The first thing you want to do when you are experiencing back pain is to soothe the pain. So most often than not, you resort to applying a manufactured over-the counter-prescribed cream to the affected area.
An Ayurvedic natural alternative remedy is to apply ginger paste and then eucalyptus oil locally. Arnica gel is also useful.
If you are into
Chinese medicine there are remedies like
Yao Tong Pian or
Shou Wu Zi that can help to strengthen your back. If you prefer
homeopathy, biochemic cell salts like
Mag. Phos. or
Calc. Flour. might be recommended, as Dr. Rudolph Ballentine points out.
Yoga (and Tai Chi) might help you considerably to prevent or to relieve back pain. If you are not into yoga, you can at least try -gently- an easy soothing position like “Knee to Chest” to relieve your back pain:
Just relax and breathe while you rest in this position. If you are into yoga, under the supervision of a trained instructor, you may consider these more advanced asanas (postures), which are appropriate for back pain: “Plough”, “Half Wheel” and “Backward Bend”. Ask your instructor about them and whether you are ready and flexible enough to try them.
Ayurveda
Pursuant to Ayurveda, back pain is an imbalance of the Vata dosha, as Dr. Vasant Lad explains. This is why Vata people (usually small-framed, nervous, imaginative, artistic, sensitive, creative) or people in the Vata age (the third age) are susceptible to symptoms like lower back pain, arthritis, intestinal gas, neuralgia, and sciatica. However, Pitta people (usually medium-framed, rational, sharp-minded, competitive people) or Kapha people (usually more heavily framed, caring, grounded, patient, compassionate people) may also experience Vata diseases when their Vata dosha suffers a significant derangement.
Watch your food
In order to balance your Vata dosha, Ayurveda provides many alternatives. One of them is to follow a specifically targeted diet to balance your deranged dosha (the diet is different depending on whether you need to balance Vata, Pitta or Kapha issues). In this case, to pacify Vata, Ayurveda recommends to eat heavy, warm, oily, moist foods; broths and hot drinks like ginger tea. Cheese is also good (warm, not cold) as long as you are not lactose intolerant. Spices, garlic and cooked spinach are also good. Conversely, it is advised to avoid dry foods and raw foods, cold foods such as salads and leafy vegetables, “airy” foods like yeasted bread, ice cream and any other cold or frozen food. Having regular meal times is important.
Energy Medicine
Pursuant to energy medicine, the kidney meridian or the large intestine meridian might be involved when you experience low back pain, as pointed out by Donna Eden. Ayurveda also teaches that Vata diseases have their origin in the large intestine (the main seat of Vata) and that feelings of fear can derange your Vata dosha. In our modern medicine, Dr. John Diamond has also discovered through applied Kinesiology that emotions of feeling extremely guilty about something may result in an imbalance of the large intestine meridian. He also discovered that the positive affirmations that restore energetic balance to the large intestine meridian are based on repeating to yourself that you are basically clean and good and that you are worthy of being loved.
Acupuncture and Acupressure
Considering the above, acupuncture and acupressure (i.e. pressing the acupuncture points with your fingers) may provide relief to back ache if you strategically press the kidney sedating points and the large intestine sedating points.
These are the Kidney sedating points:
And these are the Large Intestine sedating points:
Music Therapy: Listen to the appropriate music and heal
Music compositions that have in them the feeling of improvisation are beneficial to the skeletal system, as Ted Andrews has pointed out. Therefore, if you love classical music, impromptus (short compositions for the piano) by Beethoven, Mozart and Chopin might help you. If you are not into classical music, Gershwin’s music might be your choice for this. Jazz (including swing, boogie-woogie, blues, rag time, etc.) is one of the most therapeutic genres of music for the skeletal system. So you might find that the songs of traditional jazz artists (Louis Armstrong, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, etc.) are beneficial not only for issues associated with back pain, but with skeletal problems in general.
If you like, you can also listen, download, enjoy ad heal with some of my “jazzy” compositions:
Trust
Cheerfulness
Dancing Elephant
Playful Bear
In music therapy, it is advised that you visualize the music surrounding you and flowing into you. The use of headphones is highly recommended for optimal results.
Emotional, mental and spiritual relief
As Louise Hay explains, your back represents the support you feel in your life. Problems in the upper back may appear when you are feeling a lack of emotional support. So your homework is to shift your thoughts to loving and approving yourself and to thinking and feeling that life supports you and loves you. If you are new to practicing positive mental affirmations to change your attitude and feelings and therefore your reality, consider that, as Dr. Wayne Dyer says, “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change”.
Problems in your lower back represent financial fears, perceptions or feelings of lack of financial support. Your homework here is to shift your thoughts and emotions to trusting the process of life.
Problems in the middle of your back may appear when there are some feelings of guiltiness or when you are stuck with issues of your past. So your homework is to change your thoughts and feelings by letting go of your past and by feeling that you are free to move forward with love in your heart.
Working with those issues at deep level might at first appear difficult if you are not into psychology, meditation and inner child work. But intention and persistence are the keys to succeed. While doing so, music can make the task much easier and more pleasurable for you.
