Stress ball

Ive been doing well learning to work through my TMS. Haven't had a headache and the body tension I've had for so long is much better. I'm using Dr Sarno's book and am working on mindfulness as well. One thing I've noticed, when I do begin to feel stressed or angry, squeezing a stress ball really helps to relieve the body tension that I still have left. Dr Sarno seems to recommend mental strategies over doing something physical. Should I keep using the stress ball as therapy or is there a better mental strategy I can use to relieve tension?

 

I recall Dr. Sarno discouraged physical remedies for pain, not physical methods of stress relief.

To me, the stress ball seems like a legitimate way to express (rather than repress) difficult feelings.

 

Thanks. That seemed right to me too. Maybe I just needed to hear it from someone else.

 

I guess you could argue it's a fine line. It could be seen as a distraction - but it's a more positive distraction than letting your brain give you a symptom. But then again, anxiety IS a TMS symptom. But then again, Dr. Sarno recommends physical exercise as a way to get past symptoms - and a stress ball is a form of simple exercise you can do anywhere.

LOL - I've found a number of circular arguments in the years I've been doing this work.

What you don't want to do is use it as a tool to focus on "fixing" a physical symptom, but clearly that's not the case.

Bottom line - I think that using the stress ball could also be seen as a form of meditation - a mindfulness tool that allows you to release your mind of its background chatter for a little while. Perhaps with that in mind, you can graduate to simple breathing and clearing of your mind without the physical tool.

 

You're exactly right. As long as I use it as a psychological tool then I'm making progress. I've begun to think about my cardio in the same way- it's nice to enjoy the physical relaxation of running, but more important for me is the positive effect that exercise has on my mind. Recently I've also been meditating and using my conscious thoughts to tell my unconscious mind that sending pain to my body is unacceptable.

So far, nearly a whole month without a significant headache. A few months ago, I had nearly given up hope that I'd ever go that long without one.

 

Awesome progress! You'll be ready to write a post in the Success Stories subforum before long!