WP_Query Object
(
[query] => Array
(
[category__in] => Array
(
[0] => 66
[1] => 20
)
[post__not_in] => Array
(
[0] => 7056
)
[posts_per_page] => 50
[ignore_sticky_posts] => 1
[orderby] => desc
[_shuffle_and_pick] => 3
)
[query_vars] => Array
(
[category__in] => Array
(
[0] => 66
[1] => 20
)
[post__not_in] => Array
(
[0] => 7056
)
[posts_per_page] => 50
[ignore_sticky_posts] => 1
[orderby] => desc
[_shuffle_and_pick] => 3
[error] =>
[m] =>
[p] => 0
[post_parent] =>
[subpost] =>
[subpost_id] =>
[attachment] =>
[attachment_id] => 0
[name] =>
[pagename] =>
[page_id] => 0
[second] =>
[minute] =>
[hour] =>
[day] => 0
[monthnum] => 0
[year] => 0
[w] => 0
[category_name] => nature_healing
[tag] =>
[cat] => 66
[tag_id] =>
[author] =>
[author_name] =>
[feed] =>
[tb] =>
[paged] => 0
[meta_key] =>
[meta_value] =>
[preview] =>
[s] =>
[sentence] =>
[title] =>
[fields] =>
[menu_order] =>
[embed] =>
[category__not_in] => Array
(
)
[category__and] => Array
(
)
[post__in] => Array
(
)
[post_name__in] => Array
(
)
[tag__in] => Array
(
)
[tag__not_in] => Array
(
)
[tag__and] => Array
(
)
[tag_slug__in] => Array
(
)
[tag_slug__and] => Array
(
)
[post_parent__in] => Array
(
)
[post_parent__not_in] => Array
(
)
[author__in] => Array
(
)
[author__not_in] => Array
(
)
[search_columns] => Array
(
)
[suppress_filters] =>
[cache_results] => 1
[update_post_term_cache] => 1
[update_menu_item_cache] =>
[lazy_load_term_meta] => 1
[update_post_meta_cache] => 1
[post_type] =>
[nopaging] =>
[comments_per_page] => 50
[no_found_rows] =>
[order] => DESC
)
[tax_query] => WP_Tax_Query Object
(
[queries] => Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[taxonomy] => category
[terms] => Array
(
[0] => 66
[1] => 20
)
[field] => term_id
[operator] => IN
[include_children] =>
)
)
[relation] => AND
[table_aliases:protected] => Array
(
[0] => wp_term_relationships
)
[queried_terms] => Array
(
[category] => Array
(
[terms] => Array
(
[0] => 66
[1] => 20
)
[field] => term_id
)
)
[primary_table] => wp_posts
[primary_id_column] => ID
)
[meta_query] => WP_Meta_Query Object
(
[queries] => Array
(
)
[relation] =>
[meta_table] =>
[meta_id_column] =>
[primary_table] =>
[primary_id_column] =>
[table_aliases:protected] => Array
(
)
[clauses:protected] => Array
(
)
[has_or_relation:protected] =>
)
[date_query] =>
[request] =>
SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS wp_posts.ID
FROM wp_posts LEFT JOIN wp_term_relationships ON (wp_posts.ID = wp_term_relationships.object_id)
WHERE 1=1 AND wp_posts.ID NOT IN (7056) AND (
wp_term_relationships.term_taxonomy_id IN (20,66)
) AND ((wp_posts.post_type = 'post' AND (wp_posts.post_status = 'publish' OR wp_posts.post_status = 'acf-disabled')))
AND ID NOT IN
(SELECT `post_id` FROM wp_postmeta
WHERE `meta_key` = '_pilotpress_level'
AND `meta_value` IN ('','employee')
AND `post_id` NOT IN
(SELECT `post_id` FROM wp_postmeta
WHERE `meta_key` = '_pilotpress_level'
AND `meta_value` IN ('' )))
GROUP BY wp_posts.ID
ORDER BY wp_posts.post_date DESC
LIMIT 0, 50
[posts] => Array
(
[0] => WP_Post Object
(
[ID] => 7866
[post_author] => 3
[post_date] => 2020-04-30 18:09:59
[post_date_gmt] => 2020-04-30 18:09:59
[post_content] => Almost everyone will experience at least one episode of back pain in their life, and many of us will have several bouts or even chronic back pain. While acupuncture, massage, and chiropractic can help, it’s worth having some tools you can use on your own, wherever and whenever the need arises.
I’ve been helping people get out of pain for the past 20+ years, and have discovered many useful strategies for back pain. Today I’ll share five of my favorites.
But first, a little theory. I’ve found that teaching my patients about the mechanisms behind pain often produces an instant reduction in their discomfort. A fundamental principle of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is that all pain involves some sort of stagnation. Whether it’s stagnant digestion, stagnant blood flow, stagnant lymph, or even stagnant thinking and emotions, stuckness is counter to wellness. Good health, on the other hand, always entails flow – a free-flowing adaptability to challenges, free movement of blood, other fluids, muscles, tendons, and joints, and freely feeling and moving through thoughts and emotions. So everything I recommend below entails opening up stagnation and restoring free movement again.
1. Keep Moving Your Body. After an injury, we’re often told to rest (which has some value), but total immobility usually slows down the recovery process. In nearly all pain, there is muscular tightness and restricted circulation. This stagnation is even more obvious in the case of swelling (e.g., a sprained ankle), where lymph has pooled in the area and gets stuck there. Safely moving the affected area promotes clearing of pooled lymph, elimination of cellular waste and debris, an influx of fresh blood – and a reduction of pain.
In biomedical terms, pain is an alarm that’s trying to warn us of danger or injury – like the pain that arises when you touch a hot pan. But it’s not an infallible system. It can be trained (or mis-trained) to give us a strong pain signal even when we’re not in danger. It can also get “stuck in the ON position” – not turning off the pain even though we’ve resolved whatever the issue was.
Experimenting with ways to safely move the painful part of your body without causing pain is a useful means of retraining the nervous system to deactivate the alarm and lower its sensitivity.
Also, it’s always a good idea to move around frequently throughout your day, since a sedentary lifestyle – and the postural stress it causes – is a major contributor to back pain.
2. Heat + Topical Herbs. Another way to promote circulation and alleviate pain – and especially useful when movement is restricted or not possible – is through the application of heat and circulation-enhancing herbs. Heat application promotes dilation (opening) of blood vessels. It doesn’t have the numbing effect that cold can, but in the long run it’s a more useful treatment.
It’s especially effective when applied in combination with external herbs or essential oils of plants that also enhance circulation. Many of these can be found in our
Muscle Melt products. Some of the most popular are peppermint (or its most active constituent, menthol), eucalyptus, cinnamon, fresh ginger, and capsaicin (chili pepper).
It’s always a good idea when using a heating device to check frequently to make sure you’re not burning yourself, since sensitivity to heat may be impaired due to the pain, pain medications, and/or the external herbs.
3. Stretches + Hydration. Dehydration often plays a role in pain. The suppleness of our tissues and the free flow of – well, everything in the body – depends on water. Especially if you combine dried out muscles with a sedentary lifestyle or exertion without first warming up, you’ve got a recipe for pain. I like to have patients combine hydration with stretching, to help get the water into the affected tissues. There are lots of stretches that can help, depending on the particular nature of your back pain. These are six that tend to be the most helpful.
a. Cat-Cow. On your hands and knees, slowing alternate back and forth between a fully rounded spine and a fully arched spine. Taking a five seconds to move from one position to the other. Repeat ten times.
b. Cobra. Lying face down on the floor, place your hands palm-down under your shoulders and slowly arch your back. Hold, then slowly release back to the floor. Repeat ten times. You’re primarily using your back muscles to lift yourself, with the hands just there for stability. You don’t need to strive for a big stretch here – just enough muscle engagement to warm up the lower back without causing any pain.
c. Child’s Pose. Kneel on the floor, touch your big toes together, sit on your heels, spread your knees as wide as your hips, then lay your torso down between your thighs. Rest your arms at your sides, palms up. You can lie in this position for as long as it feels good. Breathe slowly and deeply.
d. Lying Side Twists. Lie on your back with legs extended. Bring one knee up toward your chest, then take it across your body, aiming past the opposite hip. Your knee may or may not rest on the floor. Hold for ten seconds, then come back to center and repeat. You can also try placing the knee higher and lower to direct the stretch to different parts of your back. Generally, with a high knee (even with the opposite hip, for instance) you’ll target the lowest part of the lumbar spine. With a lower knee (even with the opposite knee, for instance), you’ll target more of the upper lumbar region and lower midback.
e. Lying Glute Stretch. Lying on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor, cross your left ankle over your right knee. Then interlace your fingers to grasp your right knee (either inside the bend of the knee, holding onto the hamstrings, or – even better – grasping over the front of the knee) and pull the knee toward you. You may need to use your left elbow to press against your left knee to push it away and intensify the stretch. Make sure your left foot is extended (dorsiflexed) toward the left knee. Hold for 30 to 60 seconds, then switch sides.
f. Hamstring Wall Stretch. Lie on the floor near a flat wall. Scoot your butt as close to the wall as you can get it. Gently raise your legs and place them with unbent knees flat against the wall (scoot your butt a little bit more forward if you need to). Tight hamstrings often contribute to a tight lower back and this hamstring stretch tends to be easy on the lower back. Rest in this position for 30 to 60 seconds.
4. Breathe Through It. In TCM, our vital energy – Qi – is considered to be circulated by the breath. That is, breathing moves energy. It’s part of why we sigh when we’re stressed – or relieved. Intentionally breathing “through” a painful area can often quickly reduce pain. Imagine that you’re drawing your inhale through your back, and then exhaling the pain out through your back.
Meanwhile, practice non-resistance. Don’t fight the pain. Just for this moment, allow it to be here, stop struggling against it, and stop telling yourself something is “wrong.” In fact, see if you can even invite the pain to just be here. And breathe.
5. Visualize Movement. There are many useful visualization practices for alleviating pain. A basic place to start is to imagine movement happening in the painful part of your back. Visualize blood coursing through the area, see energy or light moving in and out of your back, “watch” your cells shutting down the inflammation, making repairs, and soothing irritated tissues. Inhale white, healing light, and exhale dark, stagnant pain out of the area. Find a visualization that works for you. I sincerely hope these techniques work for you and that very soon you’re pain free and getting back to what you love.
Be well,
Dr. Peter Borten
P.S. If you’re looking for more support for living pain free, we invite you to join us for an online mini-course my wife, Briana, and I are leading on how to give a relaxing, pain-relieving massage. Briana and I have over 40 years of combined professional experience giving massage and training teams of massage therapists. Massage has so many benefits: It relieves tight and painful muscles and joints. It measurably decreases stress. It strengthens immune function. It improves sleep quality. It promotes better circulation. It reduces fatigue and improves mood. And it facilitates faster recovery from injury and surgery. We should all be taking advantage of it! Since that's not possible due to the pandemic, why not learn how to give each other massages at home?
Unlike massage trainings for people starting a new career, this course is geared toward non-professionals who want to learn the fundamentals of good massage - even if you don't have a massage table or other special equipment. We'll teach you the most effective ways to release tight muscles and promote stress relief. We'll share ways to use your body so that you can work deeper and for longer without getting tired or sore. And we'll explain some things we wish were taught in massage schools that make for a better overall experience for both the giver and receiver.
Learning massage skills is a gift that will provide a lifetime of connection, relaxation, and effective pain relief. If you’ve ever thought, “I’d love to massage my partner, but my hands hurt and I can’t do it for more than a few minutes,” or, “I want to give a good massage but I just don't know what I'm doing”, this is exactly the course you need to gain confidence in your ability to provide a great therapeutic massage. Join us live to have your specific massage questions addressed.
And if you’d like to learn a bunch more about managing your own pain – including both Eastern and Western approaches, psychological tools, special acupressure points, guided meditations, pain relieving herbs, and altogether the most comprehensive course in the world for getting out of pain (I made that up but it’s probably true!), check out Live Pain Free. We’ve gotten only rave reviews from users.
[post_title] => 5 Ways to Relieve Back Pain
[post_excerpt] =>
[post_status] => publish
[comment_status] => open
[ping_status] => open
[post_password] =>
[post_name] => 5-ways-to-relieve-back-pain
[to_ping] =>
[pinged] =>
[post_modified] => 2020-05-01 15:34:49
[post_modified_gmt] => 2020-05-01 15:34:49
[post_content_filtered] =>
[post_parent] => 0
[guid] => http://thedragontree.com/?p=7866
[menu_order] => 0
[post_type] => post
[post_mime_type] =>
[comment_count] => 0
[filter] => raw
[webinar_id] => 0
)
[1] => WP_Post Object
(
[ID] => 7950
[post_author] => 3
[post_date] => 2020-07-23 19:35:07
[post_date_gmt] => 2020-07-23 19:35:07
[post_content] =>
I saw a woman being interviewed about her opinion of Trump and Obama. She felt quite strongly that one was the devil and the other a saint. The interviewer asked why and she gave some simple reasons. Then the interviewer proposed, “What if I showed you evidence that would disprove your reasons?”
She responded, “Nothing you can say will change my mind. I don’t need any evidence to know what’s true.” Have you ever felt this way about a person or issue?
It’s very enticing to think in black and white terms. We like the unambiguousness of it. It’s comfortable and easy to be able to say with conviction, “This man is good, that man is bad,” or “Chemical pesticides are wrong, natural ones are right,” or “Pain is bad, pleasure is good.”
When we choose a fixed stance, it seems our work is over. There’s no need to sort through the facts. There’s no need to navigate the discomfort of possibly being wrong, or the discomfort of allowing for multiple points of view. There’s no need to stretch. The only work left to do is convince others who don’t share our point of view that they’re wrong.
Every fixed point of view bolsters the ego. Each time we marry our identity to a position, we form a more rigid sense of who we are (and aren’t). Even though there’s a certain kind of peace in choosing a fixed stance, there’s also an innate conflict. We feel compelled to block out or reject any experience or information that doesn’t fit with our position. This fragments us, restricts our freedom, and prevents an authentic, unmanipulated experience of life.
I’m as attracted to polarized positions as the next guy, but I’ve seen too many times that they’re not good for me – or my relationships. Besides the various forms of personal suffering that black-and-white thinking causes, it’s a major impediment to creating community, solving big problems, and fixing the social divisions that make our country so disunited.
For those interested in recovering from this habit, a willingness to be wrong is a good start – yet, it’s often a difficult concession for us because there’s some truth to our position. It’s usually less painful – and closer to the truth – to recognize that we’re not wrong, we’re just not entirely right. That is, we’re focused on a thin sliver of reality and mistake that to be the whole.
It’s like the old parable about the blind men feeling the different parts of an elephant and describing what kind of animal it is. One feels the elephant’s trunk and says, “This animal is like a thick snake.” Another, who is touching the elephant’s ear, disagrees: “No, it’s more like a fan.” One touches its leg and says an elephant must be like the trunk of a tree. Another touches the tail and says elephants are like a piece of rope.
When we practice openness and humility, we discover a greater need for the word and. Is the truth this way or that way? The answer is almost always YES. This way and that way. Both.
This practice asks us to stretch in order to make room for a reality that’s broader than we thought – and stretching can be uncomfortable – but it also brings peace through the recognition that we don’t know everything, we can’t know everything, and therefore we can let ourselves off the hook of needing to know everything.
I’d like to explore polarized positions on two subjects that are near and dear to my heart – managing the wayward mind and managing pain.
When it comes to managing the mind, the most common polarized positions I encounter are: (1) We should exert discipline over the mind, learn to control it, more intentionally choose the contents of our thoughts, perhaps even stop its meanderings entirely. (2) The mind is an incessant stream of chattering that doesn’t need to be controlled or judged; freedom comes from witnessing it impartially, noticing how it works, learning not to automatically give our attention to its content (thoughts), and ultimately transcending it.
Which is right? In my opinion this is a perfect time for the word and. It doesn’t need to be one or the other. Both are valid and true. It is possible to stop thinking. We can make the mind more peaceful, we can think more optimistic thoughts. AND without attempting to modify the way we think, we can learn to witness the mind, to be unmoved by violent or fearful thoughts, and to let awareness itself begin to displace the ego as the driver of this life.
When it comes to managing pain, two opposing positions I encounter are: (1) Get rid of it. Pain sucks and rarely has a useful purpose. (2) Pain is an opportunity – to expand, to be empowered, to know ourselves, to heal old wounds, etc. If we get rid of it without exploring it, we may miss an important chance to grow and heal.
Which is right? What should we do? AND to the rescue! When I began constructing my online course, Live Pain Free, I started by making a long list of all the strategies I could think of for eliminating pain. Then I thought of the people I’ve known who weren’t able to get rid of their pain – because, for instance, it was due to an inoperable tumor pressing on a nerve – but were able to achieve freedom despite the constant presence of pain. I thought of patients who have used their pain as an impetus for unraveling trauma and years of unhealthy patterning. And I also thought of patients in pain who were angry, depressed, or fearful, who became lighthearted and joyful as soon as we stopped the pain. In the end, I chose to dedicate a significant portion of the course to viewpoint #2 above – that is, helping people to heal and feel free regardless of whether or not pain is present.
The same goes for managing painful thoughts and emotions. When Briana and I were writing Freedom, a workbook to help people move through these thoughts and feelings more smoothly, we asked ourselves do we want people to simply release them and get on with their day or do we want to help them understand the deeper roots of these thoughts and feelings so they can know themselves and heal more deeply? I’ve heard cognitive behavioral therapists make a strong case for the former, saying, “You simply need to learn to modify your thoughts – and your relationship to them – as they come up. We don’t need to talk about your childhood.” A Freudian psychoanalyst would probably say the opposite.
For us, the answer again was both. Sometimes – especially if we’re currently scheduled to be doing something other than self-maintenance – there isn’t time or space to do the deeper processing, and we just need a quick and efficient way to release infringing thoughts and emotions. But it’s also worth making the time to delve into the bigger, more fundamental work, because if we can heal our deepest wounds we’re likely to have a great reduction in disturbing thoughts and the need to manage them.
In what ways do you tend to think in black-and-white terms?
Where has your thinking been polarized?
How has your identity been shaped by your positions?
How do you feel when you have a fixed position about something or someone? Can you perceive both the appealing feeling of “rightness” (or even self-righteousness) and the edgy feeling that comes from an inability to allow for opposing viewpoints?
What comes up when you consider opening yourself to opposing points of view? Can you feel the stretch of it? Can you also feel the relief that would come from relinquishing the need to have the answers or to be right?
Wishing you peace, perspective, and lots of ANDs,
Peter
[post_title] => The Power of AND
[post_excerpt] =>
[post_status] => publish
[comment_status] => open
[ping_status] => open
[post_password] =>
[post_name] => the-power-of-and
[to_ping] =>
[pinged] =>
[post_modified] => 2020-07-23 19:36:05
[post_modified_gmt] => 2020-07-23 19:36:05
[post_content_filtered] =>
[post_parent] => 0
[guid] => http://thedragontree.com/?p=7950
[menu_order] => 0
[post_type] => post
[post_mime_type] =>
[comment_count] => 7
[filter] => raw
[webinar_id] => 0
)
[2] => WP_Post Object
(
[ID] => 8544
[post_author] => 3
[post_date] => 2022-02-23 23:17:17
[post_date_gmt] => 2022-02-23 23:17:17
[post_content] =>
Once I went to see a spiritual teacher who planned to write a mantra on my tongue using a leaf dipped in honey. But she ran out of leaves. Or honey. I can’t remember which.
“It doesn’t matter,” she said. She told me the mantra and we repeated it together. She also told the same mantra to the other hundred or so people who came to see her. I’ve used that mantra off and on for the past 20 years.
Another spiritual teacher gave me a mantra, but it was just for me. He told it to me privately in a closed room, and he instructed me to never repeat it to anyone. He said that keeping it a secret was part of the power of the mantra. I wasn’t sure whether I believed that, but I have kept it a secret for several years.
You probably know what a mantra is, but I’d like to tell you about a woman who found a magic lamp in her backyard. Well, she rubbed it of course, because that’s what you do, and a genie came out.
“Tell me what to do,” he said.
“Is this one of those three wish deals?” the woman responded.
“Not at all,” said the genie. “I’m at your service forever.”
The woman had the genie clean the house, do the laundry, and cook dinner.
“What next?” asked the genie.
“Oh, neuter the cat, I guess.”
“Done!” the genie reported. “What next?”
“Umm, shear the hamster?” the woman offered.
“Done! What next?” asked the genie.
“That’s it!” exclaimed the woman, “why don’t you take a break.”
“It doesn’t work that way,” the genie said, now beginning to appear more oppressive than helpful. “Give me something to do or I’ll eat you!”
The startled woman was quick on her feet and answered, “Ok, I’ve got it. Climb up that flagpole. When you get to the top, slide down. Then climb up again, slide down again, and just keep doing that until I think of something else for you to do.” It worked, and the woman didn’t get eaten.
The genie is like the mind. The flagpole routine is the primary role of a mantra. Not only does the genie/mind demand constant attention, it gets in the way of our accessing the spiritual dimension and experiencing spaciousness in our consciousness. It tends to take up the whole frame.
A mantra gives the mind something to focus on, which, over time (meaning both over the course of each meditative session and over the course of using it day after day), greatly diminishes the degree to which the mind dominates our awareness. Often, what starts out as a mechanical recitation of a word or phrase (usually silently) becomes something more like a self-replicating wave that occupies the mind while our consciousness expands and transcends it. Of course, every time we sit to recite a mantra doesn’t produce a transcendent or mystical experience, but it’s quite common to feel peaceful and expansive.
Besides simply occupying the mind to facilitate meditation, mantras sometimes have other purposes. Some believe that mantras, through their sonic quality and/or meaning, produce a spiritual or therapeutic effect. Certain mantras are meant to be spoken aloud; others can be “spoken” mentally. Some are meant to open a particular part of the body or aspect of consciousness, to express devotion, to invoke or “install” a certain deity, or to elicit a change of fortune. Using a mantra with a meaning you understand may have the additional benefit of aligning your intention around a positive idea. On the other hand, using a mantra in a language you don’t know or one without any meaning frees you from getting analytical about it.
There are short mantras and long mantras. I recommend a shorter one for silent meditation, since it’s easier to remember. The shortest one syllable mantras are sometimes called bija or “seed” mantras, such as Om, Aim (“aeem”), Shrim (“shreem”), Hrim (“hreem”), Krim (“cream”), Hum, Hu (“hue”), Ram (“rahm”), Vam (“vahm”), Ham (“hahm”), Ong, God, and Love.
Two-syllable mantras go well with the breath, since you can say/think the first syllable on the inhale and the second on the exhale. Some common ones include Shanti (peace), So-Ham (I am that [Divine]), Ham-sa (swan, also an inversion of So-Ham), Sat Nam (I am Truth), and one of my favorites, Open.
Common longer mantras include Om Namah Shivaya, Om Mani Padme Hum (or Om Mani Peme Hung), and Nam Myoho Renge Kyo. There are thousands more. Read about these if you're interested. You may wish to find one that seems suited to your spiritual sensibilities, or one that just feels good to say. There are lots of great books and sites on mantras to explore.
As for the notion that a mantra should be kept secret, some teachers will say that a mantra loses its power if it’s shared. At best this is superstition. At worst, it’s a pretentious attempt to control students, maintain hierarchy, generate mystique, and keep people coming back to pay for increasingly “higher level” mantras. And now I’m going to tell you the “secret” mantra I received: it’s hring. Try it out if you feel like it.
Though I have some disdain for secrecy around mantras, I do believe there’s sometimes value in being selective about sharing the details of your spiritual experiences. Attempts to explain these experiences in words often fall short, and if you share with someone who isn’t receptive, doesn’t understand, or criticizes the experience, this may diminish its significance for you or cause you to doubt yourself. It’s also worth asking yourself why you’re sharing these experiences. Sometimes we do so to better understand them or to be instructive or inspiring to others. Other times it’s because the ego has co-opted our spiritual experiences and is using them to get approval. So it’s a good idea to make sure you’re sharing for the right reasons, you can withstand judgment without losing conviction in your practice, or otherwise to share only with those who can hear you in a non-critical way.
This week I recommend that you try meditating with a mantra. Choose one from above or find one you like online or from a book. Sit comfortably and repeat your chosen mantra silently, at a speed that feels comfortable to you. If your mind wanders, just bring it back to the mantra. See if, compared to simply watching the breath, this makes it easier to enter a relaxed or expansive state.
Be well,
Peter
[post_title] => The Power of Mantras
[post_excerpt] =>
[post_status] => publish
[comment_status] => open
[ping_status] => open
[post_password] =>
[post_name] => the-power-of-mantras
[to_ping] =>
[pinged] =>
[post_modified] => 2022-02-23 23:17:17
[post_modified_gmt] => 2022-02-23 23:17:17
[post_content_filtered] =>
[post_parent] => 0
[guid] => https://thedragontree.com/?p=8544
[menu_order] => 0
[post_type] => post
[post_mime_type] =>
[comment_count] => 7
[filter] => raw
[webinar_id] => 0
)
)
[post_count] => 3
[current_post] => -1
[before_loop] => 1
[in_the_loop] =>
[post] => WP_Post Object
(
[ID] => 7866
[post_author] => 3
[post_date] => 2020-04-30 18:09:59
[post_date_gmt] => 2020-04-30 18:09:59
[post_content] => Almost everyone will experience at least one episode of back pain in their life, and many of us will have several bouts or even chronic back pain. While acupuncture, massage, and chiropractic can help, it’s worth having some tools you can use on your own, wherever and whenever the need arises.
I’ve been helping people get out of pain for the past 20+ years, and have discovered many useful strategies for back pain. Today I’ll share five of my favorites.
But first, a little theory. I’ve found that teaching my patients about the mechanisms behind pain often produces an instant reduction in their discomfort. A fundamental principle of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is that all pain involves some sort of stagnation. Whether it’s stagnant digestion, stagnant blood flow, stagnant lymph, or even stagnant thinking and emotions, stuckness is counter to wellness. Good health, on the other hand, always entails flow – a free-flowing adaptability to challenges, free movement of blood, other fluids, muscles, tendons, and joints, and freely feeling and moving through thoughts and emotions. So everything I recommend below entails opening up stagnation and restoring free movement again.
1. Keep Moving Your Body. After an injury, we’re often told to rest (which has some value), but total immobility usually slows down the recovery process. In nearly all pain, there is muscular tightness and restricted circulation. This stagnation is even more obvious in the case of swelling (e.g., a sprained ankle), where lymph has pooled in the area and gets stuck there. Safely moving the affected area promotes clearing of pooled lymph, elimination of cellular waste and debris, an influx of fresh blood – and a reduction of pain.
In biomedical terms, pain is an alarm that’s trying to warn us of danger or injury – like the pain that arises when you touch a hot pan. But it’s not an infallible system. It can be trained (or mis-trained) to give us a strong pain signal even when we’re not in danger. It can also get “stuck in the ON position” – not turning off the pain even though we’ve resolved whatever the issue was.
Experimenting with ways to safely move the painful part of your body without causing pain is a useful means of retraining the nervous system to deactivate the alarm and lower its sensitivity.
Also, it’s always a good idea to move around frequently throughout your day, since a sedentary lifestyle – and the postural stress it causes – is a major contributor to back pain.
2. Heat + Topical Herbs. Another way to promote circulation and alleviate pain – and especially useful when movement is restricted or not possible – is through the application of heat and circulation-enhancing herbs. Heat application promotes dilation (opening) of blood vessels. It doesn’t have the numbing effect that cold can, but in the long run it’s a more useful treatment.
It’s especially effective when applied in combination with external herbs or essential oils of plants that also enhance circulation. Many of these can be found in our
Muscle Melt products. Some of the most popular are peppermint (or its most active constituent, menthol), eucalyptus, cinnamon, fresh ginger, and capsaicin (chili pepper).
It’s always a good idea when using a heating device to check frequently to make sure you’re not burning yourself, since sensitivity to heat may be impaired due to the pain, pain medications, and/or the external herbs.
3. Stretches + Hydration. Dehydration often plays a role in pain. The suppleness of our tissues and the free flow of – well, everything in the body – depends on water. Especially if you combine dried out muscles with a sedentary lifestyle or exertion without first warming up, you’ve got a recipe for pain. I like to have patients combine hydration with stretching, to help get the water into the affected tissues. There are lots of stretches that can help, depending on the particular nature of your back pain. These are six that tend to be the most helpful.
a. Cat-Cow. On your hands and knees, slowing alternate back and forth between a fully rounded spine and a fully arched spine. Taking a five seconds to move from one position to the other. Repeat ten times.
b. Cobra. Lying face down on the floor, place your hands palm-down under your shoulders and slowly arch your back. Hold, then slowly release back to the floor. Repeat ten times. You’re primarily using your back muscles to lift yourself, with the hands just there for stability. You don’t need to strive for a big stretch here – just enough muscle engagement to warm up the lower back without causing any pain.
c. Child’s Pose. Kneel on the floor, touch your big toes together, sit on your heels, spread your knees as wide as your hips, then lay your torso down between your thighs. Rest your arms at your sides, palms up. You can lie in this position for as long as it feels good. Breathe slowly and deeply.
d. Lying Side Twists. Lie on your back with legs extended. Bring one knee up toward your chest, then take it across your body, aiming past the opposite hip. Your knee may or may not rest on the floor. Hold for ten seconds, then come back to center and repeat. You can also try placing the knee higher and lower to direct the stretch to different parts of your back. Generally, with a high knee (even with the opposite hip, for instance) you’ll target the lowest part of the lumbar spine. With a lower knee (even with the opposite knee, for instance), you’ll target more of the upper lumbar region and lower midback.
e. Lying Glute Stretch. Lying on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor, cross your left ankle over your right knee. Then interlace your fingers to grasp your right knee (either inside the bend of the knee, holding onto the hamstrings, or – even better – grasping over the front of the knee) and pull the knee toward you. You may need to use your left elbow to press against your left knee to push it away and intensify the stretch. Make sure your left foot is extended (dorsiflexed) toward the left knee. Hold for 30 to 60 seconds, then switch sides.
f. Hamstring Wall Stretch. Lie on the floor near a flat wall. Scoot your butt as close to the wall as you can get it. Gently raise your legs and place them with unbent knees flat against the wall (scoot your butt a little bit more forward if you need to). Tight hamstrings often contribute to a tight lower back and this hamstring stretch tends to be easy on the lower back. Rest in this position for 30 to 60 seconds.
4. Breathe Through It. In TCM, our vital energy – Qi – is considered to be circulated by the breath. That is, breathing moves energy. It’s part of why we sigh when we’re stressed – or relieved. Intentionally breathing “through” a painful area can often quickly reduce pain. Imagine that you’re drawing your inhale through your back, and then exhaling the pain out through your back.
Meanwhile, practice non-resistance. Don’t fight the pain. Just for this moment, allow it to be here, stop struggling against it, and stop telling yourself something is “wrong.” In fact, see if you can even invite the pain to just be here. And breathe.
5. Visualize Movement. There are many useful visualization practices for alleviating pain. A basic place to start is to imagine movement happening in the painful part of your back. Visualize blood coursing through the area, see energy or light moving in and out of your back, “watch” your cells shutting down the inflammation, making repairs, and soothing irritated tissues. Inhale white, healing light, and exhale dark, stagnant pain out of the area. Find a visualization that works for you. I sincerely hope these techniques work for you and that very soon you’re pain free and getting back to what you love.
Be well,
Dr. Peter Borten
P.S. If you’re looking for more support for living pain free, we invite you to join us for an online mini-course my wife, Briana, and I are leading on how to give a relaxing, pain-relieving massage. Briana and I have over 40 years of combined professional experience giving massage and training teams of massage therapists. Massage has so many benefits: It relieves tight and painful muscles and joints. It measurably decreases stress. It strengthens immune function. It improves sleep quality. It promotes better circulation. It reduces fatigue and improves mood. And it facilitates faster recovery from injury and surgery. We should all be taking advantage of it! Since that's not possible due to the pandemic, why not learn how to give each other massages at home?
Unlike massage trainings for people starting a new career, this course is geared toward non-professionals who want to learn the fundamentals of good massage - even if you don't have a massage table or other special equipment. We'll teach you the most effective ways to release tight muscles and promote stress relief. We'll share ways to use your body so that you can work deeper and for longer without getting tired or sore. And we'll explain some things we wish were taught in massage schools that make for a better overall experience for both the giver and receiver.
Learning massage skills is a gift that will provide a lifetime of connection, relaxation, and effective pain relief. If you’ve ever thought, “I’d love to massage my partner, but my hands hurt and I can’t do it for more than a few minutes,” or, “I want to give a good massage but I just don't know what I'm doing”, this is exactly the course you need to gain confidence in your ability to provide a great therapeutic massage. Join us live to have your specific massage questions addressed.
And if you’d like to learn a bunch more about managing your own pain – including both Eastern and Western approaches, psychological tools, special acupressure points, guided meditations, pain relieving herbs, and altogether the most comprehensive course in the world for getting out of pain (I made that up but it’s probably true!), check out Live Pain Free. We’ve gotten only rave reviews from users.
[post_title] => 5 Ways to Relieve Back Pain
[post_excerpt] =>
[post_status] => publish
[comment_status] => open
[ping_status] => open
[post_password] =>
[post_name] => 5-ways-to-relieve-back-pain
[to_ping] =>
[pinged] =>
[post_modified] => 2020-05-01 15:34:49
[post_modified_gmt] => 2020-05-01 15:34:49
[post_content_filtered] =>
[post_parent] => 0
[guid] => http://thedragontree.com/?p=7866
[menu_order] => 0
[post_type] => post
[post_mime_type] =>
[comment_count] => 0
[filter] => raw
[webinar_id] => 0
)
[comment_count] => 0
[current_comment] => -1
[found_posts] => 92
[max_num_pages] => 2
[max_num_comment_pages] => 0
[is_single] =>
[is_preview] =>
[is_page] =>
[is_archive] => 1
[is_date] =>
[is_year] =>
[is_month] =>
[is_day] =>
[is_time] =>
[is_author] =>
[is_category] => 1
[is_tag] =>
[is_tax] =>
[is_search] =>
[is_feed] =>
[is_comment_feed] =>
[is_trackback] =>
[is_home] =>
[is_privacy_policy] =>
[is_404] =>
[is_embed] =>
[is_paged] =>
[is_admin] =>
[is_attachment] =>
[is_singular] =>
[is_robots] =>
[is_favicon] =>
[is_posts_page] =>
[is_post_type_archive] =>
[query_vars_hash:WP_Query:private] => 8399d6f8f82d6cb575ce809c9c3485f7
[query_vars_changed:WP_Query:private] =>
[thumbnails_cached] =>
[allow_query_attachment_by_filename:protected] =>
[stopwords:WP_Query:private] =>
[compat_fields:WP_Query:private] => Array
(
[0] => query_vars_hash
[1] => query_vars_changed
)
[compat_methods:WP_Query:private] => Array
(
[0] => init_query_flags
[1] => parse_tax_query
)
)