Is Your Back Pain Emotional?

Sometimes clients come to see me for back pain and we work together for a course of treatment and we get to a point where they just don't get any better. They still have this nagging pain that's uncomfortable and frustrating.

What makes it worse is that they read all my reviews and hear stories of miracles happening on my treatment table. Clients/patients coming in with chronic pain and then healing within just a few sessions. People trying many modalities and practitioners to no avail and then they come into my office for a session and their pain is lifted.

For those clients who didn't get any results from our work together, what could be the cause of their pain/discomfort and why is it not responding to the 'physical' and 'energetic' work that we did in session?

Could it be a mental or emotional issue or blockage?

Or possibly some sort of suppressed anger that they are holding onto?

I once read somewhere that anger, sadness, and other negative emotions stem from fear.  Fear is extremely powerful and can debilitate us. Fear of speaking our minds. Fear of being our authentic selves. Fear of not being liked if we do say what we mean to say. Fear of hurting others. Fear of expressing our deepest self. 

So what happens when we aren't able to express ourselves fully?

What happens physically to us? Intuitively, I see this as some sort of blockage. An energetic blockage that has physical ramifications. Lack of flow of energy through our body. The same type of energy that acupuncturists address. Call it 'Chi', 'life-force', 'Prana' or whatever you want. I feel as though withholding our emotions holds back the fluids from flowing freely in our body and it limits the body to heal itself. 

It's sort of like crying. Did it ever occur to you that crying is an emotional release that is just as important as letting out a sneeze or cough? It cleanses us. Clears out our emotions and releases tension in our entire body. It can and often softens the space around our eyes and temples, reduces pressure around that region, reduces headaches and creates an ease within our entire being. Did you ever pay attention to what happens right after a baby cries? It becomes calm and it may even fall asleep. This is a biological release. Similar to an orgasm. It's a healthy and restorative natural part of being a human. A physiological response that I consider a part of being-well.

So let's get back to your back pain...   What's possible if you stopped thinking only in terms of your 'physical' body and started to have a look deep inside your mental, emotional and spiritual self?

Yes, I said it. Spiritual. At the risk of losing many of you by using this term, I'm going to say it. But the way I speak of spirit in this instance is this:

Are you in alignment with your spirit at this present moment in your life?

Are you true to your 'self'?

In conclusion, we can't just focus on healing the 'physical' dimension of our 'self', for true and lasting healing, it would tremendously serve us to look at the mental, emotional, energetic and spiritual planes of our existence. 

“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.”

— Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

I don't know. And that's okay.

Have you ever been asked a question about a topic you know a lot about but you didn't know the answer?  How does that make you feel?

Often, when a student/client asks me a question and I'm unsure what the answer is, I get this feeling that perhaps I should know the answer.

Almost as if not knowing the answer makes me less smart than I am.  Like when I was in elementary school and the teacher called out on me and asked me a question about the study material and I would make something up and she would angrily yell: "Incorrect!"

I'll never forget that one day when I was in an Ortho-Bionomy seminar and one of my teachers was asked a question and he responded with the words: "I don't know."

It surprised me that his facial expression was left unchanged while he said this. I think this is because he was just fine not knowing the answer.  Also, keep in mind that the question was not one that he needed to know in order for us to get what he was teaching at that moment.  

I then realized that there's something so liberating about no knowing everything.

I mean really, how could we know it all?  

This reminds me of the Zen Buddhism concept of "Shoshin" or "beginners mind."

According to Wikipedia, Shoshin "refers to having an attitude of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when studying a subject, even when studying at an advanced level, just as a beginner in that subject would."

Isn't this such a supreme way of being? Doesn't this just further open us up to the limitlessness of our education?

Also, it can get annoying to be around someone who is a "know-it-all." 

When it comes to anatomy, healing, and the health of the bodymind, there's just so much to learn and so much we still don't know.

It's not possible for me or anyone else to know it all, and I have to admit that I used to forget that.

No matter how many books, articles, and journals I read. No matter how many audios, videos and podcasts I listen to or how many seminars, workshops and classes I attend, I'll never everything there is to know about the topics I study.  While I do consider myself an expert when it comes to soft tissue health in comparison to the everyday person, when I compare myself to some of my peers and mentors, I consider myself just average. I simply still have so much more to learn. I love it when I spend time with other expert practitioners and I'm humbled by their intelligence, knowledge and experience. It's such a good reminder that I should spend even more time learning and that I still don't know sh*t! 

And that's just okay. In fact, it's not entirely accurate. I do know a lot, but it's not even close to what I'd like to know and I'm never going to stop learning.

Heck, in my opinion, the day you stop learning should be the day you die.

Unfortunately, the problem with most healthcare practitioners is that they finish school and they cease learning. They complete their education and then they lose themselves in their work, making money and paying the bills. They get into the habit of what they do and don't make the time to continue their studies.

I get it, and I don't judge them. But it's not the way I choose to practice my skill and live my life.

I think it has a lot to do with the fact that when you're passionate about something, spending time learning it is not a task but instead it's fun and extremely rewarding.

What's possible if we would all embrace this concept of the the beginners mind and be okay with not knowing everything?

Movement VS Fitness

Recently, during a visit to Israel for a cousin’s wedding, I visited the Ido Portal Method Israel movement clinic/gym.

Just past the entrance where the logo of the monkey hangs on the wall, the following quote was painted on the white wall:

“Move. Find little excuses to do so. Play games with yourself.

Squat to wait for someone instead of sitting.

Climb the stairs two by two and don’t take the elevator.

See that bus you’re about to miss? Sprint to it.

Even if you know you are going to miss it…

Stretch – all the time. Like a cat does.

Carry some 8 packs of 1.5 liter water bottles back to your place.

Hold your breath under water in your hot tub and time yourself.

Hang from stuff that you can hang from – wherever that is.

If you can – pull up or brachiate.

Got a pet? Got the the park. MOVE. Got a partner?

Loved one? Child? MOVE!

Because you can. If you won’t – tomorrow you might not be able to. MOVE.”

-       Ido Portal.

Ido is a guy from my native country of Israel with a background in traditional martial arts, strength training and capoeira, who is literally revolutionizing the way we think about fitness.

For the past several years, I’ve been practicing his movement techniques by just watching his YouTube videos and ‘attempting’ to perform his specific set of movements which not only challenge your strength and flexibility, but also balance, stability, agility and endurance. The interesting thing about working out is that I’ve always felt that I was missing something when I was following all the traditional and contemporary fitness programs. I couldn’t connect to any of the programs and I also found that while I took many different movement classes such as dance, yoga, and various forms of martial arts such as capoeira and tae kwon doe, I would start each practice or take a class and then just move on to the next thing that interested me. Never being able to stick to any one movement practice because intuitively, it just felt as though something was missing.

Each practice on it’s own was great, but still limited. I wanted to move in other ways as well and no one practice was enough for me to feel whole when it comes to challenging my body and allowing me to move in the ways that I’d like to move.

Then I ended up seeing a video of Ido Portal some years ago online and it was like a breath of fresh air. Finally, someone understood me and shared my same philosophies about movement and fitness.

So you can imagine how psyched I was to finally visit one of his very few movement gyms in the world.

My experience was just as expected; super interesting, challenging, fun, exciting, and simply humbling.  Just when you thought you could move well enough, you realize that you can move even better. What do I mean by move better? I speak about moving with more grace, flow and mindfulness. More precision. Connecting various movements together. Remembering that movement is an art form.

Yes, but what about strength? Ido reminds us that we’re really not strong at all. Lifting a heavy barbell in one plane of movement does NOT mean that you’re strong, it just means that you’re strong in that one plane of movement. But what about all the other planes/directions?

If you’re into fitness, you probably have big muscles but you’re immobile and inflexible. And if you’re a yogi than you most probably lack some strength and are hypermobile and flexible. The question is, how can we find a balance? Ido’s “movement culture” as us students or movers call it, is as balanced as it gets.

How can you move more?

And if you’re already moving, how can you move better?

Ortho-Bionomy - Magic, Science, or Both.

I can't tell you how many people tell me that Ortho-Bionomy is like magic.

(Ortho-what?  Ortho-Bionomy, the healing modality that I use in my KRT (Kinetic Release Therapy) sessions..)

So I've had people call me a magician, wizard, and even guy who does "that voodoo magic stuff."

It's usually after they have one of their contractions disappear in seconds and they simply have no idea how I made that happen.

Well, I guess I could see that it feels like magic, especially since I don't have to "dig" into people's bodies to release the tension as they are used to in acupressure, trigger point and other deep tissue therapies. (yes, really....)

It also feels like magic because not only does it happen so fast and WITHOUT PAIN, but it also happens in a subtle way and people who are not tuned into their body don't even feel it happen as the tissue releases. They just know that when I pressed into their body at first on a certain spot it hurt, but then after about 5-15 seconds, I press on the same spot again and the person is simply amazed at the fact the there's not more pain but also the tissue has "juicified" and softened. 

The thing is, it's NOT magic. It's science. 

That's right, it's entirely based in science and it was developed by British-trained Osteopath by the name of Arthur Pauls. Arthur had a deep understanding of the body and it's functions and he discovered that we could work with the body's self-corrective mechanisms to provide it with release and re-organization. 

According to the British School of Osteopathy, "Osteopathy is a primary health care system, complementary to other medical practices. It is suitable for almost anyone and can contribute to the treatment and management of a wide range of conditions. Osteopaths primarily work through the neuro-musculo-skeletal system, mostly on muscles and joints, using holistic and patient-centred approaches.

A core principle behind osteopathy is the idea that the body is an integrated and indivisible whole, and contains self-healing mechanisms that can be utilised as part of the treatment. No part of the body works, or can be considered, in isolation."

So where does the magic come in? Hold on, I'll get to that in a second.

Dr. Pauls - the genius who discovered Ortho-Bionomy - defined the term then as "the correct appplication of the laws of life."  
Ortho = Correct, Bio = Life, Nomy = A system of laws about a body of a particular field.
And this method simply works "with" the human body and it's natural processes which include it's natural corrective reflexes. And in my opinion, our body IS MAGICAL! 

So it's not the method itself that's magic, it's that that this method taps us into the magic spontaneous healing powers of our body!  Yes, our body CAN heal ITSELF in many cases immediately.

The more we learn about anatomy and physiology, the more we become astonished at just how magical we are and how brilliant our creator must have been. Each and every time I study anatomy on a deep level, it's almost as though it's religious experience.

So before I end this blog post, I will leave you with this:

The next time someone asks you what I do, instead of telling them that I'm a magician, you can tell them what I really do - He's an osteopathic manual therapist who treats people with science-based body therapy.  :-)

Ortho-Bionomy and Yoga

I've been thinking a lot lately about how Ortho-Bionomy goes great with yoga. 

Several forms of yoga, a discipline with over 5000 years of history, include the physical practice of positioning the body to enhance function and release tension. These positions put certain parts of the body under stretch while other parts are placed in a position of relaxation. 

At first, you wouldn't think that this is similar to Ortho-Bionomy, but it is. 

Probably because Ortho-Bionomy releases are based on the principle of exaggerating a position of ease while yoga asanas (poses) aren't always positions that are easy. In fact, many asanas are quite challenging to us at first, especially because of the sedentary life that we're living these days.

Also, Ortho-Bionomy usually consists of shortening or "slackening" tissues which can be summed up to be like speaking to the body in a language of likes, while yoga poses often require us to lengthen or stretch our tissues, which is a language of opposites.

However, I bet you didn't realize that often during yoga, when you're stretching one region of your body, you're also slackening another. As is in the case of the Bow pose where we're stretching and opening up the front line of our body while simultaneously slackening our posterior chain. 

How about the Plough pose? Your neck is fully flexed and slackened in the front of the body while being stretched in the back. Same goes for your abdomen and all those tissues.

Bow Pose - Dhanurasana

Plough Pose - Halasana

The thing is, what we must consider is that in order to get a complete release to a region such as we do in positional release therapy and Ortho-Bionomy, we must hold that position for a total of 3-30 seconds, depending on the persons nervous system. 

So think about what's possible if we hold certain yoga poses and use yoga as a way to release our contractions, rather than just taking a Vinyasa/Power yoga class and using it as a workout.

What other yoga poses do you consider to be positional releases?