BloodMoon
Beloved Grand Eagle
I just recently discovered a new book, published only this year, called 'The Centred Self: How to Stop Fighting Life, Rewire Your Mind, and Live from Restful Flow' by Alexander Campbell.
It came at a timely point for me, because I have been discovering that using visualisations seems to be doing something beyond somatic tracking for me. I posted about this in another thread, where a few of us had some discussion about Alan Gordon's somatic tracking (https://www.tmswiki.org/forum/threads/why-somatic-tracking-might-not-be-working-for-you-the-science-and-theory-behind-why-active-visualisation-works-better-for-some.33934/#post-175319 (Why Somatic Tracking might not be working for you. (The science and theory behind why active visualisation works better for some.).)
What I'm finding particularly interesting is that the advice in Campbell's book seems to make an almost immediate difference to my residual bodily discomfort.
I say “residual” because, for those who don't know my story, I've gone from being bedridden and housebound to functioning pretty well and normally by comparison. However, my body isn't completely free of varying discomfort throughout my body, and that's where this approach has been surprisingly useful and encouraging. Whether my residual symptoms will go in due course, only time will tell.
The great thing is that I can do what Campbell advises “on the move”. For example, I might notice some heaviness and weakness in my thighs coming on while I'm going about my day, and I simply say to myself:
“Hello, heaviness and weakness. Welcome! It's okay for you both to be here for a while.”
And then I carry on.
After a while, as I continue to go about my day, perhaps doing a household chore, I suddenly realise that the heaviness and weakness haven't got worse — they've actually disappeared — even though I didn't actually feel welcoming towards them.
I've heard advice before along similar lines — for example, asking your brain to make the symptoms worse. The rationale I've heard given for this is that the brain may not actually comply, because once you deliberately invite the symptoms rather than fear or resist them, the brain somehow “sees that the jig is up” and has less reason to keep producing them.
I tried it, but not consistently or for long enough to know whether that would be true for me. I think I didn't pursue it because I saw no glimmer of change that seemed promising enough to warrant continuing with it.
I find the idea of actually talking to the symptoms/sensations in order to welcome them interesting in a similar way.
Of course, the idea of accepting rather than fearing or resisting symptoms isn't new in the TMS world — Alan Gordon, for example, talks about mindfully observing symptoms and developing a different relationship with them. But I don't remember ever having encountered quite this formulation of actually welcoming the sensation and talking to it in this way.
I'm not saying that I'm a particularly brave person, but I do think that, especially if you're new to the concept of mind-body/TMS, it can feel quite anathema to welcome symptoms rather than “put up with them” or resist them.
Anyway, here's how the author describes this idea in the book:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"You look directly at that tight knot or that heavy weight, and you mentally offer it a radical, unconditional welcome. You explicitly say to the feeling: ‘Welcome, tightness. Welcome, heat. Welcome, heavy weight in my stomach. You are entirely allowed to be here inside my body.’
The moment you say ‘welcome’ to an uncomfortable physical sensation, something extraordinary happens in your neurology. The Left Hemisphere goes into a state of shocked silence. It doesn’t know how to process a welcome.
The Assistant’s entire survival blueprint [‘The Assistant’ being the Tyranny of the Left Brain] relies on fighting or running from discomfort. By welcoming the sensation, you strip away its status as an enemy. You prove to your amygdala that this physical energy is not a predator. You are no longer an isolated, fragile ego trying to survive an emotional attack. You are resting in the unshakeable truth that you are already fundamentally safe, whole, and loved right now, right in the middle of the physical storm. You are providing a vast, spacious, hospitable room for the energy to move through without hitting a wall of resistance.
Think about how a heavy summer thunderstorm breaks. If the air is hot, tense, and tightly compressed, the storm hangs over the city for days, causing a miserable, suffocating pressure. But the moment the heavens open and the rain pours down, the pressure drops, the energy discharges, and the air becomes clean and fresh again.
Welcoming your physical sensations is how you let the emotional rain fall. You stop holding the storm inside your muscles, your chest, and your stomach. You open the windows of your container, step back, and let the energy complete its natural cycle."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It came at a timely point for me, because I have been discovering that using visualisations seems to be doing something beyond somatic tracking for me. I posted about this in another thread, where a few of us had some discussion about Alan Gordon's somatic tracking (https://www.tmswiki.org/forum/threads/why-somatic-tracking-might-not-be-working-for-you-the-science-and-theory-behind-why-active-visualisation-works-better-for-some.33934/#post-175319 (Why Somatic Tracking might not be working for you. (The science and theory behind why active visualisation works better for some.).)
What I'm finding particularly interesting is that the advice in Campbell's book seems to make an almost immediate difference to my residual bodily discomfort.
I say “residual” because, for those who don't know my story, I've gone from being bedridden and housebound to functioning pretty well and normally by comparison. However, my body isn't completely free of varying discomfort throughout my body, and that's where this approach has been surprisingly useful and encouraging. Whether my residual symptoms will go in due course, only time will tell.
The great thing is that I can do what Campbell advises “on the move”. For example, I might notice some heaviness and weakness in my thighs coming on while I'm going about my day, and I simply say to myself:
“Hello, heaviness and weakness. Welcome! It's okay for you both to be here for a while.”
And then I carry on.
After a while, as I continue to go about my day, perhaps doing a household chore, I suddenly realise that the heaviness and weakness haven't got worse — they've actually disappeared — even though I didn't actually feel welcoming towards them.
I've heard advice before along similar lines — for example, asking your brain to make the symptoms worse. The rationale I've heard given for this is that the brain may not actually comply, because once you deliberately invite the symptoms rather than fear or resist them, the brain somehow “sees that the jig is up” and has less reason to keep producing them.
I tried it, but not consistently or for long enough to know whether that would be true for me. I think I didn't pursue it because I saw no glimmer of change that seemed promising enough to warrant continuing with it.
I find the idea of actually talking to the symptoms/sensations in order to welcome them interesting in a similar way.
Of course, the idea of accepting rather than fearing or resisting symptoms isn't new in the TMS world — Alan Gordon, for example, talks about mindfully observing symptoms and developing a different relationship with them. But I don't remember ever having encountered quite this formulation of actually welcoming the sensation and talking to it in this way.
I'm not saying that I'm a particularly brave person, but I do think that, especially if you're new to the concept of mind-body/TMS, it can feel quite anathema to welcome symptoms rather than “put up with them” or resist them.
Anyway, here's how the author describes this idea in the book:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"You look directly at that tight knot or that heavy weight, and you mentally offer it a radical, unconditional welcome. You explicitly say to the feeling: ‘Welcome, tightness. Welcome, heat. Welcome, heavy weight in my stomach. You are entirely allowed to be here inside my body.’
The moment you say ‘welcome’ to an uncomfortable physical sensation, something extraordinary happens in your neurology. The Left Hemisphere goes into a state of shocked silence. It doesn’t know how to process a welcome.
The Assistant’s entire survival blueprint [‘The Assistant’ being the Tyranny of the Left Brain] relies on fighting or running from discomfort. By welcoming the sensation, you strip away its status as an enemy. You prove to your amygdala that this physical energy is not a predator. You are no longer an isolated, fragile ego trying to survive an emotional attack. You are resting in the unshakeable truth that you are already fundamentally safe, whole, and loved right now, right in the middle of the physical storm. You are providing a vast, spacious, hospitable room for the energy to move through without hitting a wall of resistance.
Think about how a heavy summer thunderstorm breaks. If the air is hot, tense, and tightly compressed, the storm hangs over the city for days, causing a miserable, suffocating pressure. But the moment the heavens open and the rain pours down, the pressure drops, the energy discharges, and the air becomes clean and fresh again.
Welcoming your physical sensations is how you let the emotional rain fall. You stop holding the storm inside your muscles, your chest, and your stomach. You open the windows of your container, step back, and let the energy complete its natural cycle."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Last edited: