CALL-IN TUESDAY, NOV. 12, OZANICH CHAPTER 14, "What You Need to Understand to Heal"

TUESDAY, Nov. 12, CALL-IN: “What You Need to Understand to Heal,” CHAPTER 14, THE GREAT PAIN DECEPTION

This Tuesday, November 12,the call-in discussion group will be discussing Chapter 14 (What You Need to Understand to Heal) in Steve Ozanich's book The Great Pain Deception starting at 9 pm Eastern Time. It lasts an hour, sometimes a little longer. Phone lines will open half an hour early so you can talk to hosts and early callers. Here's how to join the discussion (for detailed instructions, visit http://go.tmswiki.org/connect ):

• If you're connecting by phone, dial 1 347-817-7654 and when prompted enter the pin code 183 11 499 pound symbol.
• If you're connecting via your computer (Fuze Meeting), go to www.fuzemeeting.com/fuze/app/48fb7aa8/18311499 and follow the instructions from there.For more information, visit www.tmswiki.org/ppd/Call-In_Peer_Discussion_Group .

Steve goes back to basics in this chapter and puts the meat right on the table: To heal back or any other pain you have to believe 100 percent that it is not structurally caused but TMS from repressed emotions. Believing that 90 percent won't heal your pain. Not even 99 percent.

“It’s all or nothing for complete healing,” Steve says.

We’re used to doctors or other health specialists such as chiropractors or sports medicine medics having us take X-rays and other new body imaging procedures and saying they indicate spinal disc problems such as disc bulging or protrusions or disc degeneration, spinal stenosis, arthritis, worn knee joints, or other physiological changes.

The changes shown on medical images may appear to a doctor to be causing our pain. But SteveO says those changes are not causing your pain. It is not because you are over-weight, your posture is bad, how you walk or run, how you sit at a computer, or the position your body is in when you sleep. You don’t need a pain-killer, surgery, or a new pair of running shoes, office chair, or mattress.

“You need to understand that you must have full belief in the TMS process,” Steve says. “You must be fully open to the concept, believe and accept it – or it will not work for you. You need to understand that you’ve repressed the thing that is causing your pain.”

This can be tricky for many people -- believing 100 percent in TMS causing their pain, and thinking about or journaling to find out what their mind is repressing. Most of the time, one or more repressed emotion (anger, rage, fear, anxiety, depression, feelings of abandonment, physical or mental abuse, feelings of low self-esteem, etc.) go way back to our childhood.

One person recently said he can’t remember anything in his boyhood that could be causing him TMS pain. He said his parents were loving to him and did not pressure him in any way.











But something or some things in his boyhood or youth are causing his pain. He needs to believe that and work on finding out what they were. Maybe they occurred outside the home. Maybe in school… bullying or feeling the need to be the first boy at the head of the class.

When I was in high school, our math teacher decided that four girls in the class were learning better and faster, so she had them sit in chairs in front of her desk while she gave them advanced instruction. All the boys, me included, and the rest of the girls were left to sit at our desks and read the text book. I wonder if that gave me a feeling of low self-esteem? My parents never pressured me to succeed in any way. That teacher did! I went on to try to be a super-achiever. I became a writer and a Chicago Tribune reporter for seven years until I left to be a freelance writer of books. I work hard at it, but I love it. Still, I know I have a perfectionist personality and in whatever I write, I always make sure I at least try to make it the best I can. Reading Dr. Sarno and Steve Ozanich it is very clear to me that a perfectionist personality is one of the many causes of TMS pain.

I love the typical conversation Steve has in Chapter 14 with a TMS pain sufferer:
Steve: “Your pain is revealing to you that you are unconsciously angered inside."
Someone: “But I’m not angry, Steve.”
Steve: “I know you don’t feel angry, but the presence of your pain shows that you have repressed
your anger into your body.”
Someone: “But I’m not angry, Steve.”
Steve: “I realize that you don’t feel your anger, but that is the very reason that symptom is there, to let you know something you wouldn’t otherwise know, that you are extremely angry, but have repressed it – consciously ignoring it.”

This conversation goes on and the “someone” keeps insisting he or she is not angry. Steve cannot get through to them that they may not think they are angry or feel anger, but nonetheless anger is there, hidden deep in their unconscious mind. It has to come to the surface or their pain will not go away.

Steve then lists the many distractions we may have to convince ourselves that our pain is structural, not psychological with TMS. Some of these are to believe a doctor and an X-ray that a misaligned back disc is causing our pain so we must have surgery. Others are a need to gamble or to acquire wealth or positions of prestige and power. Also, the need to criticize others or to seek praise from others.

In some of the most important parts of the chapter, Steve tells how to live with pain. “You need to understand that you must lean into pain… Allowing pain reduces the fear that has wrongfully been instilled in you, that you are damaging your body further if you exercise. It is an irrational fear that you are hurting your back or knee by the presence of pain, or that you can further hurt yourself through physical movement.”

“How do you stand against pain?” Steve asks, then answers: “You let pain happen without fear.”

Monks in monasteries learn to test their tolerance for pain as part of their discipline. In some orders, they lie on beds of nails while heavy weights are placed on top of them. Steve says, “They can endure unimaginable pain because they practice relaxation before they perform the test of pain endurance. Relaxation raises the pain threshold by calming the mindbody, rendering pain less significant. Defeat it by allowing it.”

You don’t have to lie on a bed of nails, and Steve does not recommend it as a technique of TMS healing. You can lie in bed and do some deep breathing while you meditate on relaxing and tell your unconscious mind that the pain you feel is from a repressed emotion.

Some people take their worries to bed with them. A very bad idea. No wonder they toss and turn and can’t get to sleep, trying to think of their repressed emotions. Do that earlier in the day, and as Dr. Sarno suggests, spend only 15 minutes or a half hour thinking about them, or journaling to discover them. Don't spend hours at it. That'll just increase the pain.

“You need to begin exhausting yourself physically,” says Steve, “not mentally. Anxiety results from repression, which is held in the body as energy, an overdose of negative energy. Burn your tension away by staying in motion. Sitting at a desk and stressing out on a job is not what nature intended humans to do. Get up and do something you love!”

The chapter is rich in other things you need to understand to heal. Steve writes about the power of visualization. He urges us to learn the techniques of visual guided imagery – envisioning your mindbody living healthily and happily and pain-free with a perfect spine, or cells, etc. Let these healthy images slowly seep into the unconscious mind.

Steve says we need to remind ourselves of what Dr. Sarno has written, that our pain is from a mild oxygen deprivation, the result of reduced blood flow from repressed silent rage. We are enraged about something in our childhood? Hey, really? How can that be? I always thought I had a happy, carefree childhood, with loving parents who fed me lots of candy and ice cream.

Well, the truth is, we are enraged, about something(s) or what someone did or said to us a long time ago. We just shut it out of our mind, even for many years. But something recent may have triggered that old hurt and it has surfaced to give us TMS pain.

Steve says we need to understand that if our lower back hurts, we need to walk and bend and move while focusing our attention on our upper back. If our left knee hurts, walk while focusing our attention onto our right knee. Do the same with our shoulders, feet, etc. Think, as you move, about another area of your body that feels gooooood, each and every time you move. Do not be surprised if the pain moves to the area that feels good. It did for him. He calls it a “cognitive transversal” and is a form of behavioral therapy.

Learn to be more appreciative of what you already have. Steve says appreciation is the highest level of peace and happiness because it encompasses both love and joy. Take time at night to be thankful for the day. If you have trouble being appreciative, it could be part of the problem in becoming free of pain.

Steve then urges us to laugh and let go, as a child does. He said that he knew by the end of his long healing process that he wasn’t enjoying life. “But to have fun,” he writes, “is to let go.’ He says that isn’t easy for a perfectionist like himself. “Become enthusiastic and find silliness all around you. The mind holds both joy and rage simultaneously, each incumbent upon the existence of the other.”

Near the end of the chapter, Steve tells us, “You need to understand that pain is not necessarily a bad thing. You are on the verge of growth through change, and that you are fighting the needed changes. There is opportunity knocking at your conscious mind in the form of pain, and you need only to look inward to see what that opportunity is.”

As the pain increases, it is desperate. It moves around your body and often increases in intensity as you try to ignore it or fight it. It fights your fighting it.

Steve says he began looking at an increase of his pain as a good sign. He felt he was winning the battle because every time his pain increased, he achieved a new level of healing. He came a step closer to pain-free.

“This is reversing the way the pain is interpreted by the brain. When the pain increases, think, ‘Ahhh, tomorrow will be better. My brain is desperate because it’s losing its hold on me."

You will not heal exactly the same way or degree each day. There will be ups and downs that depend on many interrelated things. A few of these are nutrition, exercise, stress, relationship energy demands, good sleep, motivation, criticisms, bills to pay but not the money to pay them, etc. They can determine the state of the mindbody process on any given day.

Steve ends this very helpful chapter with a list of “You need to understands,” each of which can help you reach the finish line in what may seem like a marathon toward healing your pain.

He ends with what may be the basic reason some people have not yet healed even after working hard and long on TMS recovery.

“You need to understand that just because you don’t believe hidden rage causes pain doesn’t mean it isn’t true. It has been shown to be true through repeated observation. Since denial of the truth is what causes the pain, it is not surprising that you still deny TMS is the cause behind your pain.”

This is a great chapter to read and reflect on as we approach Thanksgiving. No matter our pain or circumstance, we all have much to be thankful for. Even our pain, which as we learn from TMS, can be a blessing. It may not seem like it while we suffer, but as you heal you will come to feel as Steve does, that it goes way beyond healing physical pain. It heals us both in mind and body, and as many also believe, in spirit.

I hope you can join Tuesday’s call-in about this really excellent chapter in Steve’s book. There is wisdom here for us all, even those who have healed their TMS-caused pain. Thank you, Steve, for sharing these guideposts in becoming free of pain so we can enjoy life to its fullest, and share our joy of living with others.

 

Chapter 14 is such an uplifting chapter. I didn't want it to end. I kept re-reading it. The above technique helped me so much and I have read of others who used it to great effect. I combined this with something from Peter Levine's Freedom from Pain CD. If my left leg is hurting I visualise my right leg, how it is free from pain. I imagine a magnet attached to my breath. I breath up through my right leg with the magnet picking up the goodness along the way and then breathing that goodness down through my left leg. Better than drugs, Walt.

 

yb44. You got it right. A great chapter from a great guy, SteveO.
You're really making visualization work for you. The magnet attached to your breath is a great idea.
Anything is better than drugs. Tonight friends are coming over with some margaritas. Slurp slurp.

 

Walt,
I read your this summary and it really helped me. I am going to read the chapter in my book, now.
I am going to take it as a good thing now that the pain increased and is moving around my body.
And I am doing journaling and the anger is being released, praise God!!!
Thank you for pointing me in the right direction.
I love Steve O's book.
G.R.

 

GR, That chapter is really great. It says it all or at least most of it.

 

That chapter 14 was the "package" chapter. People love things tied up in neat bows with colorful paper. I kept hearing "I know Sarno is right Steve...but what do I do!?!?!"

I never felt that way. I saw what he was saying, and then sought out to correct it, any way I would. It takes deep introspection, a lowering of the ego-hold, reflection, and great forgiveness. So I tried to summarize it and then say, "do this and this and this..." the best I could. I recently read that chapter 14 after two years and I still agree with it.

Healing is a personal thing, but it helps to have a structure laid out in front of us, a kind of template, or map to follow when we're lost, searching the treasure of healing.

dig here ~~~~~> X

 

I think many if not most people like a list -- 5 easy steps to healing everything.

Your chapter 14 does it.

Some people have already told me they've re-read the chapter and that it's helping them.

Another weekend. They come fast. But I keep busy and would be bored with nothing to do.

 

yb44, I am going to try that technique from Peter Levine's CD that you mentioned. Did
it take practice for it to work?

I just went out walking for six long blocks and the pain in my legs started. I just
ignored it and kept telling myself, "Your a long-distance runner, you could do
this. Your doing great." The pain did not go away but I felt just by walking and
to keep going I was training my brain that nothing is wrong physically. I do
feel very empowered every time I take a walk; whether there is pain or not.

I don't care anymore whether there is pain or no pain; what Alan Gordon calls
outcome independence which is so powerful. It took me a long time to get to
this point.

We are so blessed to have books like Steve's and Dr. Sarno's and Alan Gordon on
this site. I have gleaned so much from them and they are really helping my recovery.
And of course all the wonderful people from the wiki are invaluable to my healing!!!!
Thank you everyone!!!!! Love you all!!!!!!!!

 

The books are really great. So are the TMSWiki folks.
We've all learned so much, about our pain and ourselves.

 

I've used both those therapeutic self-healing techniques that Steve advocates in Chapter 14 to good effect:

1.) Leaning into the pain
2.) Moving my consciousness to the side of my body away from where the pain is located.

I think I arrived at those strategies independent of Steve's pronouncements, but Chapter 14 is filled with so many handy mindbody techniques for reducing TMS pain that I can't really remember if I picked them up there. That doesn't mean that they're not true and very effective. Maybe since I stumbled on them on my lonesome and then found that Steve was confirming my own experience that they stuck in my mind and became part of my TMS recovery internal tool kit? In any event, Chapter 14 is full of so much useful advice about TMS healing that it bears careful rereading as yb44 says. It was really interesting how the other night when I was walking back downhill and my sciatic pain started to return that Steve's words seemed to come back to me along the dark trail to tell me what I should do. Things like that stick with you because they're true.

 

The best call so far and they have all been great. Thank you guys !

 

Bruce this is such a cool thread man, Im so proud to have you as a partner in the discussion groups.
You have been through many milestones and you really have learned your way around -
in the dark bringing it to light in your post and on the Show.
Bless you

PS. Leaning into the pain, I love your style. I know it works.

 

That was a great question you had last night surfside, glad you liked the show.
It wouldn't be that great without you guys so stay strong and keep moving forth.
Bless You

 

Remember, Herbie, though, what Steve said: By "leaning into the pain" he meant "acknowledging and accepting the pain," not physically leaning into it. That makes sense if you factor it in with one of Steve's other admonitions: Move your awareness to another area unaffected by your TMS pain. The way I take that is that if you pain is in your lower left lumbar region, you should acknowledge and accept it without obsessing about it, and, then, at the same time move your center of awareness to the right lumbar region where you're not experiencing pain.

Unfortunately, Steve explained this after we'd turned off the recording, so I thought it was important to set the matter straight here on the Forum.

And thanks Surfside and Herbie. I definitely thought that last night was one of our best call in discussion groups, one that answered the most questions about TMS healing in the least amount of time. But as Steve himself pointed out, Chapter 14 is the "package" chapter of The Great Pain Deception (2011), and it was certainly great that Steve was there to clarify and answer many of our questions. Having Forest to balance and moderate the conversation was great too. And of course Herbie your skills as a moderator continue to improve as we go along with these book discussions. Hey, we're all learning to work together to create a positive outcome for our listeners! Hoot! Hoot!

Now, to bring up another issue that arose after the mics were turned off: Which one of us is going to be the first to donate our brains to science so that the little men in the white coats can dissect them to discover the bio-chemical changes that have taken place therein as a result of the TMS healing process? I know I volunteered Forest, but he politely but emphatically declined the offer. Who'll be the first in line to make the big sacrifice? Not me!

I was just joking of course, but I bet you can do some before and after TMS healing CAT scans of patient's brains to show real changes that have taken place in the way the prefrontal cortex communicates with the limbic system. Seems as though there would be more alpha wave activity.

 

BruceMC)- The way I take that is that if you pain is in your lower left lumbar region, you should acknowledge and accept it without obsessing about it, and, then, at the same time move your center of awareness to the right lumbar region where you're not experiencing pain.

Eric)- This is cool BruceMC, Yes I know what Steve meant and he's got it down - also you did a great job when you asked the question about it. Although your style , the way you said it above in your previous post, well its a style I've used with some pretty good results too at times. Ya know - as were getting better and we start to be able to move more and stuff we can lean into the pain physically as you said last night. Its a step I've used and I know Steve used it in his recovery , we do it after we begin our trail back.

And thanks for the shout out about the skills level, I try. I really like the show as I can tell we all do. I get to learn a lot and id listen to one everyday to keep my self in check in the past, it really helped me a lot in my recovery last year when I heard the Steve Ozanich Webinar.

I guess were going to have to do something about those scientist, wait its not the scientist remember. There's Drs. all over the place that back up tms knowledge therapy ya know. Its so much more too and The good Dr. does have Tens of Thousands of healed patients so id assume they do want a brain. I think Steves Brain will be the one they need- he wrote the book.
I do agree though that their would be some major pre-frontal cortex activity with a healed mind- it would be huge too., mindbody healing id assume huh, ill let you know more soon about it. Im reading the book now called ( What Freud didn't know) its about the science discoveries. I don't know that much yet but ill sure let you know- before I let you guys fight this with your actual brains ill have to do some scientific research first.

We will win in the end, the truth cant be denied
Bless you

 

It wasn't too much of a stretch for me because I had already trained my mind to focus on the parts of me that weren't in pain as per SteveO's suggestion. Taking my focus away from the painful parts did take me some time to master but it was so worth the effort. I find the magnet image helpful when I experience sudden pain. I sit down for about 10-15 minutes and breathe. I can effectively breathe the pain away. It doesn't always stay away though, coming back again as soon as I stand up. However I notice I have fewer of these pain episodes now than when I started all of this so the effects must be cumulative.

 

Here's the audio, folks! Thanks so much to Steve for dropping in. As always, you can listen to the awesome discussion using the audio player below, or you can download the recording as an mp3 by right-clicking on this link (or the link below the audio player) and choosing to save it to your computer. Happy listening

Click here to download the mp3 audio​

Join the discussion group on Tuesday November 19th when they'll be talking about conditioning (Chapter 15 in Steve Ozanich's The Great Pain Deception). For more info, visit Walt's thread Call-in Tuesday, Nov. 19, Ozanich Chapter 15, "Conditioning" .
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