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Day 8 TMS Triggers

A

annarowens

Peer Supporter
Hello,
I wrote earlier on my progress and accidentally thought I was on day 7! So I'm on day 8, and one of the exercises is to think about the emotions in our life that cause the pain to worsen. I am becoming more mindful of these emotions and definitely see a pattern of stress causing pain. It is true that the feeling comes before the thought. Right now I have a great deal of stress in my life surrounding my husband so any time I am going to see him my pain gets really bad. Also, sadness and anger cause my pain to get worse as well. I have been on an emotional roller coaster so now looking back, I can see how the pain's progression from worse to better back to worse and so on has been correlated with my emotional state and what is going on in my life. Since I can't magically make my current stressors disappear, I am trying to learn how to better handle them so my body doesn't suffer. The moment I feel the pain getting worse I check in with myself to see what is going on at the moment. The only part of the pain that is still a mystery is in the morning. It usually begins not long after I wake up and I can typically do the program and get it under control but I'm not sure why it starts up each day. I can feel improvement though so I am hopeful that this issue will also begin to take care of itself as I continue to do the work and be mindful.
 
Hi annrowens,

Wonderful progress report.

annarowens said:
Right now I have a great deal of stress in my life surrounding my husband so any time I am going to see him my pain gets really bad. Also, Sadness and anger cause my pain to get worse as well. I have been on an emotional roller coaster so now looking back, I can see how the pain's progression from worse to better back to worse and so on has been correlated with my emotional state and what is going on in my life. Since I can't magically make my current stressors disappear, I am trying to learn how to better handle them so my body doesn't suffer. The moment I feel the pain getting worse I check in with myself to see what is going on at the moment.
Click to expand...

It seems that you are having improvement simply by seeing the patterns. This is one of the aspects of Dr. Sarno's work that is hard to imagine, but can be true: we don't have to change our experience, or our TMS from arising. We can simply "see behind the curtain" at the real causes of the pain, and this provides relief.

Andy B.
 
Hi, Annaowens. Andy is right on target when he reminds us that Dr. Sarno says, we don't have to solve the emotional problem causing TMS. Just discovering and accepting it tells our subconscious it no longer troubles us and the pain is gone.
I do think that sometimes we have to accept the emotional cause every day as it continues to surface. Then we have to remind ourselves that Jesus said we should not worry about tomorrow's anxieties because today's are enough. I like to think: The best is yet to come.
 
Yes, you are both so right on. I probably won't ever "solve" some of this stuff; the power is in acknowledging it and letting it go, minute by minute. I think that's why mindfulness meditation is so helpful. And I agree Walt! Today's anxiety is enough thank you very much! I'll just give the rest up to Jesus! (Or your creator, or the universe, whatever you believe when reading this. Just giving it up and realizing you have no control over yesterday or tomorrow is the key for me!)
 
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