The Pinch in My Low Back That Sparked the Journey to Wholeness

No More Low Back Pain, Thanks Uma!

One of the most accessible things about Yoga is that there are a multitude of ways for any one of us to find ourselves on a path. There are many paths that keep us on the Journey. As we ourselves come in and take many shapes and forms, there is an underlying sameness that connects us all. No matter the genesis or direction of our paths, we all arrive here. 

I woke up with a pinch in my low back one morning. For the first time I noticed my body feeling old and stiffer than before. Without much thought about it I pulled out an old yoga mat that was in the apartment and found Uma Ashleigh Sergeant’s “No More Low Back Pain” Class on the Gaia app. Never had I sat and done any kind of yoga on my own. 

The practice, accessible to myself as a beginner at the time, not only delivered on the “no more back pain” moniker, it made me aware of the subtle body at work, the importance of alignment (not just physical) and how powerful attuning and directing awareness in our bodies can be in supporting the body’s own capacity to heal itself.

My body knew the type of attention that it needed, as does everyone of ours. Unfortunately “listening to our bodies” isn’t a common practice in the grind culture. While the body was nudging me toward the path of alignment, the mind was still skeptical as to what we’d actually accomplish with a 40 minute yoga practice. Following that impulse resulted in such a win that I could only become curious about how many of these impulses I’d pushed to the back of my head or ignored completely throughout life.

Contemplative Pause?

Have you had an impulse or nudge to try something potentially beneficial that may seem “unconventional” to everything you’ve experienced up until that point?

Anyway, moving with attention to the strength & engagement in the legs and feeling how that supports and affects the alignment or misalignment of everything else was a new profound experience for me. A few alignment poses, a few down dogs and a few moments of frog pose later, my sacrum was more stable than ever, tailbone more aligned than ever, my spine more supported than ever and the discomfort in my low back, nowhere to be found. 

This was my first time experiencing healing first hand. Being a Type 1 diabetic and growing up in church, my idea of healing was nothing short of an out of the blue miracle. Now, my understanding is that it isn’t quite that. I think of healing as anything that supports our journey to Wholeness. It’s easy for the real meaning of healing to get lost in treatment and for treatment to become an unintentional way of life with no real healing taking place.

We often go through life carrying every worry, every bit of stuck energy, every kink, every tight spot, every cramp that I’d ever had into every day and every activity. It turns out the cause of pain or discomfort in the back isn’t always as serious as a spinal injury; rather muscle tension. That muscle tension is a result of emotional tension. Our sense of self-support and survival are expressed in the low back, along with all of our responsibilities and the weight of life’s demands. The genesis of the nerves that go down our legs is here in the low back as well, affecting our mobility and capacity to “move forward” through Life when pain or discomfort occur.

We don’t realize how easy it is to continue to wake up every day and muscle through the sea of worries, situations and of heavy thoughts & emotions that weigh us down and keep us from being able to show up in our fullest splendor. I’m discovering that Nature has made most solutions or fixes simple; and in the same breath that doesn’t mean that our journeys will be easy. Wholeness is actually the place we’re expecting to arrive when we find ourselves seeking healing. That path requires our intentional engagement and learning and knowing the body’s own capacity to realign, reshape and regulate thoughts, energy and emotions.

Back Story:

I see it only fitting to write about the pinch my low back first as it was the spark to my Yoga journey and practicing Being well. Being a student of Life, after the “No More Low Back Pain” practice yielded tangible results I needed to study further! I continued to hit the mat everyday and eventually started participating in Satsangs that Uma was holding at the time alongside Meg McCraken. The yogic philosophy aligned with and affirmed all of the truths that were starting to come to light during the “No More Low Back Pain” practice. 

After some 1-on-1 work with Uma and about 2 years of participating in the Satsangs and other circles & morning practices that Meg was holding, Meg invited me to my first Yoga Teacher Training. 200+ Hours later, the pinch in my low back has led to a continuous unfolding journey inward. So what a better place to start sharing & building community from?

Every Journey is Yoga. Every Life is a Journey. 

More to Contemplate:

Has it been considered that maybe the inkling to do something out of what’s familiar could be an invitation?… to greater alignment, wholeness, deeper understanding or awareness of what’s needed to experience greater Well Being? 

What if a certain fulfillment or wholeness we’re seeking has a completely different Access Point than we had ever imagined?