| Hey, there!. Well, sorry to craw and old violin. I certianly have had my moments of miracles. I posted about them but short lived unfortunately. Seems like nothing I've encounted gets a spine back to its natural curve. I hurt mine and still have it bent laterally at my lower back. I have to use heat rub a lot and although I try to be physically active like I used to, this back things has take ALOT of spunk out of me. Even assoicated aches and pains...knees, hips, neck start cropping up. I refuse chiro, sorry had my nightmare, not for me. Massage is nice but temporary. Yoga postures have not been a miracle but I've had helpful moments from doing yoga. BUT...my spine....the bones themselves have not gone back to normal. On the contrary...my mind back now alSo feels the strain. I don't think any modality or method normally adverised really deals with anything else but relazing the muscles of the spine. But, the spine/bones are still bent outta shape.
Edited by solaris 2007-03-05 2:33 PM
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| solaris - 2007-03-05 11:29 AM
"I don't think any modality or method normally adverised really deals with anything else but relazing the muscles of the spine. But, the spine/bones are still bent outta shape."
Hi Solaris,
Sorry to hear about your back pain, your unhappy experience with chiropractic, and your lack of relief from yoga. I quote your words above so we can talk abit about the spine. The human spine is like a stick at the end of a rope, you pull on the rope and the stick comes with it. When muscles tighten up along the spine, the bones will predictably react to that tension. If that tension is relieved, then the bones will return to a more balanced position. Back pain is reduced by releasing that muscular tension in most cases. You can look to others (LMTs, PTs, LAcs, DCs, etc) to release the tension and get relief from the right hands. This is an art, releasing tight muscles, so quiz your friends to find out their experience with local body workers. Someone really good at releasing muscles might be close to you.
If you choose to release that muscular tension for yourself, you may benefit from focusing just on resting postures. It's difficult at the outset to know whether we are contracting or relaxing muscles, particularly when standing or sitting in a field of gravity. But, lie on the floor and you can begin to get a sense of how you are holding yourself up in chronic pain. The first time you consciously relax a chronically tight muscle and feel how it changes you in the moment, you'll want to get back to that again and again.
You might try lying supine (nose up), with feet as close to the buttocks as you can get them (without using your hands), knees and toes together and heels an inch or so apart. Lift the outside part of the hips (the bony joints themselves) about an inch or two off the floor and consciously try to progresssively relax the spine and sacrum down onto the floor while holding the hips steadily up. Learning spinal muscle coordination skills furthers our self-healing. Follow the course of your falling into deeper relaxation; or follow the course of your slow even circular breath, being content with less as cells oxygenate. In this manner, the experience of intentionally relaxing the spinal and para-sacral muscles may be practiced. Your legs can hold you up all day in this posture, but don't stay too long at first. Come back to this posture daily. Over time you will feel exactly where you're holding yourself up and how to let it go.
Yes, please do be patient and kind with yourself. Fours years is a long time holding. Don't put it off too much longer.
Thank Goodness we can do this
Hope this helps.
Michael |
| I wonder if one main issue thats never been solved with me...besides the spine bend...is probably the muscles that went into shock the day I really hurt myself..are still in shock mode.
Hi Solaris,
I would agree: those muscles are still being held tightly. Part of the problem is that everytime you (or your body unconsciously) want to relax those muscles, local nerves at the injury site will start hurting and you tighten back up to move out of the discomfort. The injury now is more in your local nerves around the original injury than in the tissue itself. That injured tissue is tight and weak; but the nerves are overly sensitized and more widely spread out than pre-injury. The nervous system is training you to only move in ways that do not cause pain. We are all walking holding patterns for every unresolved injury and insult we've ever suffered. The final result is lack of normal range of motion locally, increased degenerative effects, increased discomfort and eventual disability or lowered quality of life. But I don't want to sound pessimistic here: you CAN get out of this under your own steam.
I use a style of yoga in my therapy classes called Svaroopa and I only use resting postures as I suggested in the earlier post. I've found this a very good way to put people in touch with exactly how we hold ourselves up in pain secondary to inappropriate nervous system stimulation from earlier injury. Briefly stated, resting in aligned postures, propped so that resting is comfortable in each, we can explore the edges of this discomfort. As we let down into the pose, the discomfort comes forward. But instead of reacting by moving out of the discomfort, we can use a slow, lengthening, comfortable, nasal breath to inhibit the inappropriate nerve signals. Over time, repeated daily as able, this gradual opening of tight tissue and inhibition of nerves allows for more pain-free return to normalcy. Weak muscles are tight muscles and tight muscles are weak muscles. As the chronically tight muscles begin to open up again (or, as you ignore the urge to move out of the painful range of motion - as Rumi says, as you "sit in the fire"), normal nerve/muscle interaction returns. You'll be able to relearn the coordination patterns for willfully carrying a relaxed spine by this process. The modified bridge pose I mentioned in the first post is an opportunity to relearn coordination patterns for releasing muscular tensions at the spinal level.
You may want to check with masteryoga.org to see if any local practitioners can help you learn these resting postures. Or, a chiropractor who does soft tissue work herself may be able to help you directly.
Best of luck,
Michael
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WHAT FIXES A SPINE?
