Don’t panic

I just wanted to share a mindbody moment I had yesterday. I was stretching as I was waking up in the morning when suddenly my calf muscle clenched in a painful cramp. I’ve only had that happen once or twice—25 years ago when I was pregnant. But I think this was worse than back then.

It was extremely painful so I grabbed my leg thinking if I manipulated my foot with my hands to stretch it in some way, I could ease the pain. But it was hurting so badly and was so tightly cramped I couldn’t do anything to ease the pain.

I started to feel a little panicky like I wouldn’t be able to stop the pain. Then a second later I said to myself, “oh, just relax!” And the panic disappeared and so did the pain. The cramp was still there, but not the pain! Then I just waited it out and maybe 15 seconds later my rock-hard calf muscle softened back to normal. I was so excited and pleased with myself for being able to think my way out of a painful situation.

PS, I wanted to change the title of my post (because I don’t want to imply that it’s easy to simply “not panic”) but I can’t seem to go back and change the title, so just know I’m saying I was just glad that I was able to reverse the oncoming panic in that moment.

 

It shows that you can use your mind to overcome pain - pain probably caused by your repressed stress in the first place.... we are so much more powerful than we realise!

 

Extinction bursts masquerade themselves in various forms and shapes and can puzzle and scare even a very experienced TMS-er. Nearly two years into recovery, I was leaving a grocery store with a heavy bag in my left hand, when suddenly my left thumb tensed up, turned into a straight unbending stick, and started pulling toward the rest of my fingers, eventually resting on top of my index finger in a bizarrely unnatural twist. It surely looked broken or dislocated. The force of my tendons and ligaments was such that I could barely pull it back with my other hand. My forearm felt the tension almost all the way to the elbow.

By then, I knew well not to worry. Moreover, the less I worry, the sooner I can get over the burst. I sat down in the car, closed my eyes, and started meditating. It was not easy to concentrate on meditation in the noisy parking lot. Adding to the difficulty was that for a couple days prior, my anxiety levels were higher than normal (another sign of extinction burst!), but after about five minutes of meditation, my thumb slowly relaxed and travelled back into its place. I drove safely home and soon forgot about this little incident. Had it happened to me earlier, in my less TMS-educated times, I would have been scared and fed on my fear for days after the incident.