{"id":226,"date":"2014-07-18T09:18:40","date_gmt":"2014-07-18T09:18:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kirstenharris.co.uk\/thedailyease\/?p=226"},"modified":"2014-07-18T09:23:35","modified_gmt":"2014-07-18T09:23:35","slug":"the-zen-of-back-pain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ifwisheswerehorses.co.uk\/thedailyease\/?p=226","title":{"rendered":"The Zen of Back Pain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>That nagging unbearable back pain\u00a0could well be\u00a0your bodies way of saying &#8216;Oy boss, over here, pay me some attention! I need some space!&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>What do we often do instead? We\u00a0numb the pain out and forget to listen to it?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>So here are a few personal tips for finding the space between the pain which is ultimately your way out! I will \u00a0call it the Zen of Back Pain, as it is all about easing into\u00a0space mentally\u00a0 and physically.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Hang out in the pain! Let yourself explore it, physically and mentally! What are it&#8217;s boundaries, where is there no pain? \u00a0This is your call to stop! To change some aspect of your life for the better! Can you hear it?<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Do less! You have to\u00a0ease up\u00a0and get out of your own way. Stopping begins with the intention, yet it might be like mentally\u00a0fighting your way through a thorny forest or \u00a0tangled thicket, until you come to a clearing where you can pause, stop and\u00a0get out of your own way! Let yourself explore what stopping means to you! Do you feel you don&#8217;t have time to stop? Do you feel too pressured to take life a little easier. Where is the hurry up, try harder, \u00a0the tension coming from in your life, in your thinking?<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Learn\u00a0to learn \u00a0from the pain. It is such a great way of coming back to yourself in terms of how you move and how you think. Bear with it, it may well take time, days or weeks to find your way out of the\u00a0tangle of\u00a0\u00a0muscle tension will release into space! Trust your spatial awareness, trust gravity, trust your spatial thinking, trust gravity a little more!<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Breathe into the pain. Find space with your breath. Massage and ease your back with your thinking! Very Zen this!<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; If you like to swim, then float your bones apart,\u00a0 you can hang on one of those floaty noodle things to do this and let the weightlessness of the water ease you apart to lengthen and release the tightened muscle.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Lie in semi supine often. Even if it is only for a few minutes. Sometimes when we are stressed or in pain, it can be a mental effort to put ourselves in\u00a0 this amazing position of mechanical advantage even though we know it is the best thing for us. So can you start adding little bits of Zen space for yourself between your activity?<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Ask yourself, what does it mean to take care of myself? It could be that you need to drink more water, to rehydrate yourself. It might mean that you need to carve out a bit more personal space in your living environment. It might me that you need to give some of your relationships some space&#8230;. Ease and Space &#8211; what\u00a0 do these words mean to you?<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Lastly, our bodies and our minds need space to live comfortably and easily. Spaced out bones, spaced out thinking, spaced out thinking, spaced out bones!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes we need help&#8230;. I highly recommend finding an Alexander Technique teacher in your area!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>That nagging unbearable back pain\u00a0could well be\u00a0your bodies way of saying &#8216;Oy boss, over here, pay me some attention! I need some space!&#8217; What do we often do instead? We\u00a0numb the pain out and forget to listen to it? &nbsp; &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ifwisheswerehorses.co.uk\/thedailyease\/?p=226\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ifwisheswerehorses.co.uk\/thedailyease\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ifwisheswerehorses.co.uk\/thedailyease\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ifwisheswerehorses.co.uk\/thedailyease\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ifwisheswerehorses.co.uk\/thedailyease\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ifwisheswerehorses.co.uk\/thedailyease\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=226"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ifwisheswerehorses.co.uk\/thedailyease\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":228,"href":"https:\/\/www.ifwisheswerehorses.co.uk\/thedailyease\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226\/revisions\/228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ifwisheswerehorses.co.uk\/thedailyease\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ifwisheswerehorses.co.uk\/thedailyease\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ifwisheswerehorses.co.uk\/thedailyease\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}