(Day 1) A mix of emotions

I am on Day 1 of the program. I have almost finished Dr. Sarno's Healing Back Pain book, and began searching online for a TMS therapist in Colorado. I found this forum, and yesterday I completed Day 0 and Alan Gordon's TMS Recovery Program page. I am a mix of emotions as I write this. I have had significant pain in my neck, and upper back for over 10 years. I think it started around the beginning of dental school, before even doing any dentistry. There are many physical things that I have attributed to my pain- leaning over doing dentistry, obviously, but also sleeping on my stomach, hunched over looking at my phone, not working out my back when I was younger, "bad" posture, etc. I also get significant pain in my left shoulder on longer bike rides, and pain in my left IT band area when hiking downhill. I stopped my short bit of running because of it when the pain started.
Generally, I have ignored the pain in the past, or at least not done anything about it. More recently, I have done some massage therapy, and exercising to strengthen and stretch my back. Most of that has a temporary fix, but it comes back.
A year ago, I got a rowing machine, after dragging my feet for over a year, and after using it for 5-10 minutes, my pain in my neck and back went away for a few days. It felt like a miracle. I knew it must have been a placebo, because it was such a minimal amount of exercise, probably done "incorrectly" and how could that have solved this problem that felt like it was never ending. After reading Dr. Sarno's book, I think of this as evidence of TMS, that this was a placebo, but also showing that this is in my head, and I thought the rowing would save me, and that was enough to break the cycle, at least for a bit. All of the "physical" things I have done so far are temporary at best.
I am a skeptical person. I refused to go to a chiropractor, because I felt like they were pseudo science or charlatans. I thought acupuncture was questionable too, but I did get dry needling on my arm that was injured during a bike accident, and it improved. Looking back, the tendonitis of my forearm after the bike crash may have been a manifestation of psychological issues and not a direct result of the accident. I think the shoulder pain might be the same. I say that the shoulder pain is from a bike accident around 13 years ago, when I got hit by a car, but objectively, it wasn't that bad of an accident, and it doesn't make sense that it would be my left shoulder, not my right.
This is rambling a bit!
I am not 100% convinced about the psychological origin, or at least I'm not sure if all of the pain I'm experiencing is in my head. I am ready to commit to this program though! I want to change my life, and be a better person for myself and my family by being pain free.