How our spine changes under stress

In the middle of the last century, Western doctors proved that some bodily diseases develop more actively against the background of negative emotions – and to this day, psychosomatics continues to study this relationship.

Unlike the Western ones, Chinese doctors have never considered the health of the body separately from the psychological state of a person. To find a disease that is not related to emotions, we would have to extract the nervous system from us and see what we would be sick without it. Since this is impossible, any treatment in China involves working with both the body and the emotional background.

Scoliosis as a way not to break

The simplified mechanics of “psychosomatic” (and from the point of view of Chinese medicine – all) diseases is as follows: we regularly experience this or that emotion, it literally presses on us every day. And the body adapts to this pressure in such a way as to neutralize even more disastrous consequences.

To make it clearer, consider this idea using the example of scoliosis, a complex deformity of the spine. Science still cannot give an unambiguous answer why it is developing.

Chinese medicine links the development of scoliosis in children with excessive pressure in the family. For example, in my practice there was a case: a tender, vulnerable young man of 14 years old lived in a family with a military grandfather. And the well-meaning grandfather enforced military discipline. The boy obeyed, but every year the scoliosis progressed. As soon as grandfather died, the disease stopped developing. With the help of special gymnastics for the spine, it was possible to get rid of back pain and headaches, normalize blood pressure and get rid of the disease.

Excessive pressure may not be noticeable to adult family members, but if a child has a curved spine, this is a serious reason to think about the atmosphere at home. The child’s body takes the hit so as not to allow him to “break down” psychologically.

The skeleton literally bends under emotional pressure, allowing the child to keep the inner core. Patients with scoliosis are usually people with a very bright and strong will, so after the external moral pressure weakens, they have the opportunity to restore their health – despite the fact that scoliosis is considered a disease that is difficult to treat.

Typical examples

Here are a few more examples of diseases that easily go away if a person shifts attention to the body, understands the emotional background of what is happening and takes up treatment in two directions: corrects physiological problems and deals with psychological ones.

1. Pain in the neck

Sore point of socially successful women. No matter how much we talk about gender equality, many women find high positions and great responsibility more difficult than men. As a result, the figurative expressions “a big load on the shoulders”, “an unbearable burden” are very often realized in the form of tension and pain in the neck.

2. Slouch

This is one of the characteristic external manifestations of regular sadness. Animation artists are very bright, exaggeratedly able to convey the posture of a sad person: the neck and shoulders forward, the back is a wheel, the chest is sunken. A sad person may look relatively slender, but a striking manifestation of this “sad” posture will be slightly forward shoulders and a hump at the base of the neck.

From experience, I can say that very often such a posture in itself becomes a source of an unfavorable emotional background: a person was sad, hunched over from this, then the reason for sadness left, but the posture remained – and a person with such a spine easily falls into sadness, the shape of the body keeps it. In this case, work on posture allows you to radically change the emotional background.

3. Cardiovascular disease

If disorders develop in youth, they may be one of the possible consequences of chronic diaphragmatic tension. The diaphragm tenses in response to every acute experience, but in my experience, the most striking diaphragmatic tensions can be seen in people who are in tough negotiations, who are constantly forced to defend their rights (or the rights of the company they work for).

During the period of formation, this tension of the diaphragm becomes a support for them, strengthens their onslaught. If it becomes habitual, then the heart is constantly in a shortage of space – and begins to fail.

listen to yourself

The emotions that each of us experiences are unique. This means that their relationship with health will be individual. I have given several characteristic examples of postural disorders against the background of this or that emotional background, but do not rush to try them on yourself. Learn to understand your body, increase your own sensitivity – then the relationship between your personal emotions and your state of health will become clear and easily fixable.

The best way to develop the ability to feel the body is through oriental practices, such as qigong for the spine. It will be easier for you to control your emotions, the body will become more flexible, stable and – most importantly – a healthy system.