I’m thinking differently about pain during the night

I’m having some new feelings about waking up in the night or in the morning in pain. I used to look at it as a setback, a disappointment, something negative. But now I don’t: and here’s why.

I’ve been watching a lot of videos by Sam Miller on the Mindful Gardener YouTube channel. The culmination of watching them has taught me a new philosophy. (Or maybe it’s not. Maybe it’s just an extension of Claire Weekes and/or Sarno).

Sam is teaching me that your body 100% knows how to heal itself and it is trying to do that at all times. It wants to discharge the trauma that you have stored in your body— and it knows exactly when to do it and how much to discharge at a time, so as not to overwhelm you. It might be in the form of tremors, pain, anxiety… any kind of TMS symptom. And if we get out of the way (aka: don’t freak out) this process will fulfill itself, and our deregulated nervous systems will rebalance, recover and be well.

Sam Miller claims that this can often happen in your sleep. This rang a bell for me because sometimes I’ll wake up in my sleep and I’ll be rhythmically thumping my leg, or I’ll have these tremors and twitches, or increased pain and burning.

Lately, when I wake up with these feelings—I’m happy, because now I know that my body wants to bring me current with my trauma debt. I didn’t allow my emotions at the time of the event, so I never released the energy. But, now I am.

Does anyone else have thoughts about waking up in pain; releasing trauma; the Mindful Gardener?

I really like this video.

 

Sam is my absolute favorite person in this space, great post Diana.

 

I think she has some great concepts but she posts far too many videos in quick succession and i just cant listen to her for more than a few mins.

 

This reminds me so much of what Claire Weekes says: "Your body is always trying to heal." I think there's so much wisdom in that.

 

It's another way of understanding that we need not be afraid of waking up this way or of releasing trauma -- nor need we ascribe a negative meaning ot it. A way of taking something very alarming and defusing it. Sounds great to me!

 

They are always studying sleep and its benefit to our entire body. “Why we sleep” is a good book by neuroscientist Matt walker. Dreams are used to regulate emotions and help filter memory by getting rid of certain memories to make room for new ones. I don’t agree with Sam miller that our bodies are always trying to heal from a chronic pain perspective. I think the brain is always trying to stay alive and it”s closer to what Lorimer Moseley says about how the brain learns over time which is why symptoms get worse with time.

 

Sam is talking about how our bodies heal once we have knowledge and information, and we stop fighting ourselves to heal.

 

I stopped watching Sams videos and I went on Diana's quote of her saying it's always trying to heal. I don't really agree with the 'acceptance'/'allowing' terminology either. Chronic pain reddit is filled with people who have accepted their condition and they live the rest of their lives with the same symptoms getting by with medications. The terms don't make sense either because everyone who is practicing acceptance(temporary acceptance even though its not marketed as such) is only doing so to get rid of their symptoms. I don't believe in the paradoxes or catch 22s in the mindbody space. I think people get better because they are lowering their fear of symptoms and believing their brain is causing the symptoms and they aren't harmful - which is how acceptance and allowing is actually practiced after getting through the word salad.

 

John,
I’m so encouraged by your healing journey. Can you please cut through all this and describe what you think works — or who best espouses what worked for you?

 

I'm loving your perspective shift! It's so powerful.
I know I keep saying it, but the more and more I delve into study of perception, mindset, etc. the more I realize that it literally can create our reality!

 

It’s so interesting how all of us seem to latch onto different concepts (theories?) more than others. Sam’s videos seem to include a lot of internal family systems psychotherapy terminology. I just got done with 3 years of that therapy. Its premise is that the Self (the whole, strong observer You) can heal the broken parts created through trauma, by witnessing their pain. This is the acceptance she describes. Accepting what happened to these parts of you. Basically validating them. It’s their pain you feel.

I know Howard Schubiner and the founder of IFS therapy, Richard Schwartz, worked together at some point. (This is way down in the weeds.)

Accepting yourself—accepting what’s happened in your life—accepting your rage—letting go—forgiving—not fearing—floating— not fighting against or resisting— wearing it loosely…This all somewhat the same thing? Or, am I wrong?

 

What Jim says here is to accept the symptoms without identifying with them. Maybe that's where those Reddit users are having trouble.

 

Yea, I'm taking into consideration my journey and the success stories I've watched or read online. Every teacher has students who have gotten better when the teachings were slightly different. Whether the theory is a dysfunctional nervous system, Sarno's TMS about repressed rage, Nicole Sachs emptying the emotional reservoir, Alan Gordon/Mindful Gardener's allowing/PRT, Lorimer Moseley talking about how the brain learns etc - the commonality is the idea that the brain is causing benign symptoms although severe. That has to be the most important part of healing because every mindbody teacher teaches that. After this I'm theorizing - The next most important thing is between lowering your fear/regulating your emotions and using your body to reteach your brain that you can do all of these physical things. I think the reason other people don't develop debilitating symptoms is because their brains natural state is the state TMSers are trying to get to. These people don't have a lot to repress emotionally (maybe not a lot of childhood issues) and/or they continue using their bodies without a lot of fear like a hypochondriac TMSer would. The anterior insula and anterior cingulate cortex both activate for physical pain and emotional pain which I think is the reason the brain can learn either or from the other. E.g. someone has childhood trauma and that turns into physical pain because the brain is now learning through having those parts of the brain activated. I personally think if someone is emotionally healthy subconsciously they could never develop symptoms regardless of how they think about pain. The only way in my opinion would be for that person to have pain often so the brain can learn it. Dr.Sarno in his later years (when you read his earlier books compared to his last book) switched over from being so adamant on just using your body to finding what is angering you. And that more severe people would have to do emotional work, most likely because of the lack of success with some patients. They have research to show journaling traumatic events improves your immune system and affirmations can change how a person functions so there are those as well. They also know visualizations can activate parts of your brain in an almost identical way as if you were to deal with it in real life. So visualizing facing fear, getting anger our, going back to your past with your adult mind is beneficial. If I had to make a list it would probably be :

1. Knowing the symptoms are from your brain (Mandatory)
2. Using your body despite your symptoms
3. Challenge your fears(Probably just for severe people)
4. Journaling Trauma and anger
5. Visualizations of being well(laborious activity with hurt body part) and getting out anger or facing fear, going back to the past

I did other stuff too but these are probably the most important.

 

“Accepting yourself—accepting what’s happened in your life—accepting your rage—letting go—forgiving—not fearing—floating— not fighting against or resisting— wearing it loosely…Isn’t this all somewhat the same thing? Or, am I wrong?”

Accepting the physical sensations which are emotions that surround all this ^ is exactly what she is saying. I quite like her newer shorter messages. Her Jungian perspective has some great angles nobody else talks about but are very similar to how EMDR works.

 

I think a lot of people in the area use Jung's teachings but don't give him due credit. Sam on the other hand makes it clear when she's talking about shadow work, visualization, somatic experiencing etc., it comes from him and Levine.

 

John, Thank you for this list and your perspective. it’s really helpful!