Relieve Low Back Pain With Movement

This movement meditation aligns your body and mind to reduce pain and stress while increasing your flexibility, stability, and coordination. Any practice can be enhanced with these gentle exercises and meditations of the world-renowned Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement class.

Playful, yet highly studied and deeply instructive, this somatic discovery sparks surprising new connections within your body as you “rewire” your moving, thinking, and feeling habits.

Transcript

Find a place on the floor where you can lie down.

You can use a blanket or a yoga mat or a rug.

Spread out on the floor and take a minute to sense and feel the contact that you're making with the floor that is supporting you.

Move your attention to the place where your head is touching the floor,

That specific point.

And from there,

Let your attention shift to the next area where you can feel contact.

Where did your attention go?

Place it on your spine,

On your shoulders.

Again,

Let your attention shift to the next place where you can feel contact,

Tracing the shape of your body as you're resting.

Place your elbows,

Your hands.

Move your attention along the spine,

All the way to your pelvis.

And from the pelvis,

Let your attention shift through your legs,

Following the length of the legs as they rest on the floor.

Observe if one leg feels a little longer than the other or lighter.

Now for a moment,

Connect in your mind's eye these five lines of your arms,

Legs,

And spine.

Kind of like a stick figure,

A drawing you would make as a child when you begin to learn how to draw.

And see how did you imagine the joints between these lines,

The joints at the hips,

The shoulders,

The neck,

The pelvis.

How clear are they in your self-image?

And now take a breath,

Deeper breath than you're used to.

Let the air travel through your five lines.

See if it changes in any way the contact that you're making with the floor.

And now make a small movement with your head to the left and to the right,

Just a little bit away from this line of the middle.

Is it easier in any direction?

Can you tell there is a difference in the pathway of the head going to the right and going to the left?

Do you observe that habitually your head rests a little bit off the middle and you would tend to keep it to the right or keep it to the left for you to be more comfortable?

Please bend your knees and stand your feet on the ground.

And notice what happens to the space behind your lower back when you bend your knees.

So make your legs long again,

Keeping your attention on the lower back and bend them again.

So a couple times you lengthen the legs and bend them again and sense what happens to the space behind your lower back.

If you need to,

You can put your hands under that gap and sense the change in pressure over your hands as you bend your knees.

You may sense that there is a wider space,

A bigger arc on your lower back when your legs are long.

And as you bend your knees and place your feet on the ground,

The lower back gets a little closer to the floor and the space becomes smaller.

Now do something with your feet.

Engage your feet with the floor so that space behind the lower back is even smaller.

You may think of it as pressing,

Tilting,

Moving your pelvis in such a way that the space behind the lower back or the pressure against your hands if they're still there increases.

And observe what happens all the way up your head as a consequence of this movement.

Where does the movement stop?

How far up towards the top of your head can you feel it?

Please keep breathing as you move.

Keep a little space between your teeth.

Let your tongue be free inside your mouth.

And then after four or five movements of the pelvis,

You can lengthen the legs again and take a brief rest.

And as you rest,

Come back to this idea of your body as five interconnected lines and see if something is changing.

Sense the length of the lines,

The contact of the lines with the floor,

The spaces between the lines,

And the joints or junctures that connect the two legs,

Your two arms,

Your spine,

With your pelvis and your head.

Now bend your knees again and place your feet on the ground.

And this time imagine that there's a clock in front of you on the wall that is sliding down the wall and sliding on the floor and sliding under your pelvis.

So you're now lying on the round face of a clock.

And on your belly button there's 12 o'clock and on your tailbone is 6 o'clock.

And now continue doing the movement of the legs,

Pressing on the floor,

Coming into your pelvis and moving it as if you wanted to press 12 o'clock on this imaginary clock.

It's actually the same movement,

You're bringing more contact to the lower back,

Narrowing that space between your waist and the floor.

Now you're just being more precise with it,

Thinking that it's not anywhere but towards 12 o'clock,

Which will be closer to your spine than say to your left hip joint.

And see again how far up the spine can you follow the resonance of this movement.

How far up the spine can it travel?

Does it stop in the chest,

In the throat?

Can you feel it all the way to the top of your head?

So a few times you press on the floor,

Take your pelvis to 12 o'clock and return,

Make a brief pause,

Reset,

Take a breath.

When you do it again maybe you try something a little different.

Maybe there's something you're doing that you can stop doing,

Such as clenching your teeth or holding your breath,

Any strange movement with your hands or your toes.

In other words,

Observe where can you stop working so hard and reduce the effort.

And see if you can detect a relationship when you stop working so hard,

You can sense more movement up the spine.

If you hold your breath,

The movement stops somewhere closer to the pelvis.

If you clench your teeth,

Your head doesn't move so much.

So purposely play with this idea that the effort,

We call it in Feldenkrais parasitic effort that you're engaged in takes away the possibility for you to sense and feel more.

And your ability to reduce the effort allows you to sense more and to become more aware of the connectedness that there is between every single part of your body.

Now please stop the movement and rest.

Take your legs long again,

Return to this idea of your five lines and their joints,

Their connections.

Maybe move the head a little bit left and right and see if anything is changing.

Now imagine this face of a clock again sliding under your pelvis and even before you bend your knees have a clear image of where the directions are in this imaginary clock.

So imagine now that right below 12 o'clock,

Which was on your belly button,

There's 6 o'clock towards your pubic bone in the direction of your feet.

And bend your knees again,

Stand your feet and now create the movement with your legs that will allow your pelvis to tilt in the direction of 6 o'clock.

And take some time to explore how to do this.

Create a movement with your legs and your feet that will take your pelvis in the direction of 6 o'clock.

Now I could have asked you to move your pelvis in the direction of 6 o'clock,

Which you can also do.

Draw the pelvis down,

Tilt it,

Increase the space behind your lower back and then see if you can do it by using your legs.

So it's not just the pelvis though,

The pelvis will move,

But your feet,

Your legs are also part of this movement.

You may feel more contact on your sacrum,

You may feel less contact on the lower back.

And what else can you sense up your spine in the direction of your head?

Is it clearer for you to notice that as your pelvis tilts,

Your whole spine gets moved in that direction and your head,

Your chin can also move?

So a few times take your pelvis down to 6 o'clock,

Return the pelvis to neutral,

Take a little break,

Repeat the movements 4 or 5 times,

Seeing how can you make it simpler each time.

What can you stop doing or let go of?

And simplify the movement.

And after 4 or 5 repetitions,

You can take a break,

Let go of the movement,

Let go of your attention to the movement and just make your legs long and rest.

Resting in failing crises where the integration of the movement takes place.

So we value rest as much as we value actual movement.

And as you're resting,

You're paying attention to the little differences that emerge and any change you can detect between now and the last time you were here.

Now bend your knees again please.

And by the way,

Observe if you always bend your knees the same way.

I mean always this leg first and that leg second and begin to peek into your habits even in the moments in between movements.

Now you're lying again on the face of this clock and you have 12 o'clock at the belly button and 6 o'clock at the sacrum,

The pubic bone.

And now picture that you have a 3 o'clock somewhere on your left hip joint.

And make a movement with your legs to take the pelvis exactly onto 3 o'clock.

Not 2,

Not 4.

So which foot would you use to move your pelvis to 3 o'clock and create more contact on the left hip joint?

So which foot would you use to move your pelvis towards 3 o'clock and create more contact between the left hip joint and the floor?

You might as well try both.

Try the right foot once.

Try the left foot once.

Step into one of Feldenkrais most interesting principles which is we learn by making mistakes.

So we embrace confusion.

We embrace trial and error.

We embrace mistakes as an opportunity to discern.

So if you once press with your left foot you might notice that your pelvis goes to the right which is the opposite of the left hip joint.

And once or twice you press with the right foot and you may notice that your pelvis can tilt to the left.

So now once go to 3 o'clock,

Once go to 9 o'clock,

Engage in one foot and then the other and strengthening this relationship between your feet and your pelvis.

Notice that you can move your pelvis from the contact that your feet make with the floor.

And see if you can tell that one of your shoulders,

One side of your chest also gets more contact as you're pressing on your feet or engaging your feet.

So pay attention to your shoulders and your chest.

Which side of your shoulders gets closer to the floor when your pelvis is on 3 o'clock?

Which side of your chest lifts creating more space from the floor?

Is there a relationship between your pelvis and your shoulders?

Now please leave it,

Rest again,

Lengthen your legs,

Stretch out.

Take a breath or two and let your head move gently from left to right.

And see if there's any difference that you can detect on the quality of the movement,

The ease,

The range,

Your internal sensation.

Renew this image of your five lines.

Observe how are they connected.

See if something is growing in your image of yourself.

Almost as if a painter creating a new landscape suddenly reveals a possibility that was always there.

If you begin to imagine your pelvis as a huge clock,

That may affect the way you move it,

You use it.

Now bend both of your knees please and place your feet on the ground.

Imagine again that you're lying on the face of a clock and before you make the next movement,

Just take a moment to imagine how would you move this clock all around the circle.

So see it in your mind,

Imagine the feet relationships,

When would you use one foot,

When would you use both?

Imagine the movement traveling all the way to your shoulders,

To the back of your head.

And after you've imagined it a few times,

Go ahead and do it.

And gather even more details about what is it like to go towards 12 and then if you choose to go clockwise,

Move your pelvis to 3 on the left hip joint and then 6 on your tailbone and join the arch of your lower back and then 9.

And as you return to 12 and your pelvis becomes flat again,

Long and closer to the floor,

Your spine.

Increase the speed a little bit so it's a more continuous movement.

Maintain the smoothness of it and the quality of it so you don't have to rush it but make it a little faster.

And when you make it a little faster,

You may sense that there's circles happening in other areas as well,

Not only on your pelvis.

So as you continue going in the same direction around the clock,

Feel your movement throughout your knees,

Your chin,

The back of your head,

Your shoulders.

And now decide that at any moment you can hold your breath or clench your teeth as you maintain this smooth movement around the clock.

And just see what happens when you clench your teeth or hold your breath.

And then release the breath and make some space between your teeth and just observe the quality changing.

Decide for yourself what makes the movement easier and simpler and stick to that.

And reverse the direction.

Take the clock counterclockwise if you were going clockwise.

See what needs to shift inside of you to make this possible.

And all you're doing is just looking for circular movement.

So you may stay in an area of the clock that is angular or straight and emphasize the roundness,

Emphasize the circularity of the movement.

And it might help you to do that to pay attention to all the other parts of yourself that are making circles,

Your knees,

Your chest,

Your sternum.

And after a while,

You can let the movement stop,

Take a rest,

Lengthen your legs again.

And one more time,

Observe if you can detect any difference.

Is anything changing that you can detect?

Now one last time,

Please bend your knees,

Stand your feet.

Place this imaginary clock under your pelvis.

And as you continue the movement around the clock,

Change something about the size of the clock.

So go ahead and make a very large movement as if you're lying on top of a very big wall clock.

And see how far up into your spine and your shoulders and your head can you let this movement be when the imaginary clock is very large.

And change direction.

And now alter something about the size of the clock.

Make it a medium-sized clock,

Something that you would put on your kitchen.

And notice what do you do to make it smaller?

And can you allow the same connection throughout your spine,

The same resonance,

The same reverberance of this movement through even though it's a little smaller?

Does it have to stop?

Does it have to become tight?

And now make it even smaller and maybe a little faster,

Kind of like a wristwatch.

And it's very minimal and it's just there.

And it's still moving your whole spine,

Your head,

Your eyes inside your sockets.

Change the direction.

And now take it to this size and the speed of your preference.

Now do it as big and as fast as you want it to be.

What feels the best,

The most enjoyable.

So you can choose how fast you want to do it.

You can choose how large you want to do it.

All you care about is that it's a smooth movement,

That you're enjoying it,

That it feels good.

And see if you can allow your teeth to open again,

Have a little space between them,

A little smile come up.

And enjoy the circularity of the movement all around yourself in every joint,

In every vertebrae.

And slow it down more and more until you completely stop it.

And then take one final rest.

Spread out,

Lengthen your legs,

Your arms.

Bring your attention one last time to your five lines,

The contact with the floor,

The movement of your breath,

The movement of your head.

And see if you can tell that some things have changed.

Not only in the physicality of your body,

But also in your sensations,

In your internal space,

Maybe even in your thinking,

Your feeling.

So after a while,

You can roll to the side,

Come to sit,

Come to stand.

Go for a little walk and enjoy the movement of your clocks in gravity.

Reviews

Excelente para liberar tensiones de la espalda baja. Gracias🙏

Excellent for relieving tension in the lower back. Thank you 🙏

I’ve been dealing with menopausal sciatica and this is a MAJOR help and pain release! I haven’t felt this good in days. Thank you Iniverse for leading me to this exercise.

Fantastic- at first I thought was a waste of time and I dislike slow intentional movement. But this made me really think how I move and the value of small gentle movement. Back pain pretty much gone - just a small dull ache -Thank you. Suprised.

That was very interesting and informative. I have done yoga for years but never have I paid so much attention to what happens in different parts of my body. Delivery and pace of this was excellent. I shall repeat it, thank you ❤️🙏🏻

Different. and very helpful and pleasant session. Thank you.

Started out feeling very stiff but gradually softened and felt more and more sensation, wonderful practice thank you

Quite unexpectedly a sudden rush of emotional release appeared. I have been ignoring my pelvis, back for too long it seems. Absolutely incredible practice, and the teacher’s voice, cadence, direction is so smooth and clear. I can’t give this a high enough rating. Overwhelmed with gratitude♥️🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽

Loved this! I’m saving it for my favourites. It was enjoyable and felt like a great lower back massage. Thank You 🙏

Wonderful guidance for your Yoga class and very helpful and clear explanations. It helped my back pain so much! ☆Thanks so very much! :)

WOW!! Pleasantly suprised how this helped!!! My sciatic area is.. ooof. But now.. Thank Ypu! Can't wait to do it again!

Incredibly helpful for my sciatica issues and ones ability to bring awareness to the hips movements generally. Beautiful guidance. Thank you.

I love this

Gooood

Extremely easy to practice , the speed and concise instructions helped enormously to connect to body movements, thank you so much 🙏🙏🙏

This meditation helped my back and brought a new awareness of my body, very peaceful🙏❤️

Simple movements and massive difference to how my back feels much better. Thank you 😊

I’ve had scoliosis since childhood and now fibro, and really thought I was familiar with movement options. I just listened for this first round (with chair movements just so I could start out very lightly) and love this! It’ll be a good replacement for the water therapy I cannot due because of lockdown right now. I’ll show my daughter this too. (I even think it’d be useful for mind focus for busy ADHD minds...it’s calming but very movement focused—I would use the shorter form. Of course, you could always record a kid friendly version too). ;) Thank you!

Surprisingly helpful. I’m also pleasantly surprised and grateful for Feldenkrais.
Thank you

Awesome! A lovely, gentle, nurturing sequence that really loosens and relaxes the spine...indeed, the whole body!
Thank you - I’m walking taller! 🙏🏽

That was surprisingly very helpful. I had stopped taking ballet barre classes because of bunions and then my back started hurting in spite of regular adjustments. Because of the instructions given here I could feel how my tendency to curve my back out like I’m almost sticking out my butt was hurting my back. So I highly recommend trying this but I wonder if some body awareness might be a must? I was getting desperate about the back pain so that made me more receptive to what normally might have seemed too “slow” for me. I get that the methodical feeling and sensing of the body is absolutely essential here.