Thoughts on (& as result of) Dan Buglio's video "How Negative Visualization Can Motivate Change"

Below is one of Dan Buglio’s recent videos. He’s had some criticism for it because, although he says he doesn’t want to frighten anyone and just wants to motivate people to do mind/body work, he is nevertheless suggesting that we consider thinking about what life would be like for us in the future (how bad it could be) if we don’t do mind/body work (which, of course, is liable to be fear-inducing). He calls this using “negative visualization”.

Personally, I'm far from a critic of Dan's suggestion because I do think that it's so easy for people to give up on TMS work or to end up doing it in only a half-hearted way because the work can be hard and many of us don't see much, if any, improvement for a long time.

Dan's suggestion has also has struck a chord with me about how one could possibly use so called “negative visualization” to stop TMS symptoms.

I say this because of what happened when I was suffering horrendous right-hand thumb and wrist pain, which came on suddenly one day, for no apparent reason. (Apologies to those who have read this story before as I've posted about it a couple of times in other threads.) Anyway, the pain was so severe that I couldn’t brush my teeth using my right hand, nor could I wash my left armpit or wipe my derriere! This went on for around 9 months until I gave in and resorted to Googling about my symptoms to see if there might actually be something physical going on, rather than it being TMS…

I read that it might be De Quervain Syndrome (all of my symptoms fitted) and saw details regarding the surgery for it (what it entailed, how it might not work and even possibly make things worse, and so on). I also learned that De Quervain Syndrome can get better on its own, but that the time frame for that to happen was much less than the 9 months that I’d already been suffering... Then, lo and behold, shortly after reading all of this scary stuff I found that my hand suddenly started to feel remarkably better and all of the pain and stiffness gradually went away over the next few weeks, and my right-hand is fine now; it's been good for almost 3 years. I concluded from this that my fearful TMS-ing brain did not like the sound of the surgery at all – it feared it, and as a consequence it just decided to stop the pain, just like that!

So, I’m thinking, why not use my brain’s extraordinary propensity to be over-the-top fearful to anything it views to be dangerous and talk to my brain, pointing out to it how dangerous it would be for me to keep experiencing my remaining TMS symptoms in addition to whatever old age might bring me in the future (I’m in my mid 60s)? At one point, in the past I was bed-bound for over 7 months due to severe muscle pain and muscle spasms that set like concrete and torqued my pelvis out of kilter – and, of course, being bed-bound is no good for one's heart, one's muscle strength and there would be a possibility of deep vein thrombosis due to the inactivity etc etc. I’m going to keep reminding my brain of this kind of thing every time I notice a symptom. I’m not suggesting anyone else try this, but I’m going to give it a go and I will, of course, report back if it helps me at all. Hopefully, it won't badly backfire on me!

 

Jim, the Pain PT (I think he may use a different name now) talked about this theory a few years ago. He called it using rocket fuel to accelerate your mindset potential - taking the negative thought process many of us experience and turning it around and using it to help ourselves. I found it very helpful. It really helped me see where I was victimizing myself and helped me consciously and constantly choose not to go there.

 

Fantastic! Thanks for that. I'll take a look at Jim's videos to see if I can find the 'rocket fuel' ones for encouragement.

 

Thanks so much for your supportive words, @JanAtheCPA. I awoke this morning and decided that it would likely be more effective to journal to my brain about this, telling it how dangerous it will be for me if it carries on behaving as it's doing (and I plan to read my entries back to myself to up the impact) -- I think that purely talking to my brain isn't going to be a strong enough tactic (I shall do both things though, to hammer the message home). I can remember how I felt when I read about the surgery for De Quervain Syndrome so I guess I might have to replicate a similar kind of dread.

 

@BloodMoon,
This sounds promising! —especially since it worked for you before. Yes, please do let us know how it goes. I like the idea of journaling and reading it back for more impact. I hope it works for you!

 

Thank you @Diana-M! I don't know why I didn't think of doing this before -- I guess my TMSing brain didn't want me to! All I can say is thank goodness for resources such as Dan's YouTube channel and, of course, these wonderful forums to keep us going and working out what will 'hit the spot' for us as individuals.