calling all who've healed

I'd like to hear from those for whom healing was intense. I have a new resolve to break through the walls of discomfort, and it drives me to my utmost limits. Is there something on the other side? Should it really be this difficult?

 

When i resist avoidance, I find myself beside myself... I just can't believe that it can be this mixed up. Before I started this thread, I took stock of the discomfort coursing through my body, and said "you've got to be kidding me." What is this? If that sounds familiar, and you've made it through, please tell me about it.

 

TMS healing seems to be a matter of "different strokes for different folks."
Some, like Forest, healed just by believing TMS caused his pain. He didn't even need to journal about any repressed emotions.
Others, probably most of us, like me, it took longer. Especially total belief in TMS causing my back pain. I withheld about 10 percent belief that it was structural, from being 82 years old, and my body aging like an old car. I finally believed 100 percent in TMS and the back pain went away. It comes back every so often, not anywhere near as bad as it was, and I just tell myself again it is TMS.

 

I'm finding my TMS healing is ongoing and gradual, but seemingly inevitable, once I reached a certain tipping point. Biggest change came when I started doing meditation and breathing exercises mornings and evenings as part of my regular daily routine. Breaking a programmed behavior once it's been reinforced repeatedly is just not that easy, at least in my case. Getting the big picture of your emotional situation through journaling does seem like an important precondition for beginning to progress however; again, at least it was in my own case. Like that YouTube video Forest posted, once you've learned to ride a bicycle 'the right way', it's hard as heck to unlearn it all at once. Some people must be able to do it more easily than others depending on their personal histories and psycho-physical environments. Like Walt puts it, "Different strokes for different folks".

 

Hi Bruce, can you share Meditation and Breathing techniques you followed ?

 

Gladly, IndiMarshall. After going through Michael Brown's regime that he outlines in the latest edition of the Presence Process, for the last few months I've continued to do his breathing cycle for 15 minutes each morning after waking up (before breakfast) and again for 15 minutes in the evening (before dinner). On an empty stomach in any case. You can look it up in the PP, but it runs like this: I/am/Here/now/In/this. You inhale with the I and exhale with the am. Same with Here/now and In/this. As with most breath meditation techniques you concentrate your attention on the breath and try not to get attached to distracting thoughts or reveries.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Presence-Process-Healing-Awareness/dp/0825305373

Another thing I've been doing during the day is to listen to one of Howard Schubiner's mindfulness meditations included on the CD in the dust jacket of his Unlearn Your Pain workbook while doing one of Dr Andrew Weil's breathing exercises at the same time while laying down flat on my back on a Yoga pad. I think Dr Weil's universal relaxation breath runs something like this: 4-second intake, hold it for 7 seconds, then exhale for 8 seconds and repeat.

Here's a link to Schubiner:

http://www.unlearnyourpain.com/

Of course, I've done all the written exercises in the SEP and Schubiner's workbook earlier on, so you might regard that as preparation or a pre-condition.

 

Bruce, that was all very helpful. Thanks for posting.
I go see a TMS doc in 2 weeks and he likes for his patients to do the PP. He is John Sklar in Texas. I also have the CD out of Schubiner's book too, along with Weil's CD. Good to know that these will be of good use.

 

Thanks Bruce, I will reply back if I have more questions.

 

Hi Bruce Do I have to repeat the below combination one after the other ? for 15 mins ?
I/am
Here/now
In/this

 

Yes, but without putting an exact 15-minute time on it by using an alarm. You'll know intuitively when 15 minutes has passed. Michael Brown gives quite specific instructions on how to perform "The Consciously Connected Breathing Practice" in the latest edition of the Presence Process (pp. 119-122). BrianC has quite a long string on this Forum regarding the Presence Process too:

http://www.tmswiki.org/forum/threads/the-presence-process-share-experiences-ask-questions.5173/

You might want to look over that.

 

ok thanks .