Alternative Medicine For Back Pain:
An Energy Work Mindfulness Exercise to Move the Stuck Energy
When convention treatments don't work, considering alternative medicine for back pain makes sense. Energy work is one form of alternative medicine. From the energy healing point of view, pain is often
caused by frozen or blocked energy, and different forms of energy work can often get this energy to release and move again.
Emotions are a form of energy, and in the body they seem to relate most closely to the muscular system. When the energy of an emotion gets stuck, it thus often is reflected in a contracted, "tight," painful muscle.
For some reason, the back seems to be one of the primary areas where emotions lodge and cause problems. It has a few of the major "horizontal zones" in the body (lower back, upper back and shoulders) and these muscles seem to be places where the energy collects and stagnates. But, as I’ve said, energy work seems to be able to help move this energy in many cases.
Mindfulness work (mind-body work) can also be extremely helpful, both in working generally with the area that hurts, and in working with trigger points, which are highly localized points of frozen energy within the physical muscles that can cause great discomfort both at the site and well beyond it. Your attention--or mindfulness, as it can also be called--is a form of energy, actually a very powerful form of it, so when you are working with mindfulness techniques you are actually doing a kind of energy healing.
Alternative Medicine for Back Pain: A Mindfulness Technique For Shifting The Energy Of Your Back
Mindfulness can be a powerful mover of the stuck energy that is often the cause of a back ache. Our consciousness is a powerful healer and balancer, and bringing it to places in our bodies where we are uncomfortable can be almost magically helpful.
To do this back relief technique, you may want to place a hand on the place that hurts or have someone else do it. It can also be helpful to have someone else guide you through this exercise.
- Instead of resisting the pain, just sit with it for a few moments, quietly breathing into it. Notice it and how it feels. Get a feel for its size, shape, intensity, and anything else you notice about it. Notice any emotions you are feeling. Are you afraid of the pain? Angry about it? Sad?
- Try not to resist the physical and emotional feelings. Just accept them and sit with them. Keep your awareness in your body at the place where it hurts.
- Be compassionate toward the pain. Send your body and the discomfort loving-kindness.
- Silently ask if there is any information in the feelings you are having. Often our bodies express feelings and thoughts that we cannot bear to bring to consciousness. Is your body trying to tell you something?
- This may be enough to shift the energy of the discomfort. At the very least it is often enough to "cut it down to size" -- to help you realize that it is not as large as your whole world, or even as large as your whole body--and this can make you feel lots better.
- You may also want to invite the area that is in discomfort to become more fluid and to flow into a state of greater balance. It is important here that you just ALLOW this to happen, rather than trying to make it happen. You just suggest it to your body and allow what happens to happen.
- Close with allowing your awareness to go to the areas surrounding the area of discomfort. Invite them, too, to become more fluid. Then bring your awareness to your entire body, and invite your entire body to be in a greater state of flow.
- Get up and move gently around. Repeat this mindfulness exercise as often as you need to or want to.
Other Energy Work Ideas for Working With Your Back
Other energy healing approaches you might want to try for working with back pain involve working with your chakras.Try working with your first or second chakras for lower back issues, the third chakra for mid-back issues, the fourth chakra for between the shoulder blades, and the fifth chakra for the upper back or neck. Learn more about chakras and their location here.
Of course, the best remedy is prevention. Try to get plenty of good exercise, maintain an optimal posture, breathe optimally, keep your abdominal muscles strong, and manage stress.
Interested in learning more about energy, energy healing, and the chakras? Try my book, Chakra Care: Do-It-Yourself Energy Healing for a More Joyful, Loving, Fruitful Life. You'll learn
to clear, nurture and support your chakras with 500 fun, down-to-earth
activities. A user-friendly, practical guide, available as a paperback
or Kindle. Learn more or buy it here.