"The Correlation Between Breath and Pain"

by Richard Bird, Copyright  © February 1, 2007, all rights reserved

In his book, "Healing Back Pain", by Dr. John Sarno, MD, he talks about the link between muscle pain and Oxygen Deprivation.

Dr. Sarno's deduction is that all Tension Muscle Syndrome (TMS) at its core is caused from a lack of oxygen in the muscles, tendons, and ligaments.  He goes further to state that a nerve, which is also a tissue is also affected from a lack of oxygen.

So what does this mean.  Simply, when you are in pain, direct your breath to the area of pain.

While discussing this in class during the past week the question arose "What about pain from stress?"

Generally, stress is an inner response (mental, emotional and / or physical) to a perceived external stimuli or set of circumstances.  Common effects of stress are fear and anxiety.

Each person has different responses and in different degrees to stress.  In the case of fear or anxiety most go into flight and stop breathing which actually contracts the body and depriving the tissues of oxygen.

Also when you stop breathing, energetically you tend to lose energy thru the head.  The effect is ungrounding, pulling energy out of ground, feet, legs and pelvis (root).

So in this circumstance one would possibly feel pain from stress.  And yes the answer is to breathe.  Breath brings ones awareness and energy back into body and begins to redistribute and balance ones energy field.

Technically the inhalation is called "inspiration" (In - Spirit).  The breath integrates the mind and body.  The more we breathe deeply, fully and intentionally (especially in yoga postures) the more we are said to "Embody Our Spirit".