Back Pain

Nah, not that I can do pasasana above. I just need a photo of a back for visual effects and found this impressive photo of Jon. 

Been experiencing back pain since two weeks ago when I arrived in Baguio. I thought it was just due to the long land travel without the benefit of going to the john plus dehydration because I knew I wouldn’t be going to the john in hours. 

Came back home but the pain was still on and off. Then I thought it could be the mattress…so I went to sleeping on a wooden bed to give my back a good stretch a la savasana. Didn’t work. Still there.

Pain has been particularly excruciating after spending hours on computer. So I started blaming my chair, the table, even my computer…but hey, I have been working with these things for years already. Couldn’t be the culprit.

Last night during practice, it took me a while to get into plough (photo still courtesy of Jon) in preparation for chakrasana. Waaaah! My back seemed to break!  

Today, pain is still there and it’s not the morning-after-yoga kind. So I searched for the psychological meaning of back pain, which ranges from the feeling of being not supported, to the experience of major changes in life, to denied depression.

Hmmm, let’s see. All I can do now is to wait for the my truth, and feelings, to reveal itself. Body dialogue isn’t working, at least not yet. My body is giving me a silent treatment, so to speak, he he.

For all I know, this could be due to lack of practice–I’m now down to twice a week, trying to get back to at least four times.

Oh well, the journey continues….

The Gift of Pain

The gift of what? Have I turned masochistic? Nope, I have just adopted a new way of looking at pain.

I was suspended from yoga for a week because of the on-and-off pain on my right leg. During this time, I realized that my pain was more psychological than physiological. Exactly the same thing my acupuncturist Dr. Eddie told me months ago about my “reddish tongue”. This realization led to reflect and read again Philip Yancey’s Where Is God When It Hurts.

Yancey said that the typical American response to pain is to take an aspirin at the slightest ache and silence the pain. People dare not shut off the warning system without first listening to the warning. (34)

He cited the case of Bob Gross, an NBA player who wanted to play despite a badly injured ankle. Knowing that Gross was needed for the important game, the team doctor injected Marcaine, a strong painkiller, into three different places of his foot. Gross did start the game but after a few minutes, as he was battling for a rebound, a snap was heard that was loud enough to fill the whole arena. Although he felt no pain, a bone had broken in his ankle and ended Gross’s career. (34)

Yancey furthered that pain should be viewed as a communication network, a remarkable network of sensors that stand guard duty with the singular purpose of keeping us from injury. It cannot be switched off. It can rage out of control as in the case of a terminal cancer patient, that even though its warning has been heard, there is no more that can be done to treat the cause of the pain. But 99 percent of all the pains that people suffer are short-term pains: correctable situations that call for medication, rest, or a change in lifestyle. Pain demands the attention that is crucial to one’s recovery. It is a signal alerting one to attend to a matter that needs change. (34-35,56)

Change.

Sigh.