My First Success

Hey there,
I am almost done reading through “Mind Your Body” by Nicole Sachs and after I finish, since I will be on winter break from college for a month, I plan to start Nicole’s 28-day Challenge.

I realized recently something that I had been kind of cagey to “announce” incase I was wrong, but now that more time has passed I realize most likely my gut was right about: I already have had a success story with one of my (many) symptoms that took place last month. After about 3 weeks of first discovering and then learning/reading about TMS, I started getting pains in both my forearms and hands all of a sudden that I had never felt before. Very similar to most of the other symptoms I’ve had. But, since this was the first new symptom that had come up since me learning about TMS, instead of freaking out that I had somehow wrecked both of my arms at once (seriously, they both started hurting at the exact same time in the exact same way), I went “OMG WAIT A MINUTE”, looked down at my arms and said out loud, “no, stop it.” within a half hour the pain lessened and in 24 hours it was gone completely. It happened a few more times that month, and I kept dealing with it the same way since it seemed to work the first time, and I noticed a few things:
1) the pain lasted a shorter amount of time each time
2) the number of days between incidents got bigger and bigger by a LOT
3) it became only one of my arms (mostly) and not the other (on the left side which is where most of my symptoms seem to tend to want to go)

I think I’m about 100% convinced now, a month later and after almost finishing Nicole’s book that this was in fact TMS, even if I’m not 100% ready to “announce” that my other symptoms are just yet. It’s going to be a lot harder to convince myself that the others are the same thing but I consider this a good first step

 

@lucky_li0n_d@wg That’s really good to hear, and it’s a great sign of progress — but remember, it doesn’t actually matter whether you’re fully convinced that all of your symptoms are mind/body/TMS. Belief tends to grow naturally through experience rather than through effort or pressure. Try not to make convincing yourself another task (or an obsession) — gentleness and curiosity do far more than force. This first step is already a strong foundation, and the rest will build in its own time, as you do mind/body work.

Nicole Sachs has said: “The only way to engage in new things is to either believe they will matter or decide you’re willing to be curious.” This directly frames curiosity or openness as an alternative to belief, allowing imperfect starts amid doubt.

Sachs teaches that resistance (like persistent skepticism) is a normal "inner saboteur" from the nervous system, overcome by consistent JournalSpeak and self-kindness, not by forcing conviction. Results from practice—"your body becomes your proof"—build conviction gradually, even without 100% buy-in upfront, as seen in her "three legs of the stool" analogy (belief/willingness, work, patience). Recovery progresses via lowered fear and emotional expression, regardless of perfect mindset.