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Screensize: 640 x 480 800 x 600 1024 x 768 1280 x 1024 UserName: Password: Format Mode: Basic  Help  Prompt  Format: Font Andale Mono Arial Arial Black Book Antiqua Century Gothic Comic Sans MS Courier New Georgia Impact Lucida Console Script MT Bold Stencil Tahoma Times New Roman Trebuchet MS Verdana   Size 1 2 3 4 5 6   Color Black Red Yellow Pink Green Orange Purple Blue Beige Brown Teal Navy Maroon LimeGreen Message: * HTML is OFF * Forum Code is ON Smilies [quote][i]Originally posted by swmr1[/i] [br]It's been a little over a year since I read Dr. Sarno's books. Just reading the description of the books convinced me that my suspicion about my chronic pain being connected somehow to my mental state was right. My piriformis pain I'd suffered with since 1999 and even my foot and shoulder pain I'd dealt with here and there are not any problem for me now. Occasionally I feel a twinge here or there but I acknowledge it, challenge it by continuing to do what I would do if it didn't bother me, and it goes away. Last summer, I decided to believe what I had suspected and behave as if my pain were not an issue. I gave up my many physical therapy stretches and exercises I'd been doing for months. I quit icing my piriformis all the time. I started doing sports I'd been avoiding for fear of pain. I started training for a swim meet (which I hadn't done in 20 years). Just this last month I went to a championship meet (for the older crowd) after training all year and swam all of my events without any problems. I had two or three times during my training where I thought I might have aggravated something in my shoulder and my knees. I even had "tennis elbow" one day where I couldn't bend my arm (I assumed this was a result of painting 4 rooms in my house). But none of those things hung around for more than a day or two. I went ahead with my training and found that my body took care of everything. It was really an amazing process. I still have issues with tying my physical problems to past emotional events. I don't really journal at this point. I do acknowledge that I have personality traits that predispose me to anxiety or stress. I also try to do a better job of realizing what things may be making me more prone to have stress-related pain on a day to day basis. For me, the fear of losing what I love to do most (exercising) and the doubt (about whether or not I've really hurt something) are the things that caused most of my pain. Just knowing that a twinge of pain here or there is nothing to freak out about has made a world of difference. I actually had a major medical problem this fall. I was hospitalized with blood clots in my lungs as a side effect of birth control. Somehow my body let me know something was wrong at the right time. I got to the ER, got the medication I needed and came home a few days later no worse for the wear. It made me think about not freaking out so much about little aches and pains. Might as well wait until you have a serious situation before you start obsessing and freaking out about getting one! I still get a bit nervous about those twinges of pain. Mostly the ones that tie in with my pulmonary embolism episode. But admitting my nervousness, deciding to get on with my day, and letting the chips fall where they may has helped me tremendously. [/quote]   Check here to include your profile signature.