Faith, belief, healing and Emotions

The truth can be elusive. What are we doing in our head that is causing all this pain?

1. 
   We begin to see that our unconscious fears and angers are causing us pain. And our traits that we got from our family and friends like worry and judgement and criticism are causing us pain too.
   
   Even if we were born with some of these traits as a study I read recently, we can still learn to change them through reprogramming the neural pathways.
   
   We learn that meditation is a good thing and not just for spiritual folks and we learn that happiness and laughing and having a good time isn't a sin.
   We learn that getting out and connecting back to life is a must and so good -- we also learn that the sun is for more than just our warmth and the wind is for more than just sailing.
   We learn the beauty in a garden and the hope in a warm friendly hug...
   
   See whether its hope, faith, belief or truth. Basically it all works in unison.
   You have a hope, you believe and then add faith to it and it becomes a truth whether consciously or unconsciously or you can take the hope out of this equation and as long as a belief is there it still creates a truth.
   
   You can also be memed as in commercials that tell you you might have a disease and then you automatically believe it. That is called being framed, we all are guilty of that and that is not the truth. The truth is the power of your belief in something and then by adding faith to it, that's it, it's truth and it's hard to get someone to think another way than the way they have a belief for.
   
   Being a preacher I know that some think faith only resides behind the christian wall but thats not true, faith is in every heart that ever wanted to believe and hope for something. Faith is the power behind things hoped for and those hopes become truths.
   
   (Nicole Sachs - There's also the truth of feeling your feelings or feeling your emotions, so many of us never even ponder that, the unspoken words of the soul have to be felt to be understood and expressed and thus released. Yet we run from them with a bottle of wine and vicodin. We have to treat this pain and anxiety in the home front by facing it for what it really is " our body's unspoken words of wisdom waiting to be heard") ....
   
   
   
   
   my blog • some favorite threads
   God Does Not Want You To Be In Pain, my book with Walt Oleksy

 

Thank you, Eric! Your post is what I probably need in a desperate moment like the one I am having today. My hands are almost immobile and the pain rises above elbows. After all the work I put into healing, my symptoms (extreme tension in hands and wrists that makes them unable to move) reduced in index fingers but skyrocketed in ring and little fingers. I think I accepted that my muscle tension is a signal given me by my mind and body - but may be I have not? Hope is the only thing that I am clinging on right now as I feel that I am losing my faith and I can no longer see the truth.....

 

[Deleted at BeWell's request]

 

I agree happiness is a choice. I also agree your own emotions won't always let you be happy even if you wanted to. So reprogramming, or making a habit of learning new wisdom that can eventually help you stay in a better state by having no physical pain or very little if any is awesome, right.

 

It definitely has to do with reprogramming the neural pathways. Once you have a habit of anything, the brain rewires itself to do the habit automatically. It takes a lot of practice and work to change a habit, and that is because the neural pathways have become wired that way. This includes negative thinking. If you have been thinking negatively for a long time, you can't just flip a switch and not think negatively. It takes practice. That's reprogramming. It's not structural in the sense that bones or joints are involved. But it does involve neurons and neural pathways in the brain. This can be measured. So there is structure to your brain. But it is more like software than hardware. It can be reprogrammed. You can't choose to be happy when your brain is wired in a depressed or anxious state. You need to rewire it/reprogram it first. That takes time and hard work and focus. That is the essence of neuroplasticity. The structure of our brain can be altered by our beliefs, faith, and basically just repetition/practice over time. Its all about the reps. You can't go to the gym one day and expect to have stronger muscles after one workout. You need to work on it, and over time, your muscles get stronger. Same with the brain. God made the brain to be amazingly flexible and capable of amazing things. But we need to learn how it works for it to work to our advantage. Those of us with TMS have a brain that is currently wired/programmed to work against us.

 

[Deleted at BeWell's request]

 

[Deleted at BeWell's request]

 

[Deleted at BeWell's request]

 

I totally agree. Bless you.

 

Be Well, I believe your point maybe over time habitual trained healings are mostly developed neural pathways that have the current coming from the minds energy force.
Agree?

 

In my opinion it's far more productive to emphasize points of agreement among clinicians in the psychophysiological camp than to criticize those who may not agree 100 percent with Sarno orthodoxy which is in any event theory, not gospel. I don't know why you keep coming back to this, is it helpful to anyone to attack Howard Schubiner who is one of the most thoughtful, compassionate, and accessible doctors in this entire field?

 

[Deleted at BeWell's request]

 

[Deleted at BeWell's request]

 

Be well , what you believe you will receive. I understand you. Bless you

 

I am struggling to heal from TMS although I whole heartedly believe my pain is caused by it. I have read and re-read the books, repeat positive affirmations, journal, and work with a therapist. My pain is worse than ever. Can anyone suggest a meditation program or a program that helps 'rewire' my neural pathways? I am working on "loosening and accepting" from Claire Weekes' books. I have read many people's success with meditation and meditation programs and would love to know where to start. Thanks!

 

I'm calm, relaxed, patient, and confident.
Say those words over and over again throughout your day, it will help you soothe your mindbody. It worked like a Miracle for me. I believe it was around the third to fourth months before the affirmations really kicked in.
Repeating the words peace, love, joy and actually feeling those emotions - same with the above affirmations will also help you in a huge way. That's what I did, it really worked.
As far as meditations, I always love mindful meditations. You can find them all on YouTube. Just pick some that relates to you and let go.
I'm sure you'll have more responses, a lot very helpful loving people here.
Bless you.

 

God Bless You.
You are ever a lighthouse in a storm.

 

Well it sure sounds like you want to make changes, you've read all the books, you're seeing a therapist--is it a TMS therapist? Your quote, "... 'rewire' my neural pathways?" sort of sounds like you think you still have to fix something STRUCTURAL--"wires" and "neural pathways" are anatomical parts of the central nervous system--they send info to the brain. The brain then interprets these messages based on all the other messages it has received and stored into the sub-conscious since you were born and maybe in the womb if you believe in the Mozart Effect. Your wires are OK unless they've been cut do to some trauma. Even after someone loses a limb they still get "phantom" messages from limbs that are no longer there--so the mind can play tricks on us. When my cat got skunked, I would get an occasional skunk smell a year later when I walked into my garage where he stunk up the place--the smell was gone but the smell in my brain was very REAL--the mind plays tricks.

S0, you have the TMS info but it sounds like you feel something has to happen before YOUR change can occur--TMS'ers are great procrastinators--part of the TMS personality. You don't need to wait, you can make it happen in the next moment--that old first step in the journey thing. What do you want to do that your TMS is stopping you from doing? Doing builds confidence , the more you do, the more confidence you will create that it's not structural, that it's TMS/psychosomatic.

Have you looked at the Holmes-Rahe list for your stressful experiences?

THE HOLMES-RAHE STRESS SCALE:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holmes_and_Rahe_stress_scale (Holmes and Rahe stress scale - Wikipedia)
​

 

Hi Herbie,

Glad to see you back here, was wondering what you were up to and figured you'd moved and you were busy getting settled into the new digs.

I just started reading SteveO's newest book, "BACK PAIN PERMANENT HEALING : Understanding the Myths, Lies, and Confusion" . In it's Foreword by Dr. Gwozdz, who had a very interesting path to his becoming a TMS physician, he picks a good word to go along with "faith" and "belief", since some are put off by references to traditional religious terms--not me though. I don't care if a person believes in whatever they want to, including a rock or a tree, as long as they're not cutting off anyone's head who doesn't share their "faith". Dr. Gwosdz uses the term "confidence" in the Good Doctor's theory. This sounds like a nice neutral term for what's needed to absorb the TMS KNOWLEDGE PENICILLIN.

 

My therapist has successfully treated TMS patients before; she is not specifically trained in TMS therapy. As far as saying "rewire neural pathways", I'm just trying to express a desire to retrain my brain. From reading many successful TMS stories, the person suffering was able to lose fear and ignore symptoms. To me, that sounds like they were able to think differently. That's what I would like help with: thinking differently. I don't think there is anything structurally wrong with me; maybe I used the wrong words or expressed my thoughts incorrectly. I would just like help changing my thoughts from fear of the pain to indifference and acceptance. I do not let my pain stop me in any way. If anything, I have become more active since the symptoms started. I've looked at the Holmes Rahe stress scale: yup, I've had a lot of stressful experiences. That's why I'm journaling and seeing a therapist. But there is no relief in the pain; it actually feels worse. I don't want to work too hard on recovering; I know that is counterproductive. I'd just like to know if there are any additional meditative helps that I could incorporate in my healing process.