Ashok Gupta advice

Grateful17

Grateful17

Well known member
Ashok Gupta notes:
I am just getting around to listening to Gupta's presentation last month in a Health Summit.
Here is something that really grabbed my attention.

He talked about the Self Healing Effect and Having a Powerful Positive expectation of Recovery.

If our brains detect and are very optimistic that we are going to recover from a condition, the nervous system calms down. Once the nervous system calms down, the immune system is more effective and is able to get rid of whatever it needs to in the body, and it creates a harmonious healing environment in our body, allowing us to recover from an illness.

But if we have a negative expectation of recovery, that has a profound effect on the way that the amygdala, the insula, and the prefrontal cortex works.
It lowers their effectiveness to control defense responses and therefore defense responses can become out of balance and our immune system's become less effective when we are more worried.

Studies show that people who regularly meditate have less reactive amygdalas and better immune systems that are more balanced.

End Quotes...........
 
I agree with him 100 %, I think meditation should be a prerequisite before commencing any program. It removes all of the chatter from ones mind and helps the person to think in a more balanced space without any negative thoughts. Most people who do suffer are forever stuck in a negative cycle which clouds their thinking and natural healing ability.
 
Grateful17 said:
Ashok Gupta notes:
I am just getting around to listening to Gupta's presentation last month in a Health Summit.
Here is something that really grabbed my attention.

He talked about the Self Healing Effect and Having a Powerful Positive expectation of Recovery.

If our brains detect and are very optimistic that we are going to recover from a condition, the nervous system calms down. Once the nervous system calms down, the immune system is more effective and is able to get rid of whatever it needs to in the body, and it creates a harmonious healing environment in our body, allowing us to recover from an illness.

But if we have a negative expectation of recovery, that has a profound effect on the way that the amygdala, the insula, and the prefrontal cortex works.
It lowers their effectiveness to control defense responses and therefore defense responses can become out of balance and our immune system's become less effective when we are more worried.

Studies show that people who regularly meditate have less reactive amygdalas and better immune systems that are more balanced.

End Quotes...........
Click to expand...

I am actually interested, how much more effective these TMS programmes would be if someone did 8 weeks of meditation before starting it. 8 weeks of meditation being the optimal time to quieten the amygdala.
 
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Where did you get the 8 weeks from? Prof Mark Williams work is based around 8 week courses on meditation and has looked at the brain before and after.
Worth doing his 8 week course if you can. amazing difference
 
I never tried an eight-week course in meditation but will look into it. I find Youtube videos on meditation to be very helpful.

I wish someone who tell me how to relax and meditate when every morning some new problem come at me on the computer
from technology that seldom works from day-to-day. I need to be on the computer for work, but long for the days before the
computer was ever invented. Technology can be a real help, but only on the days that it works.

A friend told me, because I never married, that I am a modern-day monk. I wish I was. I would be a computerless-monk.
 
Grateful17 said:
Ashok Gupta notes:
I am just getting around to listening to Gupta's presentation last month in a Health Summit.
Here is something that really grabbed my attention.

He talked about the Self Healing Effect and Having a Powerful Positive expectation of Recovery.

If our brains detect and are very optimistic that we are going to recover from a condition, the nervous system calms down. Once the nervous system calms down, the immune system is more effective and is able to get rid of whatever it needs to in the body, and it creates a harmonious healing environment in our body, allowing us to recover from an illness.

But if we have a negative expectation of recovery, that has a profound effect on the way that the amygdala, the insula, and the prefrontal cortex works.
It lowers their effectiveness to control defense responses and therefore defense responses can become out of balance and our immune system's become less effective when we are more worried.

Studies show that people who regularly meditate have less reactive amygdalas and better immune systems that are more balanced.

End Quotes...........
Click to expand...
Been watching some short videos on youtube, well let me say he as my attention thx for sharing
 
Here's what Michael, a fellow TMSer and a patient of Dr. Sarno's, who is producing and directing the film, wrote about Gupta:
Ashok Gupta generously dontated some DVD sets for us to offer as rewards for our campaign. The first day, 4 out of 5 were taken. I'm sure the last set will be gone as soon as this goes out.

I first came to hear Ashok Gupta's calming voice when I was in unrelenting pain. My brother gave me a CD of the meditation he had recorded, and I ended up listening to it non-stop for days. It was the only thing that could help me calm down.

Based in England, Gupta describes the relationship between the amygdala (flight or fight) and the frontal cortex (conscious awareness and reason) in ways that echo Dr Sarno's work. He points out that when we are scared by something for the first time, be it a speeding bus or a final exam, the amygdala checks in with the frontal cortex to see if it is correct in activating the flight or fight response. If the cortex affirms this response along the lines of "YES! You need to get out of the way of a speeding bus!" then the next time we get near a moving bus, or get an exam dropped on our desk, the amygdala does its job and floods our body with stress hormones so that we are ready for the attacker. However, it doesn't check in with the cortex anymore, so instead of being conscious of the stress, we are more unconsciously anxious. If our emotions are scary to us - i.e. we are repressing them - then this response is going on all the time, and we become chronically unconsciously stressed. This plays havoc with our body, and often times pain is one of the first signs. Through mediation and journalling, we can become more aware of this process and begin to change our conscious response to these stresses.

When learning about Gupta's program, it was fascinating to see that from a different cultural context, he made many of the same points as Dr. Sarno. Like Dr. Gabor Mate and Dr. David Clarke, Gupta had come upon these insights about the relationship between the autonomic nervous system and our emotions as Dr. Sarno does without having heard about Sarno's theories. They all came to these conclusions via observation and research, realizing that somewhere along the way we'd gone off track both medically and culturally.

We met and interviewed Gupta in Boston, where he generously gave us a number of amazing insights. He was able to communicate complex ideas in extremely simple ways that made them easy to understand. We've clipped a few of these insights here to share with you. Thanks again for all of your support- enjoy these clips!

In the first clip he talks about ideas that will resonate with anyone who has read "Healing Back Pain".

In the second clip Ashok talks about the relationship between our cultural milieu and symptoms. This further speaks to how powerfully the mind affects the body and vice versa.

He then talks further about how our attitude - our belief - affects our ability to heal. For those who have visited Dr. Sarno or read his books, the connection here is quite clear, as Dr. Sarno has found that if people don't fully believe that the problem is emotional rather than physical (like a herniated disc), it is unlikely that they will heal. Belief is very powerful.

However, balance is important. If we get too positive it can create unrealistic expectations.​

The clips are excellent and I'd highly recommend them. They can be found here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/project...mentary-connecting-emotions-and/posts/1051382
​
 
Forest, thanks for those video clips of Ashok Gupta.
Here is one I love. In it he describes the cycle of 8. This is how we get into that negative reactive cycle of stres/trauma, and how our amygdala and conscious brain play a role in our symptoms and conditioned responses. So every time we feel pain and our conscious brain says.........."OH THIS IS BAD." ...our amygdala hears this and the cycle continues. I like the way he describes the process. In this video he is using Chronic Fatigue as an example, but you can just insert YOUR SYMPTOMS here as in Pain, anxiety, or whatever it may be.

 
You can tell he believes in what he sells... how many Professionals do you know that offer a full money back guarantee if the programme doesn't work.
 
Yes, he does offer a 6 month money back guarantee. His program needs to be done daily for a minimum of 6 months. Of course, many people do take longer than that to recover from their illness, but some do it in under 6 months too.

I wish I had the hundreds of thousands of dollars I spent out of pocket on crap that DID NOT WORK.........it was not until I found out that my illness was brain related that things began to improve. It has been an uphill battle with many highs and lows, that is for sure.
 
Hi everyone who seem interested in Ashok Gupta's programme.
I recently read the above posts when tuning into tmswiki looking for ways to calm the nervous system and through Grateful I was introduced to Ashok.
I have recently purchased (1 week ago) the programme he has devised for healing. I was getting very stuck in what he calls the adrenaline cycle and despite working with a therapist and, digging around really looking and nit picking at my childhood desperately searching for reasons for my pain, meditating and walking two to three miles (briskly) everyday without fail this past year I was feeling on times my fear, anxiety and sensations were becoming worse. So I decided to give Ahok's course a good try.
It is aimed at people with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia but also Chronic Pain. I thought I would post this today to give anyone who is interested a glimpse of the work involved. You have to agree to give full commitment to the programme for 6 months and if by that time you do not feel some improvement then he will happily refund your money.
The programme comes in DVD's and CD's and includes not only the programme but a workshop held (I do believe) in London where Ashok is based. You are supplied with a Road map indicating a negative route to staying as you are or a route to health and happiness.The first and most important step is as soon as you have a negative thought such as 'will I ever get better' or 'am I going to be like this forever etc or anything remotely negative then you stand on the Stop sign and say loudly and firmly 'Stop, Stop, Stop. Using your hands to push the thought away. You then make a choice to go down the route to health and happiness and visualise just what your life will be like when you are healed. That is the first step and you do this every time you have an inkling of that negative thought. He does say that in the beginning you will be doing this 100 times a day but you must keep going and eventually you will have fewer negative thoughts or be able to stop them in their tracks. There are shorter versions you can do if you are out or in company which you can play out in your head. He emphasises how important this step is.
There are several dvd's giving you complete and easy to follow instructions. I think he is a brilliant teacher as anyone and everyone would be able to understand him.The cd's contain the following tools/techniques. Alternate nostril breathing prior to meditation (to be done twice a day) which he gently talks you through, 'soft and flow' where you concentrate on your symptoms of sensations or emotions and visualisation. He advises you practise these techniques at least once a day, preferably twice. There is also a cd on accelerating, surrendering and healing. Of course there is far more information than I can possibly write here and is supplied on 6 dvd's and 2 cd's. The whole package costs £165.00 but I really feel it is well worth the money for me as now I am trying to continue alone I felt I was floundering. I must admit I do need a programme to follow.He has a really wonderful encouraging, soothing approach and voice and does instil confidence in you. I particularly love his detailed description on how the Amygdalah and nervous system work and how he said to forget all the other titles and think that you have 'An overactive Adrenaline cycle.
I hope some of you will find this interesting /helpful and if you have any specific questions you wish to ask me please feel free and I will explain as best as I can.
Love to you all
 
Thanks for bumping this thread and for your post, Abbo. I had forgotten about Ashok Gupta, but I tell you, there is important information right here, just in the things that people have posted about his work!

The cost (165 UK pounds) is nothing. I was being billed more than that for every physical therapy appointment back in 2011, to say nothing of the dizziness clinic, three different chiropractors, the orthotics guy, the cranio-sacral guy, and so on. Like Grateful17, I spent thousands before discovering Dr. Sarno by checking out just one of his books from my local library.

This work is obviously right in line with the intellectual and emotional changes that must be made to recover from TMS.
 
LOL - I forgot about the acupuncture! Although it was many years prior - I only went a couple of times, didn't even get any placebo effect from it.

I have a tax client who is an osteopath. and I was thinking about going to see her when I discovered Dr. Sarno - just in the nick of time! Five years later, she's still a great client and I like her a lot, but I never visited her for anything other than lunch. She seems to have plenty of business.
 
I got zero out of acupuncture despite seeing two different acupuncturists with medical training in China, for multiple sessions. I cannot believe how it has gradually become more accepted into the mainstream, despite study after study proving it doesn't work except by placebo effect.
 
Ah yes, Ashok. What a lovely man, and what a brilliant program. I went to LA a few years ago to do it. I must pull out and dust off my DVD set if I still have it after several moves. I never watched them, but I did the seminar and really, it’s quite an incredible way of understanding the whole thing. I highly recommend it. Even though it’s not exactly the same as Sarno’s theory, it works really well for us. The explanations about the hyper-activity of the amygdala (even though it should be amygdalae - there are 2 of ‘em!) really created one of those “knowledge shifts” for me.
 
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