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Alan has completed the new Pain Recovery Program. To read or share it, use this updated link: https://www.tmswiki.org/forum/painrecovery/
Affirmations
- Thread starter Marymouse
- Start date
suky
Peer Supporter
Hi Marymouse!
I'm so glad that you started this thread! I have never used nor understood affirmations. The word was blue in your post, so out of curiosity, I clicked on it and found this wiki's wonderful article! In case that link doesn't work for you, you can find it here:
http://www.tmswiki.org/ppd/Affirmations (Affirmations)
Obviously, that's not what you were asking for, but I wanted you to know that your post helped me! Others may suggest affirmations that work for them. I'm looking forward to those posts.
I am not much "older" here than you are, but I still want to welcome you to the forums! You directed me to something that will be very helpful in my recovery! Thanks!
Suky
I'm so glad that you started this thread! I have never used nor understood affirmations. The word was blue in your post, so out of curiosity, I clicked on it and found this wiki's wonderful article! In case that link doesn't work for you, you can find it here:
http://www.tmswiki.org/ppd/Affirmations (Affirmations)
Obviously, that's not what you were asking for, but I wanted you to know that your post helped me! Others may suggest affirmations that work for them. I'm looking forward to those posts.
I am not much "older" here than you are, but I still want to welcome you to the forums! You directed me to something that will be very helpful in my recovery! Thanks!
Suky
Coffeeplease
Peer Supporter
Your affirmations are great! I always ask what emotion the pain is trying to keep me from feeling. I also use, "I am safe, I am loved, I am ok, I will be pain free". My issues are my legs, lower back, and skin issues (psoriasis and eczema). I take deep breaths from my belly and imagine oxygen and blood flowing and circulating to those areas. I visualize myself walking normally and having clear skin. I continue to practice the affirmations and accepting the pain for what it is, being present with it, and thankful/grateful for what the pain is teaching me. Say your affirmations with self love and self care. All the best!
Louise Hay's "You Can Heal Your Life" is really great for this. I've been trying out the affirmations and doing in them in the mirror for a few weeks now. My TMS symptoms have skyrocketed and are bouncing all over the place. (And I'm really hoping that means I'm facing the symptom imperative or extinction burst!) I find that saying them in the mirror has really made the difference. Ones that I like are:
I love you.
I am safe.
I am healed.
I am good enough.
I know that life always supports me and takes care of me.
I trust the process of life. All I need is taken care of.
I am loveable and loved.
I am willing to release the need for this condition.
I am willing to change all patterns of criticism. I love and approve of myself.
I release the past. I am free to move forward with love in my heart.
The irony is that many years ago (before I had ever heard of TMS and Dr. Sarno), I told a friend that I was thinking the pain might be psychosomatic. She recommended Louise Hay. I checked it out, and I didn't get it. Now, after many years of reading Sarno and following this forum, I understand. Many people on this forum say that loving and accepting yourself is the path to becoming pain-free. I'm not there yet, but doing these affirmations makes me feel less like a victim to the pain.
I love you.
I am safe.
I am healed.
I am good enough.
I know that life always supports me and takes care of me.
I trust the process of life. All I need is taken care of.
I am loveable and loved.
I am willing to release the need for this condition.
I am willing to change all patterns of criticism. I love and approve of myself.
I release the past. I am free to move forward with love in my heart.
The irony is that many years ago (before I had ever heard of TMS and Dr. Sarno), I told a friend that I was thinking the pain might be psychosomatic. She recommended Louise Hay. I checked it out, and I didn't get it. Now, after many years of reading Sarno and following this forum, I understand. Many people on this forum say that loving and accepting yourself is the path to becoming pain-free. I'm not there yet, but doing these affirmations makes me feel less like a victim to the pain.
Coffeeplease
Peer Supporter
This is fabulous!
Andy Bayliss
TMS Coach & Beloved Grand Eagle
I want to say that I usually resist using affirmations unless they seem really true, or hold a kernel of my experiential truth. I recall with my foot pain with each step I would say "I don't need this pain. I am willing to feel my emotions," like a mantra. This felt right to me. I might not actually be willing to feel all my emotions, but I was making a sincere "aim."
So I hope for those, like me, who don't naturally "trust" affirmations ---I think they'll let me down, or I also think they are a sort of non-attunement in that some of the expressions seem to blow right by my experience, ===that there is still a place for carefully worded statements of support, which really resonate personally with us.
"I am free to move forward with love in my heart." is one I like for instance, because it doesn't feel like bullsh*t.
Also
But these might not feel right for someone else, and in that case I suggest you either use it anyway and trust it will work (the basic instructions for affirmations) or find/ formulate other ones that you can sort of feel in your bones. That is what I do.
You can also experiment with "you are ____," a second person approach. Like "you are a loving person, and I am here with you." or "You are understanding yourself more and more, and this helps reduce pain."
To me, finding what feels right is part of the journey of TMS healing. In no small part because it was "becoming what we think we needed to be" in order to have love --- being a goodist, giving up our needs, striving for perfection ---that gets us into TMS land to begin with. So I encourage folks to attune deeply to their own guidance and needs. Part of self-attunement in the moment.
By the way, I think this is a great practice which deepens self-contact, or exposes ---and therefore clarifies, how we don't want to be in contact with ourselves! Wonderful.
So I hope for those, like me, who don't naturally "trust" affirmations ---I think they'll let me down, or I also think they are a sort of non-attunement in that some of the expressions seem to blow right by my experience, ===that there is still a place for carefully worded statements of support, which really resonate personally with us.
"I am free to move forward with love in my heart." is one I like for instance, because it doesn't feel like bullsh*t.
Also
But these might not feel right for someone else, and in that case I suggest you either use it anyway and trust it will work (the basic instructions for affirmations) or find/ formulate other ones that you can sort of feel in your bones. That is what I do.
You can also experiment with "you are ____," a second person approach. Like "you are a loving person, and I am here with you." or "You are understanding yourself more and more, and this helps reduce pain."
To me, finding what feels right is part of the journey of TMS healing. In no small part because it was "becoming what we think we needed to be" in order to have love --- being a goodist, giving up our needs, striving for perfection ---that gets us into TMS land to begin with. So I encourage folks to attune deeply to their own guidance and needs. Part of self-attunement in the moment.
By the way, I think this is a great practice which deepens self-contact, or exposes ---and therefore clarifies, how we don't want to be in contact with ourselves! Wonderful.
Did it work? Did your skin issues cleared?