Day 25 i believe in TMS but life is stressful and pain is flaring

I believe in TMS and have been doing all the work. I have been journaling, meditating and reading all the helpful books as well as listening to impact theory podcasts on how to be a better person, and Nicole Sachs and Pain free you podcasts and videos. I am devoting time to improving my whole life, but trying at the same time to keep a distance and not over indulge my pain. However, not just due to the corona virus, my life is very stressful and I am having on some days more pain than before . Some times, there is no pain in the morning or later at night, or lesser than before. The location of the pain is changing and it definitely flares when I journal or feel my emotions. I have a lot to fear right now in my life. It is hard for me because my pain is worse when I have to sit or lie down, and with the quarantine right now there is not a lot to do. However, I am walking close to 3-5 miles a day and last year at this time I was bed ridden. I feel ashamed about my pain, that it overtakes me but I am trying to ignore it the best that I can and not give it meaning. I wish there was a way to know when it would go away but I understand that I can not focus on that, because that is indulging the pain and giving it meaning and asking it to stay. So I continue to meditate and journal and read self help books about emotions. I am balancing that with trying to find some things to laugh about and a gratitude journal. I have complete 100% faith this is TMS. It is just that the perfectionist in me wants to fix this , and the answer to that is to let it go which is hard.

 

location of pain is changing = TMS stick with it.

 

Thank you Jimmy. That gives me some positive encouragement today! Pain moves around in weird locations, and also I got headaches after starting" the work" for the first time in twenty years. Maybe an extinction burst?

 

This alone is proof, and a reason to believe in your success. I think this is nothing short of awesome!

Look, times are simply not easy these days. In addition to personal stresses, we've all had to watch an increasingly dysfunctional world unfold recently, with a lot of fears for the future. I experienced at least 90% recovery back in 2011 but honestly, I've been struggling since 2016.

I also depend on regular reminders from our wonderful podcasters, and recently have really, finally, committed to a nightly writing practice that definitely clears my mind.

But then the world came down with this coronavirus. This is HARD. It's incomprehensible. It's a nightmare that becomes real again every morning.

Christi Uipi was on The Mind And Fitness Podcast on March 18 (#115). She pointed out a couple of important things:

One is that anxiety exists to warn us of danger, but that in the modern world, those of us with out-of-control anxiety have had to teach ourselves that most of the things we are anxious about are not actual threats to our survival. Coronavirus is not one of those things. It IS dangerous. The threat to our lives is real, and the financial fallout is already happening.

The other thing she said is that humans don't handle uncertainty well.

The main point she made is that we still have the ability to "turn off the noise". By which she means not just literally turning off the media (which of course is highly recommended) but also turning off the brain chatter and rumination.

Rumination is really harmful to emotional well-being, we already know this. If we could do just one thing for optimal mental health, it would be to turn off the noise!

I don't know if this will help at all, @zenyatta20, but I want you (and anyone else) to know you're not alone.

 

Yes it is very helpful. Thank you for responding. I send you loving kindness and best wishes .