This is a great question lexylucy, and strikes at the heart of TMS. It's why the good doctor called it a divided mind. The TMS comes from this back and forth in the banter of confusion. Wanting vs. not wanting. Caring vs. not caring.
The procrastination allows for the non action. If action were to be taken, then criticism would be a certainty. Criticism is a form of rejection, and rejection is a form of isolation. Isolation is the biggest fear.
Aristotle said, "to avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing." But it's deeper than that. The reason the shame prevents an action is because the person isn't sure of the action. Their level of consciousness isn't such that they know they're taking the correct steps, and to avoid the rejection they continue through mental scenario analyses, what ifs.
So, you can see that the right path is straight and narrow. You can't allow yourself to be pulled in many directions and still reach your goal. Choose a life and know what you are doing is correct. Almost everyone I talk to is unemployed, or hates their job, in career limbo. The author of The Highly Sensitive Person, Elaine Aron, said that vocation was the hottest topic in her seminars. Whenever she brought up the topic of jobs, every sensitive hand in the room went up. People simply don't know what to do with their lives. They haven't found a path, and so they experience pain. The pain pushes them toward their path.
Consciousness relates to confidence. The more aware we are of something the more more confidence we have, the less confusion, the less procrastinating. The person in pain isn't quite sure. Lost. Wanting to take the step, but unaware enough to avoid shame, if the wrong step is taken. Low self esteem doesn't help with the first step. Then someone like Dr. Sarno comes along with great confidence, because he had become more aware of something, he didn't doubt. So he took his steps with confidence.
Carl Jung said, "We want to have certainties and no doubts, results and no experiments, without even seeing that certainties can arise only through doubt and results only through experiment. The artful denial of a problem will not produce conviction; on the contrary, a wider and higher consciousness is required to give us the certainty and clarity we need.”
So, he means, we need the doubts first in order to become more certain, and we need to try, and possibly fail, to get results. And with TMS, denying a problem only creates more pain, it does not free us. When we deny something there is no conviction behind it, no confidence. We only become confident (less doubt) when our consciousness has expanded to the point that we are willing to take the first few steps.
You're correct, there is a part of us that likes being in the debate, it keeps us from moving ahead, where there can be no rejection.
Steve
