My First Success

[lucky_li0n_d@wg]

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

 

[BloodMoon]

@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.

 

[lucky_li0n_d@wg]

So it’s less about thinking “I believe 100% that this will work” and more about thinking “I’m willing to try it because I believe it MIGHT work”?

I’ve seen a few success stories where they say “you have to have 100% confidence in order to succeed” but I don’t think that’s true. I don’t think realistically anybody could completely 100% know for a fact it will work before trying it but you have to do it anyways

 

[BloodMoon]

So it’s less about thinking “I believe 100% that this will work” and more about thinking “I’m willing to try it because I believe it MIGHT work”?

I wouldn't put it like that...

When we tell ourselves we’ll “try” something or that something “MIGHT work”, the brain stays on alert, constantly checking for results — which keeps us focused on outcomes (often called outcome dependence). A gentler and more helpful starting point is to stay open to the likelihood that your symptoms are of a mind/body/TMS cause and to commit to exploring the process from that place of curiosity rather than pressure. (It may seem like semantics, but ‘trying’ implies a tentative approach — dipping your toe in rather than immersing yourself in the process, though dipping your toe in is better than nothing.)

It’s not about forcing absolute belief from the start, but about choosing an attitude like: “I’m open to the idea this is mind/body/TMS — whether or not I see proof yet.” That shift takes the focus off results and helps the brain and nervous system feel safer, which is what really allows change to begin.

Nicole Sachs has said, “your body becomes your proof”, but that doesn’t mean chasing outcomes or expecting symptoms to vanish on demand — it means gently noticing shifts, changes in patterns, or moments of release along the way. These are signs that your mind and body are responding, even though the process is more than likely to be uneven or not linear. The emphasis stays on the process rather than the outcome.

 

[JanAtheCPA]

I’ve seen a few success stories where they say “you have to have 100% confidence in order to succeed”

The key word is few. Indeed, I think that "100%" was widely promulgated a number of years ago, but very few people commenting today push this belief. You reach 100% by being open-minded and accepting; by doing the work without pressure or expectations.

 

[lucky_li0n_d@wg]

Well I was telling a couple family members about it a few days ago and one of them said (not their exact words but basically) “I think you should do this whether it helps your symptoms or not because it sounds wonderful. Imagine how great it would be if EVERYONE did it” and the other one said “also most ppl your age wouldn’t be insightful enough or brave enough to even consider that this could be causing them pain so by being willing to try it you’ve already made progress” so I think your comment is right on the money.

It did help a lot to hear two real people sitting in front of me say those things vs only hearing them from ppl online ngl and it was a nice bit of perspective. By being willing to go to a therapist, I found out about TMS within less than a year of my symptoms starting up (something that takes a lot of ppl years and years), got curious enough to listen to podcasts on it and research all about it, and will have read two books on it by the end of this week. That’s further than some people have ever gotten before (when my therapist explain it to me for the very first time, some ppl in my position would have just gone “LOL no” and never dug any further into it at all, which ngl is almost what I did but my “gut” told me to give it a fair chance and at least just read a little more about it on my own)

 

[JanAtheCPA]

There you go, that's awesome! And I hope it is a sign that this work really is starting to have an influence out in the rest of the world.

I need to post a thread about a terrific new study that came out this year, sponsored by the ATNS - I just heard all about it on the latest episode of the Like Mind Like Body podcast (available on all the podcast platforms).

I will also add that 100% belief is a wonderful ultimate goal, because that's what helps us recover quickly from future setbacks. After all, the TMS brain mechanism is not something that can be eliminated - I don't know if it will ever evolve to be less primitive than it is, but for now, we have to live with the fact that every time we experience stress (and life is full of stress!) our TMS brains will immediately interpret that stress as a life-or-death danger that we have to escape from, and the best way to force us to go and hide is to give us symptoms. Our full belief and understanding of the mechansim helps us to recover just as soon as we remember "Oh, right - it's probably my irrational and primitive TMS brain, poor old thing".