Mind Over Back Pain

Do you believe in the powers of the human mind, and the mind-body connection? If so, you may find success in using your mind over back pain.

Take it from someone who knows - many a night I've used my thoughts to calm pain that might otherwise have kept me awake for hours.

For centuries, understanding how the mind works has been a fascination to mankind.

Dating as far back as 1500 BCE to 3000 BCE, it is believed that people began practicing yoga, with relaxation of the mind AND the body as one of its main disciplines.

And today, not only do we still practice yoga for the same purposes as we did centuries ago, but researchers remain fascinated with mind-body connections and continue to make new discoveries as to their health benefits.

Massage therapy has made its way into the mainstream health care environment, with hope that a patient may heal more quickly from the calming effects of a human's touch.

Pilates has joined yoga as another form of creating harmony between the mind and body.

Meditation is practiced by many people who believe in its power to overcome negative thoughts, thus reducing stress, and emotional and physical pain.

With each new discovery the more likely we will be to find other ways to use our mind over back pain.

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Healing Back Pain with the Mind

How does all of this work?

I don't know if anyone really knows the full answer...

But, John Sarno, M.D. certainly has some interesting insight. Dr. Sarno has authored Mind Over Back Pain, and a later book called Healing Back Pain, which further clarifies his earlier writings.

In his books, he discusses Tension Myositis Syndrome, which he believes is the major cause of the common syndromes of pain involving the neck, shoulders, back, buttocks and limbs.

What is TMS?

To attempt to explain Dr. Sarno's beliefs would not do them, or him, justice. However, in his Introduction to Healing Back Pain, Dr. Sarno writes about back pain and TMS...

"The disorder is a benign (though painful) physiologic aberration of soft tissue (not the spine), and it is caused by an emotional process."   John E. Sarno, M.D.

Do you have back pain from an injury suffered years ago? And, are wondering about the logic of placing emphasis on an emotional process as the cause for pain, as Dr. Sarno does?

Those were my thoughts before reading his books. However, after having done so, I think that even a skeptic will find something of value that relates to their own situation.

Overcoming Back Pain with Imagery

In another book, The Back Pain Book, author Mike Hage takes a much different approach to back pain. But there, amongst his discussions of hundreds of self-care suggestions for relieving pain, is a reference to mind over back pain, through breathing and imagery.

In one example, one of my favorites, Mike Hage suggests that you...

...imagine your body, or a specific area of pain, is made up of a tightly woven fabric and that it's the tight weaves that are pinching your "pain wires". As you breathe deep breathes, visualize the weaves spreading out. With each continued breathe the weave releases further, thus freeing the pinched pain wires.

There are many visualizations that can be used to experience mind over back pain.

• Imagine yourself on a warm beach with waves crashing in. Inhale, with each incoming wave. As the waves recede, exhale, letting your pain out. Breathe deeply and slowly, allowing more and more pain to be washed out to sea with each breathe.


• Imagine yourself drifting on a cloud and with each breathe you become lighter and the cloud lifts higher into the sunlight sky.


• Imagine yourself in a clear, air-filled cube where nothing from the outside world is allowed in, including pain or negative thoughts. This is your place of comfort and peace.


• Create your own mind of back pain imagery through the use of favorite places or pastimes and temporarily placing yourself in that environment.