Back Pain
A way out
I thought I would share with you my healing journey and recovery of chronic back pain and chronic fatigue, not something you want as a busy gardener!!
The start of back pain
Before working in horticulture and somewhat feels a lifetime ago, I was a chef working in busy restaurants. As we all know, working in the kitchen is one of the most stressful environments to be in – hot, busy and often cramped spaces to be in. Tensions were high one evening, two chefs had not turned up for work and orders were coming in thick and fast. Being the Sous Chef and having to run the kitchen my adrenaline and cortisol was extremely high, I bent down to pick up a
dropped ladle and couldn’t get back up again. A muscle in the buttocks had gone into spasm. The pain was extreme and I fumbled into a taxi and was off work for 2 weeks. That was 30 years ago, luckily I managed to recover well and the back was doing well. The second time ‘I did my back in’ was 15 years ago, I was now running my own Garden Design and Build Company in Brighton,
Unfortunately, this episode felt more serious, after the initial spasms had settled which took 3 weeks, the pain became chronic and I became miserable. I was losing my confidence in my ability to do strenuous activity, I had very young children who wanted to play, be swung around and have general fun.
I had lots of treatment, from Acupuncture, Osteopathy, Physical therapy, Massage to name but a few. These treatments helped but I was always in some sort of pain. When I had an MRI it showed I had 2 disc herniations, degeneration and general wear and tear. Having this diagnosis made me feel really despondent. My ‘Osteo’ who is the most positive person I know, introduced me to Spiral Stabilisation and this really helped alleviate much of the pain and so for many years after I continued with these exercises I always had pain but something I could work with, so I carried on with my Garden Design business.
In early 2020, like many, I got ill with Covid 19; for me, I had awful flu-like symptoms and was in bed for 6 weeks. I felt awful and scared, death tolls were rising and the fear was in many people’s eyes. My recovery was very, very slow and was diagnosed with chronic fatigue. I couldn’t work longer than 3 hours a day. I was losing business and I was feeling depressed. Home life was challenging, it was a bad time.
I had lots of treatment, from Acupuncture, Osteopathy, Physical therapy, Massage to name but a few. These treatments helped but I was always in some sort of pain. When I had an MRI it showed I had 2 disc herniations, degeneration and general wear and tear. Having this diagnosis made me feel really despondent. My ‘Osteo’ who is the most positive person I know, introduced me to Spiral Stabilisation and this really helped alleviate much of the pain and so for many years after I continued with these exercises I always had pain but something I could work with, so I carried on with my Garden Design business.
In early 2020, like many, I got ill with Covid 19; for me, I had awful flu-like symptoms and was in bed for 6 weeks. I felt awful and scared, death tolls were rising and the fear was in many people’s eyes. My recovery was very, very slow and was diagnosed with chronic fatigue. I couldn’t work longer than 3 hours a day. I was losing business and I was feeling depressed. Home life was challenging, it was a bad time.
One morning I met another dad at the school gate when dropping off my daughter. He knew I was suffering, he introduced me to The Lightning Process https://lightningprocess.com/ He had suffered M.E for 6 years and was fully recovered after this therapy. I was very interested and found a Lightning practitioner local to me called Lauren. It is a self coaching therapy devised by a guy called Phil Parker and it was incredible. The course was 3 days long. I started on a Friday, finished on Sunday and went back to work the following Monday. I had my life back and I was going from strength to strength, happy, fit and strong again. It was only after a few months I also realised my back pain had gone! I was a new person, but I couldn’t understand why my back pain had gone. I obviously still had herniations, degeneration in my spine but no pain, had I been making the pain up? I started to investigate this which opened up a whole new area of healing for me.
Pain is Pain
If you have pain, it is undeniable. You are not making it up, you live with it day in and day out, however there is a way out of pain. Over the past 10 years the science around pain is ever changing, modern studies have shown most pain is the brain’s way of telling you that danger is near making you unsafe, but this cycle can be broken.
It has been proven that disc herniations do not cause chronic pain! This comes from top neurosurgeons. You can switch off the pain and there is a lot of help out there and believe me, it works. Sometimes now and then I can get a back twinge or a little bit achy when I am a bit too busy or home life is stressful (I have 2 teenage daughters) but, I can dissipate the pain quite quickly and no, it’s not a Jedi mind trick. So instead of going into detail of all my research I will list at the end of the article 3 places that can start you on your healing journey.
For me a quiet space in my garden really helped to release tension, somewhere to sit, relax and meditate and is one of the reasons why I love to design healing spaces for my clients.
Healing happens when you surrender to yourself.
John Sarno https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/144873.Healing_Back_Pain
Alan Gordon https://www.amazon.co.uk/Way-Out-Revolutionary-Scientifically-Approach-ebook/dp/B081DNNRYZ
The Curable App https://www.curablehealth.com/clara
One morning I met another dad at the school gate when dropping off my daughter. He knew I was suffering, he introduced me to The Lightning Process https://lightningprocess.com/ He had suffered M.E for 6 years and was fully recovered after this therapy. I was very interested and found a Lightning practitioner local to me called Lauren. It is a self coaching therapy devised by a guy called Phil Parker and it was incredible. The course was 3 days long. I started on a Friday, finished on Sunday and went back to work the following Monday. I had my life back and I was going from strength to strength, happy, fit and strong again. It was only after a few months I also realised my back pain had gone! I was a new person, but I couldn’t understand why my back pain had gone. I obviously still had herniations, degeneration in my spine but no pain, had I been making the pain up? I started to investigate this which opened up a whole new area of healing for me.
Pain is Pain
If you have pain, it is undeniable. You are not making it up, you live with it day in and day out, however there is a way out of pain. Over the past 10 years the science around pain is ever changing, modern studies have shown most pain is the brain’s way of telling you that danger is near making you unsafe, but this cycle can be broken.
It has been proven that disc herniations do not cause chronic pain! This comes from top neurosurgeons. You can switch off the pain and there is a lot of help out there and believe me, it works. Sometimes now and then I can get a back twinge or a little bit achy when I am a bit too busy or home life is stressful (I have 2 teenage daughters) but, I can dissipate the pain quite quickly and no, it’s not a Jedi mind trick. So instead of going into detail of all my research I will list at the end of the article 3 places that can start you on your healing journey.
For me a quiet space in my garden really helped to release tension, somewhere to sit, relax and meditate and is one of the reasons why I love to design healing spaces for my clients
Healing happens when you surrender to yourself.
John Sarno https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/144873.Healing_Back_Pain
Alan Gordon https://www.amazon.co.uk/Way-Out-Revolutionary-Scientifically-Approach-ebook/dp/B081DNNRYZ
The Curable App https://www.curablehealth.com/clara
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