1. Alan has completed the new Pain Recovery Program. To read or share it, use this updated link: https://www.tmswiki.org/forum/painrecovery/
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mindfulness and more

Discussion in 'General Discussion Subforum' started by Walt Oleksy (RIP 2021), Aug 1, 2013.

  1. Walt Oleksy (RIP 2021)

    Walt Oleksy (RIP 2021) Beloved Grand Eagle

    Mindfulness

    I found help in being relieved of back pain by improving my ability to achieve mindfulness, which is another way to live in the present. It’s really simple: take deep yoga breaths, breathing air into the stomach, holding the breath for a few counts, then releasing the breath. I then say “Peace.”
    While deep breathing, concentrate on your breathing.
    If worries or troubling memories surface, get your mind back
    to concentrating on deep breathing. It’s good to do this anytime,
    anywhere, even while walking. We find calmness and peace
    in deep breathing.
    While practicing mindfulness with deep breathing,
    keep reminding yourself that any pain you feel is not caused
    by anything structural. It is all psychological. The sooner you
    firmly believe this, the faster you will be pain free.
    If you do feel pain while walking or sitting, think of
    something pleasant… lying on a sun-filled beach, being with
    someone you love. Think happy. Think being loved.
    I knew my back pain was psychological when I walked
    and felt no pain. My back could not hurt from anything
    structural or from aging (I’m 83 now) if it had stopped
    hurting when I walked. And it did. I just didn’t think about
    pain and there was none.
    If we believe that walking or sitting causes our pain,
    we are sending the wrong messages to our subconscious
    mind and delaying our recovery. Those messages of where
    our pain is coming from are what is causing our pain.
    We fear the pain, so it doesn’t go away. We tell ourselves
    it is psychological, not structural, and the pain goes away.

    Latest Helps to Heal

    In recent weeks I have found great help by following
    the TMS Recovery Program of Dr. Alan Gordon, director
    of the PainPsychologyCenter, which he offers free on TMSWiki.org.
    It is a two-part program consisting of suggestions and
    video clips that demonstrate them, created especially to help
    those (like me) who have or had difficulty lowering or eliminating our physical pain. The program offers a deep
    understanding of why we are in pain, how it keeps coming, and what steps can be taken to reduce or end it.
    The video clips are from parts of Dr. Gordon’s pain
    psychology therapy sessions.
    The program starts with accepting the TMS diagnosis
    of Dr. Sarno and others that the pain we feel is not from any
    structural abnormality but it is psychologically caused.
    This has been said often in this book, but it cannot be said
    too often because some people cannot accept it, at least not
    100 percent. A video clip shows how we can overcome that remaining one percent, without which we may not be pain free.
    I was one of those doubters. I kept a small part of my mind believing my back pain was age-related. I finally got the
    truth of it… my pain was psychologically induced, from
    past emotional repressions which dealt with my boyhood and
    present anxiety and stress from financial difficulties. When
    I began to convince myself, and my subconscious mind,
    that those were the causes of my pain, it went away. When
    those psychological causes come back, I again convince
    myself they are causing my back pain and that is has nothing
    to do with aging or structural damage. If it did, I would always
    be in pain, and I am not, when I mentally condition myself
    as to why I feel pain, from my repressed emotions.
    One reason we may keep feeling pain is that we associate
    it with doing something such as walking or sitting. When we
    walk we may not feel pain, but we do when sitting, or vice
    versa. Dr. Gordon says we have developed a conditioned
    response to our pain, feeling it when we walk or sit or do
    something else. But our pain is not really caused by sitting
    or standing. We are merely associating it with those or
    other activities and thereby perpetuating the pain.
    To end the cycle of pain because of a conditioned
    response, we need to reframe what pain means to us. Some
    people do not feel back or other pain until they think about
    it. Others may not be in pain but fear it will come back.
    I strongly recommend spending some time with
    Dr. Gordon and his pain recovery program. You will
    see yourself in it in many ways and it will help you,
    as it helped me, and him, to be relieved of your TMS pain symptoms.
     
  2. JanAtheCPA

    JanAtheCPA Beloved Grand Eagle

    Thank you Walt! This is very inspirational.

    I was just reading Moose's request that we add meditation reminders to the SEP - and then I read your post, which kind of hits the nail on the head. I'm thinking that along with the Question to Ponder, we could also add the "Daily Meditation Reminder" - and I think the first part of your post here could be it. Because it really is that simple. Matthew was just telling us (Saturday chat) that the easiest way to start meditating is to sit on the edge of your bed when you get up in the morning, and take just two minutes to do exactly what you described.

    Now all we need is someone who has the time to find a good place to add it on each page... (and I'm too busy dealing with the web site redesign of a totally different non-profit group!)

    Jan
     
    Forest and Eric "Herbie" Watson like this.
  3. Eric "Herbie" Watson

    Eric "Herbie" Watson Beloved Grand Eagle

    This is Good Walt, it is real good
     
  4. Walt Oleksy (RIP 2021)

    Walt Oleksy (RIP 2021) Beloved Grand Eagle

    Jan and Eric,
    Thanks. I'm glad my thoughts resonated with you.

    I like to cut and paste posts that seem the most helpful to me,
    keep them in a folder.
     
  5. Gigi

    Gigi Well known member

    I think I really needed to see this today, Walt. I just had a conversation or two with my subC, informing it that my pain is not structural. I KNOW what works...and I'm trying to do it!
     
  6. Walt Oleksy (RIP 2021)

    Walt Oleksy (RIP 2021) Beloved Grand Eagle

    Hi, Gigi. Glad my post helps. Believing 100 percent that our pain is TMS psychological and not physical was
    the hardest part of my healing process. I just tenaciously hung on to part of me not accepting that.
    Then after about a week of believing 100 percent, the back pain went away. That made me realize it was
    ALL from TMS repressed emotions, guilt from not being able to help my elderly mom longer, and financial stress, as well as lots of boyhood traumas. I forgave everyone including myself and told my subconscious it was all psychologically-induced pain and it has gone away. Wonderful thing is, as Dr. Sarno says, you just have to recognize the repressed emotions, you don't have to solve them.
     

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