"Neurosis is always a substitute for legitimate suffering"

To me, the Carl Jung quote in the title is the heart of what Dr. Sarno is saying in his writings about physical pain. Our subconscious is willing to give us physical pain or even illness in order to help us avoid the pain of dealing with our inconvenient or unacceptable emotions. I was thinking about this in connection with my own situation this afternoon, and I actually said aloud, "Thanks for trying to help, subconscious, but I need to get this out in the open and deal with it consciously."

This link [http://www.jung-at-heart.com/jung_at_heart/suffering-2.html] goes to a page that explains these thoughts better than I can myself.

Susan

 

Hi, Ladies. Thanks, Susan, for the Carl Jung thoughts on pain.

I also find these helpful, related to TMS and pain for one reason or another:

Serena Williams: (After winnimg the 2007 Australian Tennis Open): “You never fail if you try. You only fail if you don’t try. Go out there and try whatever you are dreaming of!”

Oprah Winfrey: “Breathe. Let go. And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you have for sure. Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.”

Oprah Winfrey: “The thing you fear most has no power. Your fear of it is what has the power.”

Jane Fonda: “It’s never too late – never too late to start over, never too late to be happy.”

Fonda says about the greatest thing of her life: “It’s called resilience. And it’s a very mysterious thing. (When she went to auditions as a young actress), “Half of the other actresses were far more beautiful than I, and the other half were far more talented, but none of those women made it. I’d wonder, Why did it happen for me and not for them? Now I think it had to do with that core resilience. I was born that way, and they just weren’t. On my bad days, I say to myself, ‘Fonda, you’re resilient, and you’ve never stopped trying to get better.’ That’s my mantra, and it’s saved me many, many times.”

Halle Berry: “Don’t take yourself too seriously. Know when to laugh at yourself, and find a way to laugh at obstacles what inevitably present themselves.”

Joan Rivers: “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is God’s gift, that’s why they call it the present.”

Brie Larson (Best Actress Academy Award in 2016 for “Room”: “Sometimes I laugh with my parents, and sometimes I yell at them, and both ae therapeutic.”

Jake Gyllenhaal: “Do you know what fear stands for? False Evidence Appearing Real.”

(So even an actor like Jake who makes millions of dollars per picture knows about fear. I wonder what he's afraid of; certainly not poverty.)

 

Hi Susan,

Here is a quote from the link that I agree with and sums it up for me.

More of his pain is held in conscious awareness instead of being discharged into behavior that jumbles up his life, injuring his relationships or his work.

To have the view you do, and voice the encouragement to "know more" rather than be in symptoms seems to me a powerful support to working with TMS. Neurotic suffering is defensive, repetitive and serves to confuse. So is TMS.

For my foot pain, I used a mantra for each step: "Stop the foot pain, I am willing to feel my emotions." Yours is a more appreciative stance.

Rumi said something like "When you move into the water (for relief) you burn. When you step into the fire, you are bathed in refreshing water." This is another indication of this wisdom, which has been around a long time.

Andy B

 

Susan, Walt, and Andy...
I like it all!