aitm, the most important thing you really need to know about TMS is that while there are a number of commonalities, every human being is different, and since TMS is a condition of our thoughts, the variations in how TMS manifests and how people can recover are bound to be as numerous as the number of thoughts that we can carry inside our skulls. Which is a LOT.
There is no one way to do this work. There is no single path to recovery. What worked for Steve O would not in a million years have worked for me, although I love his book and think he's an awesome resource for this work. I'm not mentioning Steve just because Walt did - this is a comparison I have used before (such as earlier today during the weekly Chat) because it is so illustrative of the different ways that people recover.
Trying to find and fit into some predefined TMS Recovery mold will only make you crazy. And probably increase your symptoms. You actually need to do just the opposite of what perfectionists crave - you need to relax, accept what is, let go of linear expectations, trust your instincts to figure out what works for you, and above all love yourself. The really important rules are pretty simple: think psychological, not physical, don't watch the calendar, and don't measure your pain or lack of pain.
I was chatting with someone who thought mindfulness was the wrong thing to do because it somehow goes against Dr. Sarno's advice to not focus on the physical. I still don't get that, because mindfulness is all about being aware of your negative destructive brain messages. That's the unconscious messages behind the conscious thoughts. This is not easy - we spend most of our days processing a gazillion thoughts in the conscious and the barely sub-conscious parts of our brains, whereas the negative destructive messages are lurking deeper than that. To be supremely healthy in our thought processes requires being mindful WAY more than most of us currently are, and this is really really hard. I am still trying to be perfectly mindful for as little as 5 minutes during a dedicated meditation practice, and I am TERRIBLE at it. My thoughts start wandering in less than 30 seconds, and before I know it I'm deep into plans for the day, conversations I had yesterday, to-do lists that I need to make, wondering what I'll have for breakfast.... and five minutes have gone by during which I was mindful for about 20 seconds.
As for exercise, I always hated it - but I was doing it at least twice a week even at my worst crisis point in the summer of 2011, just before I discovered Dr. Sarno. I was 60 years old at the time. My worst symptoms were neurological and digestive, while my pain symptoms were less disturbing. Even without knowing about TMS, I recognized the fact that I felt better after exercising. My brain apparently wasn't interested in making me fear exercise - my fears lay elsewhere.
Well, that was rather a long ramble, wasn't it? Feel free to read my profile story and look at my list of favorite resources - you'll see that most of them are not in fact by Dr. Sarno, and they cover a wide range of mind-body issues and techniques.
All the best,
~Jan
