Tips to Free Yourself from Back Pain

Got back pain?

Recently a client brought a book to show me titled, 8 Steps to a Pain-free Back by Esther Gokhale (pronounced Go-clay), because she loved the simplicity and the benefits she has received from it.

Just a quick glance told me that I resonated with the information and simple concepts in this book. Though I haven’t finished reading the whole book yet, what I can say, is that I love how it is structured. Easy to comprehend, well-written and researched, with beautiful illustrations.

Esther Gokhale grew up in India and studied biochemistry at Harvard and Princeton. Later she studied acupuncture at the San Francisco School of Oriental Medicine. Her search into solutions for back issues began after her own bout with crippling back pain and an unsuccessful back surgery. Studying at the Aplomb institute in Paris and years of research in India, Portugal and elsewhere led her to develop her Gokhale Method.

Gokhale wonders, “Nearly 90% of American adults suffer from back pain. Why does this condition affect so many people in the industrial world, while in some countries only 5% report back pain.”

Gokhale’s book and philosophy go beyond helping to strengthen your back and addresses how changes in technology and society are impacting our spines and encouraging bad posture in many ways like in the case of modern cars, which seem to all be built with seats and head rests that “push” your head forward and give too much curvature to the low back, making them incredibly uncomfortable. Gokhale advocates for your body to do the work, not the seat you sit on.

For me, the old bench seats I had in many of my vehicles in the past, were some of the most comfortable and seemed to make more sense to my body than anything available today, by far. Someone should write a letter. . . 🙂

While I was reading reviews of the book, all of them positive, I found only one that complained that the book was “too generic”, that it used one method for everyone. To me, we are all individual no matter what the issue, there is no one treatment cure-all. Each of us tries different things until we find something that works, and posture issues are no different. But if you have back issues and you’re on the look-out for that thing that might work for you, Gokhale’s book is worth a try. We highly recommend her book or if your a visual learner like me, I also purchased her DVD.

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