Confidence that TMS is the accurate diagnosis for yourself is very important in order to begin the healing process. This infers that you have seen the truth that lies within the theory of The Mindbody Syndrome; you recognize and accept that the root cause of your pain is an unconscious, unfelt, emotional process. You are willing to entertain the notion that your emotions have been repressed to the point that you are no longer aware of them, and for this reason, you feel them in the form of physical pain. Steve Ozanich often states that full belief is required in order to fully heal, while I completely agree with Steve, I want to point out that the bigger problem is not so much that you don't fully believe in TMS (either consciously or unconsciously), but that at some level you still believe that something is wrong with your body and therefore fear it.
Repressed emotions such as anger, shame, fear, and guilt, cause such extreme tension and stress that it deeply affects the functioning of the autonomic nervous system, creating pain as well as a host of other distressing symptoms. The research of Dr. Gabor Mate and many others, has clearly shown that this same mechanism is also responsible for the creation of the vast majority of diseases we humans experience. This is true whether or not you believe it, much like it is true that light travels faster than sound, and therefore you see the lightning before hearing the thunder; the lighting, thunder, clouds and sky don't care whether or not you believe this to be the case. In this same manner TMS has no opinion about whether or not you believe in it, it is simply the nature of things, it is an observable truth. The mind-body process is occurring despite what we would like to believe about it, but in this case, it is the acceptance and belief that this is what is happening that allows you to heal. This is because belief in TMS is the exact opposite of believing that your body is flawed and failing. You only benefit from this truth through the belief that the roots of your pain are defined by The Mindbody Syndrome, then extracting your belief from that which has been proven time and time again to be untrue, mainly that the body itself is solely to blame for our misfortunes. Belief in TMS contradicts and eventually eradicates the opposing belief that something is physically wrong, then changing a person's mind, actions, and behaviors, finally altering physiology and bringing about healing.
There is nothing that isn't true if you believe it; and nothing is true, believe it or not. -Byron Katie
It is funny that we have such a hard time believing that emotions, tension, and stress can be the cause of so much physical pain and disease. Is the currently accepted belief system actually any easier to believe? When you really take the time to see it clearly, you may find that it is just silly... plain nonsense. Are we actually expected to believe that the human body that has evolved over the course of millions of years—yes, not thousands, millions of years—is weak, flawed, and prone to failure? Homo erectus, "upright man", has been around for about 1.9 million years, and modern humans have been around for about 200,000 years. Our ancestral species has been upright, walking, running, and using tools for millions of years. Do we actually believe that this body we possess, that has been evolving for unimaginable amounts of time, is in need of constant intervention and repair? Are we really supposed to accept that our hands, feet, knees, shoulders, hips, and backs are not structurally sound, that they cannot handle strenuous activity, that they just randomly wear out, and were poorly designed by nature herself? Do you honestly believe that our bladders, bellies, and buttholes cannot function properly and painlessly, simply by nature's design? Am I supposed to believe that my feet, knees, & hips can't handle running, that plantar fasciitis is just a given? Am I supposed to believe that like the neurosurgeon told me, "we just weren't meant to be standing upright on two legs, the gravity is just too much compression on our spines." Ok then, why doesn't every human have back pain? Are some people secretly bear crawling to get around everywhere when no one is looking?
The neurosurgeon then went on to tell me that they have actually done experiments where a machine was used to forcefully compress a human spine (not in a living human of course), and even doing this, they could not reproduce a "bulged" or "herniated" disc. He continued on, "we just don't know why some people have back pain and others don't, there are construction workers who physically work their asses off their entire lives, who never experience back pain, while there are teachers and doctors who have physically undemanding jobs, who have intense back pain." This surgeon happened to be a back pain sufferer himself, so I imagine he had thought about it a good deal. Next, he told me that they don't know why or when back surgery sometimes works, going on to advise me against back surgery unless things got much, much worse, scheduling me for an epidural steroid injection, and instructing me to take up to 12 ibuprofen a day for the pain. "How about some morphine doc, how am I going to numb my emotional pain with ib-fucking-profen!?" I have to give this particular surgeon credit, he was very honest with me, he wore blue jeans and cowboy boots under his white lab coat, and had a pony tail and a no bullshit demeanor; I actually liked him a lot and since healing with the knowledge of The Mindbody Syndrome, I have often thought of sending him copies of Dr. Sarno and Steve Ozanich's books with a note that says, "Now You Know!" Don't let me forget to mention that nowadays I routinely bend, twist, and contort my spine into peculiar positions in my yoga practice, I pick up heavy objects (with my back) without second thought, and often "eat shit" on my snowboard. Do I have back pain? No. Do I still have the "bulged disc" I was told I had? Well, I never had surgery, so you tell me?
Another example of the ridiculousness of believing that the human body is flawed and weak, is the new fad of "repetitive-stress & overuse injuries", aka tennis elbow, carpal tunnel syndrome, plantar fasciitis, frozen shoulder, etc... Humans have been walking, running, and standing for millions of years and all of the sudden our feet, knees, and hips just can't handle it? Are you kidding me? Since healing from "plantar fasciitis" (TMS), it is not at all uncommon for me to have 10+ mile days on my feet walking, running, and/or hiking. I spend more time on my feet doing a wide variety of physically demanding activities than I ever have in my entire life, and experience ZERO foot pain. For years, I literally had painful ping-pong ball sized knobs on the bottoms of the arches of both feet. Poof! Gone. I don't have special shoes or inserts, nothing, "plantar fasciitis" was actually the first symptom to disappear for me, it was gone within weeks of learning about TMS. What about carpal tunnel syndrome? Really? Keyboards, mouse's, and video game controllers are just too much for our hands nowadays? Our closest related ancestors started working with hand tools about 2.6 million years ago, yet we are supposed to have weak, flawed, and injury-prone hands? Humans have worked harder and done more physically demanding activities than anything we currently do, yet there is more pain present in society today than at any time in recorded history. Why might this be? Are you starting to see the bigger picture, as I am? The human body is incredibly strong and resilient, yet somehow we have been led to believe that we are these weak little creatures that constantly break, that we are the victims of a never-ending stream of pains and miseries. This view has resulted in us believing that our bodies are inherently flawed, which happens to be the true cause of mind-body disorders, as well as the epidemic of chronic pain we are currently seeing in first world countries. Chronic pain belongs right alongside the other "diseases of civilization", you know, diabetes, obesity, heart disease, and cancer.
I recall being totally amazed with how quickly the wounds from my final surgery healed; I had three, inch-wide incisions along the midline of my abdomen where they opened me up, then going through my abdominal muscles and wall in order for the robot arms to go in and insert a hernia mesh in my groin. The pain was intense in the first hours and days afterwards, but about a week and half later I decided it was a good idea to go snowboarding, you know, "just take it easy"—which is close to impossible for me! I did this probably foolishly, and against my surgeon's recommendations, but don't worry I'm ok, the incision sites formed neat little scars in about two weeks time. This just goes to show, the body has remarkably rapid and striking healing capabilities when we are not needlessly interfering, with our own will and negative belief systems. I started to wonder, why can I heal so quickly from this surgery, but my other chronic pains linger indefinitely and seem to only get worse with time? This is where doubt begins to work in our favor. Next, we will discuss the other side of the coin with doubt, doubt in TMS, doubt in our very Selves.
Like the sun, the inner self is always shining, but because of negative clouds we do not experience it, it is not necessary to program oneself with the Truth, it is only necessary to remove that which is false. The removal of the clouds from the sky to illuminate the negative, allows one to experience the energy fields of that which is positive. It is only the removal of the negative that is necessary. -David Hawkins, M.D., Healing and Recovery
Now let's talk about the doubt that keeps people from healing, doubt that our bodies are capable of unimaginable healing, all on their own. Doubt that TMS is "real", that emotions, tension, and stress are truly capable of such destruction. Doubt will surely arise throughout the healing process, especially when the pain strikes. Steve Ozanich writes of his personal experience, "It's an awesome sight to witness how quickly one's confidence can collapse at the first onset of pain. It's embarrassing. One day I would be standing on Mount Olympus and the next day I was flailing in a Marianas Trench of doubt. Confidence falls like a house of cards when pain comes knocking on the back door." Those of us who have healed with the knowledge of TMS can testify that this sentiment is precisely the experience of one who is undergoing TMS healing.
We have to realize the degree to which we are surrounded by negative programming, near constant messaging telling us that our bodies are broken and need to be fixed, by someone else, for a fee, of course. We have been, and continue to be, relentlessly conditioned to believe that our bodies are weak and injury-prone. The human animal is incredibly susceptible to suggestion, if we are not constantly aware of incoming information, and consciously choosing that which we believe and that which we do not, we inevitably become the victims of the cues we receive from our environment. It makes no difference where you go, be it the gym, yoga studio, supermarket, your favorite podcast, or grandma's house, there are folks around happily ready to remind you of your bodies' limitations and probable failures. There is near constant talk of failing body parts, tales being spun of this or that pain, and war stories of past, present, and future surgeries to come. How about the constant warnings so freely handed out everywhere, "be careful, running is really hard on the knees and hips", "don't do that if you ever had a shoulder injury", and "don't risk it on the back!" As if this weren't bad enough, there is a pain clinic for every imaginable ailment, on every corner of every street, as if this were proof enough that our bodies really are the source of so much pain. I mean who really has the best specialist, PT, or chiropractor anyways?
The reality is most people have not been exposed to the truth of TMS, people honestly believe that they are the victims of genetics and fate. This being said, even when people are exposed to TMS, the majority are simply incapable of accepting its implications, until they have thoroughly worn out every alternative and have reached the depths of hell with their pain and have nowhere else to turn. I know because this is what it took for me to finally find and accept TMS. Not only is TMS a difficult concept to wrap your head around, but the truth is, most people unconsciously resist TMS because deep down they know that if they were to accept it, they would have to face all the threatening emotions and thoughts they have been avoiding for years. The mind will conjure up any possible justification it can to convince us that TMS is a myth, in order to avoid an encounter with the shadow.
As stated by TMS physician, David Schechter, M.D., and quoted by Steve Ozanich in his book The Great Pain Deception, "Doubt is part of the TMS process." Another TMS physician, Dr. Sopher, remarks, "any shadow of doubt and the pain will continue." For this reason we have to be constantly vigilant, never allowing our mind to tell us that our body is to blame for our woes, endlessly reminding ourselves that it is an underlying emotional process that is the true source of our pain. Eventually we come to understand the difference between what we have consciously accepted, and what has been deeply integrated into our unconscious mind. The latter is the one that often requires a significant amount of time and repetition of new information. I will discuss the nature of the unconscious mind more at a later date, but for now it is sufficient to know that this is the aspect of your mind that is not under your direct control (unless you happen to be Wim Hof or another highly accomplished yogi), yet it controls the vast majority of your life. It is stubborn and reluctant to change. This is why even when a person accepts that TMS is their correct diagnosis, the pain often takes time to fully disappear. In my experience doubt is strong in the beginning, this is because the concept is still new, we are still under the hypnotic spell of the medical industry. As time goes on and you stick to your guns, you begin to notice changes, some small, some quite magnificent, and each time you get to first-hand observe a symptom or pain disappear with no outside intervention, your confidence grows. Healing from TMS requires faith, but not blind faith. I encourage you to not just take my word for it, don't just believe it; do the research, read the information and proof of TMS provided in the works of experts like Dr. Sarno, Steve Ozanich, Dr. Hawkins, and Dr. Gabor Mate. Seek out those who have recounted their experiences of healing, then if it rings true for you, put it to the test. If you wholeheartedly commit yourself to finding out the truth of the matter, it won't be long before the evidence begins showing up in your life. Once this occurs it is only a matter of time.
If you believe it then it's true, but remember.... only for you. If no "thing" is true, then which lies will you undo? What myths will you see through? To at last experience what has been seen to be true.
Our bodies are the homes in which we live, and are the physical expressions of our mind, nervous system, emotions, karma, and potential. -Eddie Stern, One Simple Thing: A New Look at the Science of Yoga and How It Can Transform Your Life
Love your struggle and remain free!
