Take Off Your Backpack From Back Pain

One more day in the office. A new patient looking for a solution to his chronic and irritating back ailments, which affect his sleep and rest. She tells me that she has already changed the mattress, but has not noticed any improvement. You have reviewed your bad postures and you are not getting relief either.

And now he appears here, without being very clear about what he is going to find, with the recommendation of someone he trusts. He appears before me with this “backpack”, and never better said, because the pain has become a heavy burden on his shoulders.

How to treat the physical and energetic causes of back pain

As I am going to need your collaboration, I want you to understand how we are going to work. I explain that we can see the reasons for pain as two sides of the same coin. From a physical point of view, there is a muscle contracture, a vertebra that pinches a nerve, or a sprained lumbar ligament.

But we can also approach it from an energetic vision, in the holistic way of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the world of acupuncture and other techniques. This is what I will try to show you.

The back is like a river

When the patient explains to me what his pain is like, I imagine his back as a river. A river where blood, fluids and chi or energy flow. And I need your cooperation to understand what is wrong with him.

I need information, to know what the pain is like: acute or dull? Fixed or moving? Is it worse when you are in bed or does it improve when you rest? Where do you find it?

With each answer the image of that river becomes clearer and allows me to understand what is happening to his back, with his pain. I mentally draw a state of affairs and prepare my toolbox to help you improve your situation.

A blockage of energy

Generally, from the energetic vision, we understand pain as the expression of a blockage in the flow of blood or chi. Like the dam of a reservoir where it remains stagnant. He cannot move with the joy of the water coming down from the mountains.

We already have the first important clue: there is a stagnation, the chi has not completely stopped, but it does not flow as it normally does.

Now we are going to give it a last name, because not all annoyances are the same. The holistic vision of acupuncture does not stop at the cause of the visit of our patient, but seeks and investigates the rest of the signals that the body sends us.

It is necessary to find out which channel, meridian or organ is affected and in what way: if there is more energy than it touches in an area or, on the contrary, if there is a deficiency or it has simply stopped.

Lifestyle influences

Once we have studied the most local, we can open the field of vision and assess other basic aspects of health: sleep, digestion, other pains and lifestyle.

All these data provide us with the name and surname of the energy situation of the person in front of us. Now we can get to work to restore balance to your back.

In the end the pain is just a symptom, a cry from the body for us to stop and pay attention to it. Remaining with the idea that the uneasiness that overwhelms us is related only to something physical is simplistic for the oriental subtlety.

Where do blockages originate?

Everything generally begins with an energy imbalance, a phase of life with significant physical or emotional stress. Of the months that we have abused in the gym or, above all, to endure one day after another a situation that makes us uncomfortable: work, family, partner …

And then the weak point feels malnourished, the organ that requires the most care is loosened and the symptoms appear: pain.

We can say that pain almost always comes from an excess, from supporting what our ego does not want to bear and generally turns into an emotion: anger, anger, frustration, fear, pain or worry. Although, without a doubt, we can wake up one morning with a stiff neck from falling asleep on the sofa …

What is your blocked emotion?

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, it is known that each emotion affects especially an organ and an area of ​​the back:

• Worry wears down the digestive system. The spleen rules here. On the back it manifests itself at night and in the lower back of the spine. Eliminate cold and raw food, add heat to the body and avoid dairy
• Anger belongs to the Wood element and its organ is the liver, responsible for storing and mobilizing blood. When it is disturbed, pain in the upper trapezius usually appears. They are the cervical loaded. Gentle movement activities help.
• Fear is linked to the kidney and the Water element. It is a paralyzing emotion that blocks the lower back and can contract a
• muscle, the quadratus lumbar, which limits movement and often causes fixed, sharp pain. In such cases, the heat of a mat or a hot water bottle is a good ally.
• Sadness affects the lungs, whose element is Metal. The pain is felt in the upper part of the back, up to the collarbone. You have to dilute the penalty. Crying is the simplest remedy. It allows to open the chest, filling it with life.

A tailored pain treatment

Either way, you feel pain. What to do then? The first thing is to discover with the therapist the causes of the pain. Then needles and suction cups to mobilize the hideous stagnation.

And with the improvement, no longer irritating or limiting pain, see what you need to incorporate into your life. Generally two great friends: movement and good nutrition. And then assess how to mitigate the effects of those harmful emotions.

The advantages of fine movement

But be careful: what do we mean by movement? If we see someone doing tai chi or chikung, we will be surprised by their slowness. It is an activity focused on moving the chi without wasting that precious energy. For those who are short of energy or will, it is a good solution.

In front of the “everyone to run” or the pool as a great solution, we continue with the oriental finesse to advise each person according to their needs.

We can continue to open the range of options. The theater, dancing, expressing oneself through some art … movement. My premises are: enjoy doing it, let the hours go by without realizing it. Then put aside the judgment: enjoy painting without looking for a result. And, if you can, do it with friends.

Living without the backpack

There comes a time when the patient is happy. How has the transformation occurred? First, we removed the energy blocks, the fixed pain disappeared and the back stopped complaining.

At the same time, he returned to practicing his hobby, which helped him get his emotions moving. Finally, she decided to follow some simple dietary tips to feel more energetic and want to do the things that feel good for her.

In the end, I note with joy that my patient has abandoned his heavy backpack. The pain has disappeared. We have worked to find which organ and emotion affect you the most. And you have seen that your day-to-day responsibility is more important than an acupuncture session.