Newbie - Day 1

Hiya kdog and Welcome to the wiki,

Doing the TMS approach can always seem a bit odd in the beginning. We are so programmed to think of our symptoms in a structural mindset that all of this think psychological talk is difficult to absorb. That's where the forums come in. This wiki is a great place to ask any questions you have and learn more about how other people recovered. We are a no judge zone. There is no wrong answer or comment. At the same time we want you to do whatever is comfortable and feels right to you.

The best parts about the TMS approach is that there really isn't one big technique that people have to do to recover. Yeah journaling and self talk have worked for a lot of people, but for other simply educating themselves on TMS and the true cause of their symptoms is enough. Personally, I didn't really love journaling either, so I read a whole bunch of success stories. This really helped me gain confidence in the approach. We have a whole bunch of them at Success Stories by Symptoms & Diagnoses. You may also want to check out all of the wonderful reviews of Healing Back Pain at http://www.amazon.com/Healing-Back-...iewpoints=1&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending .

One other thing I would recommend doing is to simply ask yourself why you have doubts about TMS and why online sites like this are stressful for you. There is nothing wrong with either of these things, and I think most people feel this way at some point. But part of recovering from TMS is identifying our emotions and then asking WHY. What are our doubts about TMS and why do we have them. The key to recovering from TMS is making the connections between our symptoms and our emotions. This involves asking how we feel and why we feel that way.

Best,

Forest

 

kdog, you are describing me, exactly. The first time I posted while I was doing the Structured Ed Program it was pretty scary, because I didn't know what I was opening myself up for, it was not something I'd ever done, either. But I was amazed at the community of caring people that I found here, Forest being the first one to reach out, as he often is , but soon followed by others who were on the same path as myself. The main thing I love about this group is the positive attitude, the belief that everyone can benefit from this knowledge, and the understanding that we're talking about a universal human experience.

The other thing is discovering that there are SO many different ways to achieve the goal of relief and healing! There is no one way, no one author, no one practitioner, and, amazingly enough, not everyone who provides help in this area is a devotee of Dr. Sarno (hard to believe, but it's true) because there are many practitioners and authors who have been doing excellent mind-body work on their own for a long time, and their methods are valid and valuable and they resonate with TMS sufferers in different ways. You'll find some of those authors and practitioners in the Structured Ed Program, and you'll also find them by keeping up with the conversations we have on the forum here.

I'm also not a fan of self-talk, although Forest had good advice about affirmations recently - Forest, do you remember what it was you said? I copied it from the chat last Saturday, but it's on my home computer (ugh, yes, 8pm, I'm still at the office). Let's see: something about how if an affirmation doesn't ring true, change it into something that does.

And I also didn't want to journal, but it was in fact very helpful, because if you're honest with yourself and write down even the littlest things that you "think" are unimportant, you might be surprised. It's actually your brain trying to convince you they aren't important. You have to try not to be judgmental about it, and just let it flow. I do it on the computer, which makes it too easy to edit - I try to not do that...

Hm, if I didn't know better, I'd say that sounds like our old wetpaint server site, not our wonderful new forum site here. I don't think I've ever started a thread - I'm always responding to threads! Anyone else experienced this? It could have been a temporary glitch - those things do happen (as a webmaster for another group I field these questions all the time, and I've decided that sometimes, it's just gremlins).

Well, in the meantime, kdog, Welcome! Stick with it, stick with us, explore and see what's available, and above all, have faith in the process. And like Forest says, read success stories. My favorites are at the Thank You Dr. Sarno project

Jan

 

Hi Clio, and welcome! I have to admit, we're still figuring out the best way for people working on the Ed Program to post their progress. The old site was laid out really differently, where the forum was integrated into the wiki, so people just wrote their daily updates on the wiki page for each Day's activities. That's where I wrote my first post ever, in fact, which was responded to by Forest and Sienna - I still remember.

One thing you can do is from the All Forums page (which lists just the five main forums), choose "Structured Ed Program & Blogs" and then in the list, look for other people who've already posted using the particular day you're on. For example, I see a couple of Day 8s on just the first (most recent) page of postings, and one of them is very recent. That way you can find people who are working on the same things. Unfortunately, the "search" function is not useful (I put in "Day 8" and to search titles only, but it said the search term was too short or too common. Huh.)

Or look for threads which seem to be about a topic that is of interest to you in the moment. The search function should work well for that if you have a particular topic in mind.

If you respond to an existing thread, original posters to that thread will be alerted and may come back to respond or add comments.

Or, start your own thread!

You can make that your tagline in your Profile - I'd love to see it every time you post, it's a really good one!

Jan