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Monte
USA
125 Posts |
 Posted - 01/26/2010 : 09:00:29
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Hello Everyone,
runningpain.com update - January 26th
TMS Survey Result Update: Pain while sitting is the #1 symptom selected over the past 3 months outside of back pain. Do you find this surprising? I do not. I believe the conditioning around this symptom being a physical cause (pinched nerve, degenerated disc, tight muscles) is just as prevalent as back pain conditioning. Since most people are in a sitting position for extended hours during the day this is a very easy symptom to “keep alive” in the tms pain strategy and one of the reasons, it is challenging for many to reverse.
I do have a question for everyone out there experiencing “pain while sitting” or piriformis/sciatica, however you choose to label it. For those of you that are not using TMS techniques to treat the cause, how are you treating this? Are you treating symptoms or are you addressing what you believe is the cause through some type of physical therapy? Are your treatments working?
Carolyn Myss eloquently states, “healing is a present time activity” and“healing is greatly enhanced in the present moment”. How many of you view healing or reversing TMS as a passive event? That’s worth thinking about and for some will explain why you are not experiencing the relief you desire!
In the January 11th update we discussed Sitting with Emotions as an effective way to diffuse emotional energy. Thanks to everyone for supplying feedback, I must say that I received a ton of constructive comments on this update and some great positive-result experiences have been taking place by integrating this mindful practice into your life.
Mindfulness: Working-waking mindfulness as an effective treatment for TMS. I am not referring to a traditional meditation practice here but a more in-the-moment mindfulness approach to daily life.
Many people that I work with have varying experiences with mindfulness, being present, meditation and yoga. I am here to tell you that working-waking mindfulness is one of the most powerful and effective practices that you can integrate into your life to heal the cause of TMS! Please note that I did not say treat the symptoms of TMS but heal the cause!
Remember, the cause of inner tension in TMS that is manifested into pain and other symptoms are our behavior and thought patterns. These chronic patterns are doing two things:
1. Generating inner tension in the present moment that is communicated to our nervous system, and
2. Repressing emotional energy in the present moment that is also generating inner tension that is being communicated to our nervous system.
How can a working-waking mindfulness practice help us heal the cause of inner tension? It is quite simple and elementary really, which is why many dismiss it or simply intellectualize it and get absolutely no benefit. Since it is our worry, perfecting, pleasing, striving, grasping, controlling, holding-in behaviors and thoughts that are generating inner tension; what if we chose to be present in our activity, work, interactions, exercise and everyday actions without these dominant patterns running unconsciously wild generating inner tension? What if we chose to focus our atttention without those patterns and instead “be” in our activity, work, exercise, interactions and action? I can tell you that it is all good! Take to heart the words of Dr. Candace Pert, “the goal is to keep information flowing, feedback systems working, and natural balance maintained, all of which we can help to achieve by a conscious decision to enter into the bodymind’s conversation.” One of the easiest ways to enter into this conversation and provide balance is through working-waking mindfulness.
Keys to help make working-waking mindfulness an effective treatment for TMS:
1. Understand that being mindful is not something you can just read or think about. You must experience being mindful to get it. For example, take a deep mindful breath, keeping all of your attention on inhaling (feel and/or image the breath moving through your nose or feel the breath moving from your belly all the way up into your chest and now be with the controlled exhale exactly the same way, keeping all of our attention on releasing the breath). You may even consciously count to 5 on inhale and 5 on exhale. Do this right now. When you took this deep mindful breath, how much of your thought was in worry or anger or in the past or the future? Absolutely none, right? So during this little 10-second exercise you were totally mindful of breathing and you were not out creating or generating inner tension! You were not out in the future in worry or in the past in anger. You were present with your breath keeping all of your energy within you!
2. Realize that it is this energy of being present that gets communicated to your nervous system automatically outside of your conscious control. The more of this balanced-present energy and the less of the tension generating energy that gets communicated to your nervous system the more efficient and effective you become at healing or reversing the cause of TMS. Your autonomic nervous system is taking what you give it and doing its thing (creating pain/symptoms or creating balance and openness).
3. Begin integrating working-waking mindfulness into the elementary or mindless activities in your life: taking a shower, cleaning the house, driving the car, walking up steps, waiting in line at the market, eating dinner, casual conversations, exercise activities and repetitive work habits. It is in these mindless activities that our unconscious, tension generating, emotional energy repressing patterns are out there going wild. So when we chose to be mindful or present and keep our attention focused on our breath, the task at hand, the conversation we’re in, the food we are eating, the movement of our body and our natural surroundings without judgments, we are not out generating inner tension and repressing emotional energy. If we are, at least we are aware of it and now have the choice to respond in a more open and balanced way!
4. The big, huge payoff. The next time you find yourself in a big-time situation filled with inner pressure, anger or lots of outside stressors that are causing you to react in your old chronic tension generating patterns, you now have some experience of being mindful/present that you can bring into yourself. This takes practice, but you will begin to access the balance of being mindful/present in these big events just as you do in the elementary ones and this will keep you from over-reacting into old patterns. Then you can shift into Think Clean or Sit with your Emotions or Remain in the Moment. You have some good alternative options/strategies so pick one!
5. Working-Waking Mindfulness is part of the 3-pronged lifestyle approach to treating TMS. Integrate this practice into your Think Psychological and Think Clean work. Allow it to compliment your overall healing approach and you will be grandly rewarded! If you missed the 3-pronged approach update, check out the link below.
There is no reason to be stuck in reversing TMS, remember, healing is a present time activity and your healing is greatly enhanced in the present moment!
If you are stuck, call me or email me and we’ll work through it.
Stay the course,
Monte Hueftle
TMS Mind Body Coach
818*486*8525
www.runningpain.com
P.S. To review past updates go to: www.runningpain.com/updates |
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marsha
252 Posts |
Posted - 01/26/2010 : 17:53:35
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I know I have said this before. I feel obligated t say it again and again.
Your insight and good counsel have given me the tools I need to take my life back.
My recommendation to anyone visiting this site is to check out your web -site and your posts.
I am deeply indebted to you..
and greatly improved.
Marsha
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susan828
USA
291 Posts |
Posted - 01/26/2010 : 21:26:42
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Monte, I don't sit on my job so am not used to it. I just came back from a meeting and after 2 1/2 hours in a hard chair, I had to stand for the rest of the meeting. I felt silly but didn't care what people thought. Quite a few people were shifting around and in obvious pain. My Mom, who does not have TMS was a wreck after a 5 hour car drive. A few weeks of massage and she was pain free. So many people get this from a prolonged position. I find getting on the floor, on a mat and stretching as soon as possible to help. Ice also helps me.
I don't think everything can be attributed to TMS. When you're not used to sitting, it hurts, plain and simple. |
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guej
115 Posts |
Posted - 01/27/2010 : 07:57:25
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Marsha,
It's so great to see positive posts from you. I know you struggled for a very long time. As someone in the middle of a pretty serious relapse, it does give me hope when I see people, such as yourself, who were in non-stop pain for long periods of time, start to slowly come out of it. There are a handful of really stubborn cases on this forum, and little by little, I'm starting to see each person make a breakthrough from such hopeless places. Can you share with us what clicked for you with Monte's posts as opposed to the ton of other TMS info. I'm sure you've absorbed over the years? I know it's different for everyone, but it's always interesting to read about what worked for the tougher cases who have being doing the TMS work for a long time. Thanks, and I wish you all the best is continuing to reclaim your life. |
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marsha
252 Posts |
Posted - 01/27/2010 : 10:50:06
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Quej,
I used to believe that I knew myself very well, that I had a good self image and that I knew what made me tick.
I knew nothing. Listening to Monte’s videos and reading his posts made me stop and think.
For most of my life I have NEVER let myself feel emotions. I could be extremely articulate about how to deal with the sadness, happiness etc. but unconsciously denied myself the opportunity to really feel. I always negotiated my feelings with conversation.. i.e. Other people have worse problems. Life is too short to dwell on this…attempting to fix what was wrong… diverting my attention to something else. And the biggie,always analyzing the situation. Rationalizing and denying. I have spent so much time thinking about everything and how it was going and if I could fix it that I never really spent anytime in the moment.
I built a mountain of lost emotion. It isn’t enough to know what makes you tick. Acceptance is key.. Feeling is key.
I saw an interview with Rosie O’Donnell the other day and she spoke about damaging herself physically as a child. She did this when her emotions became too hard to deal with. The physical pain she inflicted on herself kept the emotional pain buried. That was her negotiation and coping mechanism. That was a “light bulb” moment for me.
It isn’t so much my past emotions as it is the act of repression. I taught myself to survive by not feeling until those feelings came out as pain.
There is no magic moment. I don’t think I can ever get into my unconscious but I can let myself feel the moment. Good, bad, whatever. That doesn’t mean I will go insane if I am angry..I will just let myself feel angry and not be afraid.
Marsha
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catspine
USA
239 Posts |
Posted - 01/28/2010 : 14:05:10
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Hi Monte
Thanks for the post. I very often do what you talk about and get the expected results. I guess I had enough tms time to practice over the years ... and although it can be challenging I confirm that it helps greatly if anyone has a doubt about it.
But what I really want to know independently from the healing techniques is WHY most of us were able to deal with emotions the tough way and repress all we could to rip the benefit associated with the usual behaviors and worries and get away with it laughing all the way through and then suddenly or gradually it becomes an issue just as if we were never made for it! This question always bothered me.
Consequently the next question that fueled the fire started by the first one is about HOW...
What is the part in the nervous system that deteriorates, wears out or breaks down? The only thing I was able to notice is that our nervous system becomes way more sensitive as we go through life. WHERE IS THE BIOLOGICAL WEAK LINK BESIDES THE PSYCHOLOGICAL ONES?
I can reach a state where the pain goes away or does not appear anymore but I can not get a straight answer to these questions.
Observations in studies I read suggest that after a certain age our cerebral development changes and doesn't allow for growth anymore as it does at a very young age making it impossible beyond that age for new areas to form or for the brain to repair itself efficiently which is what we are interested in .
So how could the brain form new pathways to leak pain in our bodies when it did not allow it before when we were beating the drum everyday? furthermore age doesn't even seem to have anything to do with it when I read the posts in this forum...Tms can strike anytime!
And now when it is supposed to get easier as we gain experience we are plagued with disorders and must adopt sophisticated techniques to handle the problems if only to be able to function.
If feels like the more aware and careful we get the more likely we become to have an accident! Do you know what I mean? |
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runningpain.com update - Mindfulness for TMS
