Four month ago I suffered from a very large (14*9) disc herniation at L1/L2, since then I have been practicing the gokhale method in my slow path to recovery. while I am improving overall, my condition only allows short periods of sitting and I practice stretch-sitting and stack-sitting whenever I do sit.
However, even when I generally feel okay, sitting is difficult and every few minutes I feel some kind of pain at various degrees in the effected areas (lower back, hip, groin), the pain will normally go away after a few seconds, but the sitting experience is uncomfortable both physically and mentaly as my mind is busy worrying about the next round of pain and keeping my posture right in attempt to avoid it.
I try to listen to my body and whenever I feel pain I go back to a horizontal position and practice stretch-lying which normally brings relief, however, while I don't want to ignore the pain, I am trying to train myself to sit again so I can go back to a more normal life.
your advice welcome.
3 years 2 months ago
12/15/2010 - 7:51am
You are doing all good things. The path to recovery from a back injury can be filled with that fear of the pain coming back. As you bring yourself out of it, in our experience, people have more and more confidence moving forward with the knowledge that they are in good posture. Stretchlying is the perfect segway into longer and longer periods of Stretchsitting. As your back heals and lengthens, you should be able to sustain longer bouts of sitting with out pain and excessive worry.
Good luck!
Warmly,
Charlene Hannibal
Gokhale Method Teacher, Palo Alto/San Francisco