The Power of Now

Thanks for your response. I'm totally guilty of continually pursuing that golden nugget of wisdom! Lately I've been thinking that my TMS is being fed by my preoccupation with it and a lot of my aches and pains may just be a result of my straight forward physical inactivity. I work from home and sit in front of a computer all day which is not healthy. For some reason I have an aversion to exercise. I know I should do it and find it hard to get motivated. Last night I took a walk and although it hurt for the first 5 mins, it started to loosen up my muscles and it felt good to move after a while. I don't even think this is psychological, it's just plain physiology. This morning I did 30 mins of yoga which I also enjoyed as it gave me a feeling of doing something for myself that was calming. It hurt a lot but again, I think that is only a small part TMS and a large part of me having tight muscles from inactivity. I think for me I've just got to get out more, easier said then done right now because it's extremely hot where I live - but at least getting away from the computer more often is helpful.

 

True enough. Once we get embroiled in the TMS loop it is easy to actually think that all those day to day aches and pains we get are part of TMS...we get obsessive about the concept and obsessive about the pains and symptoms and it's constantly like we are putting together a jigsaw...we have the pieces and what we believe is an end picture in our minds and we constantly shoehorn the pieces to fit that picture. Another big factor is the concept of somatic amplification which is huge here. These aches and pains would probably not warrant a moments thought to the average person but to many of us each ache and twinge etc is yet more evidence that we are at deaths door and as we focus these symptoms become more powerful and build a life of their own.

TMS sufferers fit an incredibly wide spectrum. There are those poor souls who are almost bed bound in pain and limited mobility whilst there are others (myself included) who just seem to suffer from a wide ranging pretty limitless list of daily niggling and troublesome symptoms that seem to pop up for no rhyme or reason. I do agree with your suggestion that before we too readily jump at a TMS/stress illness/pain syndrome diagnosis that we do actually look at factors such as activity levels, diet etc as this can often leave us feeling pretty crappy.

Edit: Oh and sleep, don't forget sleep. I'm guilty of staying up till 4am in the morning playing Call of Duty and only getting 5 hours sleep and then wondering why I feel like a wired up tin man in the morning.

 

The only thing to be careful about when addressing diet, activity levels etc. is becoming obsessed with it which is the specialty of us TMSers .
I started eating plant-based a few years ago and although it was a good choice and I'm healthier for it, it's easy to obsess about what you are and aren't eating and what the gurus say about x, y and z. I don't know about other TMSers but I'm very rule oriented. I am constantly setting up systems at work and home to keep me organized, efficient etc. Maybe it comes from having to take care of myself at too young an age - I had to learn to create order since no one did it for me. Whatever the case, it can lead to obsessions and creates a lot of pressure.

 

Very true. Just as easy to get obsessive about healthy pursuits. Interestingly this actually goes to show just how powerful the mind is when it becomes locked onto and fixated about something. Whatever we focus on just becomes all encompassing be it diet, exercise, gaming, drinking or pain.

 

And then what happens is that you often drop everything because it's just too hard to maintain. It reminds me of what I once read about perfectionism. We often think of perfectionists as having everything perfectly in order. The type of home you walk into where everything is always perfectly in place. But a real perfectionist's home can often be messy because when they clean it has to be perfect, which requires a lot of work so they often procrastinate doing it. I think a lot of perfectionists also tend to procrastinate about things they want done perfectly. I know I'm like that.

 

@Huckleberry - just listening to one of Monte's videos. He says to stop all treatments that are aimed to fix your body. This is standard Sarno/TMS advice. Are my thoughts that my aches and pains are from inactivity and thinking that exercise will improve that, just a sneaky way of my mind trying to deny the TMS diagnosis? Am I using exercise as a type of treatment for TMS?

I've struggled with TMS pain for such a long time that I'm much more hopeful that exercise will help and be a good distraction then I am of continually reading books and recovery programs. You can see how I'm over fixated on all of this. I'm TMSing about my TMS

 

All the books, programs, competing theories, gurus, videos, can be overwhelming. Especially if you are searching through them for the one true answer.

 

Yup - its overwhelming which causes analysis-paralysis. Obviously we are all here because Dr. Sarno's books weren't enough to cure us. So how do we avoid the information-overload and constant pursuit of that golden nugget of wisdom that @Huckleberry so aptly described?

 

I'm not totally convinced that it's that Sarno's books are not enough to cure us but rather that so many of us expect a book cure and get pissed and downhearted when this doesn't happen. I think that recovering takes a lot of hard yards and retraining our behaviours and thoughts over a lengthy period. I know from experience I was kidding myself as to the amount of commitment I put forward.

 

So true. That is why i find it troubling when we see video clips where someone with twenty years of pain was purportedly cured in minutes, as was posted very recently. They create unrealistic expectations and also make people think they must be doing something wrong. For many, the fear and cognitive distortions and dare i say it unresolved emotional conflicts that perpetuate chronic pain can be very very firmly lodged.

 

Can you elaborate on what type of commitment you were putting forward and what you are doing differently now? I'm probably in the same boat. I just don't really know what I should be doing and I don't want to overly fixate on it. I feel that therapy would be the best but I don't have the budget for it.

 

Here is another plug for Monte's approach to TMS healing.
I was struggling for months until I read his material that is on this site.
Then, I read Echart Tolles " A New Earth" and was given a clear understanding of what mindfulness can do for living in the moment. Acceptance, Enjoyment, and Enthusiam are the pillars of living in the "NOW".
It is easier to get out of pain when I am present, maybe because being present is a full time job!
I am truely enjoying being a "frequency holder".
When one of hurts, we all hurt.
I wish everyone the best.

 

Dr. John Sarno’s Healing Back Pain and Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now are, in essence, describing the same inner process from two different doorways: one psychological and somatic, the other spiritual and existential.

Here’s how they connect — step by step:

1. The Pain-Body and the TMS Defense Are the Same Mechanism

• Sarno: The unconscious mind represses powerful emotions (especially rage, fear, shame) and diverts that energy into the body, producing Tension Myoneural Syndrome (TMS) — pain as a distraction from forbidden feelings.
  
  
• Tolle: The pain-body is an energetic residue of old emotional pain that the ego keeps reactivating. It feeds on unconscious resistance, judgment, and emotional reactivity.
  

In both systems, the body becomes the stage where unacknowledged emotions express themselves.
Sarno calls it a distraction mechanism; Tolle calls it identification with the pain-body — both describe unconscious avoidance of emotional truth.

2. The Cure Is Awareness
Both teachers point to awareness as the true medicine.

• Sarno:
  
  “The pain serves to distract you from your emotions. When you bring those emotions into consciousness, the need for the distraction disappears.”
  → Awareness removes the need for the symptom.
  
  
• Tolle:
  
  “What you are aware of you cannot be possessed by. When you observe the pain-body, you are no longer the pain-body.”
  → Awareness dissolves identification.
  

In both cases, seeing ends suffering.
You don’t need to “fix” anything — you only need to see clearly what’s happening inside.

3. Witnessing Is the Bridge
Both Sarno and Tolle ask us to develop the observer position — what Tolle calls Presence, and what Sarno describes as “thinking psychologically, not physically.”

• Sarno: invites patients to watch the mind’s tricks: how it turns emotion into pain to keep you away from feeling.
  
  
• Tolle: invites us to watch the mind’s noise: how it creates suffering by resisting the present moment.
  

Witnessing breaks identification — whether with pain or with thought.

When you witness your TMS pain without fear, it begins to lose its hold.
When you witness the pain-body without identification, it begins to dissolve.

Both are forms of liberation through awareness.

4. The Repressed Emotion vs. The Unfelt Now
Sarno’s repressed emotion is the same territory Tolle points to as the unaccepted Now.

• Sarno: the unconscious hides emotions that threaten the ego’s self-image.
  
  
• Tolle: the ego resists what is, labeling it wrong, unwanted, or shameful.
  

In both teachings, pain arises from inner resistance — from saying “No” to what we feel or to what is.
Healing begins when we allow and accept what is present.

Sarno: “Don’t try to get rid of your anger — just acknowledge it.”
Tolle: “What you accept completely will take you into peace.”

Acceptance is not passivity; it is direct contact with truth.

5. From Understanding to Transformation
Sarno’s “knowledge cure” and Tolle’s “awakening” are two sides of the same coin:


Sarno Tolle
Knowledge of the true cause ends the need for pain. Awareness of the false self ends identification with suffering.
Pain disappears when repression is no longer needed. Pain dissolves when resistance is no longer fed.
The mind-body system returns to balance. The mind dissolves into Presence.
Both point to consciousness as self-healing.
When you truly see, the illusion of pain — physical or emotional — can no longer sustain itself.

6. The Real Healing: Returning to Presence
Ultimately, both teachers bring us to the same discovery:

The mind creates pain when it hides from truth.
Awareness ends pain by shining light on truth.

Sarno shows this through the body,
Tolle through the present moment,
but both lead to the same realization:

You are not the pain. You are the awareness that witnesses it.

In Essence

Dr. John Sarno – Healing Back Pain Eckhart Tolle – The Power of Now
Pain is the body’s distraction from repressed emotion. Pain is the mind’s resistance to the present moment.
Healing comes through awareness of inner emotion. Healing comes through awareness of the Now.
“Knowledge is the cure.” “Awareness is the power.”
The goal is psychological freedom. The goal is freedom from identification with mind.
Both point to the same truth:

When you stop running from what you feel or from what is,
the false structure of pain collapses —
and what remains is peace, presence, and wholeness.