Day 23 Question to ponder

"Do you think you are avoiding any part of this treatment? What emotions or past events do you think you may be repressing?"

I got stuck on day 23 over 2 months ago. I went back to look at the SEP today and the question to ponder was a lot easier for me to answer than before. I am obviously avoiding journaling. Especially on past events because I don't see it as being healthy to re-live very old past events that I have been trying to forget all these years.

I don't think I'm repressing emotions but does anyone have any tips on how to feel them? I always thought that I feel too much. I've been reading and listening to mind/body type of courses that teach you how to feel emotions but it is like they are speaking another language. I always thought that I was a sensitive, intuitive, emotional person but I guess I'm more analytical than I thought I was. I know I am a very realistic person. I was much more idealistic when I was younger but I have become very cynical about life. I know my pelvic issues have really influenced my life, and how I look at the world especially since I have had one of the worst flare-ups life since last May.

 

Hi, Renee. I agree with you that it can be stressful to feel the emotions that may go back to childhood that were emotionally distressing. I think just identifying and recognizing them is good enough for your subconscious to let up or let go of the pain.

It can be very easy to become cynical of life, if you watch television news or read it in any form. I prefer Public Broadcast news on radio because it doesn't dramatize the news, it just reports it. We have to be careful to think positive about everything.

I think it would be helpful to you if you spend some time with Dr. Sarno's 12 Daily Reminders. I like the extended version by Herbie, one of the TMS recoverers who posts on this site:


Herbie’s Extended Version of Dr. Sarno’s 12 DAILY REMINDERS

1. The pain is due to TMS. This is real pain or anxiety but it is caused by subconscious tensions and triggers, stressors and traits to your reactions and fears and also when at boiling point your conscious tension can and does also cause real pain.
2. The main reason for the pain is mild oxygen deprivation. This means that when you get in pain or anxiety then the blood is restricted from going to your lower back, for instance. The blood being restricted causes oxygen deprivation which causes the pain. Remember, where there is no oxygen then there is pain in the body. Also, the pain stays because of fear.
3. TMS is a harmless condition caused by my REPRESSED EMOTIONS so even though you think you can harm yourself from the years of pain you have felt and how you feel in general -- so far no reports have been heard from TMS healing knowledge causing damage to anyone, it only helps.
4. The principle emotion is your repressed ANGER -- this means under your consciousness lies something that happens automatically to everyone. TMSers have repressions that are stored because of our personality traits, traumas, stressors, fears, strain, etc... When these stored repressions build and build, then eventually they cause the brain to send pain into your body to keep you from having an emotional crises. The mind-body thinks it is helping you.
5. TMS exists to DISTRACT your attentions from the emotions, stressors, tensions and strains of your personality traits because if you can get distraction then you won’t have to be in emotional turmoil. When you don't face and feel your emotions and they get repressed because you didn't want to deal with something -- they are just adding up in this beaker, ready to pour over and create real pain and anxiety in your body.
6. Since my body is perfectly normal, there is nothing to fear. So in reality when I fear the pain or anxiety I just cause myself undo strain and tension adding to the beaker of pain. If I fear, then I feed the pain, If I fear, it’s impossible to recondition. Fear keeps the pain and anxiety alive in the body through focus.
7. Therefore, physical activity is harmless. If I want to work against the pain I could but it’s better to lose some of the pain so when I start my life over I have to be in pain trying to heal because facing the repressions and all the other activities that cause the pain and reversing my fear and focus to them, then I can heal.
8. I am resuming all normal physical activity. I don't fear moving anymore. I believe in my body’s ability to heal now. I can move as I want. I will not fear moving with a bent back anymore. I will also practice going out and acting normal again, not in fear of what pain might do to me.
9. The pain is unimportant and powerless. Its only power is how it is hidden -- its illusion, its fear.
10. I will keep my attention on the emotional issues. I will think about my emotions and feel my emotions throughout the day. I will not judge, criticize or fear my emotions. I will not run from my emotional issues but face every one of them. I will feel my emotions fully and cry if I need to. Then I will release the emotion and get my mind and thoughts back to my life and living in the present.
11. I am in control of all of this. This is how I recover.
12. I will be thinking PSYCHOLOGICALLY AT ALL TIMES. This means I will keep my thoughts on psychological issues like happiness, fear and anger -- traits and triggers, conditioning and journaling -- The science behind mind-body/TMS healing, etc.... This way I will not feed my thoughts to the body -- that is a trick of TMS. TMS will always try to get me to focus on the body caused by the pain until I break its show and flair. When I get my attention off physical symptoms and on to emotional issues and psychological issues then I will not feed the fear of the physical issues anymore, thus making the TMS of no pain effect on the body. This will in return, give us the cure and become pain-free.

 

Hi Walt,

I've read these before but the piece above says it all I suppose. Awhile back I came to believe all my issues are TMS but I guess I've been fooling myself thinking I wasn't repressing anything. I must be or I wouldn't be having these issues, right? I am going to get back to journaling today.