Your Source for Back Pain Relief & Sciatica Relief Techniques That WORK: November 2011

The 3rd Secret To Back Pain Relief and Sciatic Nerve Pain Relief: Adequately Rest Your Body and Mind

Can you remember a time when you were seriously stressed out, anxious, maybe even feeling overwhelmed? Do you remember how tense your muscles got? You could probably feel it most clearly in your shoulders. Yes, the mind-body connection is powerful: your state of mind (your stress levels basically) truly can damage the body. The fact is mental and emotional stress, regardless of the type or the reason for it, is a major cause of or contributor to back pain and sciatic nerve pain - even with more structural-based conditions like piriformis pain syndrome.

But if you allow it to, your body has an amazing power to handle pressure well and heal itself. You just need to give yourself the rest, relaxation and sleep you need for recovery.

But how can you make sure to consistently get the rest necessary to achieve sciatic nerve pain relief or back pain relief? I'm glad you asked…

Get Adequate Rest Throughout The Day
One big mistake many of us make is not taking breaks during the day. For example, sitting all day at work can cause piriformis pain and back pain, even spinal problems and more. If that's your situation, make it a habit to stand up, stretch or walk a little every half hour or so. On the flip side if you're on your feet all day, regularly sit down for a few minutes at a time.

You could also take a power nap for 15-30 minutes – however do NOT take a nap much longer than that; you'll start going into the deeper phases of the sleep cycle and wake up more groggy than rested. So a great habit to develop is to fit breaks or naps or both into your daily routine as is appropriate to your situation.

For many people though, their jobs require them to be sitting down for such long periods that even regular breaks don't bring much pain relief, or they just can't take enough breaks. Is this describing you, too? Or do you want to make sure this never becomes you? Then you need a chair that lets you sit and get your work done without aggravating your back pain or being struck from buttock to leg with sciatic nerve pain flare-ups. I recommend you check out this specially designed office chair and judge if it's right for you.

Daily Relaxation Techniques
All of us have many stresses coming at us in our lives. We deal with more stresses routinely than people in the past so now it's even more important to take the time to truly relax your body and your mind. Vegetating in front of the TV doesn't count by the way.

Some things you can do regularly to get some real relaxation include: sitting quietly on your porch enjoying the ambiance; meditating; taking walks while looking at things far away; doing yoga or Tai-Chi; going to the beach often if you can.

On top of these, one great relaxation technique to use is this easy breathing exercise:
Find a comfortable, quiet place where you won't be disturbed for a while. Sit naturally with your back straight without forcing it. Put your hands on your thighs or your lap and just leave them there. Close your eyes…

Now concentrate on your nostrils and notice the feel of the air as it passes through your nose as you inhale and exhale.

Relax your shoulders and chest and just breathe naturally, don't try to make yourself breathe more deeply, that will happen on its own. Keep paying attention to the sensation in your nose from your breathing.

Breathe in, breathe out. Notice that between your inhale and exhale there is a brief pause; just be aware of it.

Feel your body expand with each breathe in and contract with each breathe out.

It's that simple. But if you do if for 15-20 minutes you'll feel wonderfully reinvigorated. Do it for up to an hour and you'll be stunned with your high energy level throughout the day.

How To Get Enough Good Sleep:
The body heals, grows and builds up tissues primarily during deep sleep. Deep sleep is one part of the sleep cycle we go through at night, so the less sleep you get overall, the less time there is for deep sleep. If you're not getting enough of that deep sleep you basically handicap your body's efforts to heal itself of the inflammation that triggers sciatic nerve pain and back pain.

“You must get 8 hours of sleep every night” is an oversimplification - as with most things how much sleep different individuals need varies within a certain range. 6-9 hours of sleep per night is ideal.

Three Ways to Get Better Sleep
To get those 6-9 hours of sleep regularly it's critical that we don't fall victim to insomnia. And just as important is the quality of our sleep, not just the quantity. Below are 3 simple ways to overcome or avoid lack of sleep and poor quality sleep…

Warm feet carry you swiftly to sleep: You see, blood circulation is comparatively poorest in the feet. Cold feet has been found to cause people to wake up at night (among other things :-) ). A study conducted by Swiss sleep scientists proved that if your feet are warmer than room-temperature you will fall asleep faster. So what’s the easy solution? Wear socks to bed. No, that wasn’t a typo; I said socks. It may or may not be a fashion faux pas, but if this is a problem for you, keeping your feet warm this way can help you go to sleep and stay asleep. Whether you need back pain relief or sciatic nerve pain relief, this tip can help give your body the rest time it needs to heal the inflammation and injury at the root of your pain.

Eat your way to a good night's sleep: For better sleep, your last meal for the day/night should be high in protein. These foods supply your body with the amino acid L-tryptophan which enables the production of melatonin and serotonin, neurotransmitters (brain chemicals) necessary for quality sleep.

Take a powerful natural sleep aid: If getting enough sleep is a persistent, ongoing problem for you, consider using a natural sleep aid. These unique supplements are proven SAFE - unlike prescription sleep medications which I'm sure you'd heard the horror stories about - and full of ingredients proven through research and long history of use to allow people to finally get deep, quality sleep night after night. I recommend you try this one out for FREE here – it is recognized as one of the best formulations out there. FYI: the reason I recommend you try out a free bottle for starters is because not every sleep aid works for everybody. Each person has a unique body chemistry just as we all have unique fingerprints, and for a very tiny minority of people their body chemistry may not respond to this formulation. That's why I suggest you try this sleep supplement free at no risk - and that's also how confident I am that this one will work for you given its outstanding track record.

Three Sleep-Killing Things to Avoid Right Before Bed
These common actions and habits rob you of a good night's sleep like a thief in the night (pardon the bad pun)…

Eating right before going to bed: In particular, avoid anything loaded with sugar or grains. This is important because such foods when digested rapidly flood your blood with glucose causing a “sugar high”, which forces your body to process all that sugar quickly. In doing this your blood sugar level drops too low for a while and that can wake you up and make it harder to get back to sleep. Also, during sleep your body redirects blood flow to your muscles and other organs for healing and recovery. Therefore it is best that the last food you eat for the night is several hours before bedtime so your body is not forced to digest food while you sleep; interfering with the healing process.

Watching TV or using the computer right before sleeping: This is bad because TV – both the content and the artificial light from the screen itself – stimulates parts of the brain and can disrupt hormone and neurotransmitter levels, making it really hard to fall asleep and/or to achieve healthy deep sleep. If you have a TV in your bedroom and habitually watch it just before going to sleep, you should seriously consider moving the TV to another room. If you use the computer almost right up to the moment you go to bed, try out getting off the computer an hour or so before going to bed and see if you fall asleep faster and wake up feeling better.

Drinking caffeine or alcohol: Drinking coffee or those “energy drinks” in the afternoon will continue to affect many people well into the night and make it harder to fall asleep. Definitely avoid drinking them after dark. Now alcohol does make people drowsy, but it's common for a person to wake up several hours later and be unable to go back to sleep. Most importantly, alcohol blocks you from getting into the deeper stages of sleep when all the healing you need if you have back pain, piriformis pain or other types of sciatic nerve pain happens...

Insufficient rest, relaxation and sleep makes it difficult, even impossible for us to cope with the mental stresses that we all face in some form daily without becoming stressed out. Insufficient rest harms the body directly, making it ineffective at healing and rejuvenating. Without enough rest/sleep and relaxation, tissue inflammation worsens and the body can't properly repair injuries, and these are two of the core causes of cases of sciatic nerve pain and back pain. Thus, regardless of whatever else you do, without using this third "secret" (get some rest), achieving back pain relief and sciatic nerve pain relief is practically impossible.

You've just read a variety of tips, techniques and strategies to ensure you effectively rest your body and mind. You, me, all of us MUST get adequate rest daily to be at our pain-free best. Look at your own life and behavior, see which points apply to you and use the techniques provided.

Do you need a chair that helps relieve your piriformis pain or back pain instead of worsening it?
Start doing the breathing exercise for 15 minutes every other day.
Eat a high-protein low-sugar/starch dinner well before bedtime and don't eat again for the rest of the night.
Use a safe and effective sleep supplement with zero side-effects to eliminate insomnia and wake up rested and energized every morning... Etc...

Use these tips and experience for yourself how easy enjoying the pain relief you need can be, among many other benefits.

Stay healthy my friends,

Jevaughn Brown

Your Source for Back Pain Relief & Sciatica Relief Techniques That WORK

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