Try Reading SARNO and stop the warm and fuzzies

I would like to make a point about reading comprehension. Reading alone is not a panacea. Unless people comprehend, digest and take every Sarno's word to heart (and to brain!), their pain would not go away. It is that last inch of the way that many people cannot cross.

 

Yes that is so true but some people don't even get out the starting gate with the education piece or even reading a dang book. They have a million excuses....the guy I mentioned was always "too busy" which is poppycock. He's not too busy to read reams of other nonsense for ex. It's not about time or not enjoying reading...it's about priorities. Why would I waste my time helping someone who can't even be bothered to do the bare minimum of reading (or listening to) a book ? I've also seen people pop up on the wiki who have not read any Sarno, as well as various forms of energy/soul/spiritual coaches and the like, who stumble onto this site who have never read a single thing by Sarno. They also complicate what should be a fairly straightforward and practical process. Once the information has been absorbed, some people can get stuck in the info. gathering phase. Steve O. has written about that phenomenon as well. Knowledge first, then buying in to the point it sinks into the heart space of belief.

 

I got to America when I was 6 . I was put in special ed for years because I was too dumb to read. But When something is IMPORTANT enough, you'll become a better reader...there will be a sense of urgency.

All of written text is a 'metaphor'...a bunch of ink squiggles put on paper is just that... a bunch of squiggles...when you recognize the pattern, it can turn itself into 'Watership Down' or 'East of Eden' or 'Healing Back Pain'. Whether or not it has any impact will have a lot to do with how good your imagination is at making pictures and realizing they are coming from YOU not the book.

You will 'Identify' with the squiggles or not. Idenitfy= IDEM-FACERE 'to make the same'.... I am not a rabbit or Cal Trask, but I was definitely in 'Healing Back Pain' on every page...

So, if you're not a good reader, this is a great time to become one! I was a d^mbsh!t and I managed to 'get it'...The pain was a YUGE motivational factor. That's why I say "..and Read it AGAIN"

I used to have a standing offer that if someone read it cover to cover and didn't get better I would buy it back for twice the cover price...I have never had to pay up. Even to 'poor readers' They all got better.

 

Passivity is a major barrier to recovery. People have to actively engage with the material to improve, whether through reading or watching videos or listening to podcasts or posting on this Forum. I no longer engage with people through DMs for this reason. The "please fix me" attitude will get them nowhere. I always refer them back to the Forum so others can benefit from the discussion. We create our TMS, and so we are the only ones who can fix it.

 

@Baseball65 Did any of them take a while? I started reading Sarno in 2017 and applied his techniques to some symptoms and they went away. I read The Divided Mind and Healing Back Pain. I read them over and over, took notes, highlighted, studied, made notecards and read them every day. Then in 2020 symptoms came back with a vengeance. Plus some new ones. I kept reading Sarno and doing work and journaling. But still no progress, so I figured I was in the small percentage that Dr. Sarno said would need therapy. I have been in therapy for 3 years. It is the kind Dr. Schubiner recommends, called Internal Family Systems. About a month or two ago I found this wiki and took Alan Gordon’s class and now working on SEP. My symptoms are still going strong. But my hope for healing is increasing, so that’s good. I don’t know why it’s taking me so long to heal, but I had a pretty rough childhood and I’ve basically had TMS my whole life.

 

I completely agree with this and am the same way.

 

Diana, may I ask what kind of journaling you did?
Were you able to really get in the zone and let the rage out (as opposed to writing diary type journal entries)?
For me it's better than therapy because I'm not going to say in front of a therapist, "F-you! F-you! F-you!" or draw a picture of me whacking a loved one over the head with a bat." But I can do that when I'm "writing shit down" -- and when I do that, my pain and other symptoms lift away. Bing, bang, boom.

 

@Booble i like what you are saying! Yes, I have done some journaling like that and I’ve tried Journalspeak by Nichol Sachs, if you’re familiar. It’s very raw. I just wonder, though. Maybe I haven’t felt my anger long enough and deep enough. Because anger is a thing that I have a lot of trouble feeling. And it’s usually in my head, not my heart. I usually can’t even cry. I’m going to go back and revisit this. Thank you!

 

Right?!!!!

 

I hear you. I was certain I didn't have any anger or rage inside. I'm a pretty even keeled person, generally speaking.
I started with laying on my bed with pen and paper (e-pen/e-paper) and writing, "What am I angry about?"
You've probably seen me tell this story on this forum a 1000 times but if not...that first day when I wrote that, my heart suddenly started pounding out of my chest and I thought I was going to explode. It was awful feeling. I got up, threw my e-notebook across the room, and said, "I rather have the pain than this!!" All from simply writing, "What am I angry about?" and trying to process that.
The next day, I tried again. I got back on my bed, I got my e-pen and e-notebook, and this time I started with something like, "Wow, what was THAT all about?" And then.................it all flowed. I wrote on and on and on and on. And as I was writing, the pain that I was having at the time (throat), lifted away.
That was throat pain that I had for months so bad that at one point I stopped talking thinking that my throat must need to heal. But on that day 2 of writing, it went away.

 

Wow! That is an amazing inspiring story! I’m going to try it.

 

I used to think that I was not an angry person, so the idea of rage did not apply to me, but I gave it a try. After many months of unsuccessfully searching for my repressed emotions I was finally able to notice that split second when I was shoving my anger and other negative emotions under the rug to never see them again. That was my aha! moment. Years later, I learned about Alan Gordon's somatic tracking and reprocessing, it is pretty much the same thing. You should try any and every technique out there to catch your rage by the tail, because people are different, what works for one would not work for another. Traditional journaling did nothing for me, but it did wonders for others. Keep changing your approaches until you find the one that works. Best of luck to you!

 

Are you able to share an example of noticing when shoving anger and emotions under the rug? And then what you do about that (if anything)?

 

LOL. Many people close to me didn't have any symptoms during 2020..they had batshit-crazy-call-the-cops meltdowns. I still have a bullet hole in my wall from one of them.

and THAT tends to be most of the people who don't get it right away. I was always an angry-drama-filled life person so I had very little trouble making the identification...my symptoms came when I tried to be NORMAL and leave the drama behind

Well then, you got better. You had the 'beginners luck' I spoke of backways up the string...It's not a bad thing. Many of my friends have had full or partial relief just by knowing there is nothing really wrong going on. But many of them come down with 'real' problems (sic) right afterwards.

my neighbor and I both read the book at the same time and both got better. Then he had a 'real' shoulder problem begin. Our walls were pretty thin and I knew what was going on in his personal life...he did not have a shoulder problem...his TMS just moved.

Most of the men I have known who come down with 'real' problems are trapped in relationships they can't leave for one reason or another. Most of the small relapses I have had have been around girlfriends and such. For whatever reason , I have been single the longest I have ever been and I have also had one of the longest periods without attempted intrusions..Oh, I have had them, they have just left quickly.

I Imagine from the women I have known with obvious TMS the 'pretend its warm and fuzzy with kitten memes' crap is harder to breakthrough, BUT I know it can be because i have seen it. The one thing I would caution against is the 'feelgood pop psychology' movements afoot which all seem to be very aimed at women (and their bank accounts)... Plain old 'God' works really well and you need not pay anybody. At least my favorite first century rabbi said so and he was right about a lot of things... he also healed a TON of people.

 

Yes. It is actually quite physical, if you realize that emotions are just a release of hormones in the body. Anger feels like heat in the chest, anxiety as chills and pins/needles down the spine in the upper back. Once I catch it, I literally direct my brain to allow the physical sensations to continue instead of taking my attention to something else so the emotion drops into the unconscious. Once you understand that the hormones in the bloodstream are short-lived and therefore emotions will dissipate with the processing of hormones, it is easier to feel the emotion through, especially once you also learn to disengage from the emotion and understand that most often your emotion has very little to do with the reality. Anxiety is an unspecified fear of an unspecified danger, anger is our Id's reaction to not getting her way and so on. It is not the reality that needs to change, it is our perception of it that is inadequate. Serenity prayer, all the way!

 

To everyone in this thread. Thank You! I am learning a lot and I appreciate it. To @Baseball65, noted on the relationships being the source of TMS. This is a recurring theme I keep hearing. And it is a place where it’s easy to lie to yourself and stuff a lot of feelings. To @TG957, Great instruction on learning to be in touch with emotions in the moment and what they feel like. The other day I discovered myself in the moment literally shutting down my feelings altogether. Stone cold. The next day I tried really hard to thaw myself out and knew I felt anger— or should feel it, at least. There’s a lot of work here for me, evidently. It’s pretty easy to see how and why I got TMS. And yes, my current life along with multiple key relationships being difficult, I’m sure is feeding my well of rage.

 

This made me smile. I actually feel God sent me Sarno in answer to prayers.

 

This is a reassuring tip! “Catching rage by the tail” by whatever method that works.

 

Excellent technique. Thank you for sharing.