I was thinking the other day, after I’d done some far too vigorous hoovering, “Why do so many of us get chronic back pain?” In my case I have an underlying health condition (and I fell off a cliff some years ago – oops) which might explain it.
But you know what else I’ve discovered?
Our brains can regulate our pain!
The more I focus on reducing stress in my life and balancing my emotions the less pain I feel…
A couple of years ago during a hugely emotional season all I did was pick up a tiny rock off the ground and my back went. The next month was full of specific exercises and gradually building my pilates up to get physically back to normal. But I also dealt with some huge emotions and my back was fine for over a year.
Last autumn my emotions went completely out of whack again due to hormones and it felt like I couldn’t cope with anything. All it took for my back to go that time was sitting in a cold car for too long with tense muscles! But since finding the right HRT for me I’ve had no back trouble at all.
You may be thinking it’s all in my head. But actually, there’s scientific evidence too. This article from Harvard Medical School explains some of the psychology behind the pain.
Now please note, I’m not saying that every back problem can be completely cured by reducing stress in our lives. There are things that need proper medical intervention (like when my friend fractured a couple of his vertebrae). What I am saying is that by becoming less emotionally overwhelmed I believe we can reduce healing times for injuries. And minimise back pain whatever the cause.
Still pretty amazing!
Evidence for a Creator do you think?
While many would say chronic back pain is the price we have to pay for evolving into bipedal creatures (i.e. going from four-legged walking to walking on two legs), I don’t agree. If much of our back pain is ‘curable’ by dealing with underlying stress and regulating our emotions, surely we can learn to be free of it?
We live in a fallen world that’s very stressful to live in at times, and this impacts our emotions. But God can heal by helping us deal with the damage. And then… no pain!
We were originally created good as bipedal humans (Gen 1: 26-31). So walking upright on two legs can’t be the cause of chronic back pain – because back pain is bad.
Just my thoughts. What are yours?