TMS paradox?

Hello all,
This is my first post. I've had TMS issues for a few years now and have read Sarno and Steve O's books.

I just had another flare up and can tell it's from the unspoken pressures I put on myself to perform.

Here's what I'm struggling with:

The TMS is very distracting. I can't work on my business until the TMS goes away, BUT what I got from the books is that I should resume all activity and THEN the TMS will reduce. It seems like a real chicken or the egg issue. What to do?

Thanks
E

 

Hey Elwin,

There is a difference between stress and TMS, between anger and rage and dealing with business pressures.

Stress and pressure can make TMS worse. However, the real issue is the anger and rage.

Is your business source of your anger and rage?

 

It is not a chicken or the egg issue if you learn how to DEAL with your pressures and stresses without pushing them under the rug and generating more pain. Unlike many lucky people who had a "book cure" (read the book and pain disappears forever), I was stuck with my pain until I learned how to properly handle my emotions. Took a while, but it is doable. I have been pain-free for 4 years and dealing much better with the stresses of my life.

 

Thanks,
To me, my stress and pressure are so closely connected to anger and rage that I can use the terms interchangeably. I know that's not the direct teachings, but they overlap because they are all so intense.

1. daily pressure to perform in my business.
2. pressure setting off my rage, anger at the pressure.

It all kind of spins around in a loop.

My money challenges/stresses are a source of my anger. I will journal some more on that specifically.
Thanks
E

 

I Just got over a relapse. It was Probably over a new self imposed pressure I have been placing on myself.

When I realized THAT was probably the issue I thought "well... I can back off and go back to NOT challenging myself"
...and then I thought "well...if I do that, then the TMS wins"

So I redoubled my efforts at the endeavor that is scaring me and kept telling the pain "I am going to do this whether you cooperate or not, so you might as well get used to it"

..and the symptoms finally stopped after hanging around for a couple weeks.

I use the word "probably" because it is repressed and unconscious so we're never 1000% sure of what is causing it, but we get a damn good idea by what work and thought patterns make the symptoms subside.

 

One of the best lines I got from Alan Gordon's program was "I may not be able to control you (TMS), but I'm not going to let you control me."