Steven Ozanich Dean Ornish

Steve Ozanich · Nov 12, 2012

http://www.tmshelp.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=7820

This interview by Dean Ornish, posted at the TMSHelp, has the same message as my book, and summarizes my word: "tracordification." If you want to heal from TMS, try to understand Dr. Ornish's words. When I spoke at this TMS Wiki a couple weeks back I also mentioned isolation as being a major problem in pain and health, and of course recovery.

tract = pull cord = heart

We spend our lives trying to avoid isolation; it is our biggest fear because it is darkness. From the beginning there was darkness, and from darkness, every beginning. Then came the separation as the light of consciousness scattered awareness. Subsequent separations generate more and more anxieties because we don't like being divided--it generates tension. In each case, that which is separated longs to be one with the whole, dyad from monad; not-isolated from what it once knew (its current knowledge). Then come further moments of isolation, criticisms, rejections, deaths, that drive the person into despair, almost always because they can't express their fear of the isolation. Failure is an isolation, and TMS stems from wanting to be perfect in order to avoid deeper separation. Shame is also isolation.

shame = fear = anger = separation = isolation = darkness.

Careers are often generated by trying to close this gap of separation by gaining praise, or through becoming unassailable through achievement (2 of Horney's 3, coping strategies). Many can trace their careers and lives back to either trying to please someone, or trying to prove something to someone.

People who are isolated experience further separation-anxiety, magnifying the effects of any initial separations from birth through childhood (McKenzie's Two Trauma Mechanism). Also, people sensing isolation are far more prone to depression. I read this article today (below). People who are depressed have higher rates of back pain. I don't think most people need a study to understand this. Interestingly, the article comes from Australia. I see a disproportionate amount of people in pain from the land of Oz (my nickname in skool). The article says 1 in 11 Aussies had back pain in 2007-08. I could retire on book sales just in that country if I could get it to them. One man I helped from Oz told me, "Steve...we're isolated here."

<HTML><META HTTP-EQUIV="content-type" CONTENT="text/html;charset=utf-8">
http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.a...-depression-candidates/1617446/

The Ornish article spoke of forgiveness like I did here at the Stevinar. But, just because you understand why someone has done something to you does not mean you forgive them. Forgiving is a new birth of freedom because it frees you from them, not vice versa.

Compassionate listening soothes anger (which is a reaction to the fear of isolation) as it connects the hearts through understanding, and ultimately forgiveness. I persuaded several people to go talk their concerns out and they emailed to tell me their pain had suddenly disappeared. Reversing isolation heals pain, and opening-up heals isolation. Many TMSers are not working, home alone, feeling unproductive, or they're working and not matched with their true talents. So I advise people to go work, go talk, to stay somewhat social. I have to say "somewhat" because TMS occurs when overstimulated too. So balance is the king in healing.

Stress also causes TMS. Stress comes from the gap of what you wanted vs. what you just got. And the word stress means "to pull apart." I hope this is beginning to "connect" with people. The concept of separation, isolation, fear, anger, darkness, awareness, intimacy, expression, and healing. I saw a priest say recently, "the first separation anxiety comes from the separation from God." I agree, and then follows initial separation from mother, and then every shame or rejection in life. Perfection assumes the prevention of further separation from the whole, but as Jung said, "there's no coming to wholeness without imperfection."

I see isolation/anger in people I help with TMS (like this guy Ornish mentioned here) when he talked about the only guy who refused to join in "the group," who would go to the gym to workout instead of joining in the reindeer games, and who was the only one in the group to die. If we're not connected we lose touch with our lives and its meaning. This Ornish article summed up everything I discovered on the hard road and tried to express through writing.

I've talked about "awareness" at length in all my interviews and Ornish said here, "The first step in healing is awareness." Exactly. People often come to these forums to talk about their symptoms, which is the only way they feel connected (not-isolated), but conditioning through guided imagery enforcement of symptoms can perpetuate symptoms. Seeking information is ok, but people need to act on that information. The perpetual gathering of information is isolation, it's TMSing by hiding behind information. We know what work needs to be done, but avoidance of pain is our misguided priority.

Ornish sounds like a good Sarnonian doc. He gets it. It's about intimacy and vulnerability, forgiveness and expression. People stung by the rejection of abandonment fear and criticism, feel isolated. They feel that isolation can keep them from further emotional pain. But it doesn't protect them from physical pain. The physical pain protects them from the emotional pain.

It's better to reconnect and to express than to hide and lick wounds. People hide by not getting involved.

I'm grateful to this TMS Wiki for the chance to speak at length about healing, it's great to have forums like this to try to help people. I'm paying forward all that I learned and have been taught. The trouble healers, as Dr. Sarno told me, would come from, "those who fought tooth and nail to get things labeled as "not being TMS."" They demand real physical problems where none exist. Karl Menninger described this as unconscious guilt, and as I saw through writing, guilt and shame are the prime drivers of physical pain. A posteriori. If you love your children don't shame them into being better, teach them to try, and that they will sometimes fail, and that it's ok to do so.

TMS is the body expressing what you yourself cannot, will not, or have never learned how to express. The emotions too strong to express without revealing the true self (uncovering the self). So the body speaks in the only language it knows, Painglish. Learn to listen to it, learn this new language your body is speaking and move into harmony again. Don't move away from pain, move toward it. Don't move away from life, move into it. Reconnect and deny isolation its power.

TMS = imbalance. Unite the divided mind and you've one.

Everyone can heal. But they must stop fighting the healing. I received 2 emails last week from people who had read my book, acted on the advice, and healed. I thanked them for being nice enough to take their time to let me know. They acted on the information; reflecting, adapting, opening up, beginning intimacy, and changing. The trouble healers often pick and choose what they think is right and wrong, regarding healing, but it's clear they're just stalling because the emotions are too painful (The Pleasure Principle). Some trouble healers still feel the wounds of the past and fear allowing the emotions to enter awareness, but they can heal. When I say these people choose what they want to do, I'm not speaking of Humanistic Psychology, but of TMS healing only.

Is Walt still here? I'm sorry for taking so long to get back here but I'm busy trying to fit square pegs into round holes. Thus is the dance of life.

Steve

Walt Oleksy (RIP 2021) · Nov 12, 2012

Steve Ozanich said: ↑

http://www.tmshelp.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=7820

This interview by Dean Ornish, posted at the TMSHelp, has the same message as my book, and summarizes my word: "tracordification." If you want to heal from TMS, try to understand Dr. Ornish's words. When I spoke at this TMS Wiki a couple weeks back I also mentioned isolation as being a major problem in pain and health, and of course recovery.

tract = pull cord = heart

We spend our lives trying to avoid isolation; it is our biggest fear because it is darkness. From the beginning there was darkness, and from darkness, every beginning. Then came the separation as the light of consciousness scattered awareness. Subsequent separations generate more and more anxieties because we don't like being divided--it generates tension. In each case, that which is separated longs to be one with the whole, dyad from monad; not-isolated from what it once knew (its current knowledge). Then come further moments of isolation, criticisms, rejections, deaths, that drive the person into despair, almost always because they can't express their fear of the isolation. Failure is an isolation, and TMS stems from wanting to be perfect in order to avoid deeper separation. Shame is also isolation.

shame = fear = anger = separation = isolation = darkness.

Careers are often generated by trying to close this gap of separation by gaining praise, or through becoming unassailable through achievement (2 of Horney's 3, coping strategies). Many can trace their careers and lives back to either trying to please someone, or trying to prove something to someone.

People who are isolated experience further separation-anxiety, magnifying the effects of any initial separations from birth through childhood (McKenzie's Two Trauma Mechanism). Also, people sensing isolation are far more prone to depression. I read this article today (below). People who are depressed have higher rates of back pain. I don't think most people need a study to understand this. Interestingly, the article comes from Australia. I see a disproportionate amount of people in pain from the land of Oz (my nickname in skool). The article says 1 in 11 Aussies had back pain in 2007-08. I could retire on book sales just in that country if I could get it to them. One man I helped from Oz told me, "Steve...we're isolated here."

<HTML><META HTTP-EQUIV="content-type" CONTENT="text/html;charset=utf-8">
http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.a...-depression-candidates/1617446/

The Ornish article spoke of forgiveness like I did here at the Stevinar. But, just because you understand why someone has done something to you does not mean you forgive them. Forgiving is a new birth of freedom because it frees you from them, not vice versa.

Compassionate listening soothes anger (which is a reaction to the fear of isolation) as it connects the hearts through understanding, and ultimately forgiveness. I persuaded several people to go talk their concerns out and they emailed to tell me their pain had suddenly disappeared. Reversing isolation heals pain, and opening-up heals isolation. Many TMSers are not working, home alone, feeling unproductive, or they're working and not matched with their true talents. So I advise people to go work, go talk, to stay somewhat social. I have to say "somewhat" because TMS occurs when overstimulated too. So balance is the king in healing.

Stress also causes TMS. Stress comes from the gap of what you wanted vs. what you just got. And the word stress means "to pull apart." I hope this is beginning to "connect" with people. The concept of separation, isolation, fear, anger, darkness, awareness, intimacy, expression, and healing. I saw a priest say recently, "the first separation anxiety comes from the separation from God." I agree, and then follows initial separation from mother, and then every shame or rejection in life. Perfection assumes the prevention of further separation from the whole, but as Jung said, "there's no coming to wholeness without imperfection."

I see isolation/anger in people I help with TMS (like this guy Ornish mentioned here) when he talked about the only guy who refused to join in "the group," who would go to the gym to workout instead of joining in the reindeer games, and who was the only one in the group to die. If we're not connected we lose touch with our lives and its meaning. This Ornish article summed up everything I discovered on the hard road and tried to express through writing.

I've talked about "awareness" at length in all my interviews and Ornish said here, "The first step in healing is awareness." Exactly. People often come to these forums to talk about their symptoms, which is the only way they feel connected (not-isolated), but conditioning through guided imagery enforcement of symptoms can perpetuate symptoms. Seeking information is ok, but people need to act on that information. The perpetual gathering of information is isolation, it's TMSing by hiding behind information. We know what work needs to be done, but avoidance of pain is our misguided priority.

Ornish sounds like a good Sarnonian doc. He gets it. It's about intimacy and vulnerability, forgiveness and expression. People stung by the rejection of abandonment fear and criticism, feel isolated. They feel that isolation can keep them from further emotional pain. But it doesn't protect them from physical pain. The physical pain protects them from the emotional pain.

It's better to reconnect and to express than to hide and lick wounds. People hide by not getting involved.

I'm grateful to this TMS Wiki for the chance to speak at length about healing, it's great to have forums like this to try to help people. I'm paying forward all that I learned and have been taught. The trouble healers, as Dr. Sarno told me, would come from, "those who fought tooth and nail to get things labeled as "not being TMS."" They demand real physical problems where none exist. Karl Menninger described this as unconscious guilt, and as I saw through writing, guilt and shame are the prime drivers of physical pain. A posteriori. If you love your children don't shame them into being better, teach them to try, and that they will sometimes fail, and that it's ok to do so.

TMS is the body expressing what you yourself cannot, will not, or have never learned how to express. The emotions too strong to express without revealing the true self (uncovering the self). So the body speaks in the only language it knows, Painglish. Learn to listen to it, learn this new language your body is speaking and move into harmony again. Don't move away from pain, move toward it. Don't move away from life, move into it. Reconnect and deny isolation its power.

TMS = imbalance. Unite the divided mind and you've one.

Everyone can heal. But they must stop fighting the healing. I received 2 emails last week from people who had read my book, acted on the advice, and healed. I thanked them for being nice enough to take their time to let me know. They acted on the information; reflecting, adapting, opening up, beginning intimacy, and changing. The trouble healers often pick and choose what they think is right and wrong, regarding healing, but it's clear they're just stalling because the emotions are too painful (The Pleasure Principle). Some trouble healers still feel the wounds of the past and fear allowing the emotions to enter awareness, but they can heal. When I say these people choose what they want to do, I'm not speaking of Humanistic Psychology, but of TMS healing only.

Is Walt still here? I'm sorry for taking so long to get back here but I'm busy trying to fit square pegs into round holes. Thus is the dance of life.

Steve
Click to expand...

Yes, Steve, I'm still here. The above was very interesting. I'm reading your book and amazed by the pain you went through in golfing, etc. You inspired me to walk more and I do now, with my dog and grocery shopping, mowing the lawn, etc. I get back pain most times, but yell at it and it usually goes away.

I'm almost through six weeks of the Scott Brady and Sarno pain-free course and feel better but not out of the woods yet. I think I delayed my healing for the first three weeks by thinking my back pain was also from aging, besides TMS.

I'm just telling my subconscious now that the pain is 100 percent from repressed emotions, especially anger, guilt, and prefectionism. I am going to stop putting a timetable on my healing. I've learned so much about myself and others in my life through the journaling process. I need to convince myself and my subconscious that I forgive everyone including myself.

Michael Reinvented · Nov 14, 2012

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the inspiration Brother. Your book is the most complete work on TMS healing available. This makes it an important legacy in 21st C Mindbody medicine.

I have completed the TMS Wiki Program and Dr Schubiners Prog since joining this site early Sept. Got a question of you, if you wouldn't mind a response.

So far, I feel mentally heaps tougher but have only managed to stir up wave after wave of increased symptoms (in feet) and new symptoms elsewhere, hips, neck. I have been staring down the pain with much more (gradually increased) activity. I feel stuck, as though my energy channels are blocked. I note with interest your ref to Dr Dean Cornish's theories esp "stonewalling" emotions.. I plan to do a weekend retreat soon practising RADIX Somatic Body Therapy, as recommened by an Aussie TMS Therapist. Energy transfer here is a key component.

I am journalled "out", and feel as though I am rehashing for the sake of ticking the boxes on the
Programs.

Any Big O thoughts?

Chuck · Nov 16, 2012

There is a great paragraph in this article where Ornish says,

Throughout my 20 years of research, support groups have always been important, but they were originally designed to help people stay on the other parts of the programs--the diet, for example. But over time, what became clear was that we ended up creating, almost unwittingly, an intentional community, a place where people felt safe enough to let down their defenses and talk about what they were of really feeling and what was really happening in their lives without fear of being judged or made fun of or being given advice on how to fix it.
Click to expand...

While it can be easy for discussions in this forum to center on symptoms, I do think support groups like ours can play this meaningful role Ornish describes. A lot of the strength people get from this community is not by talking about their symptoms, but by talking about what is really going on in their lives and not feeling like they are judged. It is sort of like what you said Steve, reversing isolation heals pain, and opening up heals isolation.

This is similar to a old post Forest made Adversity to Advocacy. There is great strength to be gained by sharing your story and helping others recover. Part of this strength comes from the connections the are developed by opening up with people. It is about realizing that it is okay to have these strong emotions.

Michael - If you are jounalled out than give it a break. Trying to check off all of the boxes could be a sign that you are focusing to much on the act of recovery instead of simply recovering.

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Steven Ozanich Dean Ornish

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