Day 17 Minor updates, small wins 17 days in

Hey folks!

I've been plugging away at the program. Today, I was on my feet for 50 minutes without a break while I made coffee this morning and attended to tasks. Standing up for prolonged periods is one of my top 3 problems, so this was a nice win. The pain is still there, but it feels like I'm at the beginning of a new phase where my relationship to the pain is changing. So that's encouraging.

Another thing I've noticed is that standing up for more than 15 minutes would normally cause a "hangover," i.e. a persistent ache and tightness in my legs that I'd have to deal with over the next couple of hours and days. That appears to be diminishing somewhat, which likely points to the validity of the core ideas of TMS and this approach. So I'm encouraged and grateful for this.

I've been doing the journaling/unsent letters prompts as well. Journaling is something I've encountered before and had a dismissive attitude about, whether I admitted it to myself or not. I had a small voice in the back of my mind that was saying that journaling exercises were stupid and for stupid people who weren't smart enough to take a more scientific-based approach to solving their problems. Yes, I'm aware how much of a closed-minded a-hole I sound like writing that (my apologies! No disrespect meant. I'm just trying to be real here. I "suffer" from delusional self-confidence (lol) as opposed to anxiety. Anxiety seems to be helpful for overanalyzing things; I'm more on the blissfully ignorant of my personal weaknesses and vulnerability, which as you might have guessed by now, appears to involve my brain shunting tough emotions into my body). I've been blind to a lot of what's really going on here, and the reflection that these exercises are prompting are helping.

So anyway, just want to once again offer thanks to the people who put this program together, the mods, and the people posting in this forum. Makes you feel like you're not alone, which is a big deal.

Yrs,
Edgerton

 

Congrats to you! And you are a testament to doing the work! I could use this encouragement today. Thanks so much!