Day 8 Help for fear of exercise ?

[Leelee8888]

Hello all

Its day 8 on the S E P.

Thoughts....

Today I noticed a fear of exercising, this
flare up has been quite bad back pain
hip pain tingling in legs, it’s been difficult
to deal with and bought up a lot of fear.

My tms belief is good as I have used this
method to be pain free a few times.

Yesterday I noticed a fear of exercising
As symptoms as been bad, I have a
fear of lifting weights and running.

So today I went to the gym and said to myself ok I’m doing a lot of cardio
In the gym now today I will lift some
weights. I did only 3 sets but it felt great
I had less pain after.
I have stopped listening to the pain
And ignoring it.
I will now build up the weights slowly.
I will also run in the next couple of weeks.

It’s a nice feeling when I faced the fear
kinda of I feel like I’m taking my power
back.

Has any one experienced this fear of exercising? How did you deal with this ?
Any positive feedback? Advise ?

Have a great day all.

Lee

 

[JanAtheCPA]

Hey there @Leelee8888 - this sounds great, and at Day 8 of the SEP! Between Days 7 and 10 is when many people report increased anxiety and symptoms (the well-known Symptom Imperative, aka Extinction Burst!), and you are approaching it exactly right.

I've had general anxiety as well as exercise anxiety all my life (I am now 72). Thankfully, I was raised in an active family and always found ways to remain active over the decades. Even "before Sarno" I had developed a good sense of body awareness and a strong belief in the power of our minds to overcome and to self-heal. Dr. Sarno/TMS knowledge put all the pieces together back in 2011 when reaching age 60 caused a crisis of symptoms that at the time had me well on the road to becoming housebound (spoiler alert: that didn't happen).

My specific answer is that I still do what you are doing: my current routine is about 5 hours of varied exercise every week, and I use self-talk and visualization with a goal of maintaining (if not improving) muscle, bone density, and cardio health, along with common sense and trust in my instincts to adjust when it's reasonable. I had a personal trainer for quite a while starting at age 59 who taught me SO much about pushing myself beyond what I thought were my limits, and how to adjust and back off when needed. That first year before I discovered Sarno/TMS was a tough one, and there were many times when I had zero desire to drag myself to the gym, but because I'd made a commitment to someone I did it anyway, without fail - and every single time, I felt SO much better afterwards.

The most successful athletes are known to use mindfulness techniques to visualize and achieve their goals. It's all connected.

 

[Leelee8888]

Hello Jan.

Thank you so much for your reply, it
was very timely as I had just pushed
myself a bit more in the gym with some
Weights and had a little pain tightness.

I came home and read your reply.

I then calmly had a hot bath relaxed, then
gently massages my hip and when and did
A meditation, to calm sooth my nervous
system.

Now about 2 hours later the tightness is
gone and no pain. Yay

What has changed is my response to some
pain, I just laughed at it to disempower it.

I quite shocked it’s gone.

Thank you for your support and encouragement, I have gen anxiety also and
have all of my life, I feel I am much at
dealing with it now.

This flare up has shown me its time
to take some time off from my work,
and giving myself space and time for myself.
It feels great.

Thanks for much for taking the time
to reply.

kind regards

Lee