Jennifer Boyer on thu 17 aug 06
There's a book called "Healing Back Pain" by Dr John Sarno that has
held up as a cure for back and neck pain for us for 20 years. His
message is a bit complex, but what I key on and find useful is this:
95% of people with back pain simply have muscle spasms that are
started by life stress. We have certain muscle groups( be it lower
back which can include sciatica or the shoulder blade area that can
lead to a neck problem, that seize up when we are stressed out. But
this is not an anatomical problem involving any nerve or bone
source, just muscles which may pinch nerves in a spasm.
IF you start keying on the pain as a part of your life stress, adding
it to your list of worries, the pain will become chronic.
Fear is another thing that makes a pain problem chronic. If you are
afraid of your body, afraid of the pain, afraid of moving, that all
keeps the pain there. The human body is incredibly tough. Most of us
have no need to think it will let us down. SO Sarno says you ONLY
need to attitude adjustment in order to eliminate the pain.
But I find I need to add some things to his philosophy:
I need help to know when I am tense. Yoga is a great way to truly
practice relaxing. Then when you are tense(shoulders around your ears
when driving from a difficult business meeting??) you know it and can
nip the muscle tension in the bud. You are more AWARE of a spam
starting. Without that awareness I would let the problem build up
before even being aware of it.
Also yoga helps to give you some stretches and moves to help you
break up a spasm. I have learned that when I have muscle pain I need
to MOVE those muscles: tense them more, and relax them, work them.
If I am afraid to move it makes me tense up more. When I started
studying yoga it was because I had had a stiff neck for 6 months and
could barely turn my head. I haven't had one of those since I learned
these techniques.
My massage therapist yoga teacher says that a muscle spasm happens
when a muscle group "forgets" what the normal range of relaxed-to-
tense is and starts only being tense. You need to re-introduce the
range again by working the muscle. It hurts more at first, but then
the muscle loosens up over time. If you are confident in this process
you can stop a spasm in it's tracks.
When a spasm starts now, instead of thinking FEAR I think MOVE AND
SOLVE THIS. It's very empowering. My husband has had the same
experience. He had horrible back pain years ago and went from running
marathons to fearing the walk to the mailbox, or sitting through a
movie. Sarno has come through for him time and again. During the last
year he had an intense back pain recurrence during a complicated work
situation. 4 yoga exercises done regularly over a weeks time solved
the back problem. So Sarno's philosophy hasn't prevented him from
getting back pain, but has given him the confidence to take control
of the situation without fear when he does get it.
He was diagnosed with herniated discs after an MRI, but Sarno cites
research that shows no correlation between most disc abnormalities
and back pain. And he has been largely pain free for 20 years, give
or take a short stress related pain episode, for 20 YEARS!
This all fits with Elizabeth's feeling that working out is the
solution for her: she is now unafraid, and confidant that moving her
body is her solution, not fearing it.
Of course there are anatomical problems(like spinal arthritis) that
create pain more complex than a simple spasm, but I still think this
technique can help with those spasms too, since whatever starts the
pain creates an escalating spasm that develops a life of its own.
There you go folks. It works for us, and we've passed this on to many
friends.
Jennifer
>
> What I did not mention before is that sometimes it
> hurts a little as you get back to it. Most people
> stop in reaction to muscular or tendon or ligament
> pain and it is not necessarily the right thing to do.
> Carpel Tunnel is another matter, though and is usually
> only resolved through surgery, from what I understand.
>
> I find that exercise increases the blood and fluid
> flow to tissues making it easier to get the bad
> chemicals out and new clean bodily fluids in. But
> that is kind of a yoga concept and I am no yoga
> instructor either.
>
>
Jennifer Boyer
Thistle Hill Pottery
Montpelier, VT
http://thistlehillpottery.com
*****************************
| |
|
