How I solved a 9-month back ache

Okay, so let me preface this by saying that I am a chiropractor, and so I should know a lot about back pain, and more importantly, what causes it and how to fix it.

About a year ago, I found myself with low back pain, primarily on the right side, that caused significant discomfort.  It seems that I get low back pain every few years, and usually it sticks around for a while — maybe a week or so because of something silly I did physically, but then it goes away after a few weeks.  It’s one of those things I deal with in the way that I was taught — using ice and moist heat, manipulation, stretching — you know — the whole nine yards.

This time it was different.  I couldn’t even think of anything that I did that would have been the start of my back pain.  What’s more is that I tried everything — I mean everything I could think of — to get rid of the pain, and nothing worked…Nothing.  The pain stayed.

I couldn’t sit for long periods of time, but then I couldn’t stand for long either.  It affected every moment of every day, and pretty much every movement of every day.  “Hey, I should know how to fix this…” I thought, but to no avail…

One month became two — two became four — and four became eight…I knew it wasn’t anything “serious” based on the nature of the pain and the aggravators of the pain.  It was just there and it didn’t go away.  It didn’t get  worse, but it certainly wasn’t any better.

I like to read, and one of the books that caught my attention last fall was the book, “The Power of Eye Contact” by Michael Ellsberg.  What I expected in reading the book was to learn how eye contact can impact a person’s life — what I didn’t expect was to find a cure for my back pain — however, it happened!

Ellsberg wrote about meditation, of all things, in his book (yes he did talk about eye contact too).  He had some recommendations and strategies for meditating, and I thought “what the heck — I’ll just give it a shot.”  I was at the time also having issues with elevated blood pressure, but I knew that it was a result of the tremendous amount of pressure and stress I was putting on myself at the time.  I figured that doing some relaxing meditation certainly wouldn’t hurt when it came to reducing stress and pressure.

I got ready for bed, and put some relaxing music on using the Pandora app on my iPad.  I put in my headphones, and just lay there, with my eyes closed, breathing deeply while focused on a single spot that I imagined to be right in front of me.  I just kept telling myself that I was going to “simply be present,” in that I would let thoughts enter my mind, but I would just view them as objects, and not form any judgements about the thoughts as they passed through.  I took it a step further, and started to search for how those thoughts physically felt and manifested themselves in my body.

So here I was, nine months into some nasty back pain, meditating at night in my bed, when something remarkable happened…

I felt my body physically moving at the waist.  I thought that my wife Shelly was pushing me, until I realized that one of the deep gluteal muscles on my right side was pulsating — or twitching — so slowly and so strongly that it was actually moving my body.  I felt a good eight to ten strong pulsations, weakening in intensity and increasing in frequency as they progressed, until they tapered off…And then all was still…

I couldn’t believe it!  My body actually moved — I don’t remember what I was thinking about, but something was obviously physically manifesting itself as the tension in my low back that was causing my back pain for nine months.  Immediately, the pain was reduced to the point where I could scarcely feel anything…

The next day, the pain was decreased by ninety percent, and two days after the “event,” I was pain free, and have been ever since!

I can’t believe how profound the experience was, and when I try to explain it to others, it doesn’t even sound believable, but it’s true…It worked.

Now, I make it a point to meditate regularly, just to help maintain mindfulness of the relationship between my thoughts and my body, and to help me decrease stress and tension.

If you are looking for ways to decrease stress or just get a grasp on your life when it seems that things are getting out of hand, I highly recommend looking into meditation as a way to help yourself.  I can’t begin to count the number of resources out there, from books to websites to articles to blogs…There is no shortage of help!

I never in a million years would have believed the power of meditation until I personally experienced just how profoundly effective it can be.   Give it a try!

“Meditation brings wisdom; lack of mediation leaves ignorance. Know well what leads you forward and what hold you back, and choose the path that leads to wisdom.” ~Buddha

Thanks for listening to my story, and thanks for just stopping by!  I really do appreciate it!

Have a great week!

-Victor