Pain went from 7 to 1 after this ... breakthrough!

I had a breakthrough last night and just wanted to share my experience.

At about 6PM, I had an unpleasant conversation with my spouse on the phone. I didn't let him know I was bothered by it (not unusual), but I got off the phone and immediately knew I really was bothered. So, I spent ten minutes writing about it. At this point, the pain level was about a 4. The writing helped a little, but the pain was still there. Then I had a meeting to attend and sort of had pain on and off but it was bearable.

I get home around 8PM and my husband arrives a few minutes later. The pain shot up pretty quickly to about a level 7. He asked me a few times if something was wrong and I said, "I'm fine" even though I felt super agitated. Finally, I went and did a 15 min bodyscan meditation. During the meditation, I realized that I was feeling anger from earlier. Instead of suppressing it, I just let myself feel it - mindfully! I physically felt the anger inside my body and just watched it without judging it. When the meditation ended, I knew I had to now talk to my husband about the conversation earlier on the phone.

After I expressed my feelings to him about the earlier conversation, and we reached an understanding, my pain was pretty much gone for the rest of the evening.

This was a very powerful experience for me because it really gave me solid evidence that this pain is emotional. What other explanation could there be? I have had some doubts about it being structural, but after this incident, it's very hard for me to deny the emotional connection.

 

Well done! Perfect example of how to overcome TMS. You could cross-post this in the success stories forum.

 

You rock girl! I recently had a one day relapse after a public humiliating scene with my GF. I actually didn't need to tell her...just acknowledge to myself that it WAS because of her actions and I am not the Stoic Marcus Aurelius philosopher I pretend to be.... I was in a RAGE. As soon as I realized how angry I was, the symptoms vanished... we're talking within an hour!

We have 'made up' but because of TMS I have learned that NOT discussing things with a partner are a surefire formula for some symptoms.