It is the quintessential book on how physical symptoms can originate in the Mind and traverse the bridge into the Body… forming our One Self that is hurt and in need of repair, psychologically and physiologically.

The good stuff comes in the second half, the Recovery section. Here Dr. van der Kolk dives into various “alternative” treatment modalities for those with PTSD and other MindBody syndromes.

Many of these you may have heard before — mindfulness, journaling, art, yoga…

Then, he introduces the concept of EMDR, or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing.

EMDR, in short, is the use of bilateral stimulation (traditionally done by watching a therapist move their finger back and forth) to surface repressed trauma and emotions.

There are 2 main parts of a clinical EMDR session. The first is the Desensitization phase, in which you, as the patient, experience bilateral stimulation with the goal to become aware and make peace with traumatic experiences, negative beliefs, or difficult present-day issues. It’s meant to be a sort of safe space where you can really experience the truest form of your past experiences and emotions.

The best part about this is — this process can be entirely nonverbal! While EMDR can be done with a therapist or at home (more on this later), there is absolutely no requirement for you to spill your guts to someone you may not fully trust.

The second, equally as important, part of an EMDR session — is the Installation phase. Here, the same bilateral stimulation is performed. However, the goal is different. Rather than focusing on a specific issue you have faced in the past or present, your goal is to focus on a positive version or outcome of that experience.

For example, instead of focusing on a time you were bullied or assaulted on the street… in the Installation phase, you might choose to focus on your ability to overcome difficult scenarios, your compassion for yourself or others, or your appreciation for your Life and Body.

Together, these Desensitization and Installation phases allow you to safely explore your past experiences and present emotions while also reprogramming your Mind to heal from them and help you avoid falling into those same traps again.

Now, I had never heard of this idea of bilateral stimulation before — my only exposure to the concept of EMDR had been the recent Babygirl movie (in which Nicole Kidman cinematically uses the process to handle the pressures of being a CEO) and having overheard the topic in passing during my time experimenting with psychedelic drugs.

But, I had recently been suffering from a real roadblock when it came to the traditional TMS method for healing from chronic pain… so I was open to trying something new.

The Worst Writer’s Block Ever 🚫

Journaling is by far and wide the most common approach to healing from TMS or chronic pain symptoms these days. The popularity of Nicole Sachs, her JournalSpeak method, and the BreakAwake community is the proof in the pudding of this healing modality.

However, there is no avoiding the fact that writing does not come easy for most of us. Furthermore, writing for emotional release may as well be a foreign language for us Type T personalities that are often suffering from chronic pain.

I remember the first time I read Dr. Sarno’s books and tried following his suggested protocol for writing about your past trauma, present stressors, and personality traits that could be causing pain symptoms. It felt like a sterile, clinical approach to a naturally creative act like writing… and I was left staring at an empty page for literally months on end.

Nicole’s work takes great strides in spicing up the journaling process and making you feel alive and empowered while doing it. This is exactly what we want, and I credit her and slow yin yoga with 90% of my reduction in symptoms.

But recently, I have been facing an issue. You see, the type of fiery, passionate journaling that Nicole recommends has a prerequisite for success.

You need to be in a safe place mentally and physically to let those fierce emotions flow out of your head and onto the page. This can be accomplished through a few ways — but the best form is education on the effectiveness of the method, how the mind works, and how your pain symptoms are harmless and nothing to be scared about.

All of those things won’t help though if you feel physically unsafe or unhealthy in your own body… as I have wrote about in the past. And recently, I have been facing a number of obstacles in my personal life that have caused me to not have a safe place physically to do this deep journaling work.

Bad roommate experiences, moving multiple times, and starting a new job caused me to simply not have the energy or proper headspace to do the necessary JournalSpeak work I wanted to do.

But, I did not want to stop progressing on my healing journey. I remembered reading Dr. van der Kolk’s book and thought to myself… “maybe I will give EMDR therapy a shot”.

Since EMDR doesn’t require writing or voicing your thoughts and emotions to yourself or a therapist… I didn’t need an established place to write or even to live in. It definitely helps to be able to write or talk to someone during an EMDR session — but it is not necessary to succeed and get results with the protocol.

Finding Help 🆘

I started Googling for EMDR therapists in my area… and I quickly found myself in hotly debated topics on Reddit about the efficacy of the protocol, along with countless experiences of people who could not find a properly trained provider in their area.

Contrary to the mainstream narrative, mental healthcare is far from the standardized, rigorous treatment model that it is made out to be. In fact, it is not uncommon for poorly trained therapists to cause patients more damage that they must then work to heal from. So when you hear a vocal group of backlash from therapists online… while at the same time real people are praising the method and pouring out their own heartfelt experiences to a public, anonymous Internet… I tend to take the backlash with a grain of salt. This hasn’t been the first time that doctors or medical providers have lied to me.

I did heed the warnings of people who had experienced EMDR though — that the protocol can bring up challenging, threatening memories and emotions, and it is critical to do the protocol in a supervised environment to avoid retraumatizing yourself with those thoughts as they surface to your Conscious Mind.

In summary, there seems to be 3 ways to experience EMDR if you are interested:

1. Using a YouTube video or even Video game to trigger bilateral stimulation yourself and reap the benefits in a DIY-fashion (Not Recommended and Potentially Dangerous)

2. Finding a qualified EMDR therapist in your area who will spend most of the time practicing the EMDR protocol with you (Best Option — if you can find a therapist who will mostly do EMDR. Many only include it as a small part of their treatment plan.)

3. Use a software tool, developed by clinicians (and often used in their own practices), to follow the EMDR protocol at home, but in a guarded process with safety rails available at every step in the process.

As I was still moving across states and had been unsuccessful in finding an EMDR-specific therapist online — I chose to go with option 3. Luckily, it did not disappoint 🙂.

The Best EMDR Tool to Use at Home 🔨

As I researched the various EMDR software tools available, I began to form an idea of the baseline requirements I needed from such a tool to be successful.

The most important requirement for me was safety. I had never done deep trauma therapy or release work before (beside Nicole’s journaling methods) — only some short Cognitive Behavioral Therapy sessions which I did not find helpful.

I knew I had some deep, buried sh*t inside of me, and I needed to make sure the whole house (my Mind / Body) wasn’t going to explode when I started messing with the plumbing.

This meant that I needed to have easy access to a real, trained EMDR therapist while using the software tool — non-negotiable. You wouldn’t learn how to fly or drive without some level of instruction right? Even though you can do those activities solo (and the same goes for EMDR), it’s absolutely recommended to have a trained mentor help you in the early stages.

My next criteria was — I wanted to have a way to track my progress. This is a gripe I have with the whole MindBody and wellness space in general. They do not measure their results.

Now, I completely understand and am a proponent of treating each day as a new experience — and if you are engaging in a difficult physical or mental exercise, to only push as hard as your current daily max (which may be different from yesterday’s or tomorrow’s). Also take plenty of rest and recovery days.

But, if you don’t track your progress at all (again track not necessarily compare) — you are missing out on tons of potential gains and enjoyment from any activity, including self-development and inner healing work. The reason is simple — humans are natural dopamine junkies. We like to see the number of training sessions (physical or mental), our overall results, and honestly just a pretty picture of graphs and data points — go up and improve over time.

Essentially, if we gamify our healing work by tracking sessions and progress over time — we can hijink our dopamine system to help us heal faster and easier — instead of allowing that same dopamine system to our ruin our lives with junk food, gambling, porn or other addictions. You do need dopamine hits in your life… just choose the good kind, not the bad kind.

Finally, contrary to the last point, I wanted an EMDR experience that felt clinical and professional. I did not want to feel like I was playing a casual video game, while watching a smiley face bounce around the screen 😂. This is serious healing work we are doing, and that requires a focused, purposeful approach to the protocol.

With these criteria in mind… I selected VirtualEMDR as my tool of choice.

VirtualEMDR combines the best of both worlds by providing a first-class, self-guided EMDR tool, along with optional 1:1 coaching and instructional videos to help you safely learn the basics of the protocol.

As a clinical tool that therapists use themselves, it checked all of my boxes and includes an amazing Session Data dashboard that helps you track your progress over time. The best part is… there is a free 3-day trial, so you can give it a shot with no strings attached 😎.

My First Experience 🫣

I distinctly remember the first time I tried VirtualEMDR. To be honest, I was scared. I had subscribed to the free trial a few days before, but had been too much of a p*ssy to follow through and actually use it.

I found myself home alone on a Saturday night — not wanting to go out and socialize with friends or go to sleep early.

I realized I was hiding from the task in front of me. The task of diving into my True thoughts and emotions about my past, present, and future Life.

Upon this realization, I opened up my laptop and logged into the VirtualEMDR system. After watching the instructional videos, I put on noise-cancelling headphones, positioned my monitor ~24 inches from my face, and got to work.

Desensitization

Before you start, the EMDR protocol gives you few questions to answer about your Target, or the difficult trauma / emotion you are focusing on. In my first sessions, I spent a lot of time on these questions, but now I only spend a few minutes and write a few sentences.

The intro questions are optional, but they are similar to the first few paragraphs of a good journaling session. They get your Mind and Body relaxed and ready to open up. You might already be feeling some strong emotions come up, but it’s not necessary to fully explore them — that will come later (and no need to write the deep, dark details on the page this time!)

After I answered the intro questions and identified my Target, I started the EMDR feature of the app itself. There are a number of preset themes in the app — personally I like to use a Space background, Blue dot, and a bilateral cadence of about 20-25.

After a few minutes of watching the Blue dot move back and forth while focusing on my Target, I began to feel a deep trance take over my Body. I no longer had to consciously move my eyes left and right. My thoughts, while initially focused on my Target, now seemed to move automatically through my personal life experiences.

It was as if I was taking a gentle helicopter tour of my Life, viewing all my deep emotional experiences over the years from a neutral, 3rd party perspective.

Certain scenes and locations were scary, even painful to rewatch — but I knew that I had a remote eject button that would allow me to parachute safely to the ground if needed (end the session). I also knew that a trained EMDR professional was just a button push away if I needed further help 🙂.

This gentle experience continued for ~5-7 minutes, as I looped through past experiences of breakups, bullying, and physical violence. For each memory, I recollected the setting, activity, and people involved and then felt the emotions of that moment wash over my Body. After the initial washing, I felt clean — as if that particular memory no longer held any control over my past or present Self. Truly, the Desensitization of EMDR occurs in real time. However, it is not necessarily easy or fun.

The next memory… completely shattered me.

Just when I felt that I was beginning to get a hang of the EMDR process and feel comfortable, the details of my youngest years began to emerge.

I was 6 years old. In what I thought was a safe and loving house, playing innocent games with my siblings.

And then the event happened. I did not know that it was sexual at the time; I only thought that it was another fun game to play with my older sibling. But I did know the feeling of shame that enveloped and suffocated me when our father walked in and began yelling.

He placed the blame entirely on me, until my Mother finally calmed him down and told him that it had not been my idea.

I was just an blissfully ignorant child — thinking that playing Doctor was a fun way to spend the afternoon.

But from that day on — I never felt the same again. I never felt like I had intrinsic self worth as a human. I felt like there was something wrong with me for existing as an adolescent boy, for having something between my legs. I never felt truly comfortable around the opposite sex again, until my most recent years.

Reliving this memory took less than 60 seconds. Shortly after, the Desensitization phase of the VirtualEMDR session ended. Although this memory was painful to relive… I never felt out of control or unsafe during the experience. In fact, my final thoughts of that first Desensitization phase were:

It’s okay. You are not broken. Your father and sister made a mistake that day. There was nothing you could do to protect yourself that day, you were a 6 year old child. Now, I can protect the 6 year old version of me, and nothing bad will happen to him again.

These closing thoughts and emotions naturally grounded me as I returned to the present. Then, I began the second part of the VirtualEMDR session, the Installation phase.

Installation

Before starting, you will answer another set of questions that helps you choose a new Target. This Target will describe a New Version of you, a You with your innate positive qualities and characteristics enhanced and actualized in their fullest potential.

For this first session, I chose to focus on my protective traits, my survival instinct. How I can I get through any difficult situation, because I trust myself and my capabilities. How I will use my intellect and gut instinct to guide my actions to build the Best Possible Life for myself. How nothing bad will happen to me, because I have my own back, along with my trusted friends and family members.

Then, I restarted the EMDR tool.

This time, I chose a slower pace for the dot, and configured the sound and size of it to be more comfortable and relaxing. The VirtualEMDR settings are highly customizable, and it’s encouraged to choose the best setting for you and your session’s goal.

Now the Reprocessing or Reprogramming of my Mind began. Immediately, I felt a deep sense of calm and safety. With the remnants of my last relived trauma still at the forefront of my Mind, my body was sweaty and shaking.

As I watched the dot move side to side, these physical effects subsided — my Mind became completely Empty. Despite having relived such a powerful memory, one that I likely hadn’t ever revisited before — my Mind and Body quickly returned to a state of fluidity and wholeness with each other and the Universe.

With this blank slate, I focused on my Target completely this time.

“You are a Protector”
”You are a Survivor”
”I can overcome anything with my Mind’s Intellect and Gut Instinct”

On each left-right pass of the dot, I felt my Body grow stronger and stronger. No longer was I recovering from past trauma and emotions. Now, I was laying the foundation for a building, a fortress of joy in myself — that no one could penetrate.

I began to feel waves of pleasure course over my Body. This was very similar to the state one enters after practicing Vipassana meditation for 30-60 minutes, except I had only been Reprocessing for 5 minutes. I’m sure my powerful Desensitization session played a role in this though.

As the session began to close (you can see the timer and number of left-right passes in the VirtualEMDR tool), I found my Mind drifting back to my original Target — for the Desensitization session — but this time in a new light.

Going into the EMDR session had been scary — not only because it was my first time but also because the Target I chose had been something that I was having difficulty facing. It was an emotional demon that had been taking my Body hostage for quite some time. It was the reason why I was sitting at home alone on a Saturday night.

But now, I saw this emotion in its true Naked light. It was no longer big, scary, and unknown — lurking about in the recesses of my Subconscious. It was cold and shivering. I walked over and gave it a warm embrace. I told it, “Thank You. You belong here just as much as everyone else”. After all, had it not existed, I may have never uncovered and healthily processed that core trauma from my childhood. I may have never removed that heavy burden I had been carrying around for over 2 decades. I may have never truly discovered my Self and what it feels like to be at Home and in sync with my Body.

This emotion — my original target — was the fear of rejection. Rejection from Men, Women, and most importantly Myself. Despite having spent years working on my social anxiety and dating life (and succeeding in improving in these areas), I was still scared of doing or saying something stupid. But the truth is, there is no stupid thing to say or do — if that’s what you want to do.

We are all battling our demons while sharing this flying rock as it plummets through the cosmos. In a sense, it can all feel pointless and chaotic, like we have no control over our fates. Maybe that is true, but the one thing you always have control of — is the decision to Love Yourself. You can reject your oppressors, family, even God…. but never choose to reject Yourself. You are the only Friend who will never leave your side, the only Family member who you don’t have to watch pass away, and the only Lover who will never break your Heart ❤️.

Tips and Tricks for Success 📈

When using VirtualEMDR and following the protocol, there are a few things to keep in mind to guarantee success.

1. Set Proper Expectations

You will not have a “breakthrough” moment every time you do EMDR. So, it’s best to go into sessions with no expectations and just try to enjoy the process. Having used the VirtualEMDR tool for the past several months, I can say only about 1 out of 5 sessions resulted in a major change in my way of thinking or a paradigm shift in my relationship to past trauma and experiences.

But that’s a pretty good success rate, in my opinion 😎.

The other sessions have certainly not been useless. These typically are sessions where I am less focused or relaxed going into it, and while I follow the protocol and answer the intro questions to the best of my ability, I do not really venture into my past experiences or present emotions beyond the surface level. By the end of these sessions, I typically just have a sense of calm and clarity when it comes to the Present moment.

This is still progress, in my opinion, as any work where you focus on and appreciate your Body’s sensations and mental state will strengthen the Mind-Body connection, encourage your Subconscious Mind to open up to you, and improve your overall happiness and satisfaction in Life.

2. Prepare Your Mind and Body

However, this brings me to second tip — which is to properly prepare for your VirtualEMDR sessions. My goal, and I would encourage yours to be as well, is to treat these EMDR sessions as serious healing sessions, not just a video game you play in your free time.

This means, prepare your Body and Mind just like any other difficult physical exercise or mental challenge. Get good sleep, eat a healthy diet on the day of your session, and be physically active. Communicate with roommates that you have an important work or school item to complete and need some peace and quiet, if needed (I personally wouldn’t tell people you are about to do some virtual therapy, but that call is up to you 😉).

You can even try meditating a little bit beforehand, in order to clear your Mind of trivial problems and annoyances you’ve accumulated over the day.

3. Recover

Finally, just as preparation for a session is key — recovery after is even more important. After an EMDR session, especially an intense one where you dive deep into past wounds, you must take time to let your Mind and Body decompress. You need to engage in healthy self-care activities that give your Mind-Body love and attention❤️.

I personally enjoy doing slow foam rolling (a massage gun is too intense in these moments) followed by gentle Yin yoga stretches at my own pace. You would be surprised how much deeper you can delve into your Body’s sensations and go into certain yoga positions after a good EMDR session. Meditation is also a staple in my recovery routine.

The choice is yours on how to recover, but I would recommend avoiding heavy mental stimulation (no action or horror movies). I would also recommend trying to plan your sessions after work / school or on a weekend, but if the mornings are the only time you have available (or have a quiet house) then that can work… just make sure you give yourself enough time after to recover.

4. Customize the Tool

It’s worth spending a few minutes before one of your sessions customizing the VirtualEMDR tool and experimenting with what form of bilateral stimulation feels best for you. As mentioned, I am partial to the basic Blue dot, but occasionally I will get a little crazy and use the Red dot with a figure-8 pattern 😈.

When it comes to time length of sessions, I think the only right answer here is — choose whatever time length you have available and only use the tool for how long you feel comfortable and safe engaging in the EMDR protocol. The recommended daily maximum is 20 minutes for each of the Desensitization and Installation phases — I can say that I have had equally good success with just 10 minutes of Desensitization and 5 minutes of Installation as I have had with a full 40 minute session.

VirtualEMDR offers a number of different pathways when using the tool to target PTSD, anxiety / depression, or addictions. These different pathways change the intro questions before each Desensitization and Installation step to be specific for the type of issue you want to work through.

These can be useful if you particularly struggle in the Target selection phase. However, writing down your answers to the target selection questions is optional so keep in mind if you are running short on time… whichever pathway option you choose, the actual EMDR process is the same for all of them.

5. Track Your Progress

Last but not least, the VirtualEMDR keeps track of your session data 💯.

This is a big win in my opinion, as it allows you to see your progress over time and stay motivated. Inside the My Session Data panel of the app, you can see the number of sessions you have completed, time spent using the tool, your improvement score after each session, and if you want to review past Targets and answers to the intro questions, you can see those as well.

The best part is — VirtualEMDR is 100% HIPAA compliant, so you can use the tool at ease, knowing that your data is completely safe from prying eyes and can only be accessed by you.

Pain Free You 😎

This process will expose your True Self. Following the EMDR protocol, even just a few times a month, is an act of getting to know yourself that few people will ever experience.

I will tell you as someone who has experienced psychedelic breakthroughs under the influence of LSD, MDMA, and Psilocybin — the breakthroughs I’ve had with the VirtualEMDR tool are just as impactful. In fact, I’ve become aware of repressed emotions and memories that I never came close to touching under the influence of any of those compounds!

When you have these breakthroughs — the choice is up to you. You can use the natural wisdom your body has given you to change your life for the better… whether that is having healthier conversations in your Mind or choosing to put healthier foods in your Body. Or you can fall back to your old ways of thinking and self-destructive habits.

However, I will say that the more EMDR sessions you do… the less of a decision you have in front of you. Eventually, you start to understand — it is not a binary, yes / no decision to accept the thoughts and emotions that surface to your Conscious Mind.

These thoughts and emotions are the Real You. You have already accepted them… because you are already made up of them. This healing process, the EMDR experience, is simply a practice of observing and making them feel safe and loved in their home… in your Body.

By embracing these emotions in their rawest form, we allow our Bodies to relax and release any protective tension it has been holding to distract us from these past scars and stressors. This tension can be the source of chronic pain for many — and by removing it, you may discover new range-of-motion, peace of mind, and physical health that you never thought was possible. The MindBody connection is truly miraculous, in its ability to both hamper and heal our Lives.

Sign up for VirtualEMDR here (it’s free for the first 3 days) and get to know your Body and Mind in a way you haven’t yet experienced. Your pain level will decrease, and quality of Life will improve — they certainly have for me 🙂.

P.S. Use the code HEALNOW at checkout for an extra 25% off your first month of VirtualEMDR ;)

However, there is one principle of the “strict” TMS approach which Dr. Sarno endorses, that I firmly disagree with. My own healing experience and others’ outside of the TMS community contradicts this principle, and I was stuck wondering why. Was it simply because I didn’t believe in TMS or trust Dr. Sarno enough? That couldn’t be the case, TMS was the lifeline that pulled me out of a swamp of potential surgery, pain flare-ups, and a Life of Fear.

This principle I disagree with… is the idea that “physical changes will not help stop your pain” and that “everything but direct TMS work — is a placebo effect”. Therefore, they should be dropped from your routine and avoided.

The reasoning here is that any physical therapy exercise, diet or supplement, or overall lifestyle change — is simply an act of avoidance of your repressed thoughts and emotions (the underlying cause of chronic pain, anxiety, and other MindBody symptoms). As such, STOP all of them. Do not let your Subconscious Mind distract you from the mental healing work that you need to do.

While valid from a psychological perspective, I think this advice is essentially throwing out the baby with the bathwater. I would also directly credit it with why so many people struggle to accept TMS as the root cause for their pain and why TMS still struggles to gain support from the mainstream medical community.

Now, I don’t think this advice is given maliciously or meant to belittle positive physical changes we make for our bodies such as yoga, a healthy diet, or practicing good sleep hygiene. Dr. Sarno himself says, “there is nothing wrong with doing physical exercises… it’s a very good thing and I do them myself.”1

The problem is — this advice is misinterpreted. People in chronic pain (myself included) tend to think EMOTIONALLY. Just not about the strong emotions we are repressing inside of ourselves 😂. Emotional thinking, tends to be black or white. Love or Hate. Either we focus on physical changes to our Body or we focus on our Mind, emotions, and thoughts. “Which one is it??” we can think in frustration when first learning about TMS.

For some of us, this undeliberate dichotomy is enough to drive us away from TMS altogether. “My physical therapy and massage routines work and provide me some relief”, you might think. “I’m not going to go back to a life of complete pain just because some strangers online and some old Doctor tell me to!”

I’m here to tell you, you don’t have to give up those routines. In fact, those same routines… are the key to unlocking even more healing and pain relief.

Let’s explain.

1. The Forbidden Placebo Effect

What is a placebo? In our non-scientific, MindBody context, a placebo is any tool or activity which provides some temporary relief from pain, while not giving us permanent, lasting results and vitality.

Placebos give us a false sense of hope, and they may even allow our bodies to use a normal range of motion while using the placebo. In a sense, they hi-jink the Mind-Body connection to give you a glimpse at normal life, through the cloud of chronic pain and repressed emotions.

Unfortunately, because we haven’t truly understood the core mechanism of action for our chronic symptoms or done the deep work necessary to heal our minds… when the placebo wears off, so do its effects.

So, it’s fair and understandable when Sarno preaches for us to avoid them.

However, it’s easy to simply call everything a placebo pill or effect when examining chronic pain and symptoms through the TMS point of view.

This is obviously a gross oversimplification of the matter. There are real nutrients, exercises, and lifestyle changes which will decrease inflammation in the body, improve overall health markers, and help one think with a clear and balanced mind.

Many people living in chronic pain have experimented with different health hacks like these and found some combination which improves their overall quality of life.

To tell them to stop their new, healthy habits and lifestyle — is honestly a bit insulting. It demeans the hard work that they’ve already done to try to take care of their bodies (and minds, although they may not realize this part yet).

And there is one KEY outcome of “placebo” methods that is overlooked… even if it’s a pure sugar pill that has absolutely no effect on the body whatsoever.

That outcome is… they force people to start focusing and paying attention to their Bodies.

When you take a supplement or try a new exercise, you do it with one outcome in mind — to feel better physically. To feel better in your own Body.

“But isn’t the goal of TMS healing to get out of our Bodies and into our Minds?”

Yes, it is. Bear with me, as we progress through the following logic.

Most people are not just mentally repressed. They are also physically repressed. They spend all day chained to a desk (or for those working blue collar jobs — stuck doing the same, mostly repetitive movement patterns without much passion or creativity).

As such, their Bodies are essentially “turned off” for most of the day, if not 24/7. They are not consciously thinking of how their hands, toes, or nose feels.

If they’re in chronic pain, they typically only associate the pain to the broad area affected.

“Ow, my back hurts!” you might think. You are not thinking “Ow, my back hurts… strange this time it’s on the left side, with a slight tingle in my buttocks. If I shift this way.. it goes away slightly.”

Fortunately, the act of starting a new diet, exercise, or supplement with the goal of feeling better physically — flips a switch in people. It turns your Body “On” 😉.

Now, you start paying attention. “Wow, my back feels different today. The pain is still there, but it feels like it’s burning instead of shooting. I wonder how else I can reduce my pain.”

You are optimistic now. You are willing to try more new approaches to feel better.

Every new lifestyle change or health hack you try, no matter if a true “placebo” or real effect, is going to bring more and more awareness to the Body.

This is a phenomenal first step for many — especially if you had little or no Body awareness before.

Now, let’s go back to the TMS world. What is the Body?

Is it just a vehicle for our Minds, moving us from the workplace to the kitchen table to the bathroom?

Of course not. The Body is part of our consciousness, just as the Mind is. We consist of one, unified MindBody.

Bringing awareness to the Body… is bringing awareness to the Mind, by definition.

Furthermore, the Body and our physical sensations — is where our Subconscious Minds dwell and execute actions.

2. The Subconscious = Your Body

If you’ve read a book or two about TMS, you will quickly find yourself deep in a discussion about the Subconscious Mind or, as Freud (and Sarno) refer to it, the Unconscious Mind. Whether referred to as the subconscious or unconscious, they represent the same entity — our deeper, animal instincts and desires.

The Subconscious Mind makes the prickly hairs on your neck stand up when you sense danger (maybe it’s a big cat waiting to pounce… or maybe it’s a misguided surgeon, intent on hitting his yearly quota). The Subconscious Mind tells you to eat food after a hard day at work and to take a nap when you’re tired. It makes you remove your hand from a hot stove — before you even realize your mistake and feel the searing pain on your skin.

After learning about TMS, you will also realize the Subconscious Mind is where your repressed emotions and insecurities are stored about your childhood, relationship to yourself, and relationships with others.

This all makes logical sense, and the psychology behind it is illuminating. However, by learning about this from a purely psychological perspective, we are not seeing the whole picture.

It’s difficult for us to conceptualize the Subconscious Mind.

“What is this part of myself that I am not consciously aware of?” we might wonder. “I can’t just simply delve into my Subconscious and look at what I’m feeling there. I don’t even know what or where it is!” — is another objection we might have.

Luckily, Candace Pert, the scientist who discovered the opiate receptor, has defined the bridge between the conscious and subconscious mind and materialized the Subconscious for us. Pert’s own story is incredible, as she began her career by creating ground-breaking discoveries that every single billion-dollar pharmaceutical company uses in its drugs. And yet, by the end of her life, she was a full believer (with the science to back it up) of the holistic, “alternative” health movement.

Candace discovered that the heart of the Subconscious — lies within the cell. Every cell in our body contains neuropeptide (or neurotransmitter) receptors for serotonin, dopamine, adrenaline, etc.

When we feel a strong emotion like love or fear, neurotransmitters flood our system and individual cells, activating these receptors and triggering our body’s functions and movements… sometimes before our Conscious Mind even notices.

Pert believed that these individual cells and receptors create a body-wide network capable of generating emotions and their related neurotransmitters — even without the brain’s direct input.

Have you ever had a strong gut feeling about a person or event? That’s the neuropeptide receptors in your stomach sending your brain an emotional message.

Candace’s work shows us that these neuropeptides and their receptors, dwelling in every cell from our foot to our heart, form a “second brain” — complete with its own primitive thoughts and emotions — that lives not in your head, but in your body.

Therefore, Your Body is Your Subconscious Mind.

Once we realize that our Body and emotions control our actions just as much as our Logical, Thinking Brains do, we start to see it everywhere.

When have you performed the best in work, school, or athletics? It was probably during a stage of life when you were surrounded by supportive friends, family, or teammates. When you were well-rested and had a well-rounded diet. When your Body felt relaxed and safe, regardless of the outcome.

Mental Wellness = Physical Performance and that is because those individual cells and their Subconscious messages — are not in conflict or wasting energy trying to hide from us. They are available with full capacity to take action on the task in front of us. If your Subconscious Mind is distracted with the task of repressing emotions or even processing difficult ones, then your Body is also distracted and cannot hit peak performance levels.

There is a way to harness the power of raw emotions, whether positive (joy) or negative (rage) and convert it into action in the physical realm. That is called transmutation of emotional energy and is a more advanced technique.

For now, let’s start by getting to know our Bodies and our Subconscious Minds.

3. Fixing the Relationship with Our Bodies

As mentioned earlier, most of us are completely unaware of our bodies.

We pay our bodies no mind and give them zero love or attention. We treat our bodies (i.e. our Subconscious Minds) like they are second-class citizens at best, and more often like they are an unwanted stowaway on the multi-destination, red-eye flight that our Logical, Thinking Brains have planned for our Life.

While the traditional TMS advice may be to dive straight into unpacking what’s hidden in our Subconscious by taking a scalpel with our Conscious Minds to the trauma and repressed emotions stored in our Bodies… my experience has shown it’s better to take a more balanced, gentle approach.

This Conscious uncovering of the Subconscious is definitely important for many of us to return to a normal life full of vigor and vitality. But, we can ease into it.

The best way to get warmed up for this inner work, while also functioning as a physical outlet for our stored emotions — is to do some classic body work.

I’m talking massage, yoga, or hot / cold therapy. Get a proper 8-9 hours of sleep. Build muscle, do cardio. Work towards a healthy heart rate and heart rate variability.

These things may be thought of as a “placebo effect” or “distraction” by strict TMS followers.

I say that’s bullsh*t.

First of all, these activities are good for you and will improve your biomarkers. There’s no such thing as wasted time on these activities, provided you approach them with a positive, learning mindset.

Second, remember Candace Pert’s discovery — the Body is the Subconscious Mind.

If we are living in a sick, injured, or inflamed state… how likely do you think your Body / Subconscious Mind is going to want to open up to you and show the repressed emotions its been hiding for months or years? It’s unlikely at best.

Why make a difficult task harder than it needs to be? Facing and processing the emotions, the rage, deep sadness, shame, whatever is inside of you — may be one of the most difficult challenges you overcome in Life. Start off easy, and set yourself up for success. This is a Winner’s Mindset, no matter what any “hardcore” motivational influencer tells you. Everyone learned to crawl, then walk, then run, then sprint.

An unhealthy, weak, or tight and rigid body is the equivalent of shoving a gag on your Subconscious Mind. It might be able to mumble out some muffled words — if you listen closely. But wouldn’t you like to hear it loud and clear?

We can remove this gag, and reconnect to our Subconscious Minds, after ignoring it for maybe our whole lives — by taking care of our Bodies.

When we start taking action to become healthier, our Subconscious notices. You don’t have to reach your final goals in terms of physical fitness to start feeling better! Just taking one small step everyday towards becoming a healthy version of you — is more than enough.

The intention is everything here. Your Subconscious Mind is now receiving the love and attention it has been desperately calling out for.

We have restored the relationship with our Bodies. Now, you will find that your Body / Subconscious Mind is more than willing to talk to you about what it’s feeling.

It’s wanted to talk to you the whole time. It just didn’t think you had the time to have a relationship with it.

4. Safely Explore Our Minds (HEAL)

Now that our Bodies are open to and trust our Conscious Mind, we can start exploring our inner self. We have created a safe environment to dive deep into our Subconscious and discover, converse, and achieve inner peace with the thoughts and emotions buried within us.

This is the classic TMS work — journaling, meditation, mindfulness, and even psychotherapy if necessary.

Each of these avenues of emotional release and Subconscious exploration deserves an article of its own.

For now, I will leave you with some links to the best resources I have found for this work:

• JournalSpeak by Nichole Sachs — This is a beginner-friendly way to start practicing the type of journaling that helps heal chronic pain. JournalSpeak teaches you to create an unrestrained, direct channel to your Subconscious thoughts and emotions — allowing you to become aware, process, and release them.

• TMS Meditations by Dr. Howard Schubiner. These are password protected, but the password comes with any purchase of Schubiner’s books. The books are great, but the meditations are some of the best I have found for healing from TMS. Try a few of the shorter ones, then when you’re feeling brave do the Time Traveler meditation. It will change your world 🙂.

• The Structured Education Program — courtesy of the TMS Wiki forum and community members. There are 42 days of insightful journaling prompts here, along with educational activities, that will guide you into exploring your personality traits and past / present stressors which are feeding the flames of your chronic pain.

• Non Sleep Deep Rest protocol by Andrew Huberman. If you’re looking for a universal, non-TMS specific meditation to use on a daily basis, this is a gold mine. No spiritual, woo-woo nonsense — just calming energy and clear instructions. Did I mention it’s free and public on YouTube?

• Body Scan meditation on the Calm App — this is my personal bread and butter most days. I have been formally trained in Vipassana meditation, and this Body Scan meditation is almost the exact Vipassana technique that Buddhist monks use across the globe.

• Psychosomatic Wellness by Candace Pert — available on Sounds True or Audible. I recommend purchasing this on Sounds True, as their app comes with a sleep timer that automatically turns off the recording. I use this guided meditation as needed to help fall asleep — it’s particularly effective after an intense journaling session using one of Schubiner’s, Sachs’, or the TMS Wiki’s prompts. It’s also great to play in the background while stretching or doing yoga.

In my personal healing journey, I also have found it extremely useful to reconnect with my thoughts and emotions throughout the day. To achieve this goal and restore my Mind-Body connection when I feel overwhelmed or Life feels out of control, I developed a simple mnemonic device to remind myself to talk to and listen to my Subconscious Mind.

The acronym is H.E.A.L. and goes as following:

• H: Say Hello to our Thoughts and Emotions

• E: Embrace them for their most dark and twisted, or amazing and joyful nature

• A: Allow them to continue on, as is, but here in our Conscious World. There is no need to hide anymore.

• L: Live and Let Live. Choose to co-exist with your thoughts and feelings, while still consciously guiding your actions and living your life based on your logical decisions, moral code, and spiritual knowledge of yourself and the Universe.

H.E.A.L. can be used anywhere — whether you’re stuck at work, waiting in a crowded line, or lying in bed.

5. Self-Expression through Movement, Art, and More

Remember when I said you can convert your raw emotions into physical actions and real world results? While a larger topic of its own, this transmutation of your subconscious energy is yet another way to release repressed emotions that, left unattended, can manifest into MindBody symptoms.

Now, this is definitely a less directed way of releasing stored trauma and emotions. As such, it naturally lends itself to more of a final, self-sustaining state of Life — after you have done specific healing work for your Mind and Body.

However, let’s face it — journaling, meditating, or talking to a trusted friend or counselor about our deepest feelings every day and week until we heal can start to become monotonous. We may even start to dread it, if results are slow (everyone heals at their own pace).

A great way to switch up the routine and have some fun with this work is to start building a World outside of us that is full of Sound and Color, and then to engage and build relationships in it.

This process of external creation and engagement does not have to be separate from our internal healing and growth. In fact, they are 100% tied together. Just like healing our Bodies, helps to heal our Minds — healing our Minds gives us energy to use our Bodies to build a Healthy World around us.

This energy is none other than the emotions and thoughts living in your Subconscious. By directing them into physical actions in the real world, we give them an outlet. No repression or internal conflict necessary. They know where to go — into building or engaging in whatever is in front of us!

Now, the key here is — the activity, subject matter, or group you are engaging with has to be something you truly enjoy in your Heart of Hearts. Trying to leverage your internal rage to manifest positive results in a job you hate — is a fool’s errand and likely to result in a volcanic eruption at your workplace. Not recommended 😂.

On the other hand, diving into learning a new instrument or song, building a home project, or planning a fun outdoors meetup… is more likely to ignite the flames of your desire to create a warm, crackling fireplace in your Mind. Your thoughts and emotions are the wood, the activity is the sparks and fire tending, and the warmth and friends who join you are the real world results.

The medium here is 100% your choice and can be as unconventional as you want. It can even be an athletic or business pursuit.

This is the final goal of MindBody work… not to constantly be “healing” or “focusing on our mental health”. Our goal is to move on from repression and start working towards self-actualization. In whatever goal or medium we choose for ourselves.

This is how you truly heal for good and avoid relapses. By building and immersing yourself in a Life where your actions are in 1:1 alignment with your true thoughts and desires.

Notice the difference between the mindset behind our physical actions here and the “placebo”-driven ones described in the beginning. We are not coming from a fear-driven, negative, solution-searching mindset…. we have now built an unbiased, positive, secure Mind and can make these lifestyle changes from a place of abundance.

We are not trying to “take” anything from anyone. We are “giving” ourselves to an activity, idea, or others.

No More Repression. This is Self-Expression! This is why God put us here on this planet. Let’s take advantage, enjoy our lives, and share it with others.

In Conclusion

I hope you see the benefits of adopting physical and lifestyle changes to improve your overall health and wellbeing. I believe these factors also directly benefit those of us suffering from chronic pain, anxiety, or any variety of MindBody symptoms. A healthy Body = a healthy Subconscious Mind, as Candace Pert showed us.

And a healthy Mind is willing to talk to and partner with us as we explore repressed thoughts and emotions which may serve as the root cause of our pain and suffering. As always, consult with a Doctor to rule out any serious physical injuries or disease.

Even a true placebo effect, such as that from a “pure sugar pill”, is beneficial in my opinion, as it gets one into a state of body awareness and encourages a tinkerer, growth mindset which is crucial to further healing.

Ultimately, the goal of our work here is to build and strengthen the Mind-Body Connection. This connection is the key to our happiness in this World and in Life. It is the bridge between our mental state (whether that is bliss or sadness or rage) and the reality we interact with every day.

Once we make peace with our Subconscious Mind and with the thoughts and emotions hidden within, we can channel our Mind’s limitless energy through our Body’s movements and actions to create a World that we love and want to share with others.

The work is still in front us — if suffering from TMS, we must embrace traditional healing modalities such as journaling, meditation, and mindfulness. How long we have to practice direct healing work like this, is a decision that only your Body and Mind can tell you.

However, when you feel safe and ready to do so… give yourself permission to enter the real world again. Full healing from chronic pain or anxiety is not necessary to do so. Start building the Life that the voice deep inside of you is telling you it wants. You can always course correct along the way.

When you start taking action to create this new reality… you might find that this was the missing piece to healing 100%. MindBody syndrome be d*mned! We have a wonderful, adventure-filled Life to Live.

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The largest hurdle is learning about TMS, what causes it, and how to recover from it. Luckily, there are ample resources online for learning about the underlying function of TMS and how it triggers phony pain signals along with other, unsubstantiated responses in your nervous system.

I recommend the following books to get started as a total newbie:

1. Healing Back Pain by Dr. John Sarno

2. The Great Pain Deception by Steve Ozanich

But not many people are talking about the number of sticking points when it comes to your healing journey and how to get past them. The latter part is very important, because what I’ve personally found — is that these sticking points are often a fork in the road when it comes to your healing journey.

When you hit one of the roadblocks below, you feel like it’s all a waste of time. You begin doubting your TMS diagnosis. You start thinking, “Maybe I actually do have a real physical problem with my body.”

So, it’s critical to be prepared for these obstacles and to be ready for the challenge of working through them. In a sense, TMS is a war between your Mind and Body. And the best way to win a war, is to make peace ☮️.

1. Removing Your Negativity Bias (Catastrophizing)

It’s easy to think of the worst possible outcome, when your body seems to be rebelling against your mind and conscious wishes. TMS can be like an errant child, constantly wreaking havoc then running away from you. In psychological terms, it is exactly that — your id (child mind) is running away from your ego (adult brain) and trying to distract you from where it is by throwing phony pain signals in your body.

However, thinking negatively about what could go wrong, blowing your symptoms out of proportion, and catastrophizing about unlikely (and impossible, if you just have TMS) outcomes is a one-way ticket to pain flare-up hell. This alone is enough to make someone quit the healing process.

Catastrophizing is like a sink-hole — these thought patterns suck you in and lead you down a path of costly but unhelpful doctor visits, a limited lifestyle in terms of mobility and happiness, and ultimately death will come for you like it does for all of us.

How to shed your negative skin and develop a rock-solid, positive outlook on the universe is a topic for another day. But when it comes to turning the TMS negativity train around, we have a few tricks up our sleeve:

Step One: Create a list of real physical symptoms you want to rule out, and stick to it.

In the ideal world, everyone would get a real TMS diagnosis from a qualified physician. Unfortunately, given the limited number of doctors who are aware of or trained in treating TMS directly, this is not realistic for most people.

What I would recommend instead, and what I have followed myself, is to rule out any real physical issues with your body. Then, you can be confident that your symptoms are due to TMS and nothing else. You may then want to schedule some time with a qualified TMS therapist or coach, if you want to get a formal ‘stamp of approval’ that you have TMS.

The caveat here, is that you need to trust your doctor if they say there is nothing wrong with your body. It is easy for us TMS personalities to worry, doubt, and criticize a doctor’s opinion and diagnosis of our bodies. After all, it’s our body, obviously we know best what’s going on with it right? Maybe not, our minds and bodies have a way of playing tricks on us.

It is especially frustrating if the doctors find nothing wrong — although hopefully this is the case for you! Better to have TMS than a serious physical injury or disease. Although TMS symptoms can be harrowing and painful, you can recover permanently from them and even become healthier, more fulfilled, and more confident in Life than before.

To ward off this second-guessing and stop further catastrophizing of symptoms, I recommend creating a list — you can and should work with your doctor here — of potential serious issues that could be causing your issues. Do not go overboard here — does your chest hurt? Ok screen out a heart attack, and so on.

You may need an MRI, or a quick check for cancerous lumps.

Now, after you have screened out any serious issues with a basic, rational amount of rigor…

Be done with it. Check off these tests on your list — and remind yourself whenever you start thinking negatively and spiraling downwards about the possible things that could go wrong with your body:

“I have already screened out these serious conditions, with my doctor, and all tests came back clear. There is nothing physically wrong with my body.”

Having complete confidence in this process of ruling out serious medical conditions, is crucial to staying positive in your moments of doubt when healing from TMS. You have to believe 100% that your symptoms are caused by TMS and be 100% onboard with the steps (self-education, journaling, meditation) needed to heal.

Step Two: Change your Environment — Eliminate Negative People, Places, and Activities

While fighting the battle with TMS, you may come across a number of obstacles outside of your MindBody that can turn the healing process from a flat jog, into an uphill slog.

Ultimately, the cure for TMS is entirely internal, and the only way to permanently recover is by building healthy thought patterns and emotional processing techniques.

However, it would be doing a disservice to not call out some external factors that can make it difficult, if not impossible, to heal from TMS and that are also likely making your life worse off holistically. It’s in your best interest to cut out these factors from your life, and give yourself the best odds for a successful TMS recovery:

❌ Drugs or Alcohol Dependency

You are not in a clear state of mind when on these substances, and it will be pretty much impossible to do the internal mindset and self-reflection work necessary if you abuse them.

❌ Anti-TMS Doctors or Medical Team

There are many doctors out there who, for whatever reason, do not believe that is possible for almost any other body part to be causing pain or affecting the function of a different body part (i.e. the one they specialize in).

They especially do not give credence to the idea that the mind/brain can influence the functioning and health of different parts of your body. Call them ‘Anti-Holistic’ health doctors, if you will.

While you don’t need to seek out a ‘holistic’ doctor or even a TMS trained provider (although that would be helpful), you should start the process of changing your provider to one who takes a more unified, dare I say, up-to-date, approach to helping you live a long, healthy life. For example, if a doctor tells you that regular cardio will not reduce stress and help you live longer, I would run in the opposite direction 😉.

❌ Unhealthy Habits and Lifestyle

This is a broader topic and oftentimes goes hand-in-hand with the first point on alcohol/drug use. Additionally, you may find that working on healing from TMS… naturally guides you away from unhealthy hobbies and towards more active, fulfilling pursuits. Studying the inner workings of one’s mind and facing deep-seated insecurities and fears has a way of making one re-assess their priorities in life.

However, just as the mind guides the body, the body influences the mind. Starting a basic routine of taking 5,000-10,000 steps per day, eating a healthy meal everyday, and getting 7-8 hours of sleep — can give you the extra energy and motivation to tackle your mental demons and treat the root cause of TMS after work… rather than heading for the couch with a beer and the TV remote.

❌ Negative Friends or Family Members

I only suggest this as a last resort. Friends and family, when it comes down to it, are the reason for us being here on this planet. The connections we make, and the experiences we share — bring meaning to the humdrum of life and make any pain and suffering worth it.

But, sometimes there are members of this group that consistently drag us down. Every time we spend time with them, there is an issue — and it’s always our fault too. These people are dealing with their own mental trauma and internal conflict, and we should have sympathy for them.

However, right now — we are dealing with TMS. We need to be selfish with our limited time and motivation — it’s only our health and happiness at stake. It’s best to just let any negative and toxic relationships like this go. Don’t give these people an ultimatum or confront them, just let them fade into the wind. If the time is right later, you can pick up where you left off — hopefully both of you will be in a more positive, healed state and you can create even better memories together.

2. Developing A Support Network

Now onto the fun part. You do not have to fight TMS alone. In fact, it can expedite your progress immensely if you have people to discuss and share your experience with. This should be a group outside of your medical team, we want to have an outlet where we can completely decompress about the seriousness of it all.

If you have friends and family who are onboard with the idea of TMS and your healing journey, you can include them in this group. If not, no problem, it’s easy to make connections with current and former TMS patients and supporters.

You can find groups like this in-person, but I’ve found the easiest way to access like-minded people is online. Meeting TMS friends online also removes any friction, procrastination, and excuses one might have to in-person meetups such as needing time to get ready, traveling, in-the-moment anxiety, etc.

Where do you find these people and groups? Check out the below forum, read a few posts, then make an introductory post — I am positive you will have people reaching out in no time:

• https://www.tmswiki.org/forum/

If you prefer a more structured approach to making new connections, I suggest checking out Curable’s online workshops and group meetings. These are paid and will definitely be more geared to learning and active healing, but I am sure you will find great benefit.

• https://www.curablehealth.com/groups/overview

Why do I recommend developing supportive friends and connections like this? It’s very simple — TMS is, by definition, a solo journey and condition. Pain and dysfunction is experienced by you, only you can do the mind/brain work to process your emotions and change your thought patterns, and when you go to the doctor (no matter how great they are) the focus is 100% on you.

This can all be extremely lonely, and it’s a lot of pressure that you and your medical team are putting on yourself. It’s also not a realistic perspective have on the world. Healing from TMS is about re-establishing balance in your life — and you do not exist in the world in a vacuum.

There are 8 billion+ other human beings we share the planet with. The fact that psychosomatic (MindBody) symptoms are treated and approached in such an individualistic way, is part of the root cause for TMS in yourself and in society at large. We do not think it’s socially acceptable to process our emotions or confront insecurities outside of the confines of our own minds, or maybe with a doctor or therapist.

As such, we push away threatening emotions and thoughts when we’re in public or around others. This is not healthy, and will make TMS symptoms worse.

The solution, is to re-establish a healthy dialogue with friends and strangers about having emotions and dealing with them in Life. You don’t have to go in-depth and you probably shouldn’t. But, we want to get a place where it’s natural for us to tell the grocery cashier “I’m having a sh*t day” or asking them if they are doing alright, if they look sad or upset.

TMS support groups are a great way to start walking the path towards a better life while also building a more connected community to live in. They can serve as an extra boost of motivation, when you are going through a mental low point or pain flare-up. Hearing others’ perspectives and experiences with TMS, can remind you that you are not alone in this fight and help you see the irrational mind tricks that your subconscious is playing on you.

You might even meet a lifelong friend, or two.

3. Re-Establishing the Mind-Body Connection

It’s difficult to dive into releasing your emotions, if you have been suppressing them. And as a TMS traveler, you are definitely repressed — the part of you that truly feels raw emotion, be it anger, sadness, unabashed joy — has been choked off of oxygen, often times for years.

It’s like a dam that’s reached it’s limit, and leaks have begun springing out of the side.

While it is possible to release all these emotions and “retune” your MindBody all at once, I do not recommend it. This is the approach taken by many of the new, psychedelic “research” centers popping up thanks to the partial-legalization of Psilocybin, MDMA, and other drugs.

I actually have experimented with these compounds a few times myself. It was always an insightful, euphoric, and healing experience to an extent, but as more time distanced itself from the experience, I would always fall back into living a clouded, emotionally repressed life.

Thus, requiring a new experience to re-open the doors to my mind and feel and think like a carefree child again.

So I recommend a more gentle approach. Just like working out in the gym — slow and steady gains are best for most people, not blasting a ton of steroids. And you’re more likely to build and maintain a healthy state of mind in the long term.

With that said, the main roadblock I encountered when retraining my mind to not repress emotions and to not falsely trick my body into experiencing pain or seizing up my muscles — was the process of reconnecting my thoughts (mind) with my physical responses and actions (body) throughout the day.

It is easy, to read the books on TMS, to do meditation or yoga, and even to write down your deep, innermost feelings into a journal. It feels good to do these things. It’s a positive feedback loop.

What is hard is maintaining that opened state of mind and connection during the hustle ‘n bustle of daily life and through unplanned adversity. Until you can do so, TMS has the opportunity to strike back at you and cause a flare-up.

If you’re like me, you won’t even realize you are thinking negatively, doubting your body’s resilient and sacred nature, and repressing your natural emotions.

In order to truly heal, you have to tackle this head-on. Start with baby steps.

Have a list of motivational TMS quotes in your phone. Monitor your thoughts, even just noticing a negative or anxious thought — is progress. Next time, you can re-assess if the thought has a logical reason for existing (it likely doesn’t). And the time after that, you can replace the thought with a more positive, accurate take on the reality you are experiencing.

If a flare-up or anxiety attack occurs, take out your phone and jot down your thoughts. Have an unbiased, unrestrained conversation with yourself, through the Notes app. Go to the bathroom, your car, or somewhere private if you want. You don’t need to remember or review this note, and you can even delete it after. The point is to open the door to your heart and reconnect your Mind to your Body, after having taken a hit in the fight. Show your Mind and Body some Love ❤️.

This is the Brain Reprocessing aspect of TMS healing, in action. Studying material is great, but nothing replaces real world practice. We will break down more techniques for this in the future, but just know that achieving an expressive, connected state between your mind and body during your normal life — is a crucial step in your healing journey.

Don’t let the occasional flareup from daily life stop you in your tracks — this is an opportunity to truly take back control of your life and free your MindBody as it was meant to be.

4. Taking TMS Too Seriously

It’s possible to take the healing process too seriously. To explain, we’ll need to take a small peak behind the curtain of what causes TMS.

TMS, at its core, is our id or child-mind rebelling against our ego or conscious, adult brain. In more scientific terms, its our limbic system running haywire and not letting our pre-frontal cortex control it.

By itself, the emotion-driven id or limbic system is not problematic, even though it causes unpleasant feelings like hunger, fear, and anxiety. These are normal, healthy feelings. They tell us when to eat, to run away from danger, and to be productive to gather resources needed for survival.

The problem comes, when we reject these emotions and the id or child mind. Just like a real child, id becomes angry and rambunctious when rejected or ignored. TMS-like symptoms begin to form, you may get random pains sitting at work or hot flashes. Id wants you to acknowledge it, it demands attention.

The healthy, normal process here is to show your child-mind some well-meaning, tough love. Don’t give into to its whimsical ways or tell it that’s its okay to behave like this. Instead, talk it out with your emotions.

“Yes, I know we are hungry — but we are on a structured diet plan that will help us feel better in the long term. It is okay for us to wait a few hours to eat.”

“I know we are worried about work and also dislike doing it. But, let’s do 1-2 hours to be ready for this presentation tomorrow, then move on and enjoy the rest of our lives.”

We want to proactively process our emotions, instead of reactively letting them run wild.

We definitely don’t want to do what us TMS personalities typically do, which is shut down our emotions.

Shutting down our emotions, blocking them from surfacing to our conscious mind, is the worst possible outcome when id is acting up.

This is like locking a child in a closet as punishment. You compound it’s anger and give it no where to go — it just builds and builds. More importantly, you damage your relationship to your child-mind.

Your id no longer trusts you. It stops communicating with you when its upset and instead just trashes the house (your body) when you leave.

Now you have full-fledged TMS — chronic pain, an uncontrollable nervous system, a body that seems to always disobey your mind — with no clear reason why or how.

Let’s take a step back now — at it’s core TMS is caused by silencing and repressing your emotions and child-mind.

When one learns about and accepts TMS as the reason for their pain, your child-mind can get angry and want to lash out. Oftentimes, rightfully so.

“Why me?” you might angrily wonder, “Why do I have to deal with these bullsh*t symptoms in normal, everyday life, while others seem to live peacefully without any problems?”

Or, a thought that many of us have, “Screw these doctors who wanted to give me unnecessary surgery, drugs, and bad advice that just made my life worse!”

We have to process these emotions, despite how strong and unbearable as they seem. If not, we face a sort of catch-22, an endless loop. Our TMS is giving us more TMS. TMS-inception.

The most common way of avoiding these emotions, I have found, is by committing yourself to the work a bit too much.

Instead of thinking through these difficult feelings, we throw ourselves into the practice exercises recommended. We read Sarno’s books 5 times, when just once or twice will do.

We commit ourselves to doing meditation and journaling every day (although we will sneakily avoid journaling about the most painful emotions buried within us), and get p*ssed off at ourselves when we miss a session.

This is not the way — the healing journey for TMS is one of establishing balance ☯️ between the mind and body, between the id and ego, and between dealing with TMS and living a normal Life.

5. Being Afraid of Doing the Work (Fear-based Procrastination)

On the flip side, sometimes we just need a good ‘ole-fashioned kick in the butt when it comes to our healing journeys.

I have found, that the longer one has suffered through wrong diagnoses and unsuccessful therapies for their TMS-based symptoms, the less motivation one has for diving into the inner healing work needed to treat TMS.

We have almost become friends with our aches and pains and see them as a place to feel comfortable and call home. Our symptoms are a great excuse to avoid hanging out with friends we don’t want to see or to call out sick from work for. They enable us to live a comfortably numb life, and not feel bad about missing out on the joys of life.

The only way to break out of a slump like this — is to go inwards. The only path forward, is through. You have to face your inner thoughts and insecurities that your TMS symptoms are helping you avoid.

If this is you — break out a piece of paper and a pen, right now. Read the below prompt, and write until your brain is too tired to form another sentence.

If I died tomorrow, what would I miss the most about my current and past life? Who did I do these activities with, and how did I feel during them? What can I do to make sure I don’t miss another opportunity to do these activities again?

After you’re done, if you have the time, turn off the lights. Set a timer for 10 minutes and listen to this meditation. Focus on every sensation in your body, scanning from your head down to your toes.

Then, start taking action on what you wrote down. Take a shower and leave the house. Call that friend that you haven’t talked to for months or even years.

Ultimately, the only thing standing between you and a TMS-free life — is yourself. You have to shine a light on your subconscious thoughts and emotions, then make peace with them. You need to make your complete mind, both ego and id, conscious and unconscious, a home and place of love and acceptance again.

We were all born with a pure, balanced mind like this, but then Life and Death started taking their toll. Don’t let the negativity in this world win. Fight Back. And Enjoy the Rest of Your Life.

Thanks for reading 🙂. If you or someone you know has struggled with TMS in the past, leave a comment and tell us about your experience!

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Then, “Do I even want to live the rest of my life, if that’s the case?”

The levels of despair and desperation one has when navigating the medical system with a potential terminal-like condition are indescribable.

Luckily, I had already begun to have doubts about the diagnosis I received from Day One. I knew in my gut that things were okay. I constantly browsed Google, Reddit, and PubMed for other perspectives that might shed light on the true cause and solution for my pain.

Today, I feel blessed to be typing this with a healthy body and mind.

My First Symptoms

It all started a few months after graduating college. I had moved across the country to a completely foreign area and culture. I met great people, but they were different than anyone I had been around for the past 23 years.

I was in a long-distance relationship that was hanging on by a thread.

I remember the exact day it happened. I went to the bathroom, intending to take a normal piss, but my urine stream went shooting out at a 90 degree right angle.

“F*ck.” I thought to myself, “Maybe I injured myself jacking off,” as I had done so beforehand.

A sinking feeling of dread washed over me. I knew if I had an injury down below that it would be difficult and expensive to find a doctor who could treat me. Not to mention the embarrassment that would come from telling the doctor, my friends, and my family what happened.

I did nothing and hoped the problem was either a short term injury or would go away. My symptoms persisted for the next few weeks, with varying levels of effect. Sometimes I would pee straight-ish, sometimes it would shoot off diagonally. None of it was as bad as the first time it happened, so I prayed to God that I would get lucky and heal without medical intervention.

Success

Then, a Great Day happened. I hit a huge milestone in a personal endeavor of mine (surfing), and came home jubilant, feeling waves of satisfaction in-the-moment, without an ounce of stress on my mind.

I went to the bathroom, took a piss and… it was 100% straight! As if nothing had happened a few weeks prior.

“Phew,” I thought to myself, “Now I can resume my life as normal.”

Maybe I should have taken my win more seriously and stopped to enjoy how great life was in that moment. But I decided to keep pushing. I have always been a goal-driven person, and my goal at that point was to travel and meet women.

I moved to another new city, and within a few days, the problem was back. Every time I took a piss, my stream would deviate to a slight angle. Not as bad as the initial symptoms, but still concerning.

I said to myself, “I just need to experience success with my new goal (meeting women) and the problem will resolve itself again.” I still had a gnawing sensation in my gut that there would need to be expensive, medical intervention and that there was a real problem with my body.

So, I doubled down. I moved cities a few more times, chasing women wherever I went. My problems peeing persisted, in various forms.

Finally, I achieved a goal I had set for myself when it came to dating. I thought, “Now I can relax again, and my symptoms will stop.”

The Inferno Begins

I was visiting my estranged brother, when my symptoms began spiraling out of control.

We stayed up all night intensely debating our different world views. Harsh words were thrown, and feelings were hurt.

Finally, we went to bed, and I used the bathroom. I peed all over the toilet. My urine stream was completely uncontrollable.

In that moment, I decided I had to see a doctor. Unfortunately, I also began Googling my symptoms for the first time.

I stayed up all night — becoming more and more terrified as I read about the possible causes and problems with my body/penis that could be causing my strange urination behavior.

Surgery. 50% success rate. Catheterization. Bladder infections.

The list of horrific causes and their (not optimistic) solutions with low success rates scared the sh*t out of me.

The next morning, I hastily scheduled an appointment with a urologist. I did not do any due diligence on the office or specific doctor — just what was nearby and covered by insurance.

Mis-Diagnosis?

The day of my appointment came, and my worst fears were actualized. Upon hearing my symptoms, the doctor without hesitation said, “You have a urethral stricture”.

My heart dropped. I asked if there were other possible causes or solutions that did not involve surgery.

He confidently responded that there were no other possible causes or long-term solutions.

I left demoralized and with a surgery appointment. For some reason, this doctor chose to do an initial scoping at the same time as the operation.

The Fight Begins

I had a few weeks before my appointment. Knowing the random chance of success, I prayed to God that the surgery would go well.

I also did my due diligence. I researched the sh*t out of the surgery procedure for a urethral stricture.

What I found was disheartening — horror stories upon horror stories about failed operations. Many times the operation just made the problem worse, resulting in the patient having to self-catheterize every time to urinate.

Unwilling to resign my body and life to this fate, I dove into researching alternative, non-surgical therapies and treatments.

• I found an unreviewed technique used in India and planned out the cost for a trip to Mumbai…

• I learned about a new medical device treatment that only a handful of doctors were trained in within the US…

There did not seem to be a light at the end of tunnel. All roads led to a potentially failed outcome.

To be honest, I was scared. I knew my Life was about to change completely, but what I didn’t know about was the twists and turns I was headed for… with an (ultimately) positive outcome.

All I saw in those days — was darkness.

A New Perspective

In my depressed, desperate state, I somehow landed upon a ton of Taoism videos and lectures in my YouTube algorithm feed.

Taoism, or the way of the Dao, teaches that one should live in harmony with the universe and not fight outcomes.

This philosophy of taking away the power something has over you (such as a potentially life-altering medical condition or procedure) by giving up the struggle you have with it — highly appealed to me.

I meditated on these ideas and went for long walks in the rainy forest.

Ultimately, I decided to see how things played out. Right now, I could pee and void my bladder. It was just my urine stream that looked odd. Why potentially worsen the issue with surgery, just to have a straight stream again?

I canceled the surgery appointment. Then, I decided to get a second opinion — this time from an academic urologist at a top-rated hospital. Luckily, I was able to squeeze into his schedule in the next few weeks.

Finding Hope

When I entered the new urologist’s office, he took one look at me, and I could tell he thought that I was fine.

I explained my symptoms and prior diagnosis to him, and he laughed. “There is no way you have a urethral stricture,” he told me. “I see patients who do have strictures frequently, and they cannot pee at all. Their streams are as fine as a needle or just drops at a time.”

Unfortunately, he did not know of a reason that could be causing my strange urination behavior.

I asked him if it’s possible that Pelvic Floor Dysfunction or Chronic Pelvic Pain could be causing my symptoms, as I had seen similar symptom reports from people with those conditions online.

“It’s possible and we can’t rule it out,” he said, “But you don’t have any pain — this would be out of the ordinary.”

He also mentioned that Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy is almost always not covered by insurance and expensive.

I went home hopeful, but at a loss of what to do next. I was starting to see a small glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.

The Long and Winding Road

I moved again. This time back to the place where my symptoms began. Maybe I felt like I had unfinished business there haha.

I decided to roll with the second urologist’s opinion — that there was no way I had a urethral stricture.

I started doing Pelvic Floor physical therapy exercises at home that I found online. I saw minimal progress, but my symptoms did not get worse.

“Maybe I need to see a professional pelvic floor PT,” I thought. So, I began the process of trying to work the “modern” medical system to get the care I needed. I saw another urologist, got a referral for physical therapy, called numerous providers to try to find one covered by insurance, and added myself to a 3 month waiting list…

Finally, I was able to see a qualified provider.

Reluctant Treatment

For those who do not know much about Pelvic Floor Dysfunction — in a nutshell, it is the chronic tightness or looseness of one’s pelvic floor muscles. These muscles can squeeze on the many nerves in the area, of both men and women, and cause all sorts of unexpected behavior including pelvic pain, constipation, and incontinence.

Concerning symptoms that overlap with many serious, but often non-related conditions.

Women, especially post-partum women, are the largest demographic that providers see for PFD. These women cannot regain control of their pelvic floor muscles after childbirth, and they typically are prescribed muscle strengthening exercises, such as kegels, to regain this control.

Men with Pelvic Floor Dysfunction, on the other hand, are not a common treatment group. Maybe it has to do with the reluctancy men have against going to the doctor and especially going to the doctor for an issue “down there” (just as I delayed going to a doctor myself).

As a result, the number of male Pelvic Floor Physical Therapists or female PTs who are trained and experienced in seeing men is extremely low. As in, you can likely count on one hand the number of providers willing to treat men in your town or city.

The reason for this hesitation in seeing male patients by female providers is simple — traditional manual therapy for these Pelvic Floor muscles requires reaching inside the body.

For women, this is through the vagina. For men, this is through the anus.

Long story short, my female PT turned up unwilling to do this sort of internal assessment or treatment. Instead, I was prescribed a series of similar stretches that I had already been doing on my own.

More importantly, there was almost no discussion or treatment directed at my mental state or mindset when it came to the symptoms of Chronic Pelvic Pain / Pelvic Floor Dysfunction.

The Calm Before the Storm

I resigned myself to having this “Chronic Pelvic Pain” or “Prostatitis” diagnosis, despite the lack of internal assessment by my physical therapist. My symptoms seemed to add up — frequent urination, occasional split stream — all caused by what was referred to as “edging too much” or unnecessarily delaying orgasm. I even found some, although rare, reports of men with PFD who had similar diagonal urine streams like me.

I went down the rabbit hole: reading books by respected authors in the Pelvic Floor field, stretching 2-3 times every day, trying self-massage techniques. I lived on the r/PelvicFloor and r/Prostatitis Reddit forums.

Every time I would have sex, I would have a “flare-up”. I would feel tingling in my penis and pee all over the toilet due to my stream erratically pointing left, right, up, or down. In hindsight, this was a key observation that there was no structural issue with my body. Otherwise, my stream would have constantly deviated, rather than sometimes remaining straight and other times changing to different angles.

Paranoid that I had contracted an STD which could make my problems worse, I would immediately go to Urgent Care where they would prescribe me doxycycline (antibiotics) and give me a Gonorrhea shot. I think I got 3 of those shots within a 6 month period.

It sucked as a lifestyle, but I began to accept it. I began to be less concerned about the day-to-day symptoms. The symptoms were losing their power to control me.

The Pain Strikes Back

As anyone with The MindBody Syndrome (TMS) knows, pain can and will move around your body. If you haven’t accepted TMS as the true cause for your pain, your body will try to distract you with a new type of pain if you successfully convince yourself that a certain area is “healed”.

At this point, I had convinced myself that my pelvic floor muscles were no longer tight or dysfunctional. I had kept a bathroom journal to make sure I only went every 2-3 hours and completed 12 weeks of progressive stretches.

My symptoms had stabilized. I had a slight maybe 5-10 degree deviation in urine stream, and in the mornings, my stream was completely straight!

I “rewarded” myself by letting myself j*ck off normally. I had previously been abstaining or been extremely gentle and finished as quickly as possible. Immediately after, I went to the bathroom to take a piss.

10/10 pain. I am not a soft man, by any means. I don’t claim to be the toughest either. But there is something very unique and acute about having the tip of your penis screaming in pain as urine barely comes out.

This lasted… for a week straight. Every time. I would take a piss.

At that moment, I knew my problems were not over.

Next Steps

I ramped up my treatment protocols and took it more seriously than I ever had before.

Luckily, during my next pelvic floor PT session, we were able to externally massage out the “muscle cramp” I had built up in my PF muscles. The pain subsided completely after that.

I wanted to rule out having a urethral stricture, of any severity, for good. My current physical therapist was using the (low) possibility of having one as an excuse to not assess my pelvic floor muscles internally. Unprofessional, in hindsight, but I was willing to try anything. I wanted to be done with this problem.

In the case of me actually having a urethral stricture and needing surgery, I wanted to find the best doctor in the business to scope and potentially treat me. I was not taking any chances on a 50% success rate for surgery.

I found the original practitioner of a “graft” style surgery technique, about 2 hours from where I lived. While it’s difficult to rely upon outcome data for one provider in a statistical sense, his patients almost never had follow up issues.

I paid 3 grand out of pocket to see him and be scoped.

Thank God — it was a completely clear scoping. I had no strictures or issues with my penis.

Having ruled out any structural damage to my body, I was now confident in my pelvic floor diagnosis.

Frustrated with the lack of willing help from my current PT, I sought out another pelvic floor PT. We discussed in detail my symptoms, prior treatments and results, and what she could do for me.

I paid out of pocket, $350 a session, for her help. She was phenomenal — providing in detail explanations on the physical and possible mental components to my symptoms. She performed an internal assessment and treatment of the muscles.

But none of it worked.

Weeks later, I was left with the same symptoms — an angled deviation of my urine stream, which increased after ejaculation, either from masturbation or with a partner.

My Last Shred of Hope

At this point, my patience and bank account were depleted.

In my final sessions with this new PT, I noticed a pamphlet in her waiting room.

“The Pain Psychology Center,” it read on the cover. Inside contained details for a center in Los Angeles where they specialized in treating patients with chronic pain.

At this point, through my online research, I had heard about the similarities between Chronic Pelvic Pain / Pelvic Floor Dysfunction with chronic pain in general and how the real “source” of these issues was biopsychosocial factors, not any issue in the specific affected area.

I found it interesting and had even skimmed a few articles. But my lack of chronic “pain” in the traditional, sensory definition made me not give it much serious thought.

During my appointment that day, I asked my PT about the Pain Center. I asked if it was possible to “hypnotize” or “mind-fuck” my way out of this chronic pelvic floor muscle tightness that was destroying my life.

She said she had heard of success stories from the Center, but most patients going there had chronic back pain, wrist pain, or fibromyalgia.

However, she agreed that it might be possible for a similar type of brain reprocessing treatment to help me.

The Final Destination

I left my appointment and Googled the Pain Psychology Center.

I found a website and videos created by its founder — Dr. Alan Gordon.

I googled him and found that he was a student of Dr. John Sarno. Dr. Sarno had pioneered a concept called TMS, or The Mind Body Syndrome, which he claimed was the real cause behind people’s back pain and other chronic physical ailments.

According to Dr. Sarno, chronic pain and dysfunction could be cured entirely by self-education and by changing one’s thought patterns. No surgery or constant rehab exercises necessary. And Sarno had real, clinical evidence to back it up.

I was finally ready to embrace this diagnosis.

I ordered all of Sarno’s books, a book by the well-reviewed Steve-O (no, not the guy from the Jackass movies), and a guided journal.

And got to work.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you for your dedicated time and attention. Please leave a comment or subscribe as I unpack my journey with the MindBody Syndrome further on this blog. We will heal together :).

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I have not moved for the past 8 hours except to drink water and use the bathroom. My spine is completely frozen, straight up and down.

“All of this, from a measly 30lb”, I think to myself.

Earlier, I had been doing a light workout in my apartment with a homemade sandbag and some light kettlebells.

I had slowly worked up to this routine over a few months. Before that, I had taken a year off the gym, and my muscle had slowly eroded.

I was feeling confident in my new progress and momentum, until that afternoon. In the midst of a few warmup sets — I felt a small twinge. Moments later, deep pain. I dropped to the floor, and stayed there.

Had I injured my back performing light kettlebell swings? Maybe, but I don’t have the MRI to prove it.

My back eventually healed from this “injury”, although my spine was frozen and I remained on the floor for several days. Finally, I was able to start moving again and resume exercise.

Back to the Beginning

Years earlier, I had gotten an MRI done. I injured my back one day, ego lifting as a teenager in the gym.

Funny enough, the pain that day was a fraction of what I felt in the first story I shared, and in later scenarios.

I, fueled by puberty and teenage angst, trained through the injury. The first few weeks were painful, but I seemed to be improving.

However, when I told my parents, they made me go see a doctor. I was lucky to see a knowledgeable sports medicine physician, who ordered imaging, despite my improved state.

The results came in — I had a bulging L4/L5 disc.

Life Changes

Initially, I was mortified.

“You’ll never squat or deadlift again”

“Lifting weights is dangerous”

Doctors, physical therapists, and family quickly filled my brain with ominous statements like these. Fortunately for me, I was too hardheaded to listen to them.

I completed a full 12 weeks of Physical Therapy. It helped, a little. I now believe that my injury had already healed, by the time I started PT (around 2 months after the initial injury).

I would stretch my glutes, hip flexors, and hamstrings and perform abdominal stabilization exercises, and I would feel relief and be temporarily pain-free in my low back.

But I still had regular, aching pain in my low back and shooting pain down my glutes. It came and went, and I forgot about it some of the time.

However, I would always feel it creep back in when I was at the gym, particularly if I started doing heavy leg movements. Sitting also aggravated it, especially while studying and in class.

Taking a Break

I continued to train around the pain for the next few years, while researching solutions.

I tried yoga, which helped, and experimented with meditation. In hindsight, meditation helped significantly, but I did not make the connection to its effect on my back pain at the time.

I fantasized about purchasing fancy weight lifting machine like the reverse hyperextension and belt squat machines — claimed to “decompress” your spine and with myriads of weightlifters on the Internet talking about how it healed their backs.

Years later, I would get access to these machines and even purchase one myself. They are great training apparatuses, but using them did not magically heal my back pain.

Frustrated with my lack of progress in permanently healing my back and with my perceived “lack of progress” in the gym due to not using heavy weights (I was actually still in great shape), I decided to take a long break from exercise.

My goal was to let my back “fully heal”, and yet, I ended up writhing on the floor in the most back pain of my life, after I resumed exercise one year later.

Moving Forward

I’d like to say this was the end of my journey with chronic pain. Unfortunately, my struggle with pain continued, but it “moved” to a different area…

However, that day on the floor was a metanoia for me. I realized, in an unsophisticated fashion, that my back pain was not just being caused by my body.

“It is irrational”, I mused during my ample time stuck on the floor, “for my back to be causing such an extreme amount of pain from such a little amount of weight, and for the pain to be lasting for so long”.

There must be some element of my mind purposely locking my back up and causing so much pain, to avoid repeated injury at the same location I had injured it years earlier.

The pain, in this instance, never went away on its own.

After 3 days lying on the ground, only moving to eat, drink, and use the bathroom, I had to muster up the courage to face the pain myself and start moving through it. It hurt, worse than any back pain I had ever experienced, but I kept reminding myself:

“You are not injured, you must work through this and get blood flowing again”

I started with walking across my apartment, then down the street, next with bodyweight squats and good mornings. When my movement restored, my pain quickly disappeared.

This was the last of my struggle to date with back pain, but I hadn’t discovered why. I hadn’t learned about the Mindbody Syndrome or read Dr. John Sarno’s books.

But, I was able to lift weights again, even using heavy weights for squats and deadlifts, without regular back pain and with the conviction that I had no current injury in my back.

Pour Conclure

Today, I know more about pain science and how the mind influences the physical body. While it was not realistic for my low back to be injured after such light movement; the pain that kept me frozen on the floor was very real.

The Mind can send the Body real pain signals like this, to distract you from facing certain threatening thoughts and emotions. These are unconscious feelings that, if the Mind successfully distracts you from, you may never know the context of.

Maybe in that moment, my threatening thought was “Gosh, this kettlebell feels so light — maybe I have been wasting my time and missing out on potential muscle gains from taking the last year completely off”. I can’t know for sure though, because I gave in to the pain in that moment. I let it distract me for days.

If you have screened out any serious injuries with a medical professional —

And are still feeling pain in a certain body part, then you are not feeling pain from an injury. Your Mind is distracting you with pain signals from a deeper emotion or truth, that you do not want to face.

Pain caused by an injury does not typically last more than 3 months. Any chronic pain left over, is caused by the Mind.

This is the MindBody Syndrome (TMS) as coined by Dr. John Sarno, and we will explore what is is, how to recover from it, and how to use it to propel your life to bigger and better.

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