Yoga For Back Pain - An Inspiring Story
Chronic back pain can happen suddenly as a result of an accident, lifting heavy things, or it may develop as we age. And this is something that can have a far-reaching impact on our life and health including having low self-esteem, enduring constant pain, and even linked to feeling depressed.
Research has found that yoga can effectively reduce back pain in one study researchers found even more significantly than manual therapies like chiropractic.
In this short interview, I talk to Nardia about her experience with a devastating accident that saw her hospitalised and having to learn how to do all of the basics from scratch.
Yoga for Trauma and Healing
Post-accident she battled for years with chronic back pain and used several tools to help her recover from her pain. Including yoga therapy, physiotherapy, mindfulness meditation, and other tools.
Sometimes when you're experiencing chronic pain it can seem like a hopeless situation with few options and no respite. Nardia shows us how through persistence and patients you can come out the other side stronger and with purpose.
If you're wanting to recover from trauma or back pain this is a must-watch the interview. It was a pleasure working with her as her yoga teacher, I hope you enjoy!
There are so many yoga tools for back pain that I cover them in an entire module in my online yoga studio. You’re welcome to learn more about how yoga can help you overcome pain and trauma. Follow the link below to learn more.
You can also check out your first 5-day trial on the link below:
https://yogainmotion.mykajabi.com/
See you on the mat Kxx
Transcript Of Interview
Krystle: So excited to be here with my good friend Nadia. I've known Nadia for about eight years now she has an amazing story. I first met Nadia when I was teaching at lend-lease and she was actually working for the company and I was running group classes there and so I wanted to interview her in particular for this module because she's had a really interesting adventure with back pain and I wanted her to share her story hoping to inspire some of you who might be struggling with pain points and in particular different things going on with your spine.
So thank you so much Nadia for having me and inviting me to have a chat about what you went through with your back pain and trauma. So I guess the first question I want to ask is just the background of what unfolded for you in terms of the accident years ago and then what that experience was like for you?
Nardia: If I go back to when the accident happened which is actually six years ago in a couple of weeks. I got bucked off a horse while I was doing some horse riding lessons and fell straight on my bum and crushed my 4th vertebrae in my lower back. I spent a couple of days in an emergency where they weren't sure if I was gonna walk. And then, equally, I spent a couple more weeks in hospital getting stabilized, and then I got sent home in a brace spent three months rolling around.
Then I started my rehab journey like three months later and when I started I literally couldn't sit up because all I'd been doing was lying down and whenever I got vertical. I was in a brace so all my muscles had disappeared so I started with really really baby steps
Krystle: So the initial accident there was a fracture in the actual bone and rapture the disk is that that's sort of a lot of damage to that sort of L4 lower back area.
Nardia: Yeah so I had a fracture of the L4 burst fracture with some fragments, luckily they were all held in place so I didn't need to be operated but the level of pain I had during those first few months was really really extreme I was on some very high pain killers and obviously coming off them, was the whole another journey in itself. Only because I was on, I think I was on like three valium tablets two times a day for three months just so I wouldn't move and equally I was on a lot of really strong painkillers. Like, endure for months on end so there's the whole process of coming off those painkillers.
Krystle: Yeah, big journey and so after the initial trauma to your body then obviously going through the healing process. I know you said you were bedridden for a really long period of time and then you experienced the muscle wastage and weakening that happens with bed rest but so essential also for the healing process. So, when you first started the physical therapies what was that like for you like what was that journey like?
Nardia: Yeah it was quite exciting because I was ready to move around by that stage but equally it was a bit of a slap in the face because for the first few months or a couple of months literally all I was doing was on my all fours like learning to raise my arms or my legs, to start building on my core or just visualizing me shifting my quarter start strengthening it and equally it took me I think three months to be outdo Child's Pose.
There was so much! I think the tendons had tensioned so much and I hadn't used them at all. I couldn't even bend down for such a long time. Yeah so we've started with from a pretty low baseline
Krystle: But all of the things we take for granted right because you were quite young when the accident happened still and you know quite high-functioning moving around active going about all of your day-to-day activities and then all of a sudden having to adjust and start back at what would have felt like a real sort of frustrating point I guess.
Nardia: Yeah it was definitely a shock to my whole system physically and emotionally as well luckily with my work. I was able to work as an hour a day, it wasn't really working it was more I spent an hour a day talking to colleagues so it was excellent cause I was locked at home and so I wasn't socially isolated through half the process.
Krystle: One of the questions I really wanted to ask you was the pain that the chronic pain in particular because when you have a back injury even moving your arms moving your legs you know that all affect your spine it involves the spine right so every movement then becomes affected by that chronic pain and then experiencing that level of pain for a really long period of time it can get quite exhausting and really start to affect you on a much deeper level I guess?
One to One Yoga for Back Pain
So what kind of tools and things did you use to cope with that to work through, what worked for you?
Nardia: What worked for me was multiple different items so I think because I was so diligent in terms of the physical recovery and the rehabilitation so I did a lot with my physio. Did a lot of one-on-ones and yoga with you which was incredible so it's doing that physical rebuilding of the muscle and include the movements involved in that.
I also changed how I'd experience my day because I'd have little paths to work on and I could see progress after a few weeks I could see where I was slowly moving on so there's something about working physically on the recovery and then equally in terms of the movement just changing things up and not lying in bed like feeling sorry for myself.
Well, I remember one week, I lay there thinking I've been broken in half and actually the pain levels that week felt like excruciating, and then I changed.
I was like don't think that anymore and that changed quite a lot for me as well so I think there's something about what I was saying to myself in my head about the experience and how the movement would not really distract me but change my experience of it but equally going out the little walks around the block nice to go one every day I'd try and go a little bit further. So the first day I went down the stairs and then the next day I went out down the stairs. And out to the front of the house and then I slowly worked my way around the block and then I went two blocks or so I'd always see myself accomplishing things every day.
Krystle: To rebuild that confidence in your body
Nardia: And that I think as well would distract me so getting out and about or working on my physical exercises distracted me or talking to friends or spending time with friends.
Krystle: Community
Nardia: Yes social support. Really important.
Krystle: Vital yeah hmm
Nardia: But equally just the belief that I was gonna get better was definitely another yeah use it motivated me to work towards my healing.
Krystle: Nadia and I were talking before this and she mentioned one practitioner who she had spoken to on her journey and how they mentioned that she would never fully recover from the injury and the trauma but also how devastating it was to hear that and how that can definitely turn into a bit of a story you mentioned but you chose, otherwise.
Nardia: Yeah so, I'm about a year and a half to get back to full-time working at that stage I got relocated with work to London and so I kind of left when I was partway through my recovery like from a physical rehab perspective and then equally because I had an ongoing court case I went to see a new doctor who told me you know your backs never gonna be better you're gonna have arthritis osteoarthritis you always going to have pain levels and I remember that just crushed me.
I was like devastated for weeks and then I moved overseas and struggled to find a physio that actually I connected with and helped me with my healing journey in the UK which is where I got relocated so hearing that I was not going to get better seemed to stall my healing because I ended up developing chronic pain like for the first three years I was in the UK.
I had really bad chronic pain I couldn't find a practitioner that I could work with to continue pushing myself physically so I kind of stopped and I did notice because in the UK it's pretty cold so you're always tense and actually that being tense my pain levels are amplified I noticed when I was tired, after a flight or when I have stressed out at work or my personal life, my pain levels would go up and down so losing that hope that, I'd get better really stalled my journey.
However, I did come across a physio a few years into it who convinced me and it didn't happen overnight but she convinced me, that physically I was better because I throughout those whole three years. I was doing yoga I was swimming three times or four times a week I was doing yoga three or four times a week I was doing Pilates session a couple of times a week but I still had really bad pain levels so she convinced me that physically I was totally fine and I went through a whole process of accepting that maybe my back had been better so having changed my belief that there's an option for me to get better.
I got the motivation and I started working with her to fine-tuning it. I started working with a group of people at work too. We had to run 45K which for me was new. I wasn't doing high-impact exercise when I was over there so the running was you know it was a bit painful but I got through that equally like writing a heavy bike, I'd get pain. So, it was also about how do I start changing how I live my life to stop believing that story
Krystle: Interesting! Build that strength up!
Mindfulness Meditation for Pain
Nardia: And then at the same time I also did a pain management meditation course for 8 weeks which was all about mindfulness and pain and through that, I learned how to just notice the sensations in my back and notice just be like a bit curious about them.
Where they were and what was going on and noticing that they were actually changing they weren't static this is when I realized well actually when I'm tired they're way worse or when I'm angry or upset they're way worse. And just noticing how it actually wasn't pained it was just sensation in my back so there's been a huge thing about learning how my works and the signals it's telling me about how that kind of exacerbates what I perceive as pain as well mm-hmm mm-hmm
Krystle: It's big! Its massive! That mind-body connection right?
Nardia: Yeah!
Krystle: And that even just a shift in how you're feeling mentally and emotionally can also impact how your body's feeling.
Nardia: Yeah that's been really really interesting to learn yeah!
Krystle: And it's been interesting also because we haven't been in touch the whole time you know you've been overseas I've been here and I actually remember seeing you for the first time when you came back after the accident your energy and how you carried yourself physically and the trauma and you know we worked with really really simple breathing. Breathing was big we did a lot of breathing and a lot of one arm movements and just very basic stuff but again now seeing you again years later and just seeing how vibrant you are and how you carry yourself and how confident you are and it's quite a transformation and testament to the work you've done over that period of time to heal yourself and that was very evident very early on.
I remember when I saw you you were very involved in your healing there was no victim mentality there at all. It was you know I'm gonna do my exercises. You were really diligent and if I gave you homework I think we even had a conversation one time where I was like one time a day.
Nardia: It's like do you get enthusiastic about things but I've been exploring on my recovery journey as well because in addition to yoga and doing those exercises you taught me, I actually remember now I did like dance lessons.
Yes
I did like I just tried so much stuff to see what would work. And a lot of it was just about movement and there were the bits about strengthening the muscle. But it's trying to bring a bit of fun into it and bringing it into my everyday more better life experience. Because I know for some people whose pain doesn't heal like in my place.
I truly believe that I'm better and I still get sensation now and I'm like okay. I can if I focus on it and think how uncomfortable I am. I can make myself feel uncomfortable or else I can just let it be there in the background.
So it's about changing my relationship with the pain and I think I played around with that in the early days as I tried doing some breakdancing lessons. They weren't that successful but I've even tried singing lessons, like the humming, I've noticed sounding and humming sound like that relaxes my lower back and when my body's relaxed that’s when I'm relaxed.
Krystle: I think that's amazing actually. That’s the one thing that's come up a few times in this talk, is the whole when you were cold and the rigidity and being cold in the muscles and how everything tenses up. Also when you're stressed everything tenses up and so much of what we were always trying to do with the practice. Whether it be through sound or whether it be through breathing or whether it be through gentle movements is trying to get those muscles to relax and get that nervous system to shift right.
Nardia’s now engaged in studies with psychology. She's super intelligent and I'm so excited to see all of the work she's going to do, But geeking out on the topic of nervous system functioning and talking about how much that shifting from the sympathetic dominant to the parasympathetic dominant nervous system and being in that relaxed state where you can let go of the tension in your body can also have a huge impact on your experience physically with pain and discomfort.
You can see how amazing and inspiring her story is.
Thank you so much for sharing it with everybody. You're amazing and I can't wait to see the stuff that you're gonna do with all your studies and learning. Then applying that and supporting other people in their health journey and what they're going through with pain and you know it's awesome it's really great.
Nardia: I'm really excited about doing these studies. The reason why I'm doing the psychology study is to do some research about chronic pain Because I think it's such a multi-faceted experience. Who is your support network? because I think also when I was lonely my pain was much higher or I'd notice it more and it would seep into all other areas of my life or equally like the whole physical side.
We were talking about the stress response and calming down the body or also the narratives we tell ourselves and how I realized my journey of letting go of the pain was part of and I'd made it part of my story and part of who I was as opposed to just part of my experience.
So letting go of that narrative. Took a lot of work because it's a great way to build connections --- a great way. You had a lot of empathy and people are really really kind & caring. So it's so easy to get sucked back in there but for me, it was also about changing my storytelling and realizing that the accident wasn't the end of my story. My future is endless.
Krystle: Yes it's the beginning exactly because you know it was a moment in time but it's led you to this point where you are now engaging in these studies and really applying yourself to an area that you’re very clear, very passionate about and had that not happened then had you not experienced that sliding doors moment right you wouldn’t be here now.
Nardia: Yeah big time! It's hard to see when you're in it. But yeah! Can't wait, it's gonna be great!