COMMENTS ON LESSON 17

[richard landry]

I didn't find the link in lesson 17 to connect me to this forum posting screen. I hope this posting goes thru OK.
The Points to Ponder asks, "What part of this program do you find the most helpful? " I find ALL of the program parts interesting, educational, and very helpful. The Forum feedback is especially HELPFUL and I definately admire the committment of the regular responders. Even though I have positive opinions about the Structured Learning Program. at the same time I have a lot of resistance to daily doing the work. Hw can I change my resistance into a daily enthusiastic welcoming of the opportunity to do the TMS program? How can I convert the daily TMS work into an enjoyable play time?

 

[Beach-Girl]

Hi Richard:

Glad you're finding the program helpful. I think it's awesome as it set me on a whole new path.

Even though I have positive opinions about the Structured Learning Program. at the same time I have a lot of resistance to daily doing the work. Hw can I change my resistance into a daily enthusiastic welcoming of the opportunity to do the TMS program? How can I convert the daily TMS work into an enjoyable play time?

I can only pass on my experience - since we're all different. When I started the program, I changed my whole morning routine. Instead of getting my coffee and going onto my computer, I now sit outdoors and listen to the birds. Doing this puts me in the moment, vs reading email or whatever that takes me to a future place.

I have found that by reading a book I'm reading on TMS, writing in my journal, and meditating are the best ways for me to start the day.

But what I did was to totally change my morning routine. In this way, I made myself start the work. And once I had new habits, the work is something I actually look forward to.

Maybe it's an evening routine for you, but for me, placing myself firmly "in the moment" first thing in the morning really helped me to start to think and function differently. But as I said, we're all different and yours may be a different time of the day.

Just a thought.

BG

 

[Forest]

Richard you touch upon some great questions. I think there is a lot that could be behind this. The first issue to consider is if you have some unconscious resistance to doing the work and recovering. Sarno talks a lot about how most people are simply not ready to hear about this approach. Our unconscious mind creates these symptoms to prevent us from uncovering our emotions. It is reasonable for our unconscious mind to try and distract us from wanting to do the work.

You should also ask yourself if there is anything that is preventing you from committing to the approach. This may sound a bit odd, but chronic pain can be how we define ourselves as it consumes so much of our lives. Some people receive government assistance due to their symptoms, and it is only human to be nervous about loosing this financial assistance. Maybe you rely on someone in your life to help assist you in things and your unconscious mind may be weary of the changes in your life being symptom free may bring. Without our symptoms, we have to focus on our emotions. This can be frightening to our unconscious mind, so it may try to put up defenses that try to distract us from doing the work.

Doing something like Beach Girl could help in this by giving you a set time to do the program. If you schedule it in you may be more likely to do it. Just do 45 minutes a day every day and you will be able to get into that routine.

I would also add that it is important for yo to find what works for you, and part of this means adapting the TMS approach to what you like to do. Journaling really didn't do much for me. I had a problem with staying focused on it and I seemed to notice that my mind wandered quite a lot. I did, however, find reading other people's recover stories to be very interesting and helpful. They just seemed to grab my attention better then sitting in journaling.

Becoming active again also really helped. Doing all of the things we put aside can really help us break the conditioned thought that we are fragile and broken. Choose an activity you love (this can be as simple as walking around the block) and do it trying not to focus on your symptoms, TMS, or if you are going to have symptoms. Focus on the specific activity itself. This can help you break that initial resisitance.

 

[veronica73]

Hi Richard,

I too had some resistance to doing the work. I think for me this was because 1) at a certain point I kind of hit a wall with journaling and felt better about just talking to people here, meditating, and other aspects of the program and also 2) journaling brought up some pretty intense things from my past that I felt would be better for me to work out therapy rather than write about on my own.

I think it is normal to not be enthusiastic about this stuff all the time. Sometimes healing is fascinating or fun and other times it's scary or monotonous.

Veronica

 

[BruceMC]

The first emotion I felt when I began journaling on stressful/traumatic events in my childhood and adolescence was anxiety. I never had any trouble racing through the assignments; they seemed to write themselves. However, I began to notice during the day that I was becoming extremely anxious in some generalized non-specific way. Were my repressed emotions getting too close to the surface and threatening the ordered world of my rational mind? Maybe! Also, late at night around 3 am I kept waking up and having that same undifferentiated anxious feeling that I did during the daylight hours. All I did was lighten up a bit on the journaling and stand back a bit. Then, I returned to journaling and just toughed out the anxiety, figuring it was part of the process of understanding how TMS works psychologically. Of course, when you are operating on yourself, you have to be careful and not let anxiety get the better of you. I think the anxiety stopped bothering me so much when I understood more about the emotional dynamics involved and decided to see exactly where the SP was leading me. IOWs: I think my anxiety was a part of the learning curve, something you had to see as a positive sign you were making real progress deprogramming your pain pathways. Perhaps your resistance is not laziness so much as fear of what you'll encounter if you continue working the SP and open Pandora's box?

 

[richard landry]

R The first issue to consider is if you have some unconscious resistance to doing the work and recovering.
I would also add that it is important for yo to find what works for you, and part of this means adapting the TMS approach to what you like to do. Journaling really didn't do much for me. I did, however, find reading other people's recover stories to be very interesting and helpful. They just seemed to grab my attention better then sitting in journaling.

 

[richard landry]

thanks Forest for your comments on my Lesson#17. I found the above above suggestions most helpful