Did you know that I started dance lessons at three years old? As the story goes, I did not smile much as a small child…so my mother put me in a dance class.

What she probably didn’t realize at the time is that she nurtured a bodyworker for life, starting at that very young age. One dance class turned into many, many dance classes and competitions, costumes, workshops, weekends away, exceptional dance teachers and over 20+ years as a dancer on the stage (and football fields and basketball courts in college).

I am eternally grateful to her. I feel blessed that not only I found a deep love of movement at such a young age, but I also quickly learned how the body is a vessel for expression…and that it doesn’t operate in a vacuum, meaning it is not separate from our thoughts, emotions, or spiritual experiences.

I certainly learned to smile onstage and I also learned the power of evoking a story with movement. In my teenage years as a dancer, this turned into an awareness of how to express, alchemize, and transmute whatever was happening within into dance. Bullying, uncertainty, mean girls in school, a changing body, joy, and newfound sensuality became offerings for my movement and healthy self-expression.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that yoga was a natural transition in my early 20’s and that it was the best way to work with the anxiety, fear, overwhelm, and physical pain I felt in my life at the time.

Around 25, I started experiencing pretty severe low back pain, coupled with joint pain in my elbows, knees and shoulders. I often would break out in rashes there… I remember being prescribed a steroid and off I went, but it didn’t completely do the trick.

Then, I began to experiment with yoga and movement again, gently and unconsciously connecting the dots that my back pain, joint pain and rashes weren’t just physical. That perhaps I could also look to significant life changes - graduating from grad school, moving to a new state, starting a new job, getting engaged, running super long distances every other day, lack of proper nutrition and so on (it took years for me to realize all of this) - for the root cause of my body’s inflammation.

The point is the thing isn’t always the thing.

Just because your back is in pain, doesn’t mean we should only address your back.

Just because you are feeling sensations in your physical body, doesn’t mean we only address your physical body. Yes?

Here’s what you're probably not going to want to hear if you have low back pain:

That your pelvic floor often plays a much bigger role in the health of this region of the body than “strengthening your core.”
That your back isn’t the only area of the body that needs support.
And, that there are likely emotional, mental, and energetic patterns at play, especially if this pain is chronic.

Gasp!

This is a yoga therapy approach to whole person - and lasting - care.

I shared last week that most clients I see privately right now have hip pain, and the truth is that most of the private clients and students I have supported over the years (including myself) also have or have had low back pain.

And so, the common refrain out there is to “strengthen the core!”

Well, maybeeee.

First, let’s talk about what the entirety of the core is. It’s not solely the abdominals that run along the front body, such as the rectus abdominis, transverse, and obliques (that also wrap around the torso).

It’s also a series of muscles and tissues that include the side body, back body, diaphragm, and the contents of the pelvis itself!

Back pain is not necessarily because of back weakness or core weakness, though it could be.

It can also be the result of a pelvic floor that is too tight or too supple.
It could be because of tightness in the core muscles, and a holding pattern in the diaphragm.
It could because of a constriction in the inner thighs and the feet, and the way you stand.
It could be because of a hyperactive psoas, the “fight or flight” muscle.
And, so on…

In fact, pelvic floor issues, back pain and even pelvic and/or hip pain is often coupled with ALL of the above.

We must also consider how the body got into these patterns in the first place.

We can start to explore the breath patterns and if the breath is short, shallow, sticky or stuck.

We can start to look at why the breath can’t move freely through the system, knowing that breath capacity affects nervous system health, mental health and also physical health.

We can play with releasing the connective tissue, known as fascia, around the low back for example, including around the hips, thighs, feet, belly, chest and shoulders, neck and so on.

We look at why those tissues are holding in the first place, which could be related to something physical, but often is also because of an emotional or energetic experience (call it trauma or not). After all, low back pain is related to root and sacral energetic centers in the body that hold much memory.

We can look at the ways in which your unique body wants and needs to express itself through movement, breath and beyond; and also how those practices might offer a release in the form of crying, shaking, sighing, laughing, dancing and so on.

Let’s expand our definition of yoga asana (i.e. postures or movements) to include all kinds of movements that encourage an active flow of our breath/life force (i.e. prana) and healing. Our culture has forgotten how sacred and healing movement can be when applied in a way that allows for expression, rather than continued containment or linear practice.

Now, if you are experiencing low back pain and are curious about pelvic health, know that a yoga therapist does not diagnosis conditions. Please find a qualified pelvic floor physical therapist and then come back to yoga therapy with that diagnosis in hand!

What yoga therapy CAN do is retrain your body to learn how to breath expansively, how to move, how to provide the right suppleness and strength in the core region of the body to reduce pain, including the pelvic floor.

Yoga therapy will help you support the subtle and emotional factors of lifestyle, trauma, and memory that contribute to pain in our physical body.

Yoga therapy will guide you to revel in the pleasures of life and to create a practice that connects you with whatever divinity means for you - nature, Universe, God, a body of water, and so on.

Yoga therapy and its circular movement will help you express what’s stuck within the body tissues, which is perhaps my most favorite experience of all! After all, as the saying goes - The issues are in the tissues - which is explored further in Bessel Van Der Kolk’s famous book The Body Keeps the Score (among many other teachers and practitioners who have similar findings).

Remember that the thing isn’t always the thing.

Remember that the body has a wisdom, and a trusted guide/teacher/therapist can help you access it, all the while relieving pain in all its forms.

Remember that self-expression is a gift and requirement of health. Repression is not helpful.

And, I am here for you. Take classes in the free practice library. Reach out to me to schedule a free consult for one on one work. Or join the Afterglow Perinatal Yoga Training at the Early Bird rate (we officially start in September 2024!). You can find all this information and resources here.

Jai Ma.
With love,
Leanne