Coping Mechanisms: food, shopping, excercise, knowledge seeking, overthinking etc....

Coping or defense mechanisms are very much part of TMS. Well, everyone employs them at some time or another, and they can be very useful unless you are using them constantly and consistently to avoid processing emotions and other things in your life.
I've thought about these a lot, because at one point exercise was definitely a learned coping mechanism. I was instructed to do "more" to feel "less" - feel less symptoms which we all know are only a reflection of the inner self. Some people even define the symptom as a sensation of emotion - which I think it can be for a time as we work through things.
The "work through things" is the TMS work - which is ongoing, throughout our lives. TMS is not just a one and done event. I know this sounds very scary to some people, but the symptoms don't always have to present themselves in your body and mind as a 3 alarm fire, or a tiger in the room....you can learn to sense things when they are subtle and employ the TMS skills you learned to process emotions surrounding triggers - this softening them so you don't need to have such loud symptoms. When you begin to allow yourself to process the emotions, the feelings you don't need the coping mechanisms constantly.
Sam Miller articulates this far more kindly, compassionately than myself.
Along with personality traits and past history, it's important to suss out what coping mechanisms you utilize and how you can begin to transform the need for them.
This is part of the transformational process of the TMS work, finding the balance in all things. Balancing the nervous system, our being able to feel and process emotions but not get lost or stuck in them (Sam Miller calls this allowing them), balancing our thoughts and being in our heads with feeling grounded in our bodies and being able to participate in life without utilizing elements of it to avoid other parts.



Here she is explaining it all

 

Wow! This video made me feel so excited and grateful for my symptoms. What a great perspective!