Meditating every day will need more than just your time!

In the past forty years, dozens of universities all over the world including Singapore, Europe, and the US have conducted hundreds of research and studies on the effects of meditation on behavior and human physiology. 

The results of these researches have pointed to meditation producing benefits on various levels simultaneously, including mental functioning, emotions, relationships, and the body. Meditation is good for you – true or false?

What’s the catch? Like all things in life, if you want to achieve the therapeutic effects of meditation, you must spend time to meditate daily.

Meditating every day will need more than just your time, but also the willingness and the WANT to meditate. This means that you have to choose an approach or method that suits your personal nature perfectly that will make it an enjoyable practice for you.

Many people stop meditating because they chose the wrong technique, and not because of being undisciplined. There are lots of styles and ways of meditating and choosing something that doesn’t fit your personality is most likely to be the cause of failure.

So, is meditation really good for you?

That would depend on every person and how they receive meditation as a whole. There’s always no harm in trying. You’ll never know if it’s the answer you’ve been looking for, not unless you give it a try.

It is interesting to question how something like meditation be very beneficial to the mind and body. The answer is actually in “physiology”.

To put it simply, meditation is a process that the body knows how to do, and will willingly do if one sets up the conditions and permits it. 

It is natural for the human body to enter a deep healing state. All a person has to do is focus in specific ways, and endure the intensity of the feeling as you release stress.

So in actuality, meditation is already a “built-in” ability of the body. The term “meditation” is simply the name given to the process where the body’s nervous systems, senses, and brain are given the chance to “tune up”. 

More significantly, meditation is more than just a “chance”, but a total permission for the body’s nervous system to perform its “healing” thing. 

Meditating is like giving one’s body something it needs. It goes beyond simply resting or sleeping every day, but is a more profound way of letting go of all life’s stresses that keeps’ one tightly wounded. 

This is perhaps why meditation can sometimes have so much powerful effects on a person, as it’s a way of giving into the mind and body’s powerful healing dynamics that are already built within. Here are some therapeutic effects of meditation:

(1) Improved Focus Ability

Studies show that practicing meditation develops greater “field independence”. Field independence is linked to greater ability of assimilating and structuring experience, improving memory, enhancing creative expression, and better mind organization and clarity. 

(2) Deeper Relaxation Level 

Research shows that meditation gives far better state of relaxation compared to just simply closing the eyes to rest. It shows that during meditation reduces the levels of breath rate, heart rate, spontaneous skin conductance, and plasma lactate, which suggests that there’s a increasing reduced physiological stress. 

(3) Improved Memory and Perception

Studies show that meditation displayed considerable improvements in short-term memory test and perceptual memory test that involved identifying letter sequences given rapidly; therefore suggesting that meditation is better method of increasing memory and perception compared to resting with eyes closed or changing the daily routine.

(4) Decrease of Stress Hormone

Research shows that meditation reduces the stress hormone, plasma cortisol, compared to those doing ordinary relaxation. 

(5) Low Blood Pressure

In clinical experiments, meditation showed to provide an improvement to people with moderately elevated levels of blood pressure. The studies showed that there was a drop in the diastolic and systolic blood pressure of individuals meditating compared to those doing Progressive Muscle Relaxation or the usual care.

(6) Cholesterol

Longitudinal study also showed that the cholesterol levels of hypercholsteolemic patients decreased through meditation.

(7) Increased Self-Concept Strength

A clinical research showed that a month after starting meditation, the subjects experienced better self-concept. The participants developed a much stronger defined self-concept, wherein they came to recognize their “actual self” as appreciably closer it their “ideal self”.

(8) Decreased Alcohol, Cigarette, and Drug Abuse

A statistical study found that meditation generated significantly bigger reduction in alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drug use compared to prevention programs or standard substance abuse treatments. 

(9) Improved Work Relations

A study found considerable improvements in work relations after months of practicing meditation. The participants claimed to have felt lesser anxiety towards work and its pressures and were seen to moved ahead quickly.

(10) Better Health and More Positive Health Habits

A research showed that those regularly practicing meditation, significantly improved in overall physical well-being, mental health, and vitality compared to non-practitioners. There was also significant reduction in the usage of cigarettes and hard liquor.

And can any meditation harm you?

Absolutely yes. 

Think about this scenario:  If your shoes doesn’t fit, it gives you sore toes and can even cause your toenails to fall off. If you get blisters from the shoes being so tight, they may get infected. 

Forcing yourself to wear the shoes anyway, despite the pain it is giving you will eventually break your foot. On the other hand, too big a shoe will cause you to fall or trip, hurting or even crippling the foot.  

In meditation, when the technique doesn’t fit you, its main damage will typically be in your connection with yourself.  It may damage the capacity to competently pay attention to your “internal life”. 

If you insist on doing the meditation that doesn’t suit you because of fear of failing, you’ll do more damage to yourself than helping it. 

Choose a meditation that will be good for you and don’t force an “unnatural technique” just because it’s a good thing.

Meditation is good for you, if you have chosen the right meditation for you, and it can be boundless when it comes to benefits. 

Open your mind to what meditation offers, and learn how to meditation will enable you to live a healthy life, and become a healthier person physically, mentally, and emotionally!

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There is not enough time to try and do everything and be everything to everybody! Get more done in less time!

How do you save time in life and in your work? What you need most will, does and should come first. This is how you focus not only attention, but energy, resources and get the job/tasks done to a point of completion, with satisfaction and yes do not forget to reward yourself for a task well done!

You can regain and reclaim your control, freedom and time-efficient task completion. You can relive your residual, underlying, anticipatory and other forms of stress, overcoming procrastination effectively, all in due time! 

Opt for the best, shortest, way to get the most important things done quickly and reliably. Make the best use of every moment you have to spare and ensure down time for yourself in the process too.

Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save. ~ Will Rogers (1879 - 1935)

Your interest will be best served if you opt to focus on tasks, actions,  decisions and things to do that will get and keep you back on the right and fast, even inner track to success. It can be done.

That is the good news. Effective time management does not have to be a pipe dream. 

In your life and work, it will in all likelihood be impossible almost for you to take care of everything you want, all at once.

Be realistic, balanced and wiser with your choices, options, actions, how long things take, as well as what needs to be done first.

Most of us try to do too much, with too little time. That is the typical pattern. Well, why do you not break the mold by trying something and being different, upstream and a little unorthodox?

You need to accept, state that you will not be able to take on and get done ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING in just a short time (ending up short-changing yourself) Get into the habit of adding 5 minutes, to however long you think something will take.

For example: how long does it take you to get to and from home and work? Do you know your exact commute time? If you have to be in the office for an early breakfast meeting, should you leave earlier?

Any construction, weather, transportation delays (flat tire, elevator not working, leaving you to climb some stairs you did not bargain on), knowing where you are going, ) Exactly, shortest routes to get there, alternatives, directions/map, GPS, etc. if you are unfamiliar with the area, location, person in question etc. 

I have a new philosophy. I'm only going to dread one day at a time. ~ Charles M. Schulz (1922 - 2000), Charlie Brown in "Peanuts"

This will start to give you a BETTER idea that TIME MANAGEMENT is about more than time, being on time, how long things take.

Very little attention is often given in musing on this topic, to the peripheral and crucial core competencies that come with self-management, structured thinking, problem-solving, process-mapping, cause-effect type diagrams etc. to make living, getting around, even being on time that much more do-able! 

How do you view time?

As a gift, blessing, damn irritant, annoyance, nuisance, never having enough of it, how you structure, live and make sense of your world, why you are here, what you are/should be doing, purpose in life – OK, maybe that is stretching it a bit.

But for the majority of us, we do not necessarily have a healthy relationship with time. It is so much more than an hour/minute/second indicator, cell-phone time display, watch on the arm, clock on the wall etc.

TIME IS MONEY we have often heard said and that just reflects this paced, unique relationship (sometimes quite warped!) that we have with the concept and passing of time.

How we use, abuse, waste it at times a real obsession and debilitating factor, contributing to less fulfilled lives, more stress, even illness, depression, lack of motivation, disappointment and mediocre performance.

We need to take a renewed and hard look at what time is and what it can do for us, what we can do with, by and through it (for self, for others, for society, our loved ones, kids, family, work, those who have less, under-privileged ones, those who battle, struggle and are oppressed)

That is good use of time.

Help to redefine what time is and can do in and through your life and you will have an uplifting empowerment sensation, that will free you from the self-imposed, perceived chains that time brings into your life and pursuits. 

Here is a challenge for the brave amongst us – opt to remove your watch for a single day and not be dependent on it at all and see if you can work effectively, get more done, discover how watch-dependent you really are.

We check it several times a day, moments we waste that we could have spent on something else, different more important.

Just count and record how many times you glance over, look at your wrist-watch or other devices (with time).

It drives pretty much everything we do – when we get up, rise, go to bed, watch TV, take a bath, spend in the office etc. It drives and dictates our days, into bite-size chunks of time, meetings, places to be, people to see, errands, things to complete and do, travel etc. 

One of the most fundamental principles of time, is that we do not want to go around wasting it!

Not our own and not those that belong to someone else. TIME IS PRECIOUS! (regardless of whom claims ownership to it!). We need to respect each other’s time more also. There are some time-stealers that we need to be aware of. 

Memos, writing things down, not communicating effectively, setting and voicing expectations properly, agreeing on deliverables, timelines, milestones and deadlines. Sometimes what we perceive as bad management can a be a variety of other things (selective listening, or poorly developed listening and communication, interpersonal skills, reading things wrong, not hearing or verifying properly or correctly the accuracy or our understanding of what was said, agreed upon, or what we need to do or deliver, when to whom, be where again? We do not ask enough questions).

Underlying much of our failures at effective time management is not only personal discipline and lack on interest, willingness or fear of change, but simply not having the awareness and ability to say what we want, get done what needs to be done. 

Also, make your task list count, do not put or write, include unnecessarily repetitive tasks, recurring meetings, frequent updates into your calendar, if it overpowers, overfills or clutters, ending in more ‘busy-work’ than productive work. 

Too much or too little information on tasks, data, type of information, decisions, can delay action. We need to be aware on not drowning or overwhelming ourselves or others with these types of tools and content. It has to enable, not disable to work right and best!

Someone once said information is not knowledge, knowledge is not wisdom, wisdom is not informed decision-making… UNLESS IT GETS THINGS MOVING FORWARD RIGHT AND FAST!

Common sense, limits, guidelines can all help us get out of this procrastination trap that we so often set for ourselves.

Having meetings and face-to-face schedules, conference calls, events etc. are not bad in itself. It is how we approach, select and participate in them that is the problem!

When it starts wasting time, that is when it becomes a problem. Have a chain of command and be on time – these, if not handled well, can steal a lot of productive time.

Some expert sourcing and guru advice in this arena, comes to us from Alan Lakein, the progenitor of modern time management techniques. The question, according to our expert here, is:

DO I WANT OR NEED TO BE DOING THIS RIGHT NOW? These days business is so much more that a mere state of being (as the term implies), BUSY! Be an independent thinker, self-started and problem-solver. That is what most employers and task lists would ask or want, to get results that count and makes the difference when it matters most –even when you have tight, competing or conflicting deadlines.

Make your time management RATHER pro-active management of self, tasks, others, priorities etc. for optimal success. 

Act ahead of events, anticipate, plan and prepare, do not expect to get far with random chance and no plan. FAIL TO PLAN, PLAN TO FAIL is the saying, right? Setting and tracking your goals (however ambitious), is a good way to work your way through that priority list and motivate yourself to keep going.  Delegate your tasks to others who can help you achieve your goals while you focus on what is most important.

You need the ability and practice will make perfect here, to hone and harness, establishing clear priorities, think preventative, rather than corrective, change your outlook and paradigm, remain open-minded and flexible, it will be easier to deal with a growing task-list, competing tasks for attention and resources, and related challenges, obstacles that you may encounter along the way.

Be creative in your problem-solving and approaches, making it fun to find ways to knock those tasks off your list. It can even be fun and highly rewarding.

You do not need to have no choice and merely bounce from one panic to the next, or from one crisis to the next.

There are some middle-ground and solutions, even balancing acts, delegation, rankings etc. for you to tap into to make it more manageable, that means you and time and competing priorities even!

Get, be and stay organized, not losing control of situation or priorities, re-shuffling priorities when need be or situations dictate, require change or alternations. Avoid rework and/or quick fixes, putting things off or more procrastination. It will not serve your purposes, interests very well at all. 

SO, to recap…

There is not enough time to try and do everything and be everything to everybody! All at once. Be patient as you chance your habits and behaviors (it is contra-intuitive and will get better in time)

Here are some simple steps you can pick up:

(1) Plan and work to be more relaxed, tolerant or change, things not all getting done (impossibility), 

(2) Focus and target what can and must be done and get it done! IT is really that simple. What can wait, will have to wait (inevitably it does anyway). Be more realistic in your expectation of self, time, others. If you cannot do it yourself, outsource your tasks to trustworthy assistants!

(3) If you are stressed, overwhelmed, do not know what needs to get done when , this chaos, confusion and tension, can lead to procrastination. 

(4) When prioritizing, work with must, need, like to, maybe type categories to start getting you into more habits. 

(5) Listen to the signals that your body is sending you too. IF you are constantly feeling fatigued, not rested, cannot recharge your battery, have no stamina, energy left, to start, let alone finish your day, something is amiss, awry and out of whack. You need to rebalance the scales.

(6) Do make a list(several if you have to) or a task-master list to help you get a very real handle on what is at stake, in play, what needs attention right away, what can wait, making it easier to knock some of the tasks off the list in time available. 

(7) Get a planner and plan your work day, according to time-blocks or time-frames, whichever you are most comfortable with planning in. Some work in 30 minute to 1 hr slots, some longer chunks of time, for specific purposes. Be realistic, map something out that works for your preferences, timelines and priorities. 

(8) It is a deliberate act, that you need to take issue with and can only do for yourself. You need to actively and purposefully schedule time to accomplish your goals and your tasks. Again, consider outsourcing tasks that need to be accomplished on a regular basic!

(9) Try your best to break through the frustration, tension and disappointment, feelings of being overwhelmed by the amount of work you have to do and things you have to accomplish. Break it down into task, categorize and prioritize, tackle in the most efficient, ranked way possible in the time that you have available. 

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Writers who write to touch the hearts and souls of different people around the World!

A vast number of writers around the world has been growing since ages. Some of them left a footprint when they died and some of them remained as silent as they can ever be.

But with the work of art of these writers, the hearts and souls of different people around the globe have been touched and moved.

"A professional writer is an amateur writer who did not quit" - Richard Bach

I know that no matter how good your writings are you will still need an inspiration for your writings. Writing can help with your health and it can be used as a power tool to healing — emotionally, physically, and psychologically.

As the number of studies increased, it becamse clear that writing was a far more powerful tool for healing than anyone had every imagined.
~ Dr. James Pennebaker, author of Writing to Heal, who has seen improved immune function in participants of writing exercises. 

So, just for a simple inspiration that will kick-start your day or your life I made a list of 5 inspiring writers.

These writers have inspired people who have lost their hopes about life. Some of them can also inspire you to create a good output of your writing or journal writing!

With that, here is a list of inspiring writers which can motivate your next writing session. You can also read some of their personal lives in here. There are also some quotes which can inspire your writings.

1.) Eleanor Catton

"Step into a scene and let it drip from your fingertips" -MJ Bush

Eleanor Catton was the youngest person to ever win the Man Booker Prize with her second novel entitled The Luminaries. She was just 28 years old at that time in 2013 when she won that award.

Her first book was The Rehearsal. This book was written during her Master thesis and this book earned a much critical acclaim. She was born in Canada but grew up in New Zealand, where she currently lives.

Catton was severely criticized and caused a political scandal after some very critical remarks she made about the governments of Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, but she refused to step down and continues to make her voice heard. This only shows how strong-willed she is up until this moment.

2.) Ernest Hemingway

"The true alchemists do not change lead into gold; they change the worlds into words" - William H. Gass

Hemingway's most notable works are the "The Sun Also Rises" (1926), "A Farewell to Arms" (1929), "For Whom the Bell Tolls" (1940) and "The Old Man and the Sea" (1952). During an interview with Ernest Hemingway, she said

"The best way is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next. If you do that every day when you are writing a novel you will never be stuck. That is the most valuable thing I can tell you, so try to remember it."— Hemingway, in an October 1935.

Those words are good enough for you to be motivated as you go along with your writing or blogging skills.

3.)  Nick Hornby

"The world is never the same once a good poem has been added to it" - Dylan Thomas

 "Fever Pitch" (1992), "High Fidelity" (1995) and "About a Boy" (1998) are the most notable works of Nick Hornby.

During an interview with Nick Hornby he was asked about how will he know that he is a writer, he then simply answered "Well, do you write? If you don't, you are not. If you do, you are. There is nothing else to it."

Simple answer for a simple question, right? But what is interest most is that he said during that interview that no matter how long or short you finish your work as long as you finished them, sooner or later.

4.) Mary Shelley

"Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words" - Mark Twain

Mary Shelley's most notable work is the "Frankenstein: or, the Modern Prometheus" (1818).  Shelley wrote Frankenstein at the very young age of 19. Well, it was all about a skill which she had in her blood since birth. She once said these words:

"How dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to be greater than his nature will allow." — Shelley, "Frankenstein"

5.) Zadie Smith

"Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing" - Benjamin Franklin

With her first novel, White Teeth, Zadie Smith broke into the world of literature in 2000. This novel was about depicting the friendship between a Bangladeshi and an Englishman and their families in London. This novel immediately swept the world and propelled Smith into the uppermost echelons of contemporary writers. Smith has myriad international influences that color her writing.

These are only a few of writers which can touch your heart and soul. You can always check their books into some bookstore near you.

Find time to read them. Take note of the differences in their writing skills and maybe you will be inspired and motivated! Start keeping a journal. Set aside some time to write something everyday into your journal and you will be on your way to write to heal. 

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3 Best Exercises to Relieve Your Back Pain Naturally!

I have found these 2 methods of exercises to work very well for relieving back pain. Try them and let me know if it works for you!

(1) Pilates

Pilates is another great exercise for relieving back pain because it focuses on strengthening your core muscles, which include the back. Pilates exercises are very smooth and controlled movements, so there is little danger of getting injured while exercising.

It’s also a great way work on your strength and flexibility, both of which help to alleviate back pain. However, as with yoga, you should avoid any extreme twisting or bending movements. Also as with yoga, Pilates exercises should be done on a mat or other soft, supportive surface.

One of the best benefits of Pilates is that it helps improve posture, a common cause of lower back pain. Use common sense when doing Pilates; if exercises that arch your back hurt, don’t do those. Or if exercises that round your back hurt, do only the back arching ones.

The following Pilates exercises benefit the spine and are appropriate for beginners.

Do each exercise slowly and smoothly, and repeat ten times if you can. The key to pilates is quality of exercise, not quantity; it is more important to do fewer exercises slowly and correctly than to do all ten repetitions quickly.

THE HUNDRED:  Start by lying on your back with your legs either stretched out or bent at the knees, whichever is most comfortable.  Raise your head and, if you can, your legs off the floor a few inches. If this puts too much stress on your lower back, just raise your head and keep your feet on the floor with your knees bent. Try to keep your neck relaxed.  Now extend your arms, and raise and lower them about two inches. While doing this, inhale for a count of five and exhale for a count of five.

SPINE STRETCH FORWARD:  Sit with legs extended in front of you and slightly more than hip width apart and feet flexed.  Inhale and pretend that you are hovering over an imaginary beach ball by leaning your upper body forward, arms extended, while rounding your back and pulling in your abdomen.  Exhale as you sit back up slowly one vertebra at a time.

The ROLLUP: Begin by lying on your back, legs extended, and arms stretched above your head with your shoulders on the floor.  Alternately, you may want to do this exercise with your feet on the floor, knees bent.  Inhale and lift your arms toward the ceiling. Exhale and roll your torso forward, as if you are doing a full body sit-up. You should ideally roll into a sitting position, but if you can’t, just bring your torso as far off the mat as you comfortably can before returning to your starting position.

The SAW: Sit with your legs slightly wider than hip width, feet flexed. Your arms should be extended straight out to the side. Sit up very straight as if you are trying to touch the ceiling with the top of your head.  Exhale; turn your body to the left, keeping your arms in line with your shoulders, and bend over as if your hand is going to saw off your little toe. Inhale, return slowly to your original position, and repeat on the other side.

SPINE TWIST: Sit with your legs slightly more than hip width apart and your arms extended out to the sides. Inhale, tighten your abs, and sit up very straight as if you are trying to touch your head to the ceiling. Now exhale and turn to the right as far as you comfortably can. This exercise is to increase your back mobility only, so do not stretch your back muscles. Inhale and return to your starting position. Repeat on the left side.

BALLERINA ARMS: Sit with legs crossed and spine straight, as if you were sitting against an imaginary wall.  Bend the elbows at a 90-degree angle and pull the arms back so that the shoulder blades are touching. Next take your arms down so that the shoulder blades slide down the spine. Next raise the arms over the head as a ballerina would. Return arms to starting position.

(2) Tai Chi

Tai chi is an ancient form of martial arts that is soft and slow, making it great for people who have back pain. The Taoist Tai Chi Society's Medical Advisers have documented that tai chi helps improve posture, reduce spinal degeneration, maintain flexibility of joints, improve balance, and increase strength and stability in the lower back.

Everyone can benefit from tai chi; if you can’t do the exercises standing up, you can still do many of them while sitting in a chair.

Unlike yoga, tai chi requires extensive movement, but is less jarring to the joints than aerobic exercise. It’s almost impossible to describe how to do a tai chi movement correctly—you really need to see someone else doing it to understand.

There are numerous videos you can check out if you’re interested, and some video stores offer free exercise video rentals.

Libraries may have videos, too. The best way to learn tai chi, though, is from an instructor, and classes tend to be relatively inexpensive. Take a class or two just to learn the movements and you’ll be able to practice at home on your own.

(3) Stretching

Stretching is very important in relieving back pain for several reasons:

a) it improves your flexibility, which in turn allows your back to move through its natural range of motion painlessly,

b) it sends necessary nutrients to the tissue along the spine that keep your muscles from getting stiff and weak, and

c) it helps to prevent further injury to the back. 

Some of the above pilates exercises involve stretching, and listed below are a few more stretches that will benefit the back.  There are a couple of things you should remember about stretching. First, you should not feel pain when you stretch.

If you do, you have gone too far so ease up a little. Stretch only as far as you comfortably can, hold it for about ten seconds, and then slowly release the stretch. And second, don’t bounce. Move smoothly and slowly. If you jerk or bounce your body, you’re likely to injure it.

HAMSTRING STRETCH: It might seem strange to stretch your leg to relieve back pain, but actually, the upper leg is important to the support of your lower back. Increase the flexibility of your upper leg and you’ll be helping your lower back. Some hamstring stretches put a lot of strain on the lower back so try this one:

Lie on your back and bring your right knee towards your chest. Put a towel around your right foot, hold the two ends in each hand, and try to straighten the foot as far as you can. Repeat with the left leg. 

When you an easily accomplish this, try some harder hamstring stretches: 1) Sit in a chair and place legs straight out in front of you resting on another chair. Try and touch toes. 2) Lie on the floor with the buttocks against the wall. Place the foot up against the wall and then try to push the knee straight one leg at a time, and 3) Bend over at the waist, with legs straight, and try to touch your toes. Hold this stretch.

LOWER BACK STRETCH: Lie face down on the floor with hands on each side of your head, elbows on the ground, and feet shoulder width apart. Slowly lift your body off the floor so that only your forearms and toes are supporting you. Contract your buttocks and extend your right arm straight out in front of you. Hold this position for ten seconds, and then switch arms. Do the same with your legs; return your forearms to the floor and extend first your right and then your left legs straight out behind you. Work up to extending your right arm and left leg at the same time, holding for ten seconds, and then switching sides.

MIDDLE BACK STRETCH:  Stand with feet shoulder width apart, arms extended out to your sides parallel to the floor, and knees slightly bent. Slowly twist to the right side until you feel the stretch in your back. Do not twist quickly or so far that you feel any pain in your back. Hold for ten seconds and then twist to the left side.

UPPER BACK STRETCH: Stand in the same position as with the middle back stretch. Interlock your fingers and extend your arms as far out in front of you as you can, palms turned away from your body.  Keep your upper back relaxed and you will feel this stretch in your shoulder blade area.

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3) https://www.instagram.com/p/BVzxAaLl8oX/?taken-by=vermilion_sg

4) https://aveilofmodesty.com/2016/11/to-better-healthier-me/

How to heal your back pain faster with Yoga and get back to your regular activities with just two days of rest!

Many people believe that rest is best for a painful back, but actually, what your back really needs when it’s hurt is exercise.

Regular exercise relieves back pain by strengthening and stretching the muscles that support the spine and helps to prevent future injury.

This is a use it or lose it situation: the more you rest, the weaker your back gets, even if it is hurt. Studies have actually shown that you can heal your back pain faster and get back to your regular activities with just two days of rest.

So let’s look at some of the best exercises for relieving back pain.

The Benefits of Yoga

A good, regular yoga practice will go far in relieving the stress and tension that sometimes cause mild back pain, and in fact, studies have shown that yoga is the number one most effective exercise for relieving back pain.

However, not all yoga poses relieve back pain, and some can in fact aggravate existing pain, so it is important to know which poses will be most helpful in relieving back pain.

It is best to do these exercises under the supervision of a certified yoga instructor, and if you encounter any problems with these poses, you should consult an expert. Even just one or two sessions with a yoga instructor can help, as an instructor will help you with your form and posture during poses. 

Here are some of the best yoga poses for relieving back pain. Each pose should be held from five to ten seconds, depending upon your level of comfort, and should be done on a mat or other soft, supportive surface.

CORPSE: Lie flat on your back in a relaxed position, arms resting at your sides, palms down, and legs lying naturally, with knees turned out slightly.  If it hurts your back to have your knees turned outward, do this pose with knees bent, feet flat on the floor. Breathe in and out for a few seconds while allowing any tension to leave the body.

CAT STRETCH: Start out on your hands and knees with a flat back. Your hands should be directly under your shoulders with fingers spread. Knees should be directly under the hips. Head is held loosely so that you are looking at the floor between your hands. Inhale, and as you exhale, arch your back toward the ceiling, tuck your chin in to your chest so that you are looking at your navel, and tuck your tailbone underneath. Hold, then release back into your original position.

WIND-RELEASING POSE: Lie flat on your back as in Corpse pose. As you inhale, bend your knee, place your hands right below the knee, and draw your leg towards your chest. Your left leg should remain flat on the floor. Exhale and bring your forehead up to touch your knee. Inhale, and then as you exhale, return to your original position. Repeat with the other leg.

SAGE TWIST: Warning for this pose—it involves twisting your back, so you should take particular care not to twist too far or you risk aggravating any existing back pain. This should be a gentle stretch; twist just as far as is comfortable. Sit on the floor with both legs out in front of you. Bend your right knee, lift your right leg over your left, and place your right foot on the floor next to your left knee. Sitting with spine straight, place your left elbow on the right side of your right knee. Bend your left arm so that your left fingertips are touching your right hip, while at the same time, twisting to look over your right shoulder. This is where you need to be careful not to twist too far.  Hold for a few seconds, release, and repeat on the opposite side.

PALM TREE: Stand with feet facing forward, arms at your sides, weight distributed evenly on both feet. Raise both arms over your head, interlock your fingers, and turn your hands so that your palms are facing upward. Next, place your palms on your head and turn your head so that you are looking slightly upward. Stretch your arms upwards, and at the same time, come up onto your toes if you can do so without pain. Stretch your entire body upward and hold, if you can. Some people have difficulty balancing during this pose, so just do the stretching parts if you need to.

FISH POSE: Lie on your back with knees bent and arms at your side. Arch your back as far as you comfortably can and raise it off the ground by pushing the floor with your elbows. If you can, tilt your head backwards and rest the crown of your head on the floor. Breathe deeply from the diaphragm and hold pose for one minute if you can.

LOCUST: Lie face down with arms at the side, palms down, and elbows slightly bent with fingers pointing towards the feet. Raise your legs and thighs as high off the ground as possible without causing your back any pain.  Hold for one second and repeat up to twelve times. This can be a vigorous exercise so you must take care to strain already injured muscles.

BENDING FORWARD POSTURE:  Stand up straight with feet together and arms hanging loosely along your sides. Breathe in deeply and raise your arms straight above your head. While breathing out, bend forward and touch your toes if you can. If you can’t reach your toes, grab hold of your ankles or calves.  To complete the pose, you should touch your head to your knees, but this may be too difficult for many who suffer from lower back pain. Your movements during this pose should be smooth, not jerky.

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