For some of us, the working environment can be stressful (responsibilities, workload, deadlines, travelling, hierarchical pressure, etc.). When you add the lockdown and working from home in to the mix, we get magnified stress levels and an even greater impact on our health and wellbeing. That stress can lead to an increase in back and neck pain.
Why does stress have an impact on our backs?
When faced with stress, the body responds by tensing its muscles, but over time pain sets in and you start to experience muscular tensions. These tensions are usually felt in the upper half of the back. Indeed, neck and shoulder muscles are the most receptive to stress.
There are usually some simple solutions that can help us cope with temporary stress, such as listening to music or going for a walk (not as practical at the moment). However, sometimes simple tension can take on huge proportions. Indeed, we can consider stress as a vicious circle: when we are stressed, we experience severe back pain; thus this back pain becomes another source of stress which only increases the initial stress. A depression can hide behind strong muscle pain!
In some cases, back pain can be considered as the expression of physical, emotional and social discomfort. Increasingly, people are making a strong connection between the difficulties they face in their personal and/or professional life and the physical pain they feel.
But how can we avoid or deal with stress?
One of the most important things is to learn how to manage emotions and express your thoughts and feelings more effectively. Don’t internalise by keep feelings of anger, sadness and unhappiness to yourself. Externalising can help us to understand the real causes of stress and control it, or at the very least put it in to perspective.
Physical activity is a good way to release muscle tension and relieve stress. During a whole working day taking breaks is essential! Just getting up, walking, doing some stretching exercises can relieve your back and release the nervous tensions in your whole body.
How about relaxation and stress
Alternatively, you can take the opposite approach – during a stressful moment, take five minutes of your time to breathe. Lie down if possible, close your eyes and breathe slowly. Relaxation can help to release energy, reduce anxiety and increase feelings of calm.
Here are some examples of relaxation exercises that we hope will help you feel better in times of stress:
Cardiac consistency
This an effective method of regulating emotions by helping to manage stress and anxiety.
- Start by breathing slowly.
- Then take a deep breath for 3 seconds.
- Then, hold the air in your lungs for 12 seconds.
- Finally, release the air within 6 seconds.
- Repeat 5 times in a row until reaching 5 minutes.
Abdominal breathing
This helps to fight against fatigue and to flush toxins out of the body and guarantees muscle relaxation and brain oxidation.
- Sitting on a chair, put your hands on your stomach.
- Then inhale for 3 seconds, not forgetting to inflate your belly.
- Hold the air for another 3 seconds then take the time to breathe out slowly, releasing the air with your mouth and let your belly regain its normal size.
- It can be done three times a day during periods of stress.
Alternate breathing
This can help you fight anxiety.
- Close your left nostril with your finger and exhale through your right nostril.
- Through the same nostril, take a deep breath and then close this nostril with your thumb and exhale from your left nostril.
- Then inhale from your left nostril, then block it and exhale from your right nostril.
- Finish by exhaling slowly from both nostrils.