Seeking to help more people take better care of their necks and backs, a Guyana-born spinal surgeon is steering them towards meditation.
Dr. Ken Hansraj, who is based in New York, has launched a CD, “LIFT: Meditations to Boost Your Back Health,” in order to share the benefits that he himself has experienced from a daily meditation practice to treat his own chronic pain.
During an interview with Stabroek Weekend, Dr. Hansraj shared that he has realised the positive effects of meditating and the guided programme featured on the new CD presents a solution to the billions of people suffering from chronic back pain, limited mobility, poor posture, and concentration issues.
Dr. Hansraj said research has shown that Americans are spending US$140.609 billion to treat spinal problems. In Guyana, he added, costs are also high to treat neck and back issues. During his career, he has seen many persons suffering from back, neck, and arm pains, ailments that most people experience at some point during their life. “If you have ever had these pains, you would know how hard it is to focus on anything else…you search for answers and remedies, just to feel normal again,” he noted.
The spine is a principal indicator of general health, he emphasised, while noting that he believes in whole-body wellness and preventative care.
His CD features a “Posture Forces on the Spine” meditation, which he said helps to bring awareness to an individual’s posture, especially to the everyday postural forces, such as text neck, belly-fat, breast-weight, lifting, and backpack forces.
There is also “Deep Belly Breathing and Tensionometer” meditation that examines the concept of the neck, back, and head tensionometer. The listener is introduced to the five steps deep belly-breathing technique that Dr Hansraj has developed by working with thousands of back and neck pain patients. He said knowledge of this allows one to release all the tension in these centres. Deep belly-breathing, he added, moves and massages the spinal nerves in the spinal channels, oxygenates the body, improving posture. It also aids in calming the mind and helps one to feel good.
The “LIFT: Who Am I” meditation seeks to make people aware of how much they are lifting daily and yearly and the forces that the spine sees, while the “LIFT: My Daily Routine” meditation shows people how to get ready for their day with instructions for breath work, stretch work, strength work, aerobic work and a ½ hour vacation.
“LIFT: Meditations to Boost Your Back Health” is available wherever songs are sold and can be found at DrKen.Hearnow.com.
