Day 1 Finally...I feel able to accept its TMS! (again!)

Hi everyone

I am so pleased to have found my way here. I'm in the UK suffering with chronic shoulder pain for the last 18 months or so since 'injuring' it in the gym. I have used Dr Sarnos approach before to heal my shin splints in 2004 however I have now realised that actually since then the pain has just moved around - lower back pain, voice problems and sore throats, then a bad knee and now shoulder. Each time the issue has been chronic and limiting but with no clear cause.

The final straw came this week when mysteriously my left shoulder has decided to join the pain party - cue major fear - i can cope with one painful shoulder but how will I live with two painful shoulders!?

So I am now ready to look at this head on and take the approach seriously. I have made a major step today of using my computer mouse in my right hand - something i associate with a lot of pain and fear and do you know what - its OK. There is some discomfort but i keep telling myself that i know whats going on, I'm not accepting it anymore and I will be taking active steps to deal with this at the emotional level it needs.

I have decided to start 'rage mapping', so a mind map of my anger everyday so that i can start linking up the anger and stress I feel now with past events and wider patterns or emotions and behaviours.

I intend to tune in her a few times a week to keep me engaged. I look forward to learning from and with you all.

Many thanks

Caroline

 

Hi, Caroline. You did yourself a big favor by joining this web site and starting the SEProgram. It healed me from severe back pain and has healed many, many others.

Your plan is good, to work on "rage mapping." It will help you to discover the emotions causing your pain.

I think you will find it helpful to keep in mind Dr. Sarno's 12 Daily Reminders, from his book Healing Back Pain.
I especially like this extended version by another of this TMS community:

Herbie’s Extended Version of Dr. Sarno’s 12 DAILY REMINDERS

1. The pain is due to TMS. This is real pain or anxiety but it is caused by subconscious tensions and triggers, stressors and traits to your reactions and fears and also when at boiling point your conscious tension can and does also cause real pain.
2. The main reason for the pain is mild oxygen deprivation. This means that when you get in pain or anxiety then the blood is restricted from going to your lower back, for instance. The blood being restricted causes oxygen deprivation which causes the pain. Remember, where there is no oxygen then there is pain in the body. Also, the pain stays because of fear.
3. TMS is a harmless condition caused by my REPRESSED EMOTIONS so even though you think you can harm yourself from the years of pain you have felt and how you feel in general -- so far no reports have been heard from TMS healing knowledge causing damage to anyone, it only helps.
4. The principle emotion is your repressed ANGER -- this means under your consciousness lies something that happens automatically to everyone. TMSers have repressions that are stored because of our personality traits, traumas, stressors, fears, strain, etc... When these stored repressions build and build, then eventually they cause the brain to send pain into your body to keep you from having an emotional crises. The mind-body thinks it is helping you.
5. TMS exists to DISTRACT your attentions from the emotions, stressors, tensions and strains of your personality traits because if you can get distraction then you won’t have to be in emotional turmoil. When you don't face and feel your emotions and they get repressed because you didn't want to deal with something -- they are just adding up in this beaker, ready to pour over and create real pain and anxiety in your body.
6. Since my body is perfectly normal, there is nothing to fear. So in reality when I fear the pain or anxiety I just cause myself undo strain and tension adding to the beaker of pain. If I fear, then I feed the pain, If I fear, it’s impossible to recondition. Fear keeps the pain and anxiety alive in the body through focus.
7. Therefore, physical activity is harmless. If I want to work against the pain I could but it’s better to lose some of the pain so when I start my life over I have to be in pain trying to heal because facing the repressions and all the other activities that cause the pain and reversing my fear and focus to them, then I can heal.
8. I am resuming all normal physical activity. I don't fear moving anymore. I believe in my body’s ability to heal now. I can move as I want. I will not fear moving with a bent back anymore. I will also practice going out and acting normal again, not in fear of what pain might do to me.
9. The pain is unimportant and powerless. Its only power is how it is hidden -- its illusion, its fear.
10. I will keep my attention on the emotional issues. I will think about my emotions and feel my emotions throughout the day. I will not judge, criticize or fear my emotions. I will not run from my emotional issues but face every one of them. I will feel my emotions fully and cry if I need to. Then I will release the emotion and get my mind and thoughts back to my life and living in the present.
11. I am in control of all of this. This is how I recover.
12. I will be thinking PSYCHOLOGICALLY AT ALL TIMES. This means I will keep my thoughts on psychological issues like happiness, fear and anger -- traits and triggers, conditioning and journaling -- The science behind mind-body/TMS healing, etc.... This way I will not feed my thoughts to the body -- that is a trick of TMS. TMS will always try to get me to focus on the body caused by the pain until I break its show and flair. When I get my attention off physical symptoms and on to emotional issues and psychological issues then I will not feed the fear of the physical issues anymore, thus making the TMS of no pain effect on the body. This will in return, give us the cure and become pain-free.