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Starmonger
11 Posts |
 Posted - 10/01/2011 : 02:01:28
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| One of the main issues I have seems to be how not to focus on the body. Sometimes it just seems hard when there is a present nagging pain. What are peoples techniques for taking the focus away from the area of pain? |
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Javizy
United Kingdom
76 Posts |
Posted - 10/01/2011 : 04:53:33
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I don't think it matters if you're aware of the pain, as long as you don't let it stress you out or create fear/negative thinking. It's the negative emotions that are causing the pain, so if the idea that you have to ignore it is becoming a source of worry, then scrap the idea.
One thing that helps when pain is persistent is a meditation that actually focuses on the pain sensations. If you stay purely with the feeling, without allowing your mind to commentate with the likes of 'this is unbearable,' 'I can't take this,' 'it's never going to get better' etc, you'll find that the actual sensations your body is creating are nothing like what your mind is (exaggeratedly) perceiving.
If you can come to terms with your pain, you'll find it naturally becomes less of a focus, and you'll be able to get on with other things in your life. The first key to overcoming your problem is acceptance, so if you can stop worrying, stressing, being fearful and start fostering a bit of optimism, you're already half way there. There's no one right way to go about it; only the way that allows you personally to let go. |
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tennis tom
USA
4749 Posts |
Posted - 10/01/2011 : 08:27:50
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This great advice from Balto is useful:
quote:
Originally posted by balto
Most of the advices above would help very much. But I like to add this: Long ago I use to live alone. I lead a very lonely life and very often suffered from all kind of stress illness. My mind were full of negative thoughts and hopeless feeling. I didn't really get better until I make big changes to my life style. I volunteered, I joined charity organizations, I traveled to third world countries, I forced myself out of my comfort zone and meet people. I met many less fortunate people than myself and that made me appreciate what I have more. And by helping people less fortunate I feel better about myself, I feel like I have contribute, and those smiles, those "thank you's" just lift my spirit and tell me I am worth something. I also made many friends who helped me not feeling lonely any more.
We do need others. We do need to see the world to appreciate what we have. Even going down to the homeless shelter in town would make us realize our life is not so bad.
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DR. SARNO'S 12 DAILY REMINDERS:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0dKBFwGR0g
TAKE THE HOLMES-RAHE STRESS TEST
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holmes_and_Rahe_stress_scale
Some of my favorite excerpts from _THE DIVIDED MIND_ :
http://www.tmshelp.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2605
===================================================================
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." Jiddu Krishnamurti
"Pain is inevitable; suffering is optional." Author Unknown
"Happy People Are Happy Putters." Frank Nobilo, Golf Analyst
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Edited by - tennis tom on 10/01/2011 08:32:10 |
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Starmonger
11 Posts |
Posted - 10/02/2011 : 16:22:13
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thanks for the advice guys, all good stuff. Yeah that's deffinitely an issue sometime, by being afraid being aware of the pain. Thinking that by focusing on it it's making it worse, which can causes huge amounts of anxiety.
How I've been combatting this recently is a new technique i've developed, a kind of meditaiton. If you just relax, put your hands on your belly, and cocentrate on your breathing in your belly, just being aware of the rise and fall of the breth. Doing this for say 20 mins really grounds you and stops all the anxious, intense focus which was causing more damage. This way if things get out of hand by forcibly focusing on the breath in the belly, it stabalises you. This I think is why in martial arts they are told to place the mind/focus in the belly, because it's your natural centre. So if your mind is running rampant, skitting around your body and causing damage with worry, doing this will ground you. |
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Javizy
United Kingdom
76 Posts |
Posted - 10/03/2011 : 09:11:28
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| Yeah, it's a great technique. It actually activates your parasympathetic nervous system, which is essentially the so-called 'relaxation response'. The key is in the extended out-breath, since that's when your PNS can become dominant. Try finding 2-hours a day to do nothing but relax. Meditation, yoga and bathing are good ways. The more you practise relaxing, the more in touch with yourself you'll become, and you'll probably start feeling more aware of when you're unnecessarily tense or stressed. |
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Starmonger
11 Posts |
Posted - 10/05/2011 : 12:21:35
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| Thanks for the explanation, that's quite interesting. Are you reffering to the mediation technique that you mentioned, or to the one I mentioned? So by increasing the duration of the out breath that enhances the effect/relaxation. If you are reffering to the meditation that you mentioned, about focusing on the pain itself and seeing that actually its not that bad, are you also concentraing on breathing too? Might I ask where you read about this technqiue? Is it from the headache in the pelvis book? I havn't read that myself but have heard of it. Thanks |
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Javizy
United Kingdom
76 Posts |
Posted - 10/05/2011 : 15:04:18
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It's true for breathing in general. This is from Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers.
quote:
Whenever you inhale, you turn on the sympathetic nervous system slightly, minutely speeding up your heart. And when you exhale, the parasympathetic half turns on, activating your vagas nerve in order to slow things down (this is why many forms of meditation are built around extended exhalations).
If you've been chronically stressed, your sympathetic nervous system can become overactive, so even when you're feeling pretty mellow, your parasympathetic has trouble switching on, which doesn't fare well for people wishing to recover from injuries, or indeed the many ailments the stress itself brings on! I think this is a key element in TMS, and it's why I emphasise avoiding unnecessary stress, i.e. worry, fear etc.
Accepting a TMS diagnosis or coming to terms with your problem in your own way allows you to do this, and meditation and other relaxation techniques help to kickstart your parasympathetic again, so that maybe you can find a bit of balance and your body can begin to function as it would like to. Keep trying with a positive attitude and you will improve! |
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How to break focus
