Day 3 A bit about exercise

Hello all,
So I just finished Day 3 and wanted to post a bit here about the exercise questions at the end.

I've been doing cycling rides for three days now. I hadn't cycled since June, out of fear of provoking what I thought was a pinched nerve in my pelvis.

Today, I rode a bit over 8 miles, to the nearby town. This summer, I was riding 30-50 miles, so this wasn't much, but for how out of shape I've become, it was a bit tiring! But very great to get back outside and moving.

The first half of the ride, I had almost no pain at all and was really happy. Then I stopped at a store half-way through my ride and while at the check-out line, the pain hit - which of course, makes no sense if it's a pinched nerve. Told myself it was just my subconscious, and then rode back home. The second half of the ride, I was in pain, but it did go down quite a bit by time I got home. Did some meditation to calm things down, and then focused on schoolwork, and the pain got quite low, almost unnoticeable. I'll be keeping up with the cycling, weather permitting.

I've also had two instances that I can add to my 'evidence list' of this being psychological and not physical.


The first was yesterday, when I went driving without a donut cushion. My pain was average the first leg of my drive, but then on the way back home, it started spiking. Told myself it was all psychological. Got home, and sat in my chair at home, which I'd quit using a cushion on a few weeks ago (out of laziness, as I only have one and I'd been forgetting to carry it back in from my car these past few weeks), and the pain was quite low.

Both seats had the same amount of support, but one seemed to have a conditioned response, and the other didn't!


The second instance was today: when I was in pain this afternoon, I intensely focused on a camping trip that I'd take when I was 90% pain-free. I'd just gone to the physical therapist about 10 days prior and had dramatic relief from what I attribute to a brief placebo 'cure'. Kept saying to myself, "Stop pain! I know you're fake. I was better before after my 'cure', and I can feel that way again." I managed to go from quite painful to pain-free for a few seconds. It came right back, but I managed to push the pain back. Trying to convince myself that that wasn't nothing and is something I should hold onto.

 

Hi, Dan. It looks to me that you are doing great. The bike rides will get longer and less painful as you continue cycling for exercise. I sense that you have a lot of confidence in TMS causing your pelvic pain.

You haven't mentioned doing any journaling to discover any emotions causing your TMS. You're early in the TMS Program, so you may not have begun journaling.

Your positive mantra is great: "Stop pain! I know you're fake!"

I suggest you keep reminding yourself of Dr. Sarno's 12 Daily Reminders. I especially find helpful the extended version by another member of this TMS community:


Herbie’s Extended Version of Dr. Sarno’s 12 DAILY REMINDERS

1. The pain is due to TMS. This is real pain or anxiety but it is caused by subconscious tensions and triggers, stressors and traits to your reactions and fears and also when at boiling point your conscious tension can and does also cause real pain.
2. The main reason for the pain is mild oxygen deprivation. This means that when you get in pain or anxiety then the blood is restricted from going to your lower back, for instance. The blood being restricted causes oxygen deprivation which causes the pain. Remember, where there is no oxygen then there is pain in the body. Also, the pain stays because of fear.
3. TMS is a harmless condition caused by my REPRESSED EMOTIONS so even though you think you can harm yourself from the years of pain you have felt and how you feel in general -- so far no reports have been heard from TMS healing knowledge causing damage to anyone, it only helps.
4. The principle emotion is your repressed ANGER -- this means under your consciousness lies something that happens automatically to everyone. TMSers have repressions that are stored because of our personality traits, traumas, stressors, fears, strain, etc... When these stored repressions build and build, then eventually they cause the brain to send pain into your body to keep you from having an emotional crises. The mind-body thinks it is helping you.
5. TMS exists to DISTRACT your attentions from the emotions, stressors, tensions and strains of your personality traits because if you can get distraction then you won’t have to be in emotional turmoil. When you don't face and feel your emotions and they get repressed because you didn't want to deal with something -- they are just adding up in this beaker, ready to pour over and create real pain and anxiety in your body.
6. Since my body is perfectly normal, there is nothing to fear. So in reality when I fear the pain or anxiety I just cause myself undo strain and tension adding to the beaker of pain. If I fear, then I feed the pain, If I fear, it’s impossible to recondition. Fear keeps the pain and anxiety alive in the body through focus.
7. Therefore, physical activity is harmless. If I want to work against the pain I could but it’s better to lose some of the pain so when I start my life over I have to be in pain trying to heal because facing the repressions and all the other activities that cause the pain and reversing my fear and focus to them, then I can heal.
8. I am resuming all normal physical activity. I don't fear moving anymore. I believe in my body’s ability to heal now. I can move as I want. I will not fear moving with a bent back anymore. I will also practice going out and acting normal again, not in fear of what pain might do to me.
9. The pain is unimportant and powerless. Its only power is how it is hidden -- its illusion, its fear.
10. I will keep my attention on the emotional issues. I will think about my emotions and feel my emotions throughout the day. I will not judge, criticize or fear my emotions. I will not run from my emotional issues but face every one of them. I will feel my emotions fully and cry if I need to. Then I will release the emotion and get my mind and thoughts back to my life and living in the present.
11. I am in control of all of this. This is how I recover.
12. I will be thinking PSYCHOLOGICALLY AT ALL TIMES. This means I will keep my thoughts on psychological issues like happiness, fear and anger -- traits and triggers, conditioning and journaling -- The science behind mind-body/TMS healing, etc.... This way I will not feed my thoughts to the body -- that is a trick of TMS. TMS will always try to get me to focus on the body caused by the pain until I break its show and flair. When I get my attention off physical symptoms and on to emotional issues and psychological issues then I will not feed the fear of the physical issues anymore, thus making the TMS of no pain effect on the body. This will in return, give us the cure and become pain-free.

 

Hi Walt,
Thanks for the encouraging reply. I've done a little bit of journaling so far, and am looking forward to delving into that a little bit deeper. I've had a bit of an epiphany today, and realized how much anger I've had boiling underneath the surface. To be perfectly honest, I was fairly skeptical about the repressed emotion bit, until about 8 hrs. ago. Will be posting more on my update for Day 5.

Thanks again!
c90danwaiel