Day 8 The emotions connected to pain

On day 8 of the program, the question to ponder is whether you’ve found the emotions connected to your pain.

I don’t think I have so far, even if I’ve found some emotions I feel strongly. How would you know you’ve found the emotions connected to your pain?

I actually didn’t realise that pain related to specific emotions and experiences. I was under the impression that TMS could just be caused by a vast collection of experiences which cause the “pot to boil over”.

Should I think about it differently?

 

Because we're dealing with something as complex and intangible as the human psyche, it is difficult to pinpoint the precise mechanism at play in TMS. I find it most useful to think of it as an internal conflict between the conscious mind (logical and rational) and the unconscious mind (primitive, survival focused, irrational). This can be a new internal conflict related to current stressors or events in our lives or an old internal conflict that we've carried around since childhood that is now "boiling over" as you describe. TMS is a defense mechanism that distracts us so we don't have to face this conflict or truth about ourselves that we want to keep hidden. I often say that TMS is a defense against the truth. This "truth" can be emotions or thoughts that we have been unable to acknowledge or accept.

 

Thanks Ellen, really helpful reply.

So do you think a productive way to view recovery from TMS is as a search for the truth about our internal emotions and thoughts?

 

Yes! It's a journey of self exploration and knowledge with the payoff of release from our TMS symptoms.