Originally Published Friday, February 27, 2015

These are the three things I found were the keys to completely curing my chronic pain in a matter of weeks. Some simple steps necessary to change the terrible pattern my body had fallen into. Once I committed to appropriately reviewing and managing negative emotions; the chronic pain loop that I was trapped inside of - quickly came to an end.



I'm like most other chronic pain sufferers, and I certainly have no special powers of any kind, I simply needed to do the following to bring this healing to reality:

• Commit to these ideals.
• Dedicate myself to this daily practice.
• Gain an understanding of own my negative emotions. 

The change I experienced happened very quickly, and allowed me to be completely pain free, after suffering from tension-based chronic pain for so many years.

Originally Published Tuesday, February 24, 2015

People ask me about the method that I developed to cure my tension-based chronic low-back pain, after suffering with it for nearly two decades.

QUESTION: What kind of medical treatment does it entail?

 ANSWER: It is not a medical treatment.

QUESTION: What kind of exercises does it include, yoga, pilates, or stretching?

 ANSWER:  Is it is not an exercise program.

QUESTION: Does it require biofeedback or meditation?

 ANSWER: Biofeedback and meditation are very good, in my opinion, but those activities are not part of this technique.

The TMR method involves a type of self empowerment that comes directly from the pain sufferer themselves. A series of practices that change the current physical condition, and also manage the issues that continue to cause pain. There are no doctors, chiropractors, therapists or exercise gurus who can deliver this healing, as it is implemented, practiced and maintained by the individual themselves.

Directing ones own healing can be challenging at first, because of the fear they aren't doing it the right way. There is some trial and error, but eventually the individual will find a feeling of inner strength, and confidence when they realize that they can now control the cause of their pain. If the condition should flare up again in the future, they will find comfort in knowing that they may be self reliant in their care.

Taking control over my own healing has been an extremely positive and gratifying to me. 

It is my hope that many chronic pain sufferers will have the same joyful experience of discovery in their healing, and gaining control over their pain.

Originally Published Wednesday, February 18, 2015

The dictionary describes a Chrysalis as a 'preparatory or transitional state'. I felt as though I was in a similar form, while I was suffering through two decades chronic pain. It was a condition of vulnerability where I was not quite ready for the world, although I had already been out in the world previously.
   


Of course I wasn't a butterfly, but while I in the middle of all of that pain, I was working very hard to find out what was wrong with me, so I could change the future for myself. I never gave up, and I tried everything that I thought might work for me. Some therapies I tried helped, and some of them didn't help me at all, but I was unfazed, and I kept on.

What is the one characteristic that saved me from an entire lifetime of chronic pain? I would say that it was my willingness to change direction when things weren't progressing. It was my ability to pivot that kept me from getting stuck in my world of pain. In the end, I found I was the only person who could develop the method that would end my pain.

The caterpillar goes through a growth stage while he/she works to transform into a butterfly. We all need continue to grow, change and stretch in order to find our path to health and happiness.

Originally Published Saturday, February 14, 2015

During my very long struggle with chronic pain, I looked to every doctor, therapist, healer, book, magazine, video, exercise, workout, podcast, website, as well as the advice of friends and family to find a cure for my ceaseless pain. Many people follow a similar logic, as they attempt to cure their chronic pain, because they believe, as I did, that the answers will come from an External source. Someone else with the knowledge to solve the problem.

The treatment and advice I received from these External sources was sometimes helpful for short periods of time, but the pain would return, and that would prompt me to move on to the next possibility.

A little more than a year ago I came to the realization that there was no External source that was ever going to heal me from this ongoing pain. The pain was created Internally, and could only be resolved by the Internal source, me.

There was a 2006 horror movie called 'When a Stranger Calls', maybe you remember it? There is an often referenced moment from that film, when the babysitter, who is being harassed by phone calls, comes to the realization that the calls are coming from 'inside the house'!

I had my own 'inside the house' moment when it became clear to me that the pain that continued year after year was coming from me, from my own unchecked and subconscious negative emotions. That is why the muscles in my back appeared to NEVER heal, because it was continually under stress from the tension that was being dumped there. How can a soft tissue injury go on for years and years? It generally doesn't, it heals, but there is a something that continues to injure it over and over again.

There is only one kind of body that isn't in a constant state of renewal, and that body belongs to someone who is no longer alive. If you're reading this, you are alive and your body is in a constant state of rebuilding itself.

My method for healing chronic pain addresses the two Internal parts of this problem, the physical tension, and the negative emotions that continue to cause the ongoing injury.

Hopefully, you will be able to try my method at some point, and find the same wonderful and surprising results that I found.

Keep trying, don't quit, and keep your positive and hopeful spirit!

Originally Published Saturday, February 7, 2015

• Parts of a whole are in intimate interconnection and cannot exist independently of the whole,
• Parts cannot be understood without reference to the whole.
• The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
• Treating the whole person and taking into account mental and social factors, and not just the physical symptoms of a disease.

Holism is a concept that has been described for centuries throughout history in philosophy and medicine, however it is still treated like an alien concept in much of modern medicine.

For many medical professionals there seems to be a very definitive line in the sand between the part of the body they specialize in, and the mind, and this line may not be crossed. I have been treated by doctors in major metropolitan areas throughout the country, and no healthcare professional that treated me for tension-based chronic pain in those decades, ever asked me a series of pointed questions about my current state of mind.

This singular approach seems like something from the past, and not from the early 21st century. Health professionals who treat chronic back-neck-shoulder pain should understand that chronic pain is sometimes caused by tension from the mind. Perhaps it may be a risk to even speak about emotional tension-based chronic pain from a liability or insurance standpoint.

One doctor did ask me if anything was going on in my life, and that was the catalyst for my research, and the subsequent development of a cure. My own experience tells me that after so many years of traditional medical care for only the physical side of the chronic pain problem, I couldn't have had the near miraculous recovery that I did, without considering both the body and the mind.

I hope that those suffering from chronic pain will stop to consider that maybe their pain, which has no well defined cause (trauma, cancer, severe osteoporosis, etc.) could find resolution through reducing their physical tension while better managing their emotions.

Holism - give it some thought...

Originally Published Saturday, February 7, 2015

If you have had chronic pain for a long time, and have attempted to find a medical solution, you may feel that most doctors do not have an easy cure for it, and probably can offer you only temporary relief from the pain. Maybe you'll repeat some procedure, therapy or series of exercises, and it will help you feel better for a bit, but before you know it, the pain will return again, and you will step back into that cycle.

Curing chronic tension-based pain using just the body and the mind will be an evolution in thinking for most people. It certainly was a major thought shift for me at the time, but it coincided with a life changing event, which crystallized the concept in my mind. 
The very last time I had a major back spasm event, which caused me to be unable to carry on with daily life, happened a week after I lost a dear family member. I nearly crawled into the chiropractors office for some help after waking up unable to even roll over in bed. I was talking to the doctor, and he looked at me and asked me 'have you had anything happen in your life recently?' A bell went off in my head, of course this pain was caused by this traumatic emotional event that just occurred days before. Not only was this the cause of my current physical predicament, but emotional stress and the tension it caused was indeed the reason for all of the pain that I had suffered for all of those years.

I spent a lot of time replaying the past two decades of my life over, thinking about where I was emotionally when these painful crippling episodes came on, seemingly out of nowhere. Hindsight is exactly what they say it is. How could I have not understood what now was so obvious? These many incidents of physical pain were so clearly linked to periods of emotional stress.

The knowledge of what was causing my chronic pain was motivating, but discovering the cure for my cycle of pain was absolutely empowering. This evolution in thinking brought me to a complete physical transformation.

If you have tried relieving your chronic neck-back-shoulder pain by only addressing the physical side of the problem, consider using mind-body synergy. It may be exactly what you have been looking for all along.

Originally Published Wednesday, February 4, 2015

What was wrong with me all those years when I was disabled from chronic pain?

Excellent question...

If I listened to the many doctors I visited for decades (which I did), while I was seeking relief from my chronic pain, there were any number of problems with my body.

Here is a list of just some of them:

• My low-back muscles were weak
• My abdominal muscles were weak 
• My lateral (side) muscles were weak
• My calf muscles were shortened
• The plantar muscles in my feet were too tight
• My ankles were weak
• A nerve in my back, pelvis or leg was twisted or pinched, which caused sciatica

If I stopped and thought about it at the time I guess I would have concluded that I was a physical wreck, and there were times when I felt that way.

As I enjoy my first full year without any pain, I look back and ask myself, 'how many of those issues did I really have'? Not three or four, not two, in truth I did not even have one of those ailments. 

Perhaps you are thinking that I am somehow blaming all those doctors that I visited year in and year out, but nothing could be further from the truth, as I believe they each gave me their best advice.

There was only one thing that was wrong with me, and was a lack of oxygen to those contracted muscles, which were located in my back, pelvis and legs at different times.

If you have tightened muscles with chronic pain, and it seems that nothing you have tried can bring you relief, you may be suffering from a constant lack of oxygen to those muscles. This is a new concept to many people, but it may be worth your time to pursue resolution through mind-body synergy.

Originally Published Monday, February 2, 2015

Thank you to Painmaps.com for including Back Story: Breaking the Cycle of Chronic Pain under their BOOKS (RECOMMENDED READING) section!

www.painmaps.com is an excellent resource as a center and guide for anyone who has experienced nerve pain and in particular, Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) – otherwise known as Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD). 


Painmaps.com is also dedicated to interesting ideas in neuroscience, offered from the stance of an imaginative neophyte and artist.


Please visit them soon to see all they have to offer.