If you’re up for hearing a little bit about my experience with things like that thing you don’t want to talk about…please soak this comment up. If not, leave it until you’re ready…or ditch it completely.

Just wanted to tell you that the thing you don’t want to talk about – doesn’t necessarily exist.

Yes, it hurts like hell, but it’s often more of an EMOTIONAL and MIND problem than a physical problem in that part of your body that you don’t want to talk about.

The mind often comes up with pain like that in places to DISTRACT us from the emotional pain that the subconscious thinks would be too painful to deal with.

So it shows up as “that thing you don’t want to talk about”, or back pain, or knee pain, or neck pain, or a number of other symptoms that society has gotten used to hearing about.

My suggestion? Stop THINKING that it’s that thing you don’t want to talk about. Especially the name of it.

Instead, every time you feel the pain in that part of your body, tell yourself that you’re physically okay. There’s nothing wrong inside that part of your body.

It’s just an indication that there is emotional pain that your subconscious is afraid of dealing with. But you can thank your mind for trying to protect you from the emotional pain by trying to distract you with physical pain…

But thank you very much…you can handle it and this physical pain needs to leave immediately.

I talk to my pain like this (mine tends to show up in my back or thigh) and I’ve actually felt it LEAVE just by acknowledging that it’s emotional stuff going on for me and that structurally, my body is totally fine.

If this sounds intriguing to you – check out books by Dr. John Sarno. His stuff has changed my life. Seriously.

Loving you ~

P.S. And think about this: Did you ever hear about people complaining about that thing you don’t want talk about when people used typewriters? They were even HARDER to type on and society wasn’t up in arms about that thing you don’t want to talk about. Why? Because it didn’t exist. Now that it “exists” the mind uses it as a place to hide our emotional pain. That’s why it can be so helpful to remind ourselves of the mind/body connection.

Monas last blog post..monagrayson: Yikes! Your kids are talking back AGAIN? You’ll wanna watch this: http://is.gd/leVy

Part of me is feeling really nervous because I realize what I’m going to say here may go over like a ton of bricks! It’s about “that thing you’re not talking about this week” ;-) and how you might experiment with tweaking your process in relation to it.

So that sounds really presumptuous! (Oh god, am I being a total fool here?) Especially since I love your posts, and I am especially in love with the ones where you let us glimpse part of your personal process!

Also, people giving advice about some challenge we have can get realllly tiresome. (Is this really tiresome already? Apologies if it is…)

In any case, enough beating around the bush: I think this excerpt from a newsletter I got from Ann Weiser Cornell (www.focusingresources.com) might be useful in tweaking your process with this whole carpal tunnel thing:

“Perhaps the hardest thing about Focusing with a block is to stay in listening mode, and simply hear, with empathy, what the blocking part is feeling.

“There is such a temptation to drop out of Self-in-Presence and start “persuading” the blocking part that it is wrong in what it believes. The problem with giving in to this temptation is that it does not work. The blocking part is not in place because of “reason,” and giving it good reasons will not change it — in our experience.

“What does bring change is to stay… in contact with the part “in the way,” sensing what it feels like, how it feels from its point of view, what it’s worried about or what it’s protecting from. And then staying with that, letting it know you hear and sense how it feels [especially important], and inviting it to show or tell more.”

I do get that this is basically what you already do for the most part. Again, just a tiny tweak that may (or may not!) be helpful…

Done. Whew!

(PS: Looking forward to your class next week!)

“the class that Naomi and I are teaching about not being impressed by the fact that there’s a recession” for only $19!

The good:
Of course I signed up. Then I felt excitement (and a little hope?)

Hilarys last blog post..Circumventing the economic crisis

The hard:
- This frickin’ weather. Still. And my continual whining about it. But I’m really, really over it.
- I’m fighting off some kind of bug, and it’s slowing me down and making me sleep more than usual. Oh wait — that might actually be a good thing.

The good:
- I was contacted by a local business publication wanting to do a piece on Cleveland Handmade, of which I am a coleader. I did the interview on Tuesday and they sent a photographer over today to take some photos. Fun!
- Tomorrow’s Beading 101 class and Wednesday’s etching class are fully booked. No extra $$ for me, but it’s good to know people want to take my classes.
- Dedicating Friday after-yoga time to getting little to-dos done and working on little stuff around the house is making a huge dent in my seemingly neverending to-do list.

Lori Paximadiss last blog post..Friday Roundup

I’m really glad you are getting used to your new schedule and voice to text gigmajiggy.

I have more of a question due to the trust issues that have been coming up in my own life recently. What is your trust work like or do you have tips for someone like me that you haven’t included more recently? I have attempted the talking to walls step, which is very helpful, but those walls are a little too durable at present. I just thought there might be additional ideas that have worked for you, surrounding trust.

I’m also really jazzed for the Havi and Naomi gig next week! Yay!
Thanks!

You’re starting to have fun again. Yay, you!

Lisa Firkes last blog post..Tag! I’m it.

Stuck. Stuck. Stuck.

One ray of sunlight this afternoon, when I gave myself permission to have not achieved huge success after only two months of effort and sharing my brain between several major projects. But oh, it’s all hard at the moment, and my body refuses to stop getting colds.

But it’ll get better soon, it always does.

Emma Newmans last blog post..Havi, hope and an unexpected hero

I’ve had a week chock-full of freak outs just a hair’s breadth away(ask Jen Louden, she knows why). I could easily have freaked to the point of total paralysis except that a) I wouldn’t get paid by a client and therefore, don’t eat and b) I wouldn’t get to move toward my dream. Well if the immediate prospect of gaining or losing money and success aren’t decent motivators I don’t know what is.

What worked to stop the freak-out machine is every time my mind went into overdrive running its movies of future potential scenarios (ranging from the ultimate living-my-dream fantasy to total crash-and-burn) I somehow remembered to remind myself not to listen, or watch. A little voice popped up from somewhere that said, “it’s just your head, and you can ask it to shut up”.

There’s also nothing like the urgency of deadlines to make you jump in, cage the swinging monkey-mind, and just do the frickin’ work. That, and my flourescent pink post it note with the word “BREATHE” written in big navy blue letters stuck to my laptop. Now if I could just stop from feeling like I have to puke (stress stomach) every few minutes when I’m not totally immersed in work I’d be fine!

Have a great weekend . . .