Day 66 - First day back at work

Day 66! unch:

Everything went great. I sat through orientation for 7 hours, didn't need to stand or accommodate in any way. I'm anticipating no problems going forward, and I feel completely back to normal functioning. Here are a few thoughts others might find helpful:

Last night I printed out a document with my affirmations, quotes, list of successes, tips from people here, ACE1's tips, and so on. The first hour sitting today, I started having increased pain, so I treated it like anxiety (because it was anxiety, plus conditioning) and read through the document. It really helped. After that it was a breeze. -- If anyone thinks it could be helpful to make a document, I highly recommend it. When the pain increased I started getting anxious, and it was so easy to just look at the document to calm and refocus myself. No heavy lifting involved

For people looking at returning to work, here's what my day looked like:
6:30 - Wake up
7:15-8:30 - Gym
9 - 4 - Work
4:30 - 5:30 - Hike
6 - 7 - Feldenkrais lesson
8-9 - Reading group
So it's possible to not just work and rush home to rest, but to really live the day to the fullest.

I never would have thought this was possible three months ago, but once I accepted TMS and started the recovery, it all accelerated. (For perspective, on Day 1, I had to gather a ton of courage to get myself to walk for five minutes.)

I want to thank everyone here on this forum for helping me along the way. This has been my home base for recovery, and I'm tearing up just writing this, so thankful to have found a group to walk this path with.

If you're new here, I know it all seems complicated, like there's so much to remember, but there isn't. For me it came down to this: Stress Reduction + Physical Activity + Full Belief in TMS + Time = Recovery. That's it. No magic fix, no special exercise, no stretches, no gadgets, no creams, no doctors. Just stick to the program: calm your nervous system, be active again, believe in your body, and be patient and consistent with this to give it time to sink in and adapt.
You can do it. Dig deep, find your strength. Find what you love and go for it.

 

excellent!!

 

Wonderful! That's lovely.

 

Fantastic!

 

If you get the time, I was wondering if you could share some of your favourite quotes and tips from people on here that you put in your document.

 

Yes I will do it tonight!

 

Here are the ones I have on there now. I also have more about sitting (testimonials from other members here).
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“Determination is the strongest painkiller.”

"You may despair again and again. This is not important if you remember never to despair completely and are always willing to pick up the pieces and go on. Tomorrow is another day and could be the best yet." - Claire Weekes

"Confidence is born by going on despite defeat."

"Courage has the extraordinary quality of being there if truly wanted. If you want, earnestly enough, to be courageous, you will be. If you fail, re-examine yourself and you will find you have misled yourself. You only thought you wanted to be brave, you did not actually feel the urge. To be conscious of a real urge, you must feel it strongly within yourself, in the pit of your stomach, so that you can almost put your finger on the spot. In other words, this wanting must come well forward in your consciousness and not be touched set, overlaid by wishy-washy wishing. You must establish and cultivate this feeling until you make it part of yourself."

"So do not be satisfied with the mere wish you may now feel to be brave and persevering. Give your desire so much concentration that you eventually make it a granite-like determination to succeed. If you take time to do this, your journey to recovery will be winged."

(Weak and scattered thoughts are weak and scattered forces.
Strong and concentrated thoughts are strong and concentrated forces.)​

"To get such courage you must want it. When you finally have it, it will stand between you and all future adversity, between you and failure."

“Never be complete discouraged by apparent failure. However severely you may seem to fail on occasions, failure is only as severe as you will let it be. The decision to accept and carry on turns the worst failure into success. There is no ‘point of no return’ in nervous breakdown. A day of deep despair can be followed by a day of hope, and just when you think you are at your worst you can turn the corner to recovery. Your emotions are so variable in breakdown, try not to be too impressed by your unhappy moods, and never be complete discouraged.” - Claire Weekes [end]

“Although the timetable varies, most people recover. In fact, three retrospective studies were conducted at the Rusk Institute (1982, 1987, 1999) measuring the efficacy of TMS treatment. Out of 371 randomly selected chronic pain clients, 72% reported being free or nearly free of pain six months to three years after treatment.”

“Success isn't always about greatness. It's about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come.”

***Consistency with discipline will strengthen your mind so that whatever happens to you, your mind will not crumble.***

 

Fantastic! - thank you so much, @Free of Fear. I'm going to print them all out to refer to...I have to say that I particularly like those Rusk Institute statistics!

I have trouble sitting (I suffer with pudendal neuralgia-like pains and numbness - like I've been sitting on a hard wooden or mental park bench without moving for about 6 hours - plus lumbar and thoracic back pain)...so, could I be cheeky and also ask you for your favourite sitting quotes/testimonials?...when you get a moment, that is, as I appreciate that you will have a lot on your plate what with being back at work now.