You may or may not know what causes it, but pain, intense, excruciating and severe, takes you to the point where nothing else matters. And yet there is no easy way of eliminating pain

MASSAGE

• Choose a surface, which is not too soft, a mattress on the floor will suffice. Keep the room warm and comfortable. Use some oil to massage the area where the pain is. Vegetable oils are preferable (except peanut or corn).

• Put half a teaspoon in your palm and spread it smoothly over the part that to be massaged. Keep your hands relaxed and apply mild pressure.
• Experiment with all the different ways of moving your hands that you can think of. Move them in long strokes and circles. Use your fingertips. Pressing them firmly against themselves or brushing them lightly over the skin.

• Gently slap or tap the affected area. Take the back, for example. The spine is the stalk of the central nervous system, and often tension and anxiety are caused by nothing more than tight, sore muscles around he back. Move you fingers straight up the back. Separate your hands at the top and bring them over the shoulder blades and then pull them back down along the sides. Do it four to six times.

• Next, use the balls of your thumbs, and make short, rapid strokes away from you to wards the head. Work close to the spine just below the waistline, first of the left, then on the right. Now move to the upper back. Knead the muscles that curve from your neck to the shoulders. Work these muscles gently between the thumb and fingers.

• Finally, take the heel of your hand and place it at the base of the spine. Gently press and release, moving little by little up the spine to the neck.