I don't know how you are but I hardly know anyone who does not have or did not have a back problem at one stage of their lives.

It is a truly debilitating problem.

Even as a young person I was aware how sensitive my back was. Then in 1995 soon after I came to Australia my back caused a serious problem. The long flights, heavy luggages, moving, lack of exercise, too soft hotel beds, draft and sitting on bad chairs and of course doing everything myself, all contributed. I ended up on the floor, not working for three months and taking morphine which I reacted to very badly.

Three months flat on the floor, not able to move or work was really a warning sign. Slowly I was able to get back from there and into the swimming pool. Swimming saved me. That time I promised to myself that I will never stop swimming.

Guess what?

My career went well, I was very busy, working all the time, high stress level, feeling great and invincible. Then I made some really significant changes in my life. I started to work for myself first time in my life. I actively practiced yoga and meditation, I was using nutrition. I was happy because I have found a really good work-life balance in my life. I was really fit and healthy and my back issue was under perfect control.

However, life not always goes the way we plan it. There came a difficult period in my life with lots of stress and worry, and significant changes entered my life. Right away back problems started again.

There is a well-known book, You can heal your life by Louise L. Hay. In this book Hay presents the idea that every disease is a result of our emotional imbalance, negative and limiting thinking. First time this book was given to my by a student more than ten years ago. While I found it that time quite intriguing, I think somewhere I dismissed this idea.

However, I had to be blind not see some parallels between my back problem and my lack of support in my life. Not having any family with me here and trying to establish a new life was not easy. I was also lacking the networking system of friends that I had back in my home country. While I am strong and capable and don't know the word 'impossible', I have to admit, there is a limit to my strength and energy at times.

Let's play with this idea for a moment that Hay might be right with what she writes about back problems. The author divides back problems into three groups.

Lower Back

Probable cause: Fear of money. Lack of financial support.

New thought process: I trust the process of life. All I need is always taken care of. I am safe.

Middle Back

Probable cause: Guilt. Stuck in all that stuff back there. "Get off my back."

New thought process: I release the past. I am free to move forward with love in my heart.

Upper Back

Probable cause: Lack of emotional support. Feeling unloved. Holding back love.

New thought process: I love and approve of myself. Life supports and loves me.

It definitely can't hurt planting positive, supportive thoughts in your head, even if you don't see the connection. However, I am really curious...is there any connection in the happenings of your life and your back problem according to this theory? I must admit. Mine was spot on! So I definitely need to take this idea on board now, that fate brought this book second time in my life. This time, again, by a student of mine, who just moved to Europe to study and she gave away a lot of things she did not want to put into storage. How strange that she thought that this is the book that I could do with. I dropped my jaw when I saw this book again appearing on the horizon of my life. Right now. When I curiously flicked the pages to back problems, I could not help but smile.

So I decided to work with it. Instead of drugs and surgery, I decided to take the slow and natural way. I am not saying that this is always an option for everyone with different back issues. Consult your medical professional for advice.

Although my situation really was not looking good, even after a long period of time I was still walking with a stick, for some strange reason I believed that I can heal my problem if I stick at it and keep doing what I am doing.

Please be aware that I am not a medical professional and only sharing my personal experience here.

In the last more than a year I have made the following changes.

1. Further improved my diet. Further reduce sugar, dairy, no flour or white rice, hardly any meat (if any just a tiny chicken or fish), increase good fat. Increase water intake.

2. Get back seriously to green juicing, daily 1 liter fresh juice.

3. Serious supplementation with Flavon Max products; Flavon Max, Flavon Green and Flavon Max Plus+ daily one spoonful of each (100% whole food fruit and vegetable supplement with incredible high antioxidant content and extremely high ORAC value). They help reduce inflammation and improve immune system, assist rejuvenation and healing according to my friends' and my own experiences.

4. Taking Chlorella that is a green algae to remove heavy metals, pesticides and other toxins from body. (After 7 months on Flavon and 1 month on Chlorella, I noticed that all this good nutrition supplements I have been taking is bringing back my original hair colour instead of going more grey! I heard about this but even after 7 years on Herbalife it did not change. Now the combination seems to work!) I wrote more in details about taking Chlorella in a previous article.

5. Lots of rest and gentle exercise. Here are some quick and simple things to improve your condition:

a. 15 min walk at least daily to release tension, nerves and muscles.

b. Gentle yoga exercises, stretching, breathing and meditation.

c. Water exercises are extremely beneficial because in water body weight is reduced due to buoyancy and there is resistance.

d. One minute exercise of standing on one leg while lifting the other. I wrote about this simple routine that will get your strength and balance back on track very quickly in my article Can you do this a simple health check.

e. Finally, and please don't laugh! Crawling! Yes! Crawling, like a baby! It does wonders to your back, your coordination and your quads that move your legs and if they are tight can cause a lot of pain in the lower back! Keep crawling!

6. Change mattress. Many times a change of bed mattress makes a huge difference in this process. I just changed mine to a hard futon that I placed on the frame of my bed with slabs. Now I wish, I would have changed my mattress first, right at the start of my back problem. Right away as it arrived and I tested it, I knew that I would sleep much better and I felt that my body had stronger support on the new, hard mattress. Indication for this, which I ignored unfortunately, was that I spent a lot of time flat on the floor and always gave me relief.

7. I ordered and use every day a little device that is called True Back. It helps stretching the spine to release the nerves and relax the muscles. While at the beginning it was very painful to spend even a short time on it trying to relax, with every day it became easier and I felt my spine relaxing and stretching, becoming longer and more open. That influenced my walking right away, too.

8. The next step I feel is now to strengthen my back muscles so that they can support my spine. Gentle exercise and gym work, walking on sand on the beach and on uneven ground.

I hope this gives you the idea what my strategy is regarding my own back problem. Make changes, observe how your body reacts to them. Give it enough time, it will take quite a few months of this regime before there will be visible changes. Your body will thank you for it.

Wish you all the best improving your back problem!

Cheers, Piroska