Mindful Practices For Spine Health

Understanding Your Spine: Beyond Basic Anatomy

Not many people know the structure or anatomy of their spines or even precisely where the spine is located and how we use it (physiology). We tend to generalize it as ‘the back.’ As you can see from the image above, the spine is a miraculous structure that acts as the central headquarters of your body.

If you want to attract the benefits of the Universe, history shows us that we should sit or stand straight to optimize our energy, which includes the whole body, as if we were a giant magnet.

How to take care of your spine mindfully so you can become just such a magnet.

In between each vertebra (33) is cartilage (see visual below)—a rubbery cushioning tissue—which acts as a shock absorber. Cartilage can become compressed due to gravitational force, reducing the space between vertebrae and producing pain. The spinal bones form the housing that protects the central nervous system and essential fluids, which allow messages from the brain to be conveyed to the whole body.

First, become mindful – lower your eyelids, listen to the environment outside, around, and inside you, and then deepen your breathing through the nose and gently through the mouth. You can follow a 5 Mindful Practices for Beginners here.

Then, use your mind like a laser to travel from the very top of your spine (cervical) to the upper middle (thoracic-rib cage), to the lower (lumbar), and then to the most prominent bone at the lower end of the spine (sacrum); and finally to the coccyx – tiny bones which are the relics of our tails. One way of remembering these complex names is to use an anatomy colouring book so you can play with the labels and ideas.

Mastering Proper Posture: Model the Poise of a Cat

Animals naturally have superb posture and healthy spines. They control their vision, listen, breathe, and focus effortlessly. Their heads are perfectly balanced on their spines, and their necks are lengthened. Children also naturally have these features until the mind and conditioning interfere.

This beautiful creature is alert to the environment with every hair on its head. Its spine is perfectly aligned, its head balanced on top of it, so it is ready to hunt to satisfy its urge to eat. It can act as a model for our visualization as we become more deeply mindful.

Research shows visualization benefits health and performance (sports, music, acting, etc.). So, as we visualize our spines beneath the layers of skin and muscle, we are initiating a healing process.

Sitting Well: More than just a Comfortable Chair

There are 3 main points to sitting well as you work at your computer or phone:

1. type of seating
2. height of seat
3. the angle of the seat and eye gaze

There are many suggestions of the type of seating you should use at https://sittingwell.co.uk/shop/, and other articles will review the best for sitting to attract and transmit energy efficiently. Ensure your sitting bones are evenly balanced on your chair bed or surface and your feet are flat on the floor.

It is also essential that when you visualize your spine being straight, you don’t forget there are two natural curves in your spine’s lumbar and sacral regions.

Working with Gravity: Harnessing the Universe’s Force

Gravity is a natural force we each deal with every moment of our upright days. It is, simply put:

an invisible force that pulls objects towards each other

Shorter Oxford English Dictionary

Earth’s gravity force keeps our feet on the ground and is responsible for anything or anyone that falls. Albert Einstein described it as:

A curve in space that wraps around an object, such as a star or planet.

As mentioned above, we can use the force of gravity to allow us to sit or stand well. Your arms can hang heavily from your shoulders, your jaw can hang heavily, your thighs can drop down from your pelvis when you sit, and your feet can spread over the earth and become heavy. When you are typing on your keyboard, your wrists can drop down from your hands, and so on.

Here on Jambhala, we can utilize the sacred force of gravity as a metaphor for tapping into universal abundance to promote good wealth, health, fortune, and success in life.

Adapting your work and living spaces to gravity is essential for mindfulness to benefit you. Use laptop stands, typing desks, standing tables/desks, and well-designed chairs with wedges. Gravity blankets are adequate for excellent sleeping. I have researched and used all these products daily, so please check out the reviews.

Connecting Earth and Heaven: The Spiritual Significance of Posture

The spine plays a crucial role in connecting the earth to the Universe through each human. As we perceive it, the whole Universe is inside our storehouse, but we can be a conduit to receive and transmit energy when we are human. Taking time to sit or stand well, as the spiritual masters have always done, will do for us what it did for them.

Your spiritual and physical health will flourish along with your capacity to attract the treasures of the Universe if you are mindful in this way. Your mindset will transform as you disconnect from the ordinary fearful mind in your mindful practices.

Mindfulness in Pain Management: The Buddha’s Two Arrows Parable

There is much to learn about pain and how to manage it from the Enlightened Masters. In 2020, lower back pain affected over 6 million people; this number is likely to increase to 8.5 million by 2050 due to the expansion of the ageing sector. So, how can we use spiritual strategies to deal with crippling back pain, pain which is attacking your principal axis?

The Buddha’s parable of the two arrows gives insights. In summary, we are more mindful of pain when we are experiencing it in a direct way = the first arrow shot; then, we tend to add an emotional response to the pain = the second arrow shot, which exacerbates the pain. In simpler words, we can accept the discomfort for itself and let go of any emotional tie to it. It is human to suffer, but if we understand the source of the suffering, we can detach from it: the Four Noble Truths.

Mindfulness is all about inhibiting the hot fires of emotion. Once you attain this calm, clear state, your body will be like a beacon transmitting positive energy and attracting it. This will benefit everyone around you, and the ripple in the pool of life you create will spread across the human race.