Doesn't hurt that bad...

Hi All,

There's a joke I remember about a dog that's sitting on a nail. The owner and the dog are out on the porch and the neighbor is visiting/talking. Every once in a while the dog howls very loudly. Finally, the neighbor asks, why does your dog howl like that. "Oh, he's sitting on a nail", the owner replies. "Why doesn't he get up and move?" asks the visitor. The owner replies "Because it doesn't hurt THAT bad".

I think of this because it seems to describe my situation. I've overcome some really bad pain in my hands, back, neck, etc, etc. Overcome it to the point where I do very strenuous activities these days like run, bike, swim. But I still have some stuck pain that "doesn't hurt that bad".

For instance, I have pain in my low back almost all the time, but on a scale of 1 to 10 it's only like a 1 or 2. It doesn't hurt bad enough for me to be motivated to do anything about it, but it is there. The muscles, nerves, tendons, or whatever in that low back area are in some sort of stuck pain mode. Like I said, I can still do most things I want to do, which is why I don't "get off the nail" and do anything about it. I hardly really feel it at all, but I do feel it the most when I bend to touch my toes or when I bend backward.

I've never seen a doctor about it because they are typically useless to me as they know nada about TMS. I believe it is TMS because it gets worse during high stress periods. I just go on with my life.

However, after a few years of living with it, I thought I'd ask if anyone is in a similar situation... where you have some pain that lingers, but really doesn't affect you negatively enough so you don't really do anything about it.

I usually don't talk about this minor, lingering pain because there are others with more debilitating pain who need help. However, I am considering therapy of some sort to rid myself of this. I'm just not decided on if I want to spend my money on it since it's not really affecting me much. I just don't feel motivated enough I suppose.

Anyone else in this situation or perhaps has been in the past?

E

 

Hey man , I have had different pains shoot up here and there after they have went away.
I knew to not focus on it physically but to focus on it emotionally -- Eugene Gendlins Style. ( sounds contradictory but its not).
Like just yesterday I was benching some weights and I felt this old pain revive in my shoulder.
Now today im a lot better cause I focused on it and when I focused on it like
Eugene Gendlin states in his focusing thread here at Tmswiki-
I don't even feel it this morning. Have you tried focusing?
here's the threads url - http://www.tmswiki.org/forum/threads/focusing-eugene-t-gendlin.2423/
Good luck and a Merry Christmas to you Enrique
and a Happy New Year.

 

Enrique, I'm not a doctor so I can't and won't give medical advice,
but I am a firm believer in TMS causing my back pain and healed because of believing in it.

If I were you I would put off therapy and spend some time on journaling to discover
your repressed emotions. One or more must still remain in your unconscious mind
and is causing even the minor pain. But you must believe 100 percent in TMS causing the pain.
Less than that won't heal you.

We'd love to know how you're progressing. You're doing great so far.

 

I love the dog on a nail story. It's so true for many people.

 

Hi Enrique,
I have noticed that depending of our circumstances, conditioning and emotional state we get different kinds of pains. I only got a couple of episodes where I landed in the emergency room and because I had a small son to take care of I soon figured out how to stop these attacks, (before tms knowledge) by relaxing and taking some pain killers before the full attack. My back pain became fibro and then chronic fatigue and depression. What I am trying to tell you is that if we kind of manage or adapt to the pain it is more difficult to get rid of it, so I guess your subconscious is thinking, he/she can still manage this pain, so I will stay. I haven't successfully eliminated my pain but what I am doing is taking a more practical approach, just believing in full healing, remembering the emotional state/or stress that caused this or that particular pain, tapping, meditating and making sure my subconsciousness knows I am aware of its tactics. I have also noticed that too much info and thinking about our possible emotional root (way back) of the problem might cause us to become tense and more prone to pain.
Leonor

 

I love this, a most excellent reply, thank you

 

Thanks everyone. I think I'll make a new year resolution to allow some time to focus on relieving myself of this pain.

 

Enrique, that's a good New Year's resolution plan.
Help the dog to get off the nail.

Merry Holidays!

 

Enrique,
Thank you for raising this issue. You have inspired me to get busy and work on this lingering low-level pain that I have. I've been resting on my success in getting it down to a tolerable level, but see that it is time to work on getting rid of it all together.

Thanks again...

 

I feel I'm almost there with PF pain. Almost. I want to go all the way to a home run though!

 

Ruth, Ellen, best wishes this year to get rid of that low level of pain for good.

 

Just checking in. I hope everyone is moving along their healing journy!. I broke my wrist on Dec 30 so I have avoided the use of the keyboard for several weeks. I am able to type now very slowly. My cast comes off next Thursday, but the pain is mostly gone now being replaced by a very nagging "itchyness". I'm super excited to get it off and get back to regular activities.

The low back pain (my nail) is still present. I've decided to re-read the Divided mind again, the book that helped me heal from chronic pain the first time. Doing this has also inspired me to do my next Toastmasters speech about chronic pain and TMS.

Best Regards!

 

That's an awesome story, Do you guys record those events. I love to hear your speech. Thanks

 

Hi Enrique,

Good to hear from you. Sorry, though, to hear about your wrist, but it sounds like it is healing well.

I'm also working on my lingering low-level pain. It's interesting because my first step was also to re-read the Divided Mind. Now I'm listening to the audio version of Healing Back Pain, hoping that hearing the Good Doctor's voice explaining TMS will help the message seep into my unconscious.

Good luck to you and keep us posted on how you are doing.

 

Herbie, I'll See if I can record it.

Ellen, Great minds think alike!