The Amazing Power of Holidays....

So, after a while of having hand and wrist pain and weakness, alternating between the left and right sides, I went to Norway last week. And for the entire week.....nothing. Not a flicker. I gripped the stair rails on a whale watching boat to stop myself from sliding over in the ice - nothing. I gripped a bucket of reindeer feed as a gentle herd surrounded me, and I was keeping it at requested arm's length - nothing. I went snow-shoeing for the day - nothing. I carried bags and suitcases, and coats between my fingers and thumbs. I even occasionally looked at my hands and thought, 'come on, then, let's be having you.' Nothing. I registered how much lighter I felt - emotionally, physically, psychologically. No stress, no work, no micro-resentments starting to pile into each other. Then I flew back home and it's trying to come back into my right today, right amidst my unpacking, and my phone beeping, and I'm about to pick up my cherished dog from kennels - he's deeply loved but aged 11, which is another stressor, another something my brain is wanting to scream about; don't die on me, darling, please don't die. For the time I was away, I barely thought of him at all. So, for me, this really is the final piece of the puzzle; that a change of location, climate, demands, expectations, and role = no pain really DOES equal TMS.

 

Fantastic proof! (Other than you going on 'holiday' rather than on 'vacation', I could tell you are a fellow Brit when you wrote 'come on, then, let's be having you' ) Just a suggestion but perhaps now that you are home and having to deal with 'lifey' stuff, perhaps you could use the memory of your recent trip as a 'safe place' to regularly go to in your mind (to visualise and feel what it was like) and/or as daily meditation... as it's such a brilliant reference point.