If you follow me, you know that I write a blog about back pain. If you don’t follow me, you should (LOL). I have been dealing with back problems for about 20 years, and it sucks. 
What I want to talk about today is the mental side of back pain. No product reviews, no keyword searching, just writing from the heart. This is a tough nut to crack, and I definitely feel kind of down today, so I want to share some thoughts.
Today is one of those days that I dread because it conjures up memories of the past that I would rather not relive. My back hurts today. My back is always on my mind. I had back surgery about 20 years ago and have been dealing with back problems ever since. Part of it is my fault for not changing my behavior, but I never really received any good advice along the way either. I should have done more research.
Either way, today is one of those days when I wonder how my life going forward will turn out, I am only 46 years old and have a long history of back problems. Does that mean I am doomed? I hope not.
My mental toughness is being tested as I walk gingerly around the house. No gym today, rather I will focus on movements that don’t hurt. I have to concentrate extra hard on proper body mechanics. I went for a long slow walk with my wife this morning, and that was a good thing.
How did I get here?
I work on core exercise every day at home. I exercise to stay in shape, and I do a lot of walking. One of the things I tend to do, though is become complacent. I don’t step out of my comfort zone and see what I can or can’t do. Part of that is because I get lazy and part of it is because I have found exercises I can do that don’t hurt and I know they won’t make me hurt later.
Even though I feel like I have a decent core, I realize that I need to add some variety to challenge myself mentally and physically.
So, yesterday I tried some new exercises or variations of exercises I perform pretty regularly. I noticed when I went to bed last night that I was feeling sore in my low back. This kind of festered overnight and this morning I got and am walking around very gingerly.
Putting on my socks
The hardest part of my morning was getting dressed, and putting on my socks since this involved bending over. Now mind you I am not overweight and am in pretty darn good shape, so bending over to put on my socks is not an issue for me, but today it was.
This tends to conjure up memories of back problems in the past, and that is not a good thing for my psyche. I have been through a lot, more than most people I know as far as back problems. Most people I know who have back problems, go see a chiropractor or get a shot and they are good to go.
I also know that there are a lot of people out there in a whole lot worse shape than I am, so I thank my lucky stars as things could be a lot worse.
One of the problems I face is just the mental part of back pain. Honestly, it is something that I think about pretty much every day of my life. I wish I could break through that. 
My biggest fear is doing something that will result in me having another back surgery. I wish I could break the mental grip this has on me.
So today, I slowly got up out of bed, after a restless night of sleep and an achy back that helped to keep me awake. I gingerly started my day. Thankfully it’s the weekend, so I can take it somewhat easy. As I mentioned, I will not be going the gym, I need to take it down a notch and give my body some time to recover. I went for a nice walk with my wife this morning, since that is a great exercise, something I can still do that is low impact and keeps me moving.
I am pretty sure I will feel better tomorrow because I think I just pushed some muscles in my low back a little too far yesterday, but I won’t know for sure until tomorrow. If I am feeling better tomorrow, then I will do some of those same exercises again and build toward adding some variety to my workouts.
Dealing with my day
Body mechanics have been foremost on my mind today. When I put my socks on this morning, I had to make sure I did so when proper mechanics. Concentrating on movements that don’t cause pain has been my primary goal today. I don’t want to do anything that will exacerbate my pain as I am hoping that tomorrow things will improve and I can go about my day and my life.
I am also wearing a back brace today, and it feels pretty good, it really helps to kind of lighten my load. One thing a back brace does it also helps me with posture. One additional thing I have noticed is my tailbone is not hurting as much when I am wearing the back brace.
I have written a lot of reviews about products that can help different people with different ailments. The truth of the matter is, there is no “one-size-fits-all” fix for back pain. Some of these products work for people, and some people will not find any relief.
Personally, I have tried a lot of different approaches in my life, inversion tables have worked the best for me over the years.
I am a big advocate for working out to improve not only core strength but overall fitness as a way to combat back problems. With all the sitting people do, this seems to be a big contributor to back problems for people.
Other stuff on my mind
Aside from today specifically, I mentioned earlier I have been dealing with tailbone pain recently. I have seen my chiropractor a few times, but have not received any relief. The best thing for me is sitting on my coccyx seat cushion and trying to stand as much as I can when I am at home and work. Sitting for too long causes tenderness in my tailbone and I find myself easing out of the chair when I get up.
The other day my wife and I went to see a movie, and I was a mess at the end of the movie! I took me a while to get moving again because of my tailbone pain. But by the time I got out of the theater and to my car I was doing pretty good. But then what happens? I sit down again in the car! Seems like a never-ending cycle.
Hopefully, this post gives you a bit of a glimpse into my life. I hate to say that every single day I think about my back, which is probably not the best thing for me. Although, this does make me very conscious of my body mechanics, so maybe that is something good that comes of it.
I leave you with a couple of questions:
Do you have chronic back pain?
If so, how do you deal with the mental side of it?
Thanks for tuning in, I appreciate you stopping by today. If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below, and I will get back to you as soon as I can. Feel free to contact me directly anytime.
Steve