In yesterday's yin yoga class, I captured this picture of everyone in pigeon pose (in Sanskrit - eka pada rajakapotasana).
This is one of the most beneficial postures to alleviate lower back pain due to how it provides length to the piriformis muscle, a small band of tissue that attaches your sacrum to the femur. The sacrum is a shovel like bone at the end of the spine, sandwiched between the two bones of the pelvis, and the piriformis connects this to the underside of the thigh bone (femur). Underneath this piriformis is the sciatic nerve, which when compressed due to tension in this muscle (and other muscles in the hip), will send stressful signals back to the brain. Contraction occurs, and other muscles around the area put up a fight to compensate and protect us. All pain is a form of communication from the body to the brain, and if the brain cannot reconcile or determine where the pain is sourced, it will close off and try to 'protect' these areas. As we mentioned, this looks like compensation in various areas.
Yin-like stretches and postures held for 4-5+ minutes provide enough feedback to the brain that it is okay to 'let go' of these overly tense areas that are struggling to protect us. When we experience a let go and actually sink in to the tension, without avoiding it, the brain and body link up and are harmonious once again. We resume a natural posture, which is relatively pain free.
Pain is okay. It is a pointer. It shows us where to pay attention. It is necessary to look at it and view it with compassion and genuine curiosity to discover the origin of the issue and resolve it. Sometimes this can look like months of work, but as long as we are patient with ourselves we can many times get to very difficult root issues that have been locked inside of our bodies (and mind) for many, many years.
This pain as a teacher, might not be solely concerning tightness or tension in the body. Perhaps we experience emotional pain and stress in other ways. Why is it occurring, or recurring? Just observe. Pay attention to pain rearing its ugly head, and just by looking it might not appear so ugly anymore....
Allow this exploration to occur in practice, and in our lives. Be open to probing the lines between being numb to the pain, and the pain itself. Avoid being intentionally forceful, but instead practice being inquisitively curious as if you are a young child knocking at the door, wondering if anyone is home to answer.
I promise, there will be someone there to answer. That someone is you. Thank you for reading and may your practices be blessed with this childlike wonder and curiosity to explore.