Beyond the Pain

A colleague recently recommended on her favourite books on dealing with pain, Dr. John Sarno’s Mindbody Prescription.

I’ve only read the 1st chapter and already my worldview has shifted. It was like Sarno had been sitting in and watching my pain therapy session for the last year.

Sarno’s approach is based on Freudian, yes! Freud, psychology. Sarno’s research suggests that much of the pain caused by repression of unconcious emotions. It seems that when we’ve been traumatized — and the more severe the trauma the greater the repression — we stifle the emotions that result. Anger, fear, shame, all those ‘negative’ emotions.

Sarno suggests we need to find ways to let the emotions out.

Therapy can do that. But, traditional Freudian psychotherapy takes way too long. In recent years though, such easy to use techniques such as EMDR, TAT, and EFT brought rapid relief to pain sufferers.

TAT and EFT can easily be learned and self used.  EMDR not so much so.

But, what else can you do?

Express yourself! Any way you want. Get it out.

I use writing. I write in my journal every day. I post in one of my Blogs almost every day. I participate in several online Lists.

What’s your form of expression?

Use it or you’ll regret it.

Last post, I talked about the value in pain: letting you
know what’s awry.

But, pain can be a pain in the ass (literally) and get in the %$#@ way!

For the last 3 days I’ve been experiencing moderately severe pain. At least,
moderate compared to the Big MoFo pain I was used to experiencing.

In any case, it has been severe enough to seriously impact
my energy and creativity.

My normal first reaction is to try and search for cause. My
thinking is “if I can find the cause I
can take the just-right corrective action.”  Well, I did that. And, none of the usual
tricks – writing, poetry, dialogue, Freeze Frame – worked.

And, it’s like that sometimes. Sometimes the
answer is hidden. Sometimes, as much as you want to know why, it doesn’t make
sense to search for why. Instead, it makes sense to just do something.

So, I did.

I just gave up, gave in. How?

I took it easy. I had several naps. I went for a walk when it warmed up. I watched a comedy movie. I slept 9 hours.

And, I feel better.