Today I am feeling a bit thoughtful, so please forgive me for launching into a discussion on mind-body interactions. (But hey, you might find something useful here though.) First, about the drawing. I drew this from a photo I snapped while visiting Cape Cod this past October. I took a ton of photos of seagulls when I was there, but none of them were particularly good, partly because of all the rain. I wasn’t really too happy with this drawing at the time and I just found it while organizing my scans on my computer. But it wasn’t so horrible to leave it unseen, so I thought I’d show all of you.
For the past two days, I’ve been babying and pampering my arm, but it has still been bothering me. I think a small part of me was thinking that I’m having a physical problem like radial nerve entrapment or something scary like that. I have been paying attention though, and the pain always gets better when I am doing something or talking to someone that is making me feel happy and relaxed, which is classic TMS. This morning I decided that I was going to try to do things even if they were simple because I was sick of wasting time all day. I can say that even though my arm isn’t all better, it isn’t horribly worse either, and it feels good to be active.
The books on the subject say that if one is having a relapse of TMS, there must be some sort of very powerful suppressed emotions in the subconscious and you have to go to a psychotherapist to get over it. Something in me rejected that because 1) I am not a fan of Freud and 2) I never suffered anything really bad like childhood abuse to lead to such horrible repressed emotions. I have had quite a nice life actually.
I have begun to think that it is more important to take care of emotions as they arise as more of a maintenance program to keep myself pain free. Two years ago, I realized that my pain was caused by negative emotions and the pain went away, but I mistakenly thought that I would never have a problem again. I didn’t realize that the same problem would crop up if I didn’t change my ways. Now, two years later, I have allowed all sorts of tension to build up in me again and I am in the same position as I was before. Now I am looking for ways that I can take care of myself in such a way that this doesn’t become an ongoing problem.
Post a Comment