The last challenge...

The last challenge for me was running. I was now totally pain free except when I ran. As soon as I set off my back would tense, the pain would seize hold around my glutes and would stop me dead within minutes. I knew that I would then be hobbling for a week. I had to clear this last barrier before I could certify myself as healed. I began with a gentle jog. Nothing more than a shuffle for one minute. When the tension came I smiled, breathed, relaxed and told myself that my back was strong and there was nothing physically wrong with me. I got home and began writing the evidence in my journal, 1 minute, pain free. A couple of days later, 2mins no pain then 3,4,5 right up until 20mins! Then bang! Stop! there it came, crippling pain! This time however, it was different. The Sarno techniques had worked on all my other triggers. This time, instead of looking at a physical cause for the pain i linked it to the fact I had just changed jobs, a new boss, new judgement! In fact, very early on a sunny spring morning, i left my London hotel, and hobbled awkwardly in pain (a 6/10 pain) to Hyde Park. I breathed, smiled relaxed as best I could and started a weird, lurching painful jog...my back is strong, there is nothing physically wrong with me, my back is strong there is nothing physically wrong with me.... Within a few minutes the pain began to ease, my body straightened, I could feel the muscles in my back relaxing. The sensation began to turn into joy and my smile turned into a beam, 25mins later I was literally sprinting through the park for the first time in 15years. 6 months later I completed a half marathon and am now training for a 70.3 triathalon. Going out running with the pain and feeling it dissipate was the final confirmation I needed that this stuff really works!

 

Awesome! I love reading stories about people returning to running after healing from TMS. I feel like if you can run without pain, you know fully, for certain now, that you are perfectly healthy and TMS is the true diagnosis.

 

Agreed, that's how it felt for me, in fact now if I start to feel any tension in my back I go for a run to get rid of it! Which builds more evidence each time.