7 Easy
Steps to Finally Get Rid of Lower Back Pain (and an experiment to prove it ......)
Lower back
pain is the single most common chronic pain, experienced by 60-80% of the
population at some time in their lives.
Even though many people can achieve healing through good physiotherapy
or other treatment programs, roughly 20% of lower back pain sufferers never get
relief.
These are
the people who will almost certainly be helped by this article.
IS YOUR
LOWER BACK PAIN ACTUALLY CHRONIC PAIN?
When back pain
continues over a long period, despite treatment, we can usually attribute that
to a peculiar type of pain called chronic pain.
Chronic back pain isn’t actually related to any injury or deterioration
of the spine, muscles or nerves. We know
this because studies show that there is no relationship between damage and
pain.
If you were
presented with a number of spine x-rays for example, and you were asked to
guess which people had the most pain, you’d be wrong in most cases because
people with no damage can have extreme pain, and people with a lot of damage
might be completely unaware that there is anything wrong.
Chronic
pain is not actually generated by the body, it is generated in the brain in
response to normal signalling, and the proof of this lies in fMRI, or
functional magnetic resonance imaging, which shows maps of the working
brain. Brain maps of chronic pain look
just like brain maps of intense emotion.
This is very, very different to the brain maps of acute pain!
So this is
why, if you’ve had your back pain for a long time, despite trying many
treatments, you are most likely to have chronic pain, and this article is most
likely to help you.
7 STEPS TO
ELIMINATE CHRONIC PAIN
Step
1: Eliminating Stress. If you have chronic pain, your nervous system
is behaving a lot like a faulty car alarm that is going off for no good reason. The more stressed you are, the more your pain
signalling will behave in this way. If
your nerves are jangling, your pain will be worse. So you need to make a decision to deal with
the stress in your life, today.
Step 2:
Emotional Reactions. Do you have strong
emotional reactions to things? This
doesn’t help chronic pain because it heightens the reactivity of your nervous
system. You might be surprised to learn
that there are actually ways to switch off unwanted emotional reactions so that
you feel calm and can think more clearly, even in a crisis.
Step
3: Being Sociable. I know it can be difficult to mix with people
when you’re in pain, but social withdrawal or isolation is not only incredibly
damaging to your general health and wellbeing, but it enhances your pain
reactions as well. It’s necessary to
make an effort to mix with people in a way that has nothing to do with your
pain, so that you can at least for a short time put your focus somewhere else,
and get all the benefits that “social engagement” offers.
Step
4: Being Active. People who don’t get enough physical activity
have death rates higher than the combined rates of smoking, drinking, and
unsafe sex! That’s how important
physical activity is. Physical activity
increases your metabolic rate and gives you energy, boosts your immune system
and supports good health, and keeps your muscles strong so that they support
your bones and joints properly. There’s
always a way to increase activity, no matter how disabling your pain is, and no
matter your movement constraints.
Step 5:
Have an Interest or Hobby. When we’ve
got nothing to think about except our pain, our pain gets worse. It’s as if the nervous system picks up on all
the attention it’s getting and delivers more!
The more you can get your focus absorbed in something else, the more you
can help to trick your nervous system into shutting down the pain signalling.
Step 6:
Check Co-Dependency. You might be
surprised to learn that pain depends on environmental factors, and that if your
brain thinks that the pain is useful in your circumstances, it may well try to
keep it going! Pain is a survival response after all! Is your pain serving any
useful purpose (no matter how twisted) in your family life? Maybe not, but it’s definitely worth checking
out!
Step
7: Use BMSA (Brief, Multi-Sensory
Activation). BMSA is designed to
re-train your nervous system so that it stops producing chronic pain
signals. Most people get relief
immediately, and over 50% of people can eliminate their pain totally. Another 30-40% can reduce their pain
dramatically, all through using BMSA.
AN EXPERIMENT
WITH BMSA
So you can
see how BMSA works, we’ve designed a little experiment that works for most
people. It’s a little crazy-looking at
first glance, but don’t let that fool you.
BMSA has been tested in clinical trials and has a very sound scientific
theory behind it!
Take a
moment to think about your pain, and make up a sentence that exactly describes
the pain in your own words. This might
be something like:
I have this
burning pain in the middle of my lower back but a bit to the left
I have this
stabbing pain just above my tailbone
I have this
deep ache near my left hip
Etc, etc,
etc.
Notice that
you’re describing the type of pain, and where it’s located. Now rate that pain out of 10, with 10 out of
10 being the most awful pain you could possibly imagine, and 0 out of 10 being
no pain whatsoever.
Now you’re
going to say that statement over and over again, maybe 12 times, each time
saying something silly on the end of it.
And at the same time you’re going to keep up a quick tapping process all over your head and body, using your
fingertips to tap on your head, shoulders, face, chest, legs, anywhere you can
reach. Mix it up, using tapping on the
spot, tapping out shapes or letters of the alphabet.
If my
sentence were “I have this deep ache near my left hip”, I would start this
tapping, all the while saying:
“I have
this deep ache near my left hip, but polka dots taste crunchy.”
Say this 12
times, tapping away, and when you’re done, start tapping on the top of your chest, just
focussing on the pain, take as deep a breath as you can through your nose, and
then blow out as forcefully as you can through your mouth.
Now rate
that exact pain in that exact place. You
may notice other pain, or it might seem that the pain has moved, but what you’re
most intent on finding out is what has happened in that exact location. Is that pain still the same number out of 10,
or has something happened there?
This is
just a little taste of what BMSA can do, but of course it’s not the whole
picture. The book “The Pain Train – Time
to Get Off” spells out much more detail and steps you through a personalised
program designed to eliminate your pain permanently.
You can start your pain program today if you wish, just click on the "How to Get Onto the Program" button at the top of this page.
The Lifeworks Group
Pty Ltd
www.realhelpforchronicpain.com
Postal
Address: PO Box 2018, Warwick 6024,
Western Australia
Email: info@lifeworks-group.com.au
Phone: 61 8 9246 1977 (Western
Australia)
Fax: 61 8 9246 1966
© 2006
by The Lifeworks Group Pty Ltd - All Rights Reserved
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