Stilettos and back pain, yoga can help

Stilettos and back pain... Yoga can helpP

Stilettos are wonderful for the soul, but not so good for the body. A woman walking her way down the street, strutting her stuff, in her high strappy sandals feels great. Her legs look longer, elongated by the very shoes she is wearing. Her step is lighter, she is feeling as good as she is looking. All very fun and light but the lower back pain she will be feeling once she takes off her beautiful shoes will not be so fun.

I recently had the dubious honour of dancing the night away in a delightful and very sexy pair of stilettos. The party was fun, my husband and I had a really good laugh all evening and I kept my shoes on the whole night. Now this was a rather long party and when I thought about it later I had actually worn those shoes for nearly 8 hours. A very long time.

We made it home in the dark of night and collapsed into bed. Aaahh the sweetness of our king size bed had never felt so good and we both drifted off. We still had it, we could boogie the night away and keep up with everyone still. Funny to think we could and even funnier that we cared.

Upon waking, I found that my lower back was quite seized up and very painful. The vertebrae were and had been rubbing against themselves all evening and now I was feeling some loud pain in my lower back. I gingerly made my way to the day bed and rested on my back. Kids jumping, coffee spilling, a tricky way to alleviate lower back pain indeed.

Nearly two hours later I felt very uncomfortable and realized it was the relentless dancing that must have caused this and the base of my spine poking out in the direction that allow the vertebrae to push against each other.

Springing into action, albeit gentle action I began some yoga postures, hoping to realign my back and give these bones in my lower back some space.

First thing I tried was pachimottanasana (seated forward bend). Lifting up and lengthening my spine on the inhale I focused on making some space between the bones in my spine and using my breath to do so. Exhaling I folded forward, extending my spine as I folded toward my outstretched legs. I stayed here in this position for nearly 5 minutes. Breathing with awareness and integrity and very quickly I began to feel the benefits. My back muscles began to relax and release the tension that was causing me pain, wonderful. The bones in my spine were allowed some rest and the space around them grew. They were no longer squishing themselves together.

I stood up and again folded forward, my legs grounding to the earth and my sitting bones toward the heavens. Great work and so simple. Using my breath as the basis of the posture I began to let my head sink toward the floor and concentrated on making space and awareness for my spine. I could actually feel the tension in my muscles in the back begin to release and my spine come back into alignment.

Standing tall I focused on tilting my sitting bones toward the floor, not the wall behind me and they also helped the spine to move back to realignment. Yoga is a very simple and powerful tool for healing the body. The breath as our accomplice is a wonderful team.

After merely 15 minutes of focused and concentrated breathing and stretching I found that I replaced the pain and exhaustion I was feeling earlier with a sense of wellbeing and actual joy. This was the first time that I had used yoga so specifically and it reminded me of what a powerful tool yoga is for therapy and healing and repairing bodies.

Dancing with stilettos on is great and good fun but beware the next morning. Some stretches and a little focused breathing and you will be on your way to a happy day, even if you went to bed late.

Ladies in offices wearing high heels should take note, you can do these postures at your desk during lunch time and have a very efficient and open hearted afternoon at the office.