Struggling with chronic lower back pain, despite regular core exercises and support?
Uncover the hidden link between your nervous system, root chakra, and your lower back pain.
Here are 3 ways this video might help you:
✅ Learn about the allostatic load, the invisible weight of stress, and how it can affect your spine, especially your hips and lower back.
✅ Explore how your lower back acts as a stress barometer, absorbing the allostatic load,
✅ Understand the energetic role of your root chakra in maintaining spinal health. How grounding yourself energetically can help alleviate persistent lower back discomfort and promote a sense of safety and ease in your body.
PLUS, learn 3 practical exercises to relieve tension and restore support.
So join me as we delve into the diaphragm’s crucial role in connecting our chakras and the healing power of our breath.
Want to read the transcript?
Here it is…
Is your lower back always stiff, tired, or tight? No matter how much you support it?
Is your back stiff, tired, or tight every morning? No matter how much exercise you do for your core? It might not be about movement. It could be your nervous system asking for relief.
It could be a sign that your nervous system and your root chakra are crying out for safety and support.
According to Bessel Van Vander, author of “The Body Keeps the Score” our lower back often carries what the rest of our body can no longer hold.
Hello and welcome. I’m Sarah Gowans, remedial massage, craniosacral therapist, and emotional integration facilitator at Blossoming Me and the Healthy Learning Lounge.
Here we are a sanctuary where you can tap into to nurture your journey to health, to wellbeing, and a positive mindset. We focus on helping you. Clear the stresses, tensions, and blocks that can hold you back from living your most fulfilling life.
Your lower back is your stress barometer, your foundation, and fallback. When your core is weak, your hips are tense, or your breath is shallow, the lower back steps in to compensate. If you add chronic stress to the mix, you’ve got the perfect storm: overworked muscles, compressed disc, and a nervous system that never fully gets to rest.
Welcome to the world of the allostatic load. The hidden toll of long-term stress on our body.
So today we’ll explore a few things: how your lower back can become a stress sponge, the link between core dysfunction and spinal strain, the energetic role of your root chakra, and how chronic stress may be contributing to your pain and fatigue. And finally, we’ll go through a few exercises that can help release tension and restore support for you.
Number 1: The Allostatic Load: The Invisible Weight on Your Spine
Allostatic load is the wear and tear on our body from repeated stress. Our lower back is often the first area to take that hit.
Imagine your body is like a backpack. Every time you deal with stress, like rushing through school drop-offs, juggling work calls, and managing family needs. With each one, you’re putting another rock into that backpack.
The allostatic load refers to what happens when that backpack gets too heavy. It is the wear and tear on your body and your brain from carrying stress, day after day, without enough time or tools to recover.
Our lower back is one of the first places to feel that load.
Our breath stays shallow, posture slumps forward, and your stabilising core muscles, check out or shut down. So your lower back steps in your lower back steps in to support it all, straining and struggling, trying to hold you up.
Research shows that chronic stress reduces the activity in our stabilising muscles and increases our overuse of spinal extensor muscles. This can create even more pain and stiffness.
Number 2: The Root Chakra – Our Inner Grounding Cord
The Root chakra sits at the base of our spine. It governs safety and survival, stability and structure; grounding and our connection to the earth. Now here’s where it connects with chronic stress and back pain – when life feels chaotic, uncertain, and unsafe, like it’s all too much. A blur of to-do lists, carpool runs, unpredictable finances, or general uncertainty. Our brain (and nervous system) shifts into survival mode.
This is when the root chakra starts to dim. It’s like a warning light flashing, “we’re not safe. We are not safe.”
This sense of insecurity affects our whole system. Our muscles stay tight, especially in the lower back and pelvis. Our breath stays high and shallow, impacting our ribcage and diaphragm too. We feel tense, guarded, or like we’re always on edge. That’s when the allostatic load is in action. Making your body constantly brace against the world.
When our root chakra is weak, underactive, or simply overwhelmed, our lower spine bears the brunt of it. Pain, fatigue, and a constant sense of unease become our body’s way of asking for grounding. You might feel anxious, or ungrounded, physically tense or rigid, or even disconnected from your body entirely.
By focusing on our root chakra with practices like breath work, grounding movements, or even simple stillness, we can send a powerful message to our nervous system.
“You are safe now.”
As Anodea Judith, author and therapist and speaker on the chakra system, body mind integration and somatic therapy, as well as yoga. She says to feel rooted, is to feel safe enough to let go.
Number 3: The Spine as a Grounding Rod
Our spine is our vertical axis, physically and emotionally. It’s not just structural support, it’s also the channel for our core stability and our subtle energies. When our root chakra is activated and supported, our spine feels long, strong, and free of unnecessary tension.
But under chronic stress, the picture changes. Shortening and stiffening the spine. The lumbar area either flattens or overextends. As it tries to absorb the physical and emotional load, our core muscles disengage while superficial back muscles are left to overwork. Creating tension, fatigue, and more compensation. Our nervous system remains in a state of alert, preventing deep rest and physical release. This feedback loop between chronic stress, muscular strain, and emotional and energetic depletion can create persistent discomfort in our lower back.
When your root chakra is underactive, your body doesn’t feel safe enough to relax.
So your spine stays straight, your breath stays shallow, and your lower back is locked in defense mode. So activating and nourishing this chakra can restore a deep sense of safety in your body, helping your spine to settle into ease.
Practices to Support Your Root Chakra and Release Tension and Stress
Grounding isn’t passive. It’s a dynamic act of returning to safety again, and again, and again. So here are some practices that you can do to support your root chakra and release tension and stress.
Pelvic tilts: slow, small movements
- You can do this standing or lying on your back.
- Inhale, and slightly arch your lower back, tilting your pelvis forward.
- Exhale, and gently flatten your back onto the floor, tucking your pelvis.
- These small, slow movements help reawaken your core and gently mobilise your spine.
- Keep repeating these gently.
Moving with your breath for about five breaths.
Gently rocking
Then bring your knees to your chest,
- Gently rocking, hugging both knees into your chest. Holding behind your thighs or over your shins if you can.
- Gently rocking side to side, massaging your lower back on the floor.
- Letting your breath guide the movement.
Keeping your neck relaxed. This creates softness through the sacrum and the spine.
And finally,
The Pose of The Child or Child’s Pose
- Leaning forward on your knees with a soft breath.
- Kneeling with your big toes touching, and sinking your hips back towards your heels.
- Extending your arms forward around your head if you can, or down beside you.
- And rest your head forward, on the ground. You may want to use a cushion to support it, to close that gap between your forehead and the ground if you can’t quite reach it.
If kneeling isn’t comfortable, use a seated version:
- Folding forward, allowing your spine to drape forward. Hands to your feet.
Allow your breath to deepen.
Stay there for about a minute. Gently breathing into your lower back,
Ground First, Then Grow
So in conclusion, ground first, then grow. Healing your lower back isn’t just about muscles. It’s about nervous system regulation, energetic stability, and conscious grounding.
The root chakra then reminds us that we can’t truly rise until we feel safe enough to stand tall, anchor into your body, trust the ground beneath you.
So I hope you found value in today’s video, and if you did, please like and share it. And next up we’ll explore the final piece of the puzzle, the diaphragm. It’s the bridge between the three chakras, and we’ll also look at how breath work can heal from the inside out, to help you live your most fulfilling life.
So from my heart to yours,
Namaste.
Sarah xx
At Blossoming Me, we’ve worked with so many people who feel stuck in cycles of pain and frustration. But the key to lasting relief often starts with understanding your body, not just where you hurt, but why.
Book your appointment here:
(Step #1 Location: Turramurra; #2 Type: Remedial Massage / Cranio-Sacral Therapy; select Sarah as practitioner, then #3 select: Initial or Follow Up Treatment)
Interested in further reading?
Unlocking Gut Health: Eastern Meets Western Wisdom
Relaxation Revolution: The Secret to Alleviating Lower Back Pain and Enhancing Your Well-being
Are Tight Hip Flexors Causing Your Lower Back Pain?
Beyond the Ache: The Amazing Link Between Fascia, Pain, and Emotional Well-being
Back to Balance: Clearing Lower Back Pain by Balancing Your Kidney Meridian
About Blossoming Me
BlossomingMe offers a fully integrated approach to your wellbeing. Located on Sydney’s Upper North Shore. Sarah is our Cranio-sacral and Remedial Massage Therapist and health and lifestyle coach. She can help relieve those problematic knots, tightness and other specific ailments to promote a healthy recovery. These complementary massage therapies can be combined to suit your needs, and include: craniosacral therapy, shiatsu, acupressure, reiki, remedial, swedish, and body-mind-massage.
Our qualified Osteopath, Alexis, offers a drug free, minimally invasive, “hands on” treatment focusing on the musculoskeletal system with its associated muscles, tendons, ligaments, membranes, bones and joints. Alexis takes a functional approach. This means that she focuses on the way a component (body part, tissue or group of tissues) performs its role, as well as the way the body works, performs and integrates as a whole. Our team can support you to improve your posture and therefore your overall health.
ional advice or care. Please seek the advice of a qualified health professional before you make any changes to your health regime, before dealing with new symptoms, and, if something you have read here has raised any questions or concerns regarding your situation.