It’s all about joy!

“Behind the curtain of your intellect and emotions is your self-image or ego. The ego is not your real self; it is the image of yourself that you have slowly built over time. It is the mask behind which you hide, but it is not the real you. And because it is not the real you, but a fraud, it lives in fear. It wants approval. It needs to control. And it follows you wherever you go.

“The ego is the prison you have built around yourself. Any time you feel discomfort in your body, your ego, which is e-g-o or edging-god-out, is overshadowing your inner self. Fear, doubt, worry, and concern are some of the energies associated with your ego. And how do you break free from captivity? You break free by choosing to identify with your inner self, the real you.

“You break free when you feel neither beneath anyone nor superior to anyone, when you shed the need to control other people, when you no longer use stereotypes or harbor extreme likes or dislikes toward people you hardly know. You break free when you refuse to follow the impulses of anger and fear, when your speech is nurturing rather than scathing, when you choose to express only your love.” Deepak Chopra

Since November, my lower back has been acting up pretty badly. I’d never had back pain before, so I was pretty torqued when it started, and more so when it didn’t go away on its own! It just feels like I’m all crunched up down there, and I want someone to grab my spine and stretch it out. I get regular massages, which help, and I’m physically active (another bonus). My goal, though, is to fully heal my lower back by Spring.

Here are the two big things I’m counting on to get my back into fighting shape by April:

• Bought a new mattress: I think the main culprit in my back “going bad” in the first place was my mattress. After six years, the poor thing outlived its usefulness. When I bought it, it was cheap, but comfortable. However, after years of flipping and turning it every which way, I had no undented spots left to sleep on. So, last weekend I finally bid my old mattress adieu and got a new one. It’s only been five days, but already my back feels better.

• Stretching every day: I was told by a friend to do the stretch pictured here every day until my back felt better. I thought he was crazy. The stretch, known as “plow” to yogis, has always scared me because of the pressure it puts on the back of the neck. Plus, I’m not always able to get my feet to touch the floor behind me. Well, it turns out that’s because my neck, back and hamstrings are too tight! I started doing this move every day in early December and OH MY GOD does it feel good. So good that I actually can’t wait to do it when I get home from work! (Sick, I know.) I feel every muscle and ligament from my neck to my knees stretch out, and what’s more, my lower back - no matter how sore it’s been all day - feels better instantly. (NOTE: Before I was able to get my feet to touch the floor behind me, I used a chair cushion and rested my feet on that, which still gave me a great stretch without straining too much.)

Do you have any all-natural lower back pain-relieving tips you can share? Please let me know!

Yesterday, I wrote about how I was experiencing a hormone-related funk. It was bad, and seeing how poorly I coped with it the day before, I was nervous it’d get the best of me once again. However, something wonderful happened instead. All day, including in the post I wrote, I talked about my hormone-related funk with anyone who would listen. Can I just tell you that by admitting to everyone and their mother that I was having a bad hormone day, I think it helped? Rather than hiding it, I was holding it out in front of me and showing it to people. “See this right here? This is my bad-ass mood caused by my bad-ass hormones. I’m all funked out today. Ate my weight in ice cream last night and felt even WORSE! Today’s a crap-shoot. I already swore my way through noontime, and nearly broke my computer when I slammed my hand against it because it didn’t do what I wanted… Yeah, see that? It’s my bad-ass mood. Wanna pet it?”

Somehow I think that by acknowledging it - giving it a spotlight and a stage - it lessened its hold over me. In the past, I’ve always tried to downplay it. “Megan, what’s wrong - you ok?” “Yeah, I’m fine. Just tired.” Uh, that’s a bald-face lie! Instead I just shouted it from the rooftops, and my mood, by the time the day was nearly over, was like, “Uh, Megan, I’m gonna calm down a bit tonight and if you could just do the same thing and stop talking to people about me, I’d be grateful.”

So there you have it! I think the biggest coping mechanism I had was telling the truth about how I was feeling and explaining to others where I thought it came from. (Thank you, JRW.) When we shine a light on those things we normally try to hide from others (because we’re afraid of how they’ll perceive us), it lessens their hold over us.

***

As is usually the case with how the Universe works (and our own powers of manifestation), the morning after I had the realization above, I was given another answer to my question of, “How can I more effectively cope with this hormone-related funk next month?” I had coffee with a new friend, and out of the blue (I hadn’t yet discussed my predicament with her), she started telling me about a book called “28 Days” by Gabrielle Lichterman. The book details out, day by day, what a woman can expect throughout her menstrual cycle.

Hallelujah!

Like a gift from heaven, my new friend started talking to me (and even sketched a diagram) about the exact phase I’d been in and what was happening hormone-, and of course, mood-wise. Oh, and turns out, it’s not “week 3,” as I’d been calling it; it’s actually week four.

Thank you, Jennifer!