| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Lithia |
Posted - 06/26/2013 : 14:04:14
Just typing the subject line makes me chuckle a bit, because it sounds ridiculous. In less than 2 weeks after reading Dr. Sarno's Healing Back Pain, my 4+ year ordeal with foot pain is gone! Yes! I did NOT have plantar faciitis or tarsal tunnel syndrome (two faulty diagnosis from a variety of practicioners that were of little help) - especially considering the pain was equal in both feet, which confounded my host of docs.
Anyway, I feel no pain, but I find myself looking for pain, like scanning my feet for pain, although none is there. Like a dog returning to an empty food dish. I suppose the dog (a.k.a. me) will get the message soon enough.
Thanks for reading and thanks in advance for any tips, experiences that could help!
P.S. I'm now listening to the audible.com/iTunes audiobook with Dr. Sarno narrating (highly recommend this during your commute). It's a great listen and you can hear the passion and enthusiasm of Dr. Sarno come across loud and clear.
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| 19 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| plum |
Posted - 07/04/2013 : 18:14:08
Kat, in my humble opinion, the Stephen Mitchell translation of the Tao Te Ching is the best. I love the juicy, dark, essential feminine nature he captures. Most version bleed all the beauty from it. Thanks for the nod.
Chickenbone, I bring you flowers. |
| gailnyc |
Posted - 07/04/2013 : 15:43:27
Chickenbone, that's a great explanation. I "recoiled" from Peter Levine's "feel your skin" exercise, but maybe I will try it again. |
| tennis tom |
Posted - 07/04/2013 : 08:49:19
quote:
Originally posted by shawnsmith
Note, there is no cure for TMS. Please read: http://tmshelp.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=8610&SearchTerms=Monte
quote:
Originally posted by Monte
TMS Update - June 2013 - A Lesson in TMS = Balance
We have many ideas about TMS that are simply not true.
One encompasses the logic around 'curing' TMS. I can assure you that there is not a 'cure' for TMS and there never will be.
Healing from TMS involves a lifestyle approach and as long as you have a mind and a body you are living a life that will always produce mind-body effects/symptoms and will always have the potential to generate chronic mind-body effects/symptoms that can be classified as TMS.
Have you heard the adage: "Learn the lessons that life comes to teach rather than resenting the teacher".
TMS is a teacher, it is not a punishment!
TMS is essentially a learning experience/situation/challenge that has a lesson for us to learn.
The big picture lesson of TMS is that something is out of Balance in your life.
We are quite fortunate that our mind-body system has an inborn mechanism that seeks balance.
Our job is to make some adjustments (minor or major) in how we are Being. What are our big, huge tension generators?
Perfecting, Pleasing, Striving, Holding in feelings, Controlling, Being Competitive or Overly self-conscious, Habitual worry?
When we are heavy duty in some or all of these patterns we are (1) Generating Inner Tension and we are (2) Repressing or Avoiding our Emotions.
Eventually we get the effects of this unbalanced way of being.
TMS, as a teacher, is giving you the opportunity to assess the quality of choices you are making and the consequences (symptoms) that these choices create in your life!
Most people that come to me for coaching or guidance for reversing TMS are looking for a quick fix.
I usually represent their final stop.
They have been a patient of Dr. Sarno, they have been with a TMS psychologist, went through Dr. Schecther's workbook and/or Dr. Schubiners program.
Having experienced cures, successes and lapses, they are now confronted with a new TMS symptom or recurrence of an old one and are hoping for the final bit of information that can ultimately end their TMS struggles.
There is a quick fix! Sometimes very quick and other times not as quick as people would like.
Healing from the chronic TMS cycle begins when you can accept that there is not a cure.
Healing from TMS continues when you accept, adopt and begin practicing the lifestyle approach.
Healing one's body or one's life challenges requires daily practice and attention
from Caroline Myss
TMS Roadblocks:
1) TMS Support Groups and TMS Help/Message Boards - Dr. Sarno stated that 'information is the penicillin' for TMS. Dr. Sarno had weekly and monthly lectures to help people understand and have CONFIDENCE in TMS.
This was prior to the internet age. These lectures worked because they were weekly and monthly.
There was time in between for people to reflect and do genuine inner work.
I'm sure he never envisioned someone would be online everyday searching, investigating and analyzing TMS.
As well-intentioned as these groups and online sites are, they are keeping people Stuck in TMS.
They are helping you Avoid and Deny your emotions, they confuse you, create doubt and they keep you searching/analyzing and investigating.
They are your distraction.
Sidebar: I have read one book on TMS, Healing Back Pain, back in 1999. The only TMS book I have ever read.
I did not even know that TMS help sites/support groups existed.
I literally can tell a person everything they need to know about TMS in 10 minutes.
I'm not boasting, I want you to understand that the concept of TMS is quite simple.
It is Mind-Body and/or Cause/Effect.
Spend your time and energy in making adjustments and bringing balance into your life.
Your work in healing your body and life's challenges requires daily practice and present-moment attention to the real cause of TMS.
I have successfully used this approach to remain free of the TMS chronic pain/symptom cycle for 12+ years.
Don't let the searching, analyzing, investigating, intellectualizing and socializing of the internet Distract you away from your inner work that only you can do.
It will keep you stuck!
2) Searching for repressed emotions and believing that finding them is the Cure - Once people accept TMS and begin practicing 'think psychological', this is the place they get stuck.
Yes, repressed emotional energy is the main ingredient in TMS.
If you have unfinished business in the past then by all means address the past.
However, most of the repressed emotional energy in TMS is the day-to-day stuff.
We repress/avoid/deny our emotions everyday when we are in our chronic patterns of: Worry, Striving, Perfecting, Pleasing, Controlling, Competing, Being Self-Conscious.
This chronic repression that has been going on in your life for the past 10, 20, 30 years or more is the big, huge repression in TMS.
This is the Unbalance that TMS has come to help you with.
We can easily learn to make small and big adjustments in some areas of our life (thoughts/behavior patterns) that will change everything.
It’s hard work but easy to understand if you can get out of the ‘cure me’ mode and into the ‘I get it, I need to make some adjustments/lifestyle mode’.
Sidebar: Sitting with Emotions Practice - page 54 of The Master Practice - This is the most effective and efficient way to spontaneously reverse TMS.
Dr. Sarno told us to 'Think Psychological'. Thinking psychological will break the strategy of TMS.
You no longer focus on the body/symptoms and instead you go psychological.
Sitting with Emotions is how you go psychological for emotional work, however the less you think the better.
When you sit with your emotions and shut-off the mind you allow yourself to experience repressed emotional energy.
This practice will dissipate the repressed tension energy and it dissipates the compulsion to go back into one of your chronic thin
king patterns!
This practice is how you EXPERIENCE emotions and it is how you STOP or interrupt your repression pattern.
If you will make this practice a genuine part of your life and not a Fix or Treatment for TMS you will begin to understand how the lifestyle approach works!
3) Fear, doubt and rational/intellectual thinking.
These are the typical qualities of the person who has not accepted TMS 100%.
Again, Dr. Sarno's genius was making us aware of the intelligent Pain/Distraction Strategy associated with TMS.
People keep the strategy 'alive' with fear, doubt and rational/intellectual thinking.
Fear consumes and keeps you focused on the body and who can fix you.
Doubt keeps you searching for a different cause or treatment.
Rational/intellectual thinking is the sophisticated way to stay stuck.
You can rationalize almost every TMS symptom into a physical cause or dysfunction if you try.
The more you rationalize and intellectualize your symptoms the more irrational TMS will respond to you.
It's all distraction.
Distraction is your enemy and the TMS Strategy's best friend.
Belief, Confidence, Conviction and Acceptance are your invisible allies that reverse and defeat the TMS strategy.
These are also the qualities that allow you to genuinely live the lifestyle approach to reversing TMS.
Sidebar: Remember that you must address both components of TMS if you want to live without the constant struggle.
1) Communicate to the strategy with confidence and conviction that you accept the TMS, psychological cause.
Don’t get sidetracked and distracted by anything outside of you.
2) Address both components of the Cause: A) Repressed emotional energy.
B) Your patterns that are doing the repressing.
Remember that TMS is a teacher.
Bringing balance into your life is the solution.
Make sure you make it a genuine lifestyle solution of change and not atreatment or quick fix!
Stay the course,
Monte Hueftle
TMS Mind Body Coach
www.runningpain.com
|
| mala |
Posted - 07/03/2013 : 21:48:56
quote:
Many brain researchers have discovered that there is an area of the brain that maps the body, sort of scans it. When this area is relatively larger in an individual, the individual is said to be hyper-aware of their bodily sensations. Conversely, if the area is relatively small, the individual doesn't feel a lot of their bodily sensations. TMS'ers fall into both of these categories and they are usually associated with a lot ignorance of our bodily sensations which can cause fear in connection with them. Also, previous experience and patterns of thinking can influence this part of the brain to be larger or smaller, it is not simply the accident of genetics or whatever. For example, one prone to hypochondria tends to become hyper-aware of their body, notice every little sensation. This hyper-awareness and worry exercises that area of the brain and makes it larger. We know from studies proving the concept of brain plasticity, that the brain gets modified in response to these things.
So in order to separate our fear from our bodily sensations, we must become intimately familiar with these bodily sensations, instead of denying, fearing and recoiling from them. Notice that this fear happens both with someone who is hyper-aware or under-aware of their bodily sensations. Ace's Keys touches on this by instructing us to be very aware of our internal reactions. But this goes way beyond that concept. What is the best way to stop being fearful of something? Possibly run from it and live in fear of it happening again or get to know it so you will see that it is really nothing to be frightened of? Which is better and long lasting? People who are under-aware can become more aware, thus relieving the fear of sensations that feel alien. People who are hyper aware can learn to not be concerned with this extra sensory data coming their way. It is all based on getting rid of fear, which is what TMS feed on, in connection with our normal physical sensations.
You learn to move toward, not away from, and completely accept your physical sensations. You can also learn to connect certain physical sensations with emotional responses. You also learn to challenge your symptoms to get much, much worse. You will find that the power of your unconscious is extremely limited and, after giving you it's best shot, it is simply unable to muster anymore. The symptom will always eventually get better. This way you lose the anxiety that causes your mind to catastrophize about the sensation/symptom.
You use and think of your body as your unconscious mind. A big potential pitfall in this is to let your conscious mind take you out of the present moment or start making up false stories. You must let your body completely take the lead. You must resist the urge to let your mind take over.
Using this method, I am often able to identify a physical sensation (in my case, a tightening of muscles like the oxygen is being pulled out of them accompanied by the urge to stretch them). This always precedes a sciatic attack. I used to panic when I felt that sensation. Now I regard it with friendly curiosity, try to find out what it wants, maybe sort of negotiate with it and often it will not progress completely to pain. Over time, I have lost the fear of it.
This is not easy to do and takes a lot of practice. At first, your mind will really not like it. I find it is well worth the effort.
On the TMS wiki, there are some really good links and posts about it. There is also a video of how to deal this way with a panic attack. I will get you the link if you can't find it. Let me know.
I hope this helps, I am not good at explaining it.
That was explained magnificently chickenbone.
"It is more important to know what sort of person has a disease than to know
what sort of disease a person has." ~ Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.)
Mala Singh Barber on Facebook |
| 2scoops |
Posted - 07/03/2013 : 20:24:44
You are cured when you no longer fear the symptoms. |
| shawnsmith |
Posted - 07/03/2013 : 19:50:32
Note, there is no cure for TMS. Please read: http://tmshelp.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=8610&SearchTerms=Monte |
| 1koolkat |
Posted - 07/03/2013 : 16:25:02
Chickenbone, you are fabulous at explaining this! I have been using it and it works if I work it! Thank you, thank you!
I am also using it with other addictive thoughts as well. I have found Stephen Mitchell's interpretation of the Tao Te Ching when he says: "If you want to get rid of something, you must first allow it to flourish" to be applicable to these other addictions and to TMS. Same thing.
Kat
Kat |
| chickenbone |
Posted - 06/28/2013 : 14:18:36
Thanks, Eric and Lithia. I might add that this, like a lot of other approaches, does not work for everyone. However, I do think it has the potential to get right at the unconscious issues.
Here is a link to a thread on TMS wiki. There are 2 videos about dealing with panic attacks. I have not seen the second one, but I know the first one is very similar to how I have successfully gotten rid of my panic attacks.
http://www.tmswiki.org/forum/threads/panick-attack-do-this.2191/#post-12195
|
| Lithia |
Posted - 06/28/2013 : 13:53:55
Well said chickenbone, and an important factor for me as I've mentioned I find myself looking for pain where there is none. Great mental exercise that truly will take practice and mindfulness. Thanks for sharing. |
| eric watson |
Posted - 06/28/2013 : 12:12:01
you did a great job of explaining it chickenbone
awesome work |
| chickenbone |
Posted - 06/28/2013 : 09:39:21
Hi dgreen97. here is a link to a sample exercise:
http://www.wikihow.com/Focus-and-Get-a-Felt-Sense
This is based on the works of Claire Weeks, Peter Levine and many others. Basically it provides a way to separate your symptoms from the FEAR of your symptoms by making you intimately familiar with them. However, the basic blocks are not the symptoms, but the physical sensations that often provide the basis of the fear.
Many brain researchers have discovered that there is an area of the brain that maps the body, sort of scans it. When this area is relatively larger in an individual, the individual is said to be hyper-aware of their bodily sensations. Conversely, if the area is relatively small, the individual doesn't feel a lot of their bodily sensations. TMS'ers fall into both of these categories and they are usually associated with a lot ignorance of our bodily sensations which can cause fear in connection with them. Also, previous experience and patterns of thinking can influence this part of the brain to be larger or smaller, it is not simply the accident of genetics or whatever. For example, one prone to hypochondria tends to become hyper-aware of their body, notice every little sensation. This hyper-awareness and worry exercises that area of the brain and makes it larger. We know from studies proving the concept of brain plasticity, that the brain gets modified in response to these things.
So in order to separate our fear from our bodily sensations, we must become intimately familiar with these bodily sensations, instead of denying, fearing and recoiling from them. Notice that this fear happens both with someone who is hyper-aware or under-aware of their bodily sensations. Ace's Keys touches on this by instructing us to be very aware of our internal reactions. But this goes way beyond that concept. What is the best way to stop being fearful of something? Possibly run from it and live in fear of it happening again or get to know it so you will see that it is really nothing to be frightened of? Which is better and long lasting? People who are under-aware can become more aware, thus relieving the fear of sensations that feel alien. People who are hyper aware can learn to not be concerned with this extra sensory data coming their way. It is all based on getting rid of fear, which is what TMS feed on, in connection with our normal physical sensations.
You learn to move toward, not away from, and completely accept your physical sensations. You can also learn to connect certain physical sensations with emotional responses. You also learn to challenge your symptoms to get much, much worse. You will find that the power of your unconscious is extremely limited and, after giving you it's best shot, it is simply unable to muster anymore. The symptom will always eventually get better. This way you lose the anxiety that causes your mind to catastrophize about the sensation/symptom.
You use and think of your body as your unconscious mind. A big potential pitfall in this is to let your conscious mind take you out of the present moment or start making up false stories. You must let your body completely take the lead. You must resist the urge to let your mind take over.
Using this method, I am often able to identify a physical sensation (in my case, a tightening of muscles like the oxygen is being pulled out of them accompanied by the urge to stretch them). This always precedes a sciatic attack. I used to panic when I felt that sensation. Now I regard it with friendly curiosity, try to find out what it wants, maybe sort of negotiate with it and often it will not progress completely to pain. Over time, I have lost the fear of it.
This is not easy to do and takes a lot of practice. At first, your mind will really not like it. I find it is well worth the effort.
On the TMS wiki, there are some really good links and posts about it. There is also a video of how to deal this way with a panic attack. I will get you the link if you can't find it. Let me know.
I hope this helps, I am not good at explaining it. |
| tennis tom |
Posted - 06/27/2013 : 21:00:29
quote:
Originally posted by Dave
The key is to recondition yourself to accept them rather than fear them, and to go on with your life as if they did not exist.
|
| dgreen97 |
Posted - 06/27/2013 : 19:10:11
chickenbone what is somatic experiencing again? ive done some stuff in the past when the pain comes on, i'll just float into it and sit there, the pain will waver a little bit but i'll focus my attention on it (trying to without fear) and just sit there experiencing it fully for a little while.. its a very hard thing to do not for the faint of heart. the natural instinct is to try to distract yourself away from it.
how has somatic experiencing helped you and can you give more information on it? |
| chickenbone |
Posted - 06/27/2013 : 12:59:52
My story is similar to what Darko and Dave describe. The first time I read Sarno, my back pain disappeared for almost 2 years. Then it came back. After studying Ace's Keys for a few months, all my pain went away but I began to have other symptoms along with anxiety and insomnia. It is taking somatic experiencing to get rid of the last of the symptoms. I will always be prone to TMS and my mind will probably not stop inventing symptoms when I am not paying proper attention.
At least you can be absolutely sure that the pain is TMS. |
| Lithia |
Posted - 06/27/2013 : 08:50:58
Wow, that's a treasure chest, Eric. Many thanks for your eloquent words. Based on your confirmation below and my own self-reflection, I'm beginning to think that TMS is actually a GIFT. It challenges my poor thinking, helps me re-direct my focus on to others, will rid me of 40+ years of selfishness and narcissism. I've noticed the pain fade away as my mind is directed elsewhere, particularly to my family and others - really amazing and extraordinary. |
| eric watson |
Posted - 06/26/2013 : 15:18:33
that's great news jeff.hoening
the pain disappeared as you thought
(this pain isn't even real, its generated from my mind)
now give yourself a pat on the back for having
a brain that listens to your thoughts
Remember you have that power now to shut doun tms in that foot
you have to exercise your brain muscles to retain this healing
and it sounds like your doing a good job by listening to the best
Dr.Sarno
keep learning and keep your guard up
learn to be happy with changing out of control unconscious habits
keep your guard up by keeping your tms knowledge sharp as iron
tms can come back in the form of knee pai , neck pain or many autonomic nervous system issues as dave mentioned
his advice is solid- recondition yourself to accept issues rather than fear them
and go on with your life as if they didn't exist.
sounds simple and lots of practice
after you have the practice become a habit
you should walk in blessed shoes
remember be humble and prepared. |
| Darko |
Posted - 06/26/2013 : 15:16:18
Good response from Daveo ( That's Aussie for Dave......just add an o on the end )
I also had a miracle cure the first time, but the pain came back......I have since "cured" from TMS 3 times.....but the pain still comes back if I let my head get silly.
Don't view TMS as something that you need to rid yourself of, that'll cause you issues. I see it as guidance.......when I'm doing the wrong thing emotionally I get a reminder.....keeps me honest.
We should consider ourselves lucky we get pain and can fix the issue, not like all the other people with serious disease caused by emotional stress.
D |
| Lithia |
Posted - 06/26/2013 : 15:14:57
Well said, Dave, thanks much for your reply and caution. Sounds like it's beneficial to treat TMS as a journey of changing one's thinking/approach rather than the "OK, I'm cured, time to move on." response. What's remarkable about it (among many things) is that the "pop-a-pill" approach we're conditioned to believe is not valid/useful/real. I'm getting it! |
| Dave |
Posted - 06/26/2013 : 15:04:06
Congratulations on getting such quick relief. Consider it a strong confirmation that your pain is TMS.
However, I am one that believes there is no "cure" for TMS. The mechanisms employed by our mind to manufacture physical symptoms in response to psychological stimuli is a part of being human. Understanding how it works and accepting the benign nature of the process is key to recovery. However, we need to also accept that our personality type is such that we are always prone to experience psychogenic symptoms, and we are likely to experience them in one way or another for the rest of our lives. The key is that we do not fear them, we do not focus on them, we accept them as a benign signal to address our emotional health.
You may be one of the lucky few who gets permanent lasting relief and will never again experience the symptom. However, it is more realistic to expect the symptom may return, or you may experience different symptoms. Some people experience recurrences that are worse than the original symptoms. TMS is a process that the brain is very reluctant to give up. It will seize whatever opportunities it can to provide symptoms that will grab your attention. The key is to recondition yourself to accept them rather than fear them, and to go on with your life as if they did not exist. |
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