Back pain is now as regular an ailment as a flu. There are so many people suffering from different degrees of back pain in our modern society. Our modern lifestyle of over sitting, poor postures, stressful work and family life are all common causes of back pain.
I am no exception. Unfortunately, my back pain belong to the extreme end of severe pain when I first encountered it. If I will to range the pain from one to ten. One is less pain and ten is extreme pain, my first episode of back pain was a big 10! It took me a good 4 years to gradually ease myself out of this debilitating suffering with the help of yoga.
The bad news is, we never only have one back pain attack. It will always return. The good news is, each attack of back pain teaches me new ways of handling it. After a series of relapse of back pain, I now have a recovery procedure for myself. I like to share some things you should do even before embarking on the plan of recovery.
1. REST
When you are hit by a wave of pain, the first thing you should do is ask yourself what is the level of pain from 1 to 10?
If the pain is 5 and above, the first thing to do is simply rest. Many people have the misconception of practising some yoga pose to get rid of the pain or to stretch it out. Please don't. Please rest. Any other form of movement may aggrevate the pain.
Resting means lying down on the bed. Sitting can be bad for back pain as there is weight dropping on the lower back when we sit.
2. BREATH
Your previous knowledge in abdominal breathing in Yoga classes can come in handy. BREATHE! Breath into your area of pain. Use your mind to relax the tension in your back. With every long exhalation, ask your back to relax. Your yoga relaxation technique practise is a life saver in this respect.
3. REVIEW
I remember vividly during my first back pain attack, I was unable to stand or sit for long. I was literally force to lay on bed for as long as 5 days before I can walk half normally again. During this extremely difficult time, I was in a constant state of anxiety. There was constant worries about work, future and recovery. As you can guess all these worries and anxiety have zero effects in recovery! These negative emotions will only impede our recovery process.
However, worry is purely a human condition. When we are thrown into a unknown challenging situation, this is what we do! We worry! Thankfully, there is a good technique we can use to put worry on a second tier of thoughts.
While resting on the bed, we can go through all the incidents in our lives that could have land us in this sea of pain. There is a Chinese saying, "Know your enemies before you can fight them". If you want to fight this back pain problem, it is a good idea to know your lifestyle in succinct details. Scan through all the bad habits in your life. Note them down and see if there is way to change it in future.
For me, the few "terrible" things I have done just before my back pain attack were :
- carrying heavy load and walk long distance
- poor sitting posture
- stress
- wrong exercise routine
- unaware of my body or ignore symptoms of my growing pain
4. CHECKS
If the pain persist or you have a gut feeling that this is not a regular normal one time incident. It is a good idea to get an X-Ray on your back. The few common possibilities of an injured spine are herniated disc (or bulging disc or slip disc) or degenerative disc. However, there could be other possibilities. It is best to get a good diagnosis from the doctor.
5. ACTION
Only when you have a clear idea of your condition, then you can devise a wise plan for recovery. The doctor may assign you to a physiotherapist during the initial stage of recovery. For a more long term plan, I will strongly suggest Yoga. Different spine conditions may need different variations or modifications for your practise in order not to aggravate the injured spine. Your diagnosis is fundamental in reaching out for more help in future.
One of the most important characteristics that is helpful in healing is patience. Your willingness to keep working with your body is the key to recovery. It may take you a while to find your best approach. However, please stick to one approach and avoid constantly looking out for new solution. Every road leads to Roman. But a constant deviation from a path will make it harder for you to reach the destination.
I will share more about my recovery process in future post. Hope this will help you to gain an initial insight into a process of back pain recovery.
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