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Skiing Two Years After

Andy Bayliss

Andy Bayliss

TMS Coach & Beloved Grand Eagle
That made my day. I could almost feel the crisp snow and the snappy air. I had been doing certain exercises in 2010 in preparation for skiing when this all began and after all this time dared not even think about skiing again. Your clips took me back to better times.
Thanks for sharing!
 
Hi Lavender,
I have to say that during my darkest days I thought I'd never ski again. All I wanted was the pain to stop. I thought if the surgery does not work, I'll have them remove my left foot. I can feel my sadness just writing this. It is absolutely amazing how things can improve.
Andy B
 
Andy these clips are brilliant!

I've recovered from 20+ years of chronic foot pain with TMS healing and am now running 8-10K three times a week and loving it. I can barely believe it's me and my body doing the running sometimes. I recall there were times too when I had considered having my foot amputated, such was my pain and despair.

Although I live in Australia there are ski fields 3 hours drive away and I always envy friends who go off every winter for their skiing fun. I still feel it's beyond me, like scuba diving, but your videos look amazing. You make it look so easy:-)
 
Love your video! I am sure the hard part was hiking up the hill.

I bought cross country skies this year and went skiing in the mountains. It was a beautiful experience. My TMS ailment was that I had a sore back for 2 years. I did think fun things were out, like skiing. There was a 80 something year old woman flying through those trails, she was with the group I hooked up with. She was really inspirational. Doing something you love can truly make you young again.

I have only cross country skied in the prairies before and that was 30 years ago. I skied a half dozen times at home before going to the mountains. I had a wipeout on a small hill and lost my confidence on hills. So when I went to the mountains and had to take a hill, I wanted to just walk down it. Luckily I was with a group of seasoned veterans, and they talked me down the hill. I took 3 of them, then I felt I had the right technique and slowly went for it. I had a tear coming down my cheak on the way down that hill. I was scared and relieved at the same time. Like I said it was a beautiful experience. Funny thing about emotions, they seem bad, you do what you can to avoid them, but they are good in the end. You can get your freedom back. And like the title of your article, it took me two years of recovery to get back to skiing again.
 
Last edited:
Colly said:
I recall there were times too when I had considered having my foot amputated, such was my pain and despair.
Click to expand...

I think people need to read this again and again, to understand the efficacy of Dr. Sarno's method! I don't recall knowing that about you, Colly. For me, I even began to fear the "ghost pain" from an amputation, when my mind went there. Fear is easy to fuel when we're in pain, and with no real hope. Thanks for sharing this.
 
Hi Andy,

Yeah... I had many moments of despair and hopelessness dragging a painful foot around for 22 years. It held me back so much from life and reduced me to existing... and every "specialist" scratching their head with no answer only heightened my despair. But here I am, 3 years into my TMS healing and running. Where would we be without Dr Sarno...
 
Hi Andy and my fellow TMSers,

I just returned from 4 days of skiing. I replayed these videos in my mind and they helped me keep going! Thanks!

About two years ago, I had two injuries from running two long races back to back. They were probably genuine injuries at first that were given different names (runner's knee, hip flexor strain, etc).

I loved running and did physical therapy to get over the pain. When the injuries would not heal, they became mysterious to me. The docs finally gave me both a hip and knee MRI and could not find anything substantial. More PT.

During our annual ski trip last year, I was afraid that I would hurt myself so I did not ski the last day. My knee and hip hurt. I tried to "heal" for months from my hip and knee that I thought I aggravated more while skiing.

Then I developed hand pain that scared me so much I was afraid I could not work (I need to type to earn my living). Shortly after that, I developed anxiety for the first time in my life. Then came insomnia.

I was overwhelmed. Then I found Dr. Sarno. My injuries are not completely healed but I am 80% better. During our ski trip this year I was really scared but I did two things 1) I replayed Andy's video in my head 2) I gave the video a little audio while I skied "it's just TMS, it's just TMS, it's just TMS".

In the end, I did take it EZ on green circles and square blues (vs steeper diamonds that aggravate my injuries more). The good news was that I actually skied all four days. Things were not perfect as the insomnia was back all four nights of the trip and I was mentally exhausted vs euphoric as I used to be on these trips.

I want to thank you Andy for your visual and your inspiration. I admit that i want to feel perfect and happy about our family ski vacation (I used to love them so much). The reality is that I feel exhausted and mentally drained by such lack of sleep and deep concentration. BUT I did it and that is cool.

I have to remember my perfectionisic tendencies. I may feel tired, a bit anxiety ridden and a bit confused because I am supposed to be "happy" during and after family vacation. Then I remember how I skied, maybe nervously but I skied for four straight days with my kids. Andy, your videos are awesome and I thank you for them.

This year I am not freaking out over my hip and knee. I skied 4 days and I have a few aches and pains, no big deal. If I was really hurt, I would not have been able to use my TMS techniques to stay on the slopes. Thank you for your inspiration Andy. I needed that.

I admit that I miss the younger me when a few days in the mountains would take away every worry in the world. I am not there but I think it is super awesome that I was able to keep up our 8 year family tradition of taking a ski trip with our kids over the holidays. One kid would have had to stay at the hotel with me if I wasn't skiing.

Thank you for your inspiration and support. Insomnia, anxiety, fear and pain are trying to creep their way back in but then I go to this wonderful forum and remind myself how lucky I am to have found you and to personally thank Andy for his super awesome videos! I am lucky to be able to share my story.

We all need a little support this holiday season. Thank you Andy and this wonderful community. My work isn't done but I hope I added a bit of gratitude and cautious optimism this holiday season. (I say cautious optimism because I'm not feeling perfect right now. Who is perfect? Let's keep it real. That is what keeps our stories credible and relatable).

In gratitude,
AC45
 
Hi AC45,

You are so welcome to my inspiration. I feel very pleased to have supported you, while having fun myself! And thank you for your inspiration. You did it, even though it was not "perfect." That is good for all of us to remember, I think. I am sorry about the anxiety and insomnia. You are fortunate to have the knowledge given by Dr. Sarno, so you can see your symptoms as all part of a syndrome, doing its thing... I am glad you were out enjoying this beautiful world with your family.

I climb up and ski down, and today I was at it for about 6 hours straight, in a heavy snow storm. Then I danced for two hours. My first ski of the season was last week, and I was climbing up and skiing down (on one of those runs from the video) for 9 hours! I feel so lucky to be alive. Thank you Dr. Sarno!

Andy B
 
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