Feature Friday: change your thoughts, gain control of your body pain

WHAT'S THE PROB BOB?

Lower back pain bothering you? Or maybe your neck is cramping and stiff? Your shoulders feel like they're on fire? Your pillow isn't doing it for you anymore. Your quality of sleep is lacking, which impacts how you go about your day. It impacts how you show up for yourself and for others.

Your body aches and yearns for a solution, but maybe you don't believe in the culture of Western medicine, of downing prescription and painkillers, and you're left wondering why this pain won't go away. Or maybe you don't have the financial means or the luxury of time right now to visit a doctor. 

Or maybe, just maybe, you've embarked on a natural journey and would prefer a natural way to heal your body without succumbing it to harsh conditions.

What if I told you there's something you can do that doesn't cost money, but it is definitely an investment on your part?

THE BOOK THAT STARTED IT ALL

Did you ever have an interest, hobby, or newfound knowledge that someone introduced you too, and you're forever grateful for that person and what they've opened up for you?

One of my good friends on the east coast was listening to me whine about my lower back pain for the umpteenth time. Out of compassion (or maybe she was tired of my complaints), she gave me an extra copy of a book that sparked my wellness and healing journey.

This Feature Friday edition appreciates and reviews a potentially life-changing book. I say potentially because you must have an open mindset to be able to receive the message of the book.

Dr. Sarno writes a telling and informative book called Healing Back Pain. He declares that this book will give you the tools you need to heal your body without drugs, without exercise, without surgery. What’s that now? In a country where the pharmaceutical and medical industries rule (I mean, $50 billion!), this concept may sound fiction to many. It sure does to my SO who claimed it was hooey (who says hooey anymore? Must be all that Supernatural we've been binging).

What I particularly liked about Healing Back Pain that this was written by a physician who wrote about tension myoneural syndrome (TMS) in a language that someone like me, someone who isn't familiar with the medical field, could understand, and more importantly, implement in my own life.

MIND-BODY CONNECTION

Dr. Sarno writes about how identifying psychological reasons in our lives would help with reducing, and hopefully, eliminating back pain. Essentially, emotions are stored in our tissue memory, and usually, when an event occurs, like thinking you pulled your back when you lifted that heavy box, or that ache in your shoulders from hunching over at your computer or laptop, these muscle spasms and tensions are connected to your reactions to the events in your life. By identifying the cause, acknowledging it, and taking decisive action to heal, Dr. Sarno equips you with the strategies needed to heal your own body.

The most important thing is to be proactive about healing.

While other doctors and healers prescribe medicine in their respective forms, and encourage the injured to remain injured and rest, Dr. Sarno encourages you to move as if everything were normal again for you. He believed "the majority of these pain syndromes are the result of a condition in the muscles, nerves, tendons and ligaments brought on by tension" (2).

What does he mean, tension? I took a moment and reconsidered that sentence. So, he's telling me is that my lower back pain exists solely because I'm holding tension i.e., emotions?

It's so crazy to me how I used to think mind and body were separate. It's like I needed to hear those words, and suddenly I felt so awake. A fingersnap of light. Have you ever felt that? I feel I'm questioning things a lot more now...whether that's a good thing or a bad thing. Well..if Eckhart Tolle's book A New Earth has taught me anything, it's that it just is. (Feature Friday to come!)

MY TWO CENTS

Dr. Sarno's book reads as informative and precise. There are many success stories, as well as not-so-succesful stories. There are some that even reached a state of awareness and openmindedness and still passed on. In this case, death was not perceived as a negative. Death is certain; as the sun rises, so it shall set.

For me, I concluded that my lower back pain was due to financial issues. My anxiety manifested there and once I acknowledged and claimed that presence, the pain cleared. It returned from time to time, but you just have to keep practicing the steps of healing TMS as outlined by Dr. Sarno. 

CHOICES

If you're still skeptical (I know my spouse still is), remember you have options.

You can choose to ignore the pains as they throb and impede in your ability to go about your daily life, or you can take a deep breath, take the leap of faith, and be open to the idea that each person has the ability to heal themselves if they take the effort and time. 

Believe that it's worth living your best life after all. You deserve to live freely from back pain.

What else do you have to lose?