Very weak, recovering strength

I've arrived at a deeper understanding of TMS, though I'm not cured.

I'm wondering if anyone else has been in a similar position. I was bed-ridden for three years. I was so weak, I couldn't lift a gallon of milk with both hands. I started getting out of bed in early 2011. Over this past summer, I pushed harder and faster to strengthen myself. Finally, I succumbed to what was diagnosed as a muscle tear. Frankly, I don't know if this was an actual tear or not. I was lifting quite a bit of weight, then felt a sharp pain at the muscle/tendon junction in my calf. This is neither here nor there at this point, though. This "injury" is behind me.

Part of me wants to push myself as hard as possible to recover ASAP. I hate sitting on the computer in my parents basement, unemployed. I also don't want to tear something else. What have you done? Taken it show? Pushed hard?

 

Pushed Hard. Or, "Start slow and taper off." : Walt Stack

"Perhaps the most important (but most difficult) thing patients must do is to resume all physical activity, including the most vigorous." HBP, pg. 79.

Dr. Sarno said: "If it's too heavy to lift, you couldn't lift it."

The body is much stronger then the common meme makes it out to be.

Keep up the good work!

 

Find a physical activity you absolutely love and embrace it passionately. The only thing to guard against is taking any element of tms intensity/perfectionism into what you do. The key to healing is to enhance awareness and become a Master of oneself, one's emotions and their full integration into a complete repertoire of expression. This includes recognising and respecting the messages your body is sending you without becoming a gibbering wreck or gung-ho idiot about it. (I tore a stomach muscle once. No doubt about it. An awful snapping of elastic, a muscular wave and I hit the deck like a sack of spuds. The pain was searing. It took around 6-8 weeks to recover and then I was ginger around exercise for a time.)

The body heals and as Tom says it is strong. All fitness programs are calibrated to start slow and gentle, and to mindfully build on gains. A couple of years ago I tried Insanity. I had to quit after 26 days because it almost killed me. I traded it for the pool where I can push without harming myself. Swimming is possibly the best re-introduction to an active life because the water is weight-bearing, forgiving and soothing. Truly, the blue waters lead to what researchers call blue mind; a state of relaxation indicative of the para-sympathetic dominance which quashes tms totally.

The best way forward is the one that inspires confidence and faith. If pushing hard feels good, then push hard. If going slow feel sublime, go slow. Or intertwine the two in a gorgeous ebb and flow.

After being bed-bound I personally would begin by short, slow walks in nature complemented by yoga and moving to music (progressing to dancing). And then swimming. And then whatever you like.

Plum x

 

thanks

 

We refer to that as cocooning around here.

 

I really don't know for how long I should allow myself to stand/walk. The more I do, the more pain I'm in. I pushed to the point where I could not walk for about ten days recently. Has anyone else had to recover the ability to walk?

 

Yes, I have recovered the ability to walk. I was in a wheel chair for a couple of years. I'm diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome which is a genetic collagen disorder causing severe hypermobility in most joints, soft tissue and brittle skin. I get a lot of injuries, some very small, others tough and persistent, but I didn't know what was going on and I literally worked myself into the wheel chair by not listening to my body's signals of slowing down and getting some rest... Combined with a lot of mental stress and a heavy childhood trauma, my body just lay me down for more than 6 years ago.

I lost my job, I'm on a disability-pension today, I got divorced - and slowly began to recover. My best advice is that you do not overwork. In my papers from 6 years' back it says "Pia should not overtrain, not even on a good day"... that phrase puts me into perspective . I've spent the last years taking 2 steps forward and one, one-and-a-half and sometimes more... backwards. It takes time. When I look for change, I don't look a month or six months back. I look back at least a year, sometimes two years. My subconscious has kind of lost it's trust in me because I've worked so hard for so long... always going the extra mile not just once, but maybe ten times... I know that TMS is believing that your body has unlimited strength. And I agree. But if your subconscious has taken charge, you need to cooperate with that and re-earn the trust!

The ability to walk improved slowly and it takes time to regain musclestrength. Be patient! Use pacing, if it fits your personality. For me, I had to quit all kinds of plans for training and recovering and just go slowly feeling my way from the inside and out - does that make sense? I'm able to walk 8.000 steps almost every day and I'm still improving! I still have pain and started working with TMS a few months back - and I'm getting less pain by using TMS already!!!

Best of luck to you, and feel free to contact me if you like to know more!

 

I'm not sure I follow what you're saying. It seems like you're saying that believing that your body has unlimited strength is a myth, and that this myth is a manifestation of TMS. Is this what you're trying to say?

 

I'm not a native English speaker, and I may be a bit blurry sometimes I'll try to explain. I mean that my body is healthy and has unlimited strength, which is also what TMS teaches us. It's not a myth, it's true. But the subconscious is a powerful factor and in my case, it has sort of taken charge over me. I need to work with listening to my body, knowing that pain = feelings that I don't want to feel, and as I learn to feel my feelings, my subconscious will create less and less pain.