Slipped disc: emotional and spiritual meaning

What a slipped disc is

A disc sits between two vertebrae. Its centre is a soft gel that works as a shock absorber. In a slipped disc, also called a herniated or prolapsed disc, pressure pushes that centre out, often backwards, so it no longer cushions well and it presses on a nerve root. Pain, and sometimes pain down the leg as sciatica, follows. The lower back is the usual place. The neck can do the same. Most settle without an operation. A few compress the nerves to the bladder and bowel, and those cannot wait.

The emotional meaning of a slipped disc

Spiritually, an abnormal release of fluid is taken as the emotional life, and nerve pain as mental strain and guilt. Together they are read as a deep conflict that touches every part of a person. Use that as a picture of a back under load. The gel is still tissue. It has not leaked because a feeling overflowed.

The conflict is with pressure. Family duty, money, and work are the usual scenes. It is as if you press on yourself by going past your limits, by taking yourself for someone else because you want to go too fast. The pressure can come from you, from other people, or from somewhere you cannot name. You take everyone's burdens on your back. You feel alone in life, short of affection, unsupported, and unwilling to admit that, to others and above all to yourself. That gives a sense of being a prisoner, and of being unable to decide.

You do not feel up to it. Confidence is thin. You tend to live for other people. No error is allowed. You are collapsing under the weight of responsibilities. Instead of treating yourself softly, you are rigid with yourself. Life is lived like an automaton, and the child's heart, which would play and be spontaneous, is not let out. When everything is automatic and rational, without feeling, relationships suffer. Emotions stuck in the body are read as what makes you rigid. You revolt against a situation you consider to have no way out.

Which part of the spine is affected is worth asking, because the lower back, the middle, and the neck do not carry the same daily load. Softness towards yourself, and the sense of being supported, are what, spiritually, you are asked to practise. Guilt and pressure can be set down. Each person can have their own responsibilities back. You do not have to stay on the front line. You can watch. The inner voice is described as the support that was already there whenever you went looking for an answer. Standing up, free, is the strength it points to. The disc still needs its own care while you sort what you have been carrying.

A gentler way to hold it

• Name one burden that belongs to someone else, and give it back in a sentence.
• Admit, to yourself first, that you need support.
• If the pain changes your waterworks or the skin around them, go to emergency care before you interpret the pressure.