But I had to get up, after all that work to get ready!

Once the sale was over at 1 pm, I counted my riches and contemplated what to do to ease my back pain. Should I go straight to bed, or keep moving? I had taken some herbs and an aspirin before sleeping, which I know helped keep the inflammation down, but I was limping and moving slow. My right side was getting tighter and my lower back was really aching.

I decided to go to my 2 pm yoga class at the health club to try to stretch out the muscles that were tight. It worked perfectly. About half way through the class, doing the triangle pose, my lower back  cracked naturally as something went back into alignment. All the stretching helped to release the tightened muscles and bring balance back to my spine. I felt so much better.

I showered, went to the store, then went home and took a nice nap. I was still so sore I had to cancel a Sunday massage, but my back was no longer in pain. By Tuesday I was ready for the next stupid weekend warrior trick!

This month I am really focused on my neck and shoulders. This is where I / we carry so much tension! Besides the on-going desk posture syndrome, I started this venture into neck and shoulder pain because my eyes were unusually tired and hurting. Guess what! Neck and shoulder tension really affects the eyes! Not to mention posture and the entire back.

There are many good reasons we have tight neck and shoulder muscles. And there are many things to do that will help.

One big reason that our neck carries so much tension is just the weight of our head! Our little necks are literally balancing a 10-15 pound ball all day long! So to speak. If posture is good, it rests comfortably without much effort. But if the spine pulls the head to the side or pushes it forward, then the fairly small muscles of the neck are strained and spasm until they are unable to relax.

The second reason for neck tension is a shoulder muscle or pinched nerve that pulls the head off center.  But this is the chicken and the egg, because the shoulder muscle typically tightens up attempting to hold the head in place. Yes, it is all connected.

We tend to raise our chin and lower our shoulders in a forward slump. Anything you can do to reverse this forward slump is good. One of my favorites is to lay down over a rolled up towel placed crosswise under the shoulder blades. You will feel this pull your shoulders backward and your chin down.

Sitting for long periods of time in a bad posture almost guarantees neck and shoulder problems. The main solution to reverse the strain is movement, all throughout the day, to keep the muscles from tightening and locking up. If looking down, look up. If sitting, get up. If standing, sit down. Roll the neck around, look side to side, look up, look down. Stretch the arms overhead.

Check out some easy but effective things to do to relieve neck and shoulder pain below.

	Neck Exercises
	Shoulder Lifts
	Eye Training

The video below shows an exercise that only takes a few minutes and this movement will help neck, shoulders, and eyes!

Well, I had another birthday this week. That how it goes, they just keep coming along. But there is good news, despite my age and my back conditions, I have a very active life!

The truth is that I have less trouble with back pain these days than I did 30 years ago when I was so young! For years after the first car wreck, I had constant back pain, and it seemed like back pain would be a permanent condition. But alas, that is not the case.

Even 5 years ago, I would go down with extreme back pain for weeks at a time, sometimes for months. My back would go out of socket, making it difficult to sleep, and requiring constant chiropractic care.

But the last few years, I’ll get a twinge of back pain, jump into action, using the steps on the main pain-in-my-back.com website, and I’m good to go in a day or two. Sometimes the pain subsides in hours. So the difference as I’ve gotten older is that I made a commitment to take care of my back. I schedule my yoga classes like a meeting, and even give up dinner dates sometimes. It is my physical therapy. Plus, there are things I gotta do on a regular basis. Little things that make a BIG difference.  Here’s what I gotta do:

• Keep the inflammation down with diet and herbs.
• Watch my posture standing and sitting.
• Stretch the muscles to keep things in balance.
• Strengthen the muscles to stay balanced.
• Reduce stress in lots of little ways., and do things that make me happy.
• Get good quality sleep, and enough sleep to be refreshed.
• Get help when needed from a chiropractor or massage therapist.
• Keep my self-care commitment.

See, simple. Over time the injuries can get worse, or can get better. Slow steady progress has reaped great reward for my previously aching back. Happy Birthday, you sweet young thing!

If there is one thing that I would have to say has sustained and helped me the most, it would be yoga. My real progress on bringing back pain and structural problems under my control came when I started doing yoga on a regular basis. A friend of mine who also sat at a desk all day, woke up one morning and couldn’t move. She went into total panic, jumped into surgery, and now is permanently mobility impaired. It was a wake up call for me. It was time for serious intervention.

I took stock of my habits and my chronic pain and the acute pain flareups that would put me under for days or weeks, even months at a time. I committed to counteracting my chronic bad posture habits with yoga 2-4 times a week to stretch and strengthen the muscles and connective tissue. In short order I felt an amazing difference. The weeks I did yoga, the pain subsided. If I got too busy and dropped out this gentle regular restorative exercise, I would usually lapse into chronic, then acute back pain.

Yoga stretching gives the most immediate relief. For me it is like getting a 1 hour massage.

Yoga strengthening takes longer, but it is critically important. Muscle strength is what helps to hold the structure in place. Muscles are strengthened by holding a posture, like standing on one leg, then tilting forward into the dancer pose. You just hold as long as you can, and the time keeps increasing as you get stronger. Leg strengthening really helps balance and mobility.

And last, yoga relaxation at the end of each class is a time when the mind and body settles into a moment of peace. It is incredibly refreshing.

At first some yoga postures will feel odd and may reveal a tightness that is painful. A basic yoga principle to to take it slow and always work at your own pace. You push into the discomfort, but back off the pain. So done properly, it should not be painful. I remember at first that my feet and ankles would restrict certain movement. Those things totally worked out over time. But I am still always pushing into my own places of discomfort to release the tightness.

I recommend going to a class where you can just follow and learn. At my health club, I can go to all the yoga I want. The classes make it fun and keeps it simple. You will find different yoga styles and different teachers, so just find one you like and make sure it is a time you can look forward to .

I found a good overview of yoga at the link below. I hope you’ll check it out and consider treating yourself to yoga classes.

http://nccam.nih.gov/health/yoga/introduction.htm