What Does Your Back Pain Say To You?
Your body always tries to communicate with you, all day long, every day. Do you listen?
Part of my job as a medical intuitive healer is to interpret your body’s many messages.
As I wrote in my book What Is Healing? Awaken Your Intuitive Power for Health and Happiness, your body really only has four kinds of problems:
- Blocks
- Congestion
- Resistance
- Interference
How does this relate to what your back pain says to you?
A block may show up as lack of energy flow in an acupuncture meridian, in your muscles, in your bones, in your breath.
That’s why the first thing you want to do on a physical level when you experience back pain is to create length and space.
How do you create length and space?
- Lengthen your spine by standing taller
- Traction your spine — if you don’t know how, set up an appointment with me to learn how
- Stretch your muscles with yoga
- Create space between the vertebrae by bringing your posture into greater alignment.
Congestion may show up as stagnant energy. How does this happen? By sitting. Unfortunately, studies show the average American now sits 9.3 hours per day. Sitting for more than 6 hours a day makes you up to 40 percent likelier to die within 15 years than someone who sits for less than 3 — even if you exercise.
How do you break up stagnant chi?
- Take frequent breaks from your chair to get up and move
- Get a standing desk, if possible
- Set a timer on your smart phone every hour to alert you to stand up
- Breathe! Lack of oxygen through improper breathing congests your chi
- Set up an appointment with me for a postural analysis to determine if the way you sit, stand or sleep contributes to your back pain.
Resistance shows up as disconnection between how you actually feel and what you allow yourself to acknowledge. Simply put, you resist your own emotions.
Back pain may be telling you:
- You feel unsupported in your life
- You carry more responsibility than you’re actually comfortable with
- You hold back your true feelings
- You worry about money
- You repress your sexuality
- You feel angry
- You’re actually exhausted but refuse to slow down and rest.
How do you stop resisting your emotions?
Take a moment to ask yourself, if you weren’t afraid to hear what your back wanted to say, what message would you allow yourself to receive?
Interference comes from outside yourself.
If you think about it, your body knows what’s best. Most of us have a cellular memory of what it feels like to be vital, full of energy and radiating happiness.
Interference could be showing up in poor ergonomics in your chair at work. Most people do not understand how your body needs to be lined up in order to maintain good posture. You can see a good infographic about how your desk chair should look at this link.
I remember years ago working with a client who suffered from chronic neck and back pain.
She visited her chiropractor every week but continued to struggle with her pain until we discussed the position of her computer, desk and chair.
She habitually sat with her neck twisted to the right and her body twisted to the left hiding around a corner so that her boss at work would not see her.
How do you clear interference?
- Ask a friend to snap a photo of you sitting at your desk at work
- Email the photo to me and set up an appointment to discuss how you would need to change the position of your desk, chair or body to alleviate your pain
- Stop schlumping so that your lungs can expand normally to allow yourself to breathe
- Adjust the height of your desk, the position of your chair or your body to bring your spine into ideal alignment.
What is healing? Healing happens when you clear the blocks, congestion, resistance or interference to enjoying a healthy body.
