Bookmark

I love reading people's success stories. I also dream of the day that ive beaten my TMS 100 percent so I can write my own. But like many of you, im not quite there yet (or some of you may be frustrated and making little to no progress.) But the common theme I notice when reading most success stories is that they dont really give the greatest advice on what actually helped them the most throughout the healing process. Most stories go like this:

I had the worst back/leg/shoulder/neck/foot/arm/etc. pain for x amount of months/years!....
I tried EVERYTHING! Chiropractor, PT, surgeries, special pillows, special shoes, special exercises, etc....
I got to the point where I was so desperate that I was willing to try anything and happened to find Dr. Sarno...
(A) I read his book and was healed a week later! or (B) I read all his books and after a month or so im healed!
Im so grateful that Dr. Sarno saved my life! Read his book and you will have your life back too!...

While I think its great that some people have been able to make such rapid progress without putting in much work, this simply isnt the case with most people. I had a three hour conversation with Steve Ozanich (the author of the best TMS literature out there, "The Great Pain Deception") and he agreed that healing almost never occurs that quickly. Healing from TMS is usually a long process and you have to be willing to buckle down and fight it for as long as it takes. Everybody heals at their own pace. But I feel like most people read these stories and get frustrated when they dont heal right away, or as fast as they would like. I would also be one of those people. I was an extremely active person before my TMS hit, and I lost a year of my life letting myself be consumed by fear. So when I first learned of TMS and starting applying methods, I was ecstatic! I made a lot of progress rather quickly, but still of course had plenty of pain. Being a perfectionist like most of us are, I expected my healing to progress at the same rate for a few weeks until my pain was gone. Boy was I wrong. If there is one thing I learned from Steve Ozanich that really sticks out, its that you have to work on fixing your life. Not necessarily ridding your life of all stress and anger (which is impossible), but work on doing things that make you happy. Dont measure your success on how much pain your in after you take a walk. Measure your success on how little you care about your pain after taking a walk. You WILL have good days. You WILL have bad days. Learn to expect this, and do your best to be happy either way. Remember, becoming active will NOT hurt you further. NOTE:(This is assuming that youve ruled out anything serious)

BUT
I didnt start this thread to talk about myself for hours. I started this thread to ask people to simply share the best advice they can possibly think of that helped them the most with their healing. My hope is that this thread can become a long list of extremely helpful advice that all TMS sufferers can learn from. Of course Dr. Sarno and others have offered piles of information on how to beat TMS. But nothing is better than hearing advice from others who have conquered this mountain. I myself have made tremendous progress in the past however many months ( I dont like to count ), but even I would like some help on how to overcome that last 25% that just doesnt seem to want to leave. It seems as if the closer I get to being cured, the slower the progress and the harder it is to notice. The key is looking back and realizing how far youve come. Please, whether it be a couple sentences or a couple paragraphs...Share your wisdom!

What single piece of advice did you find to be the most helpful in your journey?