About journaling as described by Nicole Sachs

Hi guys,

just 2 quick questions around journaling for giving a voice to your feelings. I'd love to read people, who've had successful experience with this. I've started this process 2 weeks ago, and it seems to me that I'm kind of bringing the same topics over and over again.

Of course, I'm sure I'll be able to find little things here and there over time, but I think I'm pretty aware of the big rocks, even though I'm searching through my childhood, daily life and personality traits.

And this leads me to the second question: since, according to Sarno, we are not aware of those repressed feelings or emotions causing rage, how can we be sure we are really journaling about the right things? Maybe I've been journaling about things during 2 weeks that I'm fully aware of and that are absolutely not generating any TMS at all ! I'm lost!

Any thoughts?

Many thanks in advance...

 

I feel her process is ok, but the over and over of writing negative shit and giving it a voice is counter productive and feeds the pain...I say if you need to do this make sure you are journaling about something else and give that a voice. I used her program for a couple of months and found it counter intuitive even TMS therapist said it can be very counter productive..I say journal about life and what you need to do to bring love and happiness to your life. And write this once you get that negative shit out ONCE ...Givin it a voice over and over just gives it power

 

Good advice. Thanks a lot for your feedback Marinedad.

 

Hello my dear,

I'm a long-time supporter of Nicole's work but I think the success of the method varies greatly. For immediate release I think it is very good but for more long-term journaling it didn't work for me. I'm quite sure this is a personal thing and is not reflective of Nicole's idea. As a lifelong journaler and someone deeply grounded in words this was initially perplexing for me but I came to realise I needed healing practices that are more body-oriented.

As for your other question, the ideas around repression have evolved a bit. Generally speaking it is widely acknowledged that you do not need to unearth the repressed emotions and many question whether anything is repressed at all.

Here is a great post written by Steve Ozanich that may help you understand this a bit more.

http://www.tmswiki.org/forum/threads/seeking-the-grail.529/ (Steven Ozanich - Seeking the Grail)

Please ask if you have more questions or concerns as this is a common stumbling block which many people need a bit of help with.

Plum x

 

Thank you so much Plum. It's a very interesting post full of information that is really helpful and addresses my questions.

 

Journaling beyond Sarno’s basic instructions didn’t work for me. It’s just not my thing. I didn’t need to know exactly what all my feelings were to get pain free.

 

Does anyone know where to get a Dr. Sarno "healing back pain" study guide? I know it comes with the DVD but I watched the DVD online so I would prefer to just buy the study guide. I have TMS and want to work Sarno's program which apparently you can do with the study guide. I know other people like Nicole Sachs, Howard Schubiner, etc... make workbooks and guides but I think it might be best to follow Dr. Sarno's directly if possible. Thanks so much!

 

Hello Plum,

I was just wondering what you mean by 'healing practices that are more body-oriented'?

I'm at a stage where I'm not sure what I'm even looking for anymore. The repressed emotions thing baffles me.

Am I repressing emotions? I really doubt it cos when I get angry or sad I certainly feel it full throttle, I am not one to shy away or hide from confronting emotions or situations.

Could it be that symptoms persist through simple conditioning, an over sensitised nervous system and fear of what could be coming next?

 

Hello sweetheart,

I’m referring to practices such as TRE (Trauma Release Exercise), or Somatic Experiencing or something less trauma focused such as yoga or Chi Gung.

I’ve experienced quite a lot of trauma and the more mind based therapies really didn’t help because they led me to focus and obsess on things rather than process them. I’ve found Yin Yoga and TRE to be very powerful in this regard. If you search for TRE on the forum you should find some interesting links.

Interestingly Gabor Mate, whose work goes much deeper than Sarno’s, was recently asked given his many years of practice as a doctor and trauma specialist what one method he would recommend; his answer was yoga.

I think repression and oversensitisation/conditioning both play a part but equally they can become sticking points if you start to ruminate upon them too much.

Ultimately I have learned that I haven’t felt safe in decades. This is totally in line with current thinking in neuropsychology as discussed by Alan Gordon and Rick Hanson. This year, mostly due to EFT/tapping, I have been teasing through the traumatic emotional briar and find this complements the grounding and tension release that comes through practicing yin yoga.

I am still engaged in psychological work because the trauma/abuse totally disregulated my emotions. This is an ongoing situation though so it’s proving to be interesting

Edit: link to situation referenced above:

https://www.tmswiki.org/forum/threads/must-read-if-you-want-to-defeat-tms.21915/page-2#post-114043 (MUST READ IF YOU WANT TO DEFEAT TMS)