Low back pain

[sunitha123]

Hi,

I am new for TMS and have low back pain and widespread back pain for 3 years now. I am trying to do somatic tracking and safety messages, but sometimes I feel like the pain is worse. Is anyone in same boat and had success in pain elimination?

 

[HealingMe]

Hi Sunitha123! Yes! there are many, many people here who’ve dealt with back pain and are now pain free! Search through the forum; use the search bar at the top right. I encourage you to read the Success Stories too.

For majority of folks who begin to do the work symptoms can get really colorful and even move around to different parts of the body (experienced this myself). Don’t get discouraged as this is how it usually tends to go; see it as a positive thing. Your brain doesn’t want to give up its power over you.

Have you read any books by Dr. Sarno?

 

[Cactusflower]

For some people somatic tracking doesn't work well.
For others it might increase pain for some time before it decreases.
Somatic tracking alone does not eliminate pain, it is only one small part some people use to help eliminate the pain.
May I ask what you have done to educate yourself about chronic pain and TMS?

 

[sunitha123]

Hi Sunitha123! Yes! there are many, many people here who’ve dealt with back pain and are now pain free! Search through the forum; use the search bar at the top right. I encourage you to read the Success Stories too.

For majority of folks who begin to do the work symptoms can get really colorful and even move around to different parts of the body (experienced this myself). Don’t get discouraged as this is how it usually tends to go; see it as a positive thing. Your brain doesn’t want to give up its power over you.

Have you read any books by Dr. Sarno?

yes I read healing back pain by Sarno. I got the concept that I need to look at emotional and psychological things behind this pain but sometimes i didn’t know exactly how to do that

 

[sunitha123]

For some people somatic tracking doesn't work well.
For others it might increase pain for some time before it decreases.
Somatic tracking alone does not eliminate pain, it is only one small part some people use to help eliminate the pain.
May I ask what you have done to educate yourself about chronic pain and TMS?

Reading books healing back pain by Dr. Sarno
And read through Alan way out book
Read TMS recovery program in this forum
Trying to doing normal activities by reinforcing the brain that the pain or sensation in my back is just lack of oxygen or misinterpreting signal from brain
Breathing exercises
Safety messages
Reading success stories and YouTube videos

 

[Cactusflower]

Reading books healing back pain by Dr. Sarno
And read through Alan way out book
Read TMS recovery program in this forum
Trying to doing normal activities by reinforcing the brain that the pain or sensation in my back is just lack of oxygen or misinterpreting signal from brain
Breathing exercises
Safety messages
Reading success stories and YouTube videos

Reading and engaging in TMS work are two different things. Dr. Sarno assigns work to do, to address symptoms.
He asks you to look at your personality traits and note how they create stress, to look at past and present stressors or another way to put it is to look at your internal conflicts. A few people can just "think" about them, but most people engage in journaling exercises to help foster the vulnerability needed to look deeply into oneself. He states "think psychologically" - and suggests we look at repressed emotions such as anger/rage.
Breathing exercises are great, as is mediation, somatic tracking and anything else that will help calm your nervous system, but generally these aren't super successful without doing the inner work at the same time.
Drop any idea that you are focusing on "lack of oxygen" or "Misinterpreting signals" - this focuses on what is wrong, instead of focusing on the fact there is nothing wrong. You want to focus on "nothing wrong" and things like "temporarily feeling sensations" etc. You have to let the brain know you truly know what is up.
Note: if you have noticed or thought perhaps anxiety plays a greater part in your life, read any book by Claire Weekes. She has amazing techniques that you also directly apply to common TMS thought patterns etc. I found her amazingly helpful.
I continue to listen to youtube videos/podcasts, it's a great idea to reinforce the work. Sometimes there are subtleties we just aren't ready to hear until we are ready to hear them (funny how the mind works).
Keep going. Experiement with some new techniques and begin engaging in the real work. The free program called the Structured Educational Program is a great guideline to doing the inner work. I love Tanner Murtaugh's TMS channel on youtube. He uses both Alan Gordon's Pain Reprocessing AND the inner work necessary for long term progress for most people.

 

[Diana-M]

For majority of folks who begin to do the work symptoms can get really colorful and even move around to different parts of the body (experienced this myself).

Yes! Agree with this!

I continue to listen to youtube videos/podcasts, it's a great idea to reinforce the work. Sometimes there are subtleties we just aren't ready to hear until we are ready to hear them (funny how the mind works).

And this! So true!

 

[JanAtheCPA]

The free program called the Structured Educational Program

The Structured Educational Program is completely free and does not even require any kind of registration, you just go to our main TMSWiki.org web site and start doing it. Don't try to rush through it - if you do just one "Day" every day (or less), that gives you plenty of time to also be reading or listening to or watching other resources which will enhance your knowledge while doing the lessons.

To get the most benefit from the SEP you need to make a commitment to be emotionally vulnerable to the work, and completely honest in your self-reflection.

Somatic tracking does not require vulnerability or emotional honesty, which I personally think is why we see and hear that it doesn't work for many people.

Once someone has done the real emotional work, it's possible that somatic tracking, combined with mindfulness tools, might help to quickly manage future symptom flares. I don't use it myself - my tools are mindfulness and journaling.