Middle back pain: spiritual meaning and emotional causes

What middle back pain is

Middle back pain is pain in the thoracic spine, the twelve vertebrae between the base of the neck and the bottom of the ribcage, often felt between or below the shoulder blades. This part of the spine is held firmly by the ribs, so it moves less than the neck or the lower back and is injured less often. The vertebrae are numbered T1 to T12; in French they are often called D1 to D12, for "dorsal".

Most middle back pain comes from the muscles and ligaments: poor posture, long hours sitting or looking down, lifting or twisting, a strain from sport, or the tight shoulders that come with stress. Other causes include worn joints, a slipped disc (rarely at this level), a fracture from osteoporosis or injury, and shingles before the rash appears. Pain felt in the middle back can also come from organs nearby: the heart, the lungs, the gallbladder, the stomach or the kidneys. That is why pain here with chest pain, breathlessness or fever needs prompt medical attention. Ordinary muscular pain usually improves with gentle movement, heat, simple pain relief and attention to posture.

For the back as a whole, see the back.

The emotional meaning of middle back pain

The middle of the back covers the large thoracic region between the heart and the lumbar vertebrae. Spiritually, it is a region of emotional and affective guilt.

Pain here is read as a clear sign of a difficult relationship with life and with the situations you are going through. You often have decisions to make, but you keep doubting them, and doubting that you will be able to stand by them. This part of the back is also tied to the outward movement of your life energy. As you mature and gain experience, qualities such as trust, love and detachment, meaning free will in matters of the heart, are put to the test.

Guilt, bitterness and being the pillar

Back pain in this region, including a rounded back, can carry guilt in situations where you have no reason to feel guilty, bitterness, or low confidence linked to a life that feels very heavy to carry. You may believe you have to be the pillar and keep the existing structure running. You may feel that people are "always on your back", or that you are the only one doing everything.

Powerless, and needing help

Pain in the middle back is also read as a strong sense of powerlessness in front of a current situation that is hard to handle, one where you would need help. Not always knowing where to stand when you have choices to make, you often put others' needs before your own, and bitterness follows. Being touchy can make you close up. Despair can appear when you do not feel supported enough emotionally, and insecurity adds to it.

Living in the past

You tend to hold back your emotions and live a great deal in the past. You stay attached to it and go round in circles, feeling unsteady and anxious, with a troubled conscience. The aim, spiritually, is a more active expression of the energy of life through you.

What each vertebra may suggest

The twelve thoracic vertebrae each carry a nuance of their own. If a doctor, osteopath or physiotherapist has named the level of your pain, these are questions to explore, not conclusions.

T1 (D1): pushing to the limit

The first thoracic vertebra is read as reacting strongly when you push yourself to the end of your mental, physical or emotional strength, at work, in sport or anywhere else. It is also said to dislike any "boost", from alcohol or another drug. Your sensitivity is raw. You feel anguish and build ways to protect yourself so as not to be hurt: coldness, or wounding words that keep people at a distance. Withdrawing stops anyone from "getting in" or having too much power over you. Some people read weight gain in the same way, as a protection that takes up more room. It can also hide a timidity that grows stronger when you fear losing people's love.

You may be uncompromising, with little patience for disorder. Fear of losing someone's love, or the death of someone close, can freeze you, so you do not dare to act or take your place. The risk is curling up on yourself, turning dark thoughts over and condemning yourself for past experiences. This vertebra is linked to the arms from the elbows to the fingertips, and to breathing troubles such as a cough or asthma. The invitation is to open to love, welcoming and respecting who you are.

T2 (D2): emotions that are stifled

The second vertebra is read as an alarm bell that rings quickly when your emotions are touched. If you build up feelings and smother them, back pain is the message. It reacts when you feel you have no place in life or in society, that life is unfair and you are its victim. Family conflict and disharmony are lived intensely, and you feel oppressed and stifled, emotionally as much as physically.

Ask what your place is within your family, and especially with your father. Was there a great lack there? Are you carrying too much of the family's safety on your shoulders? Old resentment may have built up, and you may keep stirring old memories instead of looking at the future with confidence. A new situation can bring fear of the unknown: will there be too much responsibility, will anyone support you? If you doubt yourself, you may play the tough one and become controlling, while trembling inside. Irritability and mood swings follow, and you prefer to keep others away so they cannot hurt you. This vertebra is linked to the heart and the lungs, and to a heart that has closed because you no longer want to suffer. The invitation is to learn to ask, to trust yourself to meet new challenges, and to let the past go.

T3 (D3): what you perceive and cannot accept

The third vertebra is linked mainly to the lungs and the chest. It is read as reacting to whatever you perceive through your senses that does not sit right with you. Very sensitive to your surroundings, you have built a system of right and wrong, acceptable and unacceptable, and you can become rigid in it. You may judge anyone or anything that does not fit your idea of what is proper, especially a mother who was missing. Injustice can make you angry, even violent.

You may also build a "script" in your head that distorts reality, because you fear seeing it as it is and because it depresses you. Excessive fears can follow, the wish to live fades, and you no longer feel safe. Sadness can take over, low mood sets in, and you want to cut yourself off from a world that brings only pain, frustration and worry. Grief stifles you, and you withdraw and push your emotions down. The invitation is to see life in a new light: the world is not perfect, and each situation holds something to learn.

T4 (D4): desires and the search for excitement

The fourth vertebra relates to pleasures, desires and temptations that often go unmet. Your expectations may be out of proportion, and you become irritable and angry because your wishes are not granted and life seems unfair. Underneath lies a great emptiness, often an emotional one, with a pull towards depression. To bring some spice into life you may seek excitement, through extreme sports or through drugs, and take refuge in an imaginary world.

The emotions you tried to escape are still there. You may look free and yet be imprisoned in anger, sorrow, frustration and bitterness, and in a fear of being smothered by other people's love, which you never learned to recognise or accept. You need to be loved so much, and still you push people away and condemn them. The deepest betrayal is the one turned against yourself, which takes you away from your purpose. This vertebra is linked to the gallbladder and the liver. The invitation is to recognise and accept your emotions so that you can live your life fully.

T5 (D5): losing control

The fifth vertebra is read as reacting when you feel you are losing control and your power is outside you. You feel unsettled, rage rumbles inside, and panic can come. This often happens in close relationships: a partner, a family member, a close friend. Control can hide behind "wanting to help" or "guiding" someone, while keeping the position of strength. When things do not go your way, frustration, criticism and impatience follow.

You may want to look tough, broad-backed, able to take anything, while knowing you are carrying too much. Insecurity, anguish and revolt follow, and you blame those around you. You may not feel part of your family, and feel guilty because you could help them more and cannot. Great ambitions can lead you away from your deeper values, into relationships that disappoint because simple love is missing. You dwell on the negative, live in your head and your structures, and bury yourself in work. This vertebra is linked to the liver and the circulation. The invitation is to listen inside, return to your real values, and let calm and true love come back.

T6 (D6): self-judgement and guilt

The sixth vertebra is read as reacting when you criticise and judge yourself harshly. You may have grown up in a strict, unbending home where rules had to be followed to the letter. Now you feel a crisis of conscience whenever you want to please yourself or take time for yourself: it is "not right", you "do not deserve it". You analyse every gesture, word and thought to make sure you are "correct", cut off from your body and living in your head.

Guilt gnaws from the inside, anguish is present, and you punish yourself by cutting yourself off. Accepting yourself as you are is hard. You may feel a victim of life, see events as punishments and injustices rather than chances to grow, and refuse new experiences. Frustration, resentment and jealousy can follow. This vertebra is linked to the stomach and the gallbladder. The invitation is to be more flexible and permissive with yourself, and to look for what each event teaches you.

T7 (D7): the relentless worker

The seventh vertebra is read as a relentless worker. If you push yourself to extremes and ignore your body's need to rest, it raises the alarm. Overwork may be a way to forget or flee someone or something, or to forget money or relationship worries. If you stop, discouragement and dissatisfaction may resurface. A great deal of anger and aggressiveness builds up, as if life had nothing good to offer. You resist, dig your heels in, and stay fixed on obsessive ideas.

You may hold back your hopes, your spontaneity and your creativity, not knowing how to meet them. Letting others tell you how to live leaves you anguished and vulnerable, not in charge of your own life, while family quarrels you feel responsible for wear you down. This vertebra is linked to the pancreas and the duodenum. The invitation is to appreciate what you have and who you are, to take time for yourself, to let yourself feel sorrow, disappointment and fear instead of letting them boil inside, and to tidy your inner house as you go.

T8 and T9 (D8, D9): control and the glass bubble

The eighth and ninth vertebrae sit at the level of the diaphragm and are read together. They are touched mainly by insecurity rooted in the fear of losing control over a situation or a person. You feel safer when you direct every part of your life and know exactly what to expect. Uncertainty makes you keep everything inside, in a glass bubble where nothing has to be questioned or changed. When that balance is disturbed, these vertebrae curl up in fear, you withdraw, and you push your emotions and your inner strength down.

T8 points more to a haunting fear of failure and something unresolved in the family. T9 is linked to taking on the role of the victim. Despair can come, with a weariness of living, because you do not know which direction to take and are afraid of getting it wrong. You hesitate partly because you hold on to the past and fear abandonment and rejection. Seeing light at the end of the tunnel is hard. Spiritually, the way through is trust in life and letting go of control: by letting go you gain mastery of your life. T8 is linked to the diaphragm and the spleen, T9 to allergies, the adrenal glands and hives. The invitation is to let your gentle, deep nature come forward, and to let the child in you live alongside the adult who now takes care of it.

T10 (D10): feeling disarmed

The tenth vertebra is read as reflecting a deep insecurity in front of which you feel disarmed, without resources. Confidence is at its lowest, and you may reach for "a little pick-me-up", often more alcohol or another drug than usual, to find courage and forget your worries. When it wears off, the everyday troubles are still there and life looks darker. You see everything in black, refuse life and feel sorry for yourself.

You worry over nothing and become angry without being able to show it, so your sensitivity becomes raw and small things set you off, sometimes aggressively. You stand in front of nothing and do not know which way to go or which choices are right. Feeling a victim of circumstances keeps you from taking your life in hand. Being bogged down in emotions makes communication hard, and you look for your place without finding it. This vertebra is linked to the kidneys, read as the seat of fear. The invitation is to trust yourself, see the beauty around you and inside you, find the courage to ask for help, and take back the reins of your life.

T11 (D11): a distorted self-image

The eleventh vertebra is read as reacting when the nervous system is under strain. Great sensitivity on every level leads you to bend reality so as to suffer less, shaping it the way you want. You may see yourself as ugly, unattractive, full of faults, and that very negative self-image makes lasting relationships hard because the fear of rejection is so great. You cut yourself off because you feel invaded and no longer know what belongs to you.

This cannot last, and sooner or later reality returns, bringing an inner tension that can become unbearable. You may feel wounded, powerless to change things, afraid of the future, and not up to the perfect image you want to give. You may dwell on the negative and find it hard to make the effort to get out of it, as if stuck in passivity. This vertebra is linked to the kidneys and to skin conditions such as eczema and acne. The invitation is to accept that change asks for effort and for help, to reconnect with your inner strength, and to let your creative energy flow.

If that tension ever turns into thoughts of ending your life, please do not stay alone with it. Call emergency services or a crisis line straight away.

T12 (D12): a closed world

The twelfth vertebra is read as affected when you live in a closed world, folded in on yourself. You tend to criticise, judge and jump to conclusions, not because you checked but because your impressions can mislead you and you read them your own way. A lot of anger gnaws at you from the inside. Your mind is very busy and your sensitivity raw. You build castles in the air and invent scenarios that let you avoid your responsibilities.

Finding it hard to deal with the people around you, you live with a great deal of insecurity and perfectionism. Dark thoughts can take hold, and envy of what others have. You suffocate under aggressiveness, sorrow and a feeling of abandonment, and wear a mask to protect yourself from more disappointment, especially in love. This vertebra is linked to the intestines, the joints, the lymphatic circulation and sometimes the fallopian tubes. The invitation is to communicate, and to go and check with the people concerned to clear away doubt and insecurity, so you see more clearly and calm can settle.

A gentler way to hold it

Middle back pain usually has a muscular cause, and pain here with chest symptoms always needs a doctor first. The emotional perspective asks what you are carrying between your shoulder blades.

• Be clear with yourself and others. Say what is true now, without carrying the feelings of a limping past into it.
• Ask for help. Needing help and encouragement is not shameful. It is an intelligent step that lets you move forward.
• Put the pillar down for a moment. Notice where you are holding everything up alone, and what could be shared.
• Separate real guilt from borrowed guilt. Ask whether you are actually responsible for what you feel guilty about.
• Watch the ego and the fears. Remember your own identity, and notice when fear is steering.
• Turn inward. Meditation or contemplation is a way to listen to the part of you that keeps watch, and many answers can come from there.