April 2007 - Mind/Body News

Ouch, my back hurts! Did you know that back pain may be the result of inner emotional conflicts? Your body speaks loudly. It’s a fact that unresolved psycho/emotional issues can affect your physical health. Feelings and thoughts are actually linked to certain parts of your body. While a good chiropractor might be one answer, there are also emotional reasons or root causes for many maladies including back problems. The good news hypnosis can help release and resolve the emotional connections, helping to accelerate healing.

What part of your back is bothering you?

Overall, the back emotionally represents support. Your back supports your body, so when you’re not feeling supported, your back may scream to get your attention.

Upper back: The upper back is the reverse side from the heart. While the front side looks all nice and friendly, the back is where repressed anger, rage, resentment, feelings of guilt, shame, or fear gets put. Even people get put here – memories or feelings to do with someone you want to push away, deny, or ignore. Are you turning your back on someone or something?

• Are you compromising so much that you have become spineless or powerless? Unexpressed feelings can contort the muscles or bones. Tight muscles may be loaded with rage or longing. Do you feel as if you have your back against a wall?
• Are you up against difficulties?

Middle back: The middle back, like the pivot of a seesaw, holds the balance in the center of the body. It allows you to bend and move in different directions, representing your ability to be psycho/emotionally flexible. Difficulties here will reflect an inner stiffness or holding on due to a fear or inability to move with events.

• Where are you feeling stiff or rigid in yourself? This area is about decision-making. Problems here can indicate that you are locked in indecision, caught between your own needs and demands from others.
• Do you want to assert yourself more and make your needs known? Resentment is also found in the middle back. How many times have you “bent over backward” to help someone, or “put your back into something,” only to find that when you need help it isn’t there?
• Do you tend to let people walk all over you?

The middle back corresponds to the solar plexus and the third chakra. This is an area of power. You can use that power to dominate and control, or you can use it to enhance your own sense of self, your inner confidence. Disharmony here can indicate power issues or weakness, often activated in the process of discovering your place in the world. The lure and promise of power are extremely seductive; once tasted it is hard to say no. However, the energy of this area is also closely related to corruption and manipulation.

Lower Back: The lower back expresses all the weight and responsibility of being human. It supports weight from above, just as you carry the weight of responsibility of your world. If there is no one to help with the load, no sense of being supported, this part of the back may give way.

• Have you tried asking for help?
• Is someone being a “pain in the back” because they are causing you more work when you really need their help?
• This part of your back keeps you upright. If it is hurting, do you feel let down in some way? When you stand up straight, the abdomen is exposed and unprotected, so there may be a tendency to bend over to protect this delicate area. Are you feeling particularly vulnerable?

This area also has to do with survival, security, and self-support. If you are feeling insecure - perhaps unable to meet other people’s expectations – then the pressure may be felt in the lower back.

• Do you doubt your ability to support yourself?
• Are you feeling isolated?
• Are you trying to do too much? As the nerves that flow down the legs issue from the lower spine, pressure here can create pain or numbing sensations in the feet and legs, affecting your movement forward.

The article above is a excerpt from a wonderful new book: “Your Body Speaks Your Mind”, by Deb Shapiro. I highly recommend it to you if you want to know more about what your body is saying.