Stress and spine, a surprising connection

Show me a person who has not felt stress in her or his life. More or less intense, it is one of the companions of our time. The TV, radio broadcast sad news to influence stressful reactions in the viewers and listeners. Wars, financial problems, pollution, food devoid of nutritional value lead to lower ability to cope with stress. And when that reaction happens, it is just a beginning. First and foremost, our internal organs are interlinked and respond to how we feel. For example, stress and spine influence each other. Subsequently, if you feel it, you may have difficulties sleeping and start experiencing pain in your lower back. Then, let’s look on human spine first.

Small daily mistakes that lead to big problems in the future

These things happen in our lives:

1. Sitting while working for hours and hours without standing up.
2. No movement
3. Incorrect positioning during sleep (read more about sleep in our lengthy article “Sleep tips“, where we even discuss longevity)
4. Poor diet (it is more important than we think. Poor diet is one of the root causes of depression for example, or other serious illnesses)
5. Hard physical work
6. Stress

Are you guilty of any of these?

They may lead to skeletal and spinal diseases, yes, even poor diet leads to them! Moreover, they mean pain and general lower quality of life. Lastly, how often do we think that sitting for several hours a day may be so dangerous for our not just daily lives, but for our entire future, that we may want to stand up and repeat doing it every hour or so?

Stress and spine connection

How often do we link stress with pain in the spine? To most of us, it is a huge surprise, that stress can impact the spine so strongly. The good thing is, that we can address each of the root causes of painful spines and change them before it is too late.

STRESS

Who would have thought, that stress means pain in your spain. Often we think that stress is just an emotional state that influences our mood, emotions and feelings, perhaps a stomach, right? There all kinds of stressful situations.

Well, its effect is far greater. One of the most dangerous consequences is what we mentioned above, how it affects the spine. The spine, is your life-line, each of its vertebra connects your vital internal organs with the brain. The brain sends a signal to an organ in your body. The signal travels fast along the spine and through a specific vertebra reaches your internal organs to deliver vital information. If the spine is damaged, the signal cannot reach the organs and as a consequence, it cannot heal, clean, nourish the body. An illness may start forming there.

The way stress affects your spine

Stress is powerful enough to effect the spine, and stop the life-strenghtening signals to reach the organs of your body. It tightens the muscle around the spine. And it is a huge problem, because it leads to an obstructed blood flow through tissues and gradual oxygen deficiency in a muscle, and the muscles surrounding your spine. Moreover, it results in pain. Let’s dive into human body, see how the spine looks and works to know what stress does to our life.

But first, let me point out something important:

“The spine is the tree of life. Respect it.”

Martha Graham

 

“You are only as young as your spine is flexible.”

Joseph Pilates

If your spine is hurting, your body is affected.

Harmony in your body is reflected by the state of joy, lack of pain. It is the muscles that keep your spine straight. Their correct tension ensures easy movement and stabilization of the body. Your spine depends on the muscles surrounding it. You can prevent many diseases by exercising your spine muscles.

Pain is your friend

Pain is a signal. Further, if your feel it in your spine, do not ignore it. Moreover, it means that the spine is affected by the challenges that should be dealt with by the muscles.

Finally, when you feel stressed for too long, inhibit emotional reactions, block feelings and desires, the tension in your muscles increases. It may even be unbalanced in the body, so for example the tension is localized in one part of the body, which leads to pain and incorrect posture. If stress we are experiencing last for too long and we cannot deal with it by ourselves, it might be great for you to consider psychotherapy.

To help your spine, include relaxation techniques in your daily activities.

Relaxation techniques:

Relaxation techniques lower the tension in your entire body, so in the muscles as well. That is why your spine might again rich its natural healthy curvature and health. First, it happens, because if you relax, your muscles lengthen, the blood supply to the tissues and cleansing of toxins improve. Moreover, they lead to reduced congestion, inflammation and edema. Next, our joints heal. Finally, the relaxation exercises are helpful for all kinds of joint and back, lower back pains, lumbago and sciatica.

There are several relaxation techniques, that help both the body and mind.

Discover different types of relaxation techniques

• Autogenic training: developed at the beginning of the XX century by a German physician Johannes Schultz. It is based on our ability to visualise the organic changes which might bring deep relaxation. It includes 6 standad exercises, requiring focusing attention on different parts of the body.
• Progressive training: developed at the begining of the XX century as well by a doctor Edmund Jacobson. It is based on direct experience of the phycisal states. A person conscously tightens trained muscles, and after a few seconds relaxes them, experiencing deep relax.
• Meditation: studied for decades, it brings all kinds of sensations to the body and mind that lead to the deep states of relaxation. I especially suggest the Silva Method meditation, as it helps a person reach the alpha states of the mind, which allow us to reprogram the mind, calm down, change the unwanted habits, addictions, open for love, remove fears and more. Thrugh it we can help our bodies heal as well. I do the Silva Method meditation every day.
• Yoga: There are all kinds of yoga systems, like the Bikram yoga, Hatha, Kundalini, Ashtanga yoga and more. They help you stretch the body and relax it through the muscles and breath as well. It is a miracle technique.

Daily activity is a miracle drug

I will dive into each of the relaxation techniques in my next posts. What I can say, is that they truly bring results. I know it from my own experience, as I had a back pain which was caused by my own actions. At the beginning of EcoHealthLab company, I was creating the products myself. Some of them like the organic buckwheat mattress, are heavy, and while lifting them I hurt my spine. Through yoga, the silva method meditation, relaxation, biorezonanse I was able to heal my spine completely.