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For me it was a huge struggle, given my TMS pain interrupted the thing I had grown to love - running.

Prior to my recent relapse I had been running every day, with growing confidence, so when TMS groin pain reared its head I kept running - just like Dr Sarno advised - but with the constant pain, it took the joy and ease out of it and the effort involved trying to ignore and be indifferent to it was exhausting!

It was very hard to know how to respond to the symptoms. I accepted fully I had TMS, but my two big heroes of TMS healing - Dr Sarno and Steve Ozanich - had different approaches. On the one hand SteveO's advice was to "begin to exhaust yourself physically", while Sarno's advice was to "begin the process of resuming physical activity when you experience a significant reduction in pain". I imagine SteveO might have agonised over this, given he didn't have this significant reduction prior to his resuming activity… and thank goodness he didn't wait!

So I picked somewhere in between, and continued running, but slower, and for shorter periods, still unsure what approach would work best.

At this stage this gem from Steve's book really helped me. In his book "The Great Pain Deception" he wrote::

"You need to dissociate your being from your body. When you move or walk or sit, think of your body as being "not yours" - think of it as an outside object and your spirit as a painless entity that IS you. When I started becoming physical again, I began thinking of my body as an esoteric process - my real self was a spirit moving around pain-free inside my body (this dissociation moved my healing along faster). When the bottom of my feet hurt so much that I could barely walk, I began imagining that my feet weren't actually attached to me; that they belonged to someone else - not of me - beyond tangible flesh and bone. You are more than your pain, more than your body. When you walk or run or go anywhere… simply take your body with you. The body is along for the ride in life. Do your work, play and live while using your body as a tool, as a means to an end, and not simply as a means."

I used to notice the pain more while walking, so on my walks to/from the train to work, I would play and replay my favourite music to distract me… to the point where I would have to resist the urge to sing out loud in the street or on the train! Distraction in the form of throwing myself into a task at work, or giving friends and work colleagues undivided attention really helped and finding any excuse to have a laugh worked wonders. I found the more I felt a sense of purpose and joy in my everyday life the more content I felt, and the less time I had to ruminate on my pain. Fun and purpose in the day, combined with mindful soothing exercises at night gave me a new inner peace, and with this new state my pain dissolved.

One TED talk that gave me a boost during this period of recovery was from Diana Nyad - the 63 year old woman who swam from Cuba to Florida. She is truly inspiring and her talk is a metaphor for every TMS journey - enjoy

http://www.ted.com/talks/diana_nyad_never_ever_give_up