The lower back! This really helped me.

Hello! I've been away from these boards for a while but made a really interesting discovery the other day.

It's sort of like one of those things in life that is so blatantly obvious you never notice it!

I've always been interested in meditation or trying to find ways to relax, or do ANYTHING to help my UC settle down, or help myself in times of panic, fear, etc. I discovered this connection to the back after I was driving to work on a particularly "bad" morning. When I arrived at work I noticed that my "back" was extremely sore and tense. Hrmmm...

So here is what I'm trying to say. You know how in mediation it is always suggested that you "breathe into the pain" or "breath into the tension." Well for many years I could never pinpoint just where that was in my gut/abdomen. In times of fear...I just didn't feel anything there and it was really frustrating. I mean occasionally you'd maybe feel a dull pain but nothing was constant in a sense.

So here is what I discovered. All of those physical feelings are mainly emanating from the back!! Mostly the lower back. All this time (and for many years) I just didn't notice it. It's sort of ironic because all of my focus has been on my abdomen...or wondering just where are those feelings?!?! And all of this time they were really coming from the lower back.

Any of you that value mediation may understand how enlightening this is. So now, when I'm in fear, or panic...I can feel the actual physical tension in my back - especially when I'm driving a car - and this helps me tremendously just concentrate/focus on my back...and lessens the tension a great deal.

So getting back to "breathe into the pain/feeling" this all makes sense to me. As someone who values meditation it's so revealing to me also. I mean it makes sense that our entire spinal column/back is connected to our gut!!!

Anyway, I just had to get to this board and post my revelation. Well, at least I'm excited about it!!!!

John

Yes!! The feeling of urgency and the fear goes away. Whether it is real or imagined. That is why I am so excited about this.

It takes practice though putting your focus and attention on to your back.

about your back...ask yourself, it is warm? Is it cold. Where is the feeling...lower, upper? As you know meditation takes some practice sometimes to actually FEEL anything. The great part that I discovered is that the BACK has most of the feelings.

The thing about meditation is that the mind only has the capacity to focus or worry on one thing at a time. So when focused or being aware of your back the mind does it's relaxing thing. That really is the beauty of meditation.

As always...I need to practice it more!!!