Increased my Acitivity

This weekend I went hiking. I drove for about 5 hours each way, and spent the whole weekend trekking on a mountain.

For those who know me on this forum, I used to get intense pain even if I drove for 5 minutes. I did feel very tight and uncomfortable after the drive, and am sore today but the discomfort is nothing like what I used to experience before.

It seems that the days of TMS are almost over!

 

That's awesome, levfin!

I promise you that this stuff works! I've seen it over and over in my life.

 

Excellent, Levfin.

It's great that you are reaping the rewards of your hard work.

I too, aspire to be in sound mind and health.

 

Well done. Do you have any tips and tricks for those of us that are struggling a little?

 

DoggyDave - I think it works differently for everyone, but for me I took small steps.

First, I accepted the TMS hypothesis completely and started journaling. Then I stopped rationalizing everything. I am a bit of a brainiac, and use logic for every thing. For example, if someone pisses me off, I have a habit to try understand things from his point of view. Because of this, I usually conclude that the other person is not a bad person. What he had done to me was logical to him. Instead of rationaling, I started focusing on how I felt because of the other person's actions. That brought out a lot of bottled up emotions, mostly anger and rage.

As my pain reduced, I pushed my boundaries. I changed my pillow and woke up the next day with no difference in pain, so I threw it away. That was a big milestone for me. Then I started driving around the neighburhood, another milestone!

I also found useful the idea of pain talk and visualizations, reccommended by Scott Brady. I visualize my subconscious as a pain-producing bad guy who has been beating me in a boxing match for some time. I tell him that I am aware of the tricks he play on me. He is infact weak, and has no control over my life. I visualize beating him hard in a fight, and telling him that the days of pain or numbered.

All that being said, I am not fully healed. I still get tight muscles when I engage in certain activities. My pain usually increasee when I start doing something I enjoy, i.e. go on a long drive, or engage in a strenuous activity. Beating that lingering pain is the last thing I need to do.

 

Hi, Levfin. I'd say you're going wonderful. The long drives and the mountain trekking are wonderful to give your morale a big boost.

Understanding others from their point of view is great. I try putting myself in their shoes and it helps to understand them better.

Small steps are what it takes for most of us. One foot in front of the other gets us where we want to go.