If you know me or my TMS Chronic Pain Healing Story, you know it is extremely rare for me to experience any significant TMS pain these days. I would estimate that I have only had a few TMS pain relapses in over 10 years that were enough to get my attention.
Regardless, I did find myself square in the middle of a severe low back spasm (first in several years) a while back and I was successful with healing it relatively quickly. For me the fact that I had it in the first place felt like a miss as I have only endured a few relapses in quite a few years now. I did some formal writing although probably not exactly like what most people write or think about when attempting to “solve TMS pain”. Because this works for me, I thought I would share the type of things I write down and think about when I do very rarely find myself caught in a TMS pain distraction trap. Maybe this might help others having less success or trying other things without relief:
From my personal writing upon pain onset:
Because I am in the middle of a severe bout of TMS pain I must recognize that I probably already missed the primary opportunity to use mindful TMS awareness as a permanent cure. But since I missed it this time, here are the things I must do right now.
1. Give zero attention to any thoughts or fears about a physical problem linked to this pain. This includes thoughts and internal or external dialogue about “degenerative disc disease”, “past body scans”, “getting old”, “inflammation”, “sciatic nerves being pinched” and all thoughts that link my pain to a position I put my body in or an instance where I might have tweaked something physically. Although this is tough when the physical pain is as sharp and acute as this has been, I know from experience that this is crucial for me to have success with TMS pain healing.
2. Fight through the physical pain as much as possible to maintain normal activity. Even if I cannot move well at all right now, I must keep pushing as far as I can take it even when my body is screaming at me to shut it down. I will allow myself to take some pain medicine and soak in the hot tub, but I must be mindful that I am NOT taking Ibuprofen to reduce inflammation in my back! I am taking it for TMS pain symptom relief only which is completely unrelated to any inflammation or any “back abnormalities” that are completely harmless and that have given me zero pain for years.
3. I must think psychologically and emotionally instead of physically. I must recognize that the root cause is stress, repressed emotions etc. I don’t need to pinpoint any one thing as root cause because one thing is not the root cause. Blaming the pain on known stress is pointless and won’t cure my pain. The root cause is an entire reservoir of current and past repressed emotions and stressors including rage, fear, guilt, etc. This reservoir has been growing since birth and everyone has this to some degree although few know how to deal with it successfully like I do. I don’t know why emotional repression comes out in the form of severe physical pain in my body and I don’t care. Solving or even attempting to figure out what my emotional stressors are is not my cure and never has been. Being aware of and accepting them as root cause is all that is required for me. Let it work just like it has previously!
4. I must work on my mindfulness both formally and informally with my pain and in my life. I am in my head in the form of the past and future too much and living in the present too little. Being mindful in my day-to-day life is only possible when I have a daily meditation practice. Because that has slipped for me a little, I need to get back on track. I must practice Mindfulness around my back spasm that involves physically examining the pain I am feeling in my body as much as possible. Like an outside observer, I must scan and feel the pain as deeply and presently as possible without attaching emotions to it, without attaching a story to it, and without trying to change the present state I am experiencing. I must work this into my daily practice. I must not and should not attempt to ignore the pain. The more I feel the pain in the present without an emotional attachment, the less power it has over me.
5. I must not complain to myself or others, and I must not feel sorry for myself. Being a victim is a choice that I can choose not to make. Buck up camper and get to work.
6. Lastly and most importantly, I need to intentionally work on cultivating a sense of gratitude and empowerment around my TMS pain and my mind’s ability to heal it. I am one of a relatively few people in the world that is lucky enough to have stumbled upon this mind body cure and been able to use it, and I can’t take that for granted. Any feeling of TMS pain in my body is simply a reminder of that fact and the gift the late Dr. Sarno provided. Watching people around me live week after week and year after year in intense pain cycles, believing lies, enduring surgeries, and getting hooked on and dying from drugs and medical interventions is heart breaking and not the path I want to go down.I am so lucky to know the way out. I must consciously and continually work on cultivating an extreme sense of empowered invincibility derived from the knowledge I have about the innate power of my own mind over my body.
7. I must read this every day until further notice.