My success story interview (video)

Hello everyone,

I have been away from the community for a long time as i have been focusing on my life and wanted to leave all the pain memories behind, but I need to give credit where credit is due. It was from these forums where i learnt about TMS. The first attempt at healing was through the brilliant structure programme on this site. This community is responsible for freeing me of two years of pain and thereby saving my life. Looking back at my first post on this forum, it almost brings a tear to my eye because i look at where i was and compare it where i am right now. Thanks @Forest and everyone else who helps in growing this community.

Georgie did an interview with me and posted it on her youtube channel (see below). This is a small effort from my part to give back to the community. In the mean time, i have also been working on my personal recovery video which will focus on the details behind my full recovery. However this video is taking ages because i'm trying to make it as comprehensive as possible so it wont be finished for another couple of months.

Enjoy and if you have any questions feel free to ask here.

 

this is awesome thank you so much! I love the before and after pictures and video. You look great dude keep it up. Thank you!

 

how did you do it?

 

Hi @brendan537 ,

That is a very open question as there are so many things i had to change, but ill try my best to answer it:
1- fully believing in the TMS concept. i had no issue believing that because i had nothing to lose, my life was hitting rock bottom and i was just becoming an inconvenience to the people around me. Reading reviews and success stories has tremendously strengthened my belief. Also recording any improvements i make like running, push-ups, boxing and replaying them definitely kept my belief high throughout the recovery.

2- physical activity. getting back to the physical activity and throwing myself in the deep end. it went something like that: Sitting on chair, running, pushups, aerobic classes, going up stairs. Once i was breaking the fear and the conditioning i took a one way flight to thailand to train Muay Thai Boxing for 3 hours every day baring in mind that i still had pain at that point, my mindset was that the worst that could happen is that i become crippled, but i am already crippled so i had nothing to loose! So I used my hardworking personality trait (which has caused tms) against TMS!

3- Meditation/Meditation retreat
meditation every day 20 min clearing the mind. Meditation also helps bring out topics buried within your unconcious that you wouldnt even think about otherwise. When they come up, i would journal about them. I went to silent meditation retreat with Buddhist monks and I learnt so much about the mind there.

4- journaling past / present and future and letting go.
facing old stressors, dealing with current ones. its important once you face them fully, you let them go in the end by looking at the bright side of everything even the most painful memories. And moving on from them. Present journalling is about keeping your mind clear and not being overwhelmed with a lot of things which will cause repression.

5-persnality change
No more nice guy, perfectionist, or obsessive. I had to work a lot on that and slowly training my mind to shifting from these traits. Starting to say no to people, starting to get angry at people, losing the need to have things perfect and overthinking. Step by step you can train your mind to become whoever you want to be.

6-stepping out of the whole "TMS scene" after reaching like 90% recovery. And just living your life and stop reading about tms. I came to a realization one day in the meditation retreat, that the reason i cant close that last 10 percent recovery is because i was attached to the "healing process" if that makes sense. In that sense, i was always going to be "healing" and not "healed" so long as i keep reading about tms. The way i look at it is that before when i had pain i was attached to the pain and the pain therefore remained. When i learnt about tms i was attached at "healing" and therefore i will remain in the "healing" phase. To become "healed" i had to start concentrating about life, myself and bringing back hobbies and completely disconnect myself from tms literature.

Hope this helps.
Ali

 

your comments are very helpfullv for me and ı inspire from you may man.

 

because your story is very similar with mine . ı bought mbp 2 weeks ago and ı am healing now .
but slowly::::

 

Hi Ali,
Really wonderful video, and list you made about what worked for you. A textbook case. Your sincerity and clarity comes through so brilliantly. Thank you.
Andy B

 

I just wanted to let you know that I watch your video a lot. I love the before and after pictures but most of all I like the part where you are training. I would love to be able to do that someday and when I'm having a bad day I think about you training and it gives me the push I need to go for a walk or do the dishes. I hope you post more of these video there great ! Thanks Joe

 

That's very nice to hear that my suffering is not going to waste and that is helping other people. I had similar experience with another video by @psychosomatic from this community.

Have you seen any progress so far? Keep it up sooner or later you will get there!

 

I'm still gathering information and recognizing my own evidence that whats wrong with me is TMS. I started reading the recovery program part one and trying to discover where my negative self talk is coming from. It brought up a lot of painful feelings. This is going to be difficult. Your video has really motivated me into thinking if you can do it then I don't have any excuses. It gives me hope and I have been telling people in cronic pain that I know that they have to watch your video too. I have had some succes in that I have been pushing myself at PT and I'm getting stronger. But today I pushed a little to hard and I had a flare up and panicked a little. I tried to walk it off but I couldn't and my PT ended up working on my leg and hip and it calmed it down. It's been six years for me and I have lost a lot of muscle and stregnth. I went from 148 lb to 123lb. I saw that you got your muscles back too that's great you look great. I can't wait to be able to work out and not have to worry about hurting myself. I would love to see more of your life and how you over came TMS if you get time. Thanks again for posting your story. Joe

 

Hey Ali,
WOW....just amazing. Like others have mentioned, your sincerity and clarity of your experience come across beautifully. This is a great push for me to continue on in healing. I mentioned on the SEP Forum that I consider the program a success already, although I am still dealing with pain. I feel I am right on the verge of a complete healing, and your video is helping to me to feel even more confident. I can relate to you, because I too dabble in Muay Thai. Almost 10 years ago, I traveled to Thailand to train and learn about meditation. Several great things happened to me and one not-so-great thing. I learned a little about meditation and mindfulness, made a friend from Thailand who was also training in Muay Thai for self defense as a Police Officer. He introduced me to his sister-in-law, and we eventually got married (wonderful, beautiful woman). We are living in the USA and happily married. The not-so-great thing to happen to me was I got kicked in the head before leaving, and I talked myself into believing it damaged my neck further (I had broke my neck in 92' , while playing Football for a local semi-Pro Football Team). Anyway, I have not trained any Thai boxing since then. I have continued training in Weight Training and some conditioning. Since starting the SEP, I have increased my training successfully (you can read about it on the SEP Forum if you like). Anyway, You have given me the confidence to try to get back into the Training. Thanks so much for posting your video. Your courage is extremely inspirational. Again, THANKS!!!!

 

Hi joe,

You seem to be on the right path however if i were you i would question myself as to why you are visiting a PT (im guessing you mean physiotherapist?). PT will prevent you from shifting focus from the physical to the mind and will keep you obcessed with day to day improvement which unltimately you need to let go off. Thank you for the great comments, positive feedback like these motivate me to produce move videos. We can have a little chat offline if you want to find out more. Send me a private message if intrested.