Practicing yoga for back pain
By Torrel Butler
If practicing yoga for back pain doesn't rid you of the pain, it will certainly help to reduce its intensity and frequency. Among the few options available for back pain sufferers is physical therapy. Yoga, although not primarily a therapy, is often offered as a part of the therapy regimen and has proven effective in helping a person master, if not completely alleviate, the pain. Practicing yoga for back pain may be just what you need.
Developed in the context of Hinduism, yoga was originally practiced with the goal of uniting the body and mind. In the Hindu tradition, the soul is an invisible system of power centers located along the spine, with branches leading from these to other parts of the body and a main line, connecting each power center to the one above and below it. The system carries a spiritual energy that is inhaled. In theory, practicing yoga for back pain fills your body with this healing and vital force.
In yoga, you're not only breathing in oxygen, but a spiritual energy that surrounds you. This is life energy. In a yoga breathing exercise, you breathe from your belly, tightening your sphincter muscles with each inhalation. The energy gathers in the 'power center', located about two inches below your navel. You hold the breath for a few seconds, and when you exhale, you loosen your sphincter muscle and let the your whole body exhale the wasted and noxious energy that may be the cause of your pain.
The life energy that you gather in your belly is stored there, and it flows up and down to other power centers, located at points along your spine. You have six power centers in the body and one outside, above the skull. Two power centers are located below the belly power center, called the 'burner', in the Zen tradition, one at the base of the spine and the other in the pubic area. Above the burner are three other power centers, the heart and the throat power centers, and the spiritually-charged power center, between the eyes. Each power center absorbs life energy, but power also flows from center to center through the channels that connect these.
As you breathe, you will the power that has gathered in the burner to move from power center to power center, allowing the life force to energize one center after another. If you're practicing yoga for back pain, you'll begin to notice warmth, radiating from an energized power center and then spreading into the painful area. By infusing your body with life force and concentrating it mentally in the area of the pain, you're bathing that part of your body with healing energy.
Yoga practice aims to foster the free flow of life energy among these centers and, through their branches, to the rest of the body. Yoga postures enable this. They are somewhat unnatural postures that tend to stretch the muscles and loosen them. Although some positions may be stressful, the stress will strengthen the muscles. This is one of the results you want when practicing yoga for back pain.
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You can begin practicing yoga for back pain right now. Go to some web sites on yoga and learn how you can use yoga to increase your vitality and health. Through yoga, you may be able to master that back pain yet.
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I wish you all the best on your yoga adventure!
To your health,
Thomas T :)
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