I hurt my back – really hurt it this time.

I did one squat that felt a little funny in a workout class and triggered low back pain so severe that I barely hobbled out of the studio back to my car, and by the end of the night, I couldn’t stand up from the couch.

I’ve had low back pain many times before, but not like this. This was more painful and debilitating than I’ve ever experienced.

I tried to stay calm, but it totally freaked me out. Some of my biggest fears seemed to all manifest from this one injury. I could feel my nervous system moving to panic mode.

Now I am feeling more mobile and getting back to my normal activities. Here’s what I took away from the experience.

1. It’s ok to wallow, but don’t get stuck there

I’m a fixer. Usually, I jump right into action to solve a problem. This time I needed to wallow first. It was harder for me to find the motivation to start tackling this problem. The recovery process, the cost of MRI’s, physical therapy, etc., felt too much to face.

So sometimes we just need to feel our feelings. Cry, journal, scream, and wallow in our pain and be upset. It IS painful and scary when you have chronic symptoms that might change your life.

After that, we can take one small step at a time to start the healing process.

2. Balance, baby (supplements, pharmaceuticals)

I am so proud of how naturally I manage my health. I’m not 100% against pharmaceuticals, but I’ve also worked very hard and have been lucky enough to manage my health with diet, lifestyle, and natural supplements. So when I found myself on the ground, unable to sit up, let alone walk, and absolutely no over-the-counter pain medications in my apartment, I realized I did need a little help from pharmaceuticals.

It’s not “Natural OR pharmaceuticals”, rather I can use my curcumin supplements AND high dose NSAIDs.

Consider my medicine cabinet stocked with non-natural products for all future emergencies.

3. Nervous system. nervous system. nervous system

I’ve made the connection with stress and physical symptoms before, but it feels harder to manage in acute flares.

A natural reaction to something painful or bad happening is panic. But physiologically, a state of panic is a state where we can’t properly heal tissues or decrease inflammation.

Having resources readily available that I could pull from made it easier for me to calm my mind and nervous system. Some things that were really helpful for me:

• Journaling
• DNRS – I did this program last year and still refer back to it all the time
• Primal Trust – This program builds on the basics of DNRS to include more emotional aspects, somatics, and more
• Medigraytions – Body and disease-focused meditations. I did the back pain meditation
• Insight Timer App
• Laughing with friends
• Time outside

4. It’s ok to ask for help

I see a common pattern of people with chronic health issues and people-pleasing tendencies. We don’t want to burden others by asking for help and power through painful physical symptoms.

Especially when we are in a health flare, we need help from others.

This is admittedly hard for me, so I am thankful for my family and neighbors who offered to help me when I was in the most pain and clients who made sure to ask how I was feeling.

If you’ve dealt with any type of physical injury or illness, I am sure that you can relate to parts of this. For example, I felt similarly when I was dealing with daily migraines. Know that you aren’t alone – we are all on this healing journey together!