Chronic Pain & Emotional Stress Release | Talk & Practice

A meditation and short talk based on the work by Dr. John Sarno, who taught that the source of most chronic pain was emotional. Whether it be low back pain, neck pain, shoulder pain, or wherever in the body the physical pain was felt he suggested that repressed anger contributed to a stress response in the body and that this created a lack of oxygen to soft tissues such as muscles, fascia, tendons, and ligaments. This meditation encourages a person to visualize the area of pain and open the valves to let the negative energy escape. I use the meditation with many of my patients.

Transcript

Hello,

My name is Dr.

Brett Wade.

Welcome to this meditation and an explanation for chronic pain based on the work by Dr.

John Sarno.

This meditation is for chronic pain or chronic disease that you may be experiencing anywhere in your body.

This meditation,

As mentioned,

Is based on the work by the late Dr.

Sarno,

Who helped thousands of people with chronic pain and disease,

Which he called TMS or tension myositis syndrome.

Dr.

Sarno believed that almost all pain experienced in the body,

Whether it be low back pain,

Joint pain,

Tendon or ligament pain,

Is due to repressed emotions,

Either from childhood or even adulthood.

Often the repressed emotion is repressed rage due to trying to be good all the time or dealing with life stressors,

But keeping the emotions pushed down.

Dr.

Sarno believed that repressing the emotion is an evolutionary trick of the body to allow us to keep moving on with life in spite of tremendous emotional stress.

The unexamined stress causes the sympathetic nervous system to prepare the body for fight or flight,

And one of the results of this is that blood flow becomes restricted or constricted in some areas and opened up in others.

So some muscles and soft tissues will actually experience a lack of oxygen,

And this is what he believes was the major cause of chronic pain or TMS.

What should happen is you experience stress and then your system returns back to homeostasis,

Blood flow returns to normal levels,

But what if you had chronic stress from deeply repressed emotions that never went away,

Meaning that you were always in fight or flight?

This could cause a chronic lack of oxygen to muscles or soft tissues.

So this meditation will ask you to think about your repressed feelings or anger or rage or whatever the dominant emotion might be and try to release those feelings.

Once these emotions have been addressed,

You will be directed to your area of discomfort or disease,

And we'll then try to see if we can take that intensity down for you.

Before we start,

I'd like you to rate your physical pain out of 10,

With one being the lowest number and 10 being the worst kind of pain you could imagine,

The highest level of pain.

Take a moment and rate that in your mind wherever it might be in your body.

We'll revisit this pain scale at the end of the meditation.

So let's begin.

Start by taking a position of comfort that might be lying down for you or it might be be sitting in a chair.

If it's comfortable for you,

Close your eyes.

Begin to notice what you can feel in your surroundings.

What does the surface feel like that you're sitting on or lying on?

Maybe there are parts of your body which make more contact than one on one side than the other.

Notice how your clothing feels as it contacts your body.

Notice the temperature of the room on the tip of your nose.

Notice everything you can hear,

Including the sound of my voice.

Throughout the meditation,

Try to relax and relax.

Throughout this guided meditation,

Your mind will wander.

That is completely normal.

This is just your subconscious mind attempting to distract you from these repressed emotions that you're about to deal with.

When your mind distracts you,

Know that my voice is always here to guide you just where you need to go.

So always just return to the sound of my voice.

Now notice yourself starting to become more and more relaxed.

Imagine if you can that you've reclined back into the most luxurious and supportive cloud.

Feel your body sink into this cloud and notice that it perfectly supports you and allows you to completely just let it go.

Just let go of your entire body and feel perfectly and safely supported by this wonderful cloud.

Notice your body becoming more and more relaxed.

Notice your eyelids becoming very heavy.

So heavy in fact that even if you wanted to open them right now,

You couldn't.

You couldn't.

You couldn't.

You couldn't.

You couldn't.

You couldn't.

You couldn't.

So heavy in fact that even if you wanted to open them right now,

You couldn't.

They're just so heavy.

Notice as you recline back into this wonderful cloud that your feet and ankles also start to release all the tension.

It's melting out of the arches of your feet and your toes.

Just let the tension go.

Notice your calf muscles becoming very relaxed.

Feel this relaxation spreading up.

Spreading up your calf muscles into your thigh muscles and buttocks.

Just let all that tension go.

Let them feel heavy.

Allow your hips and pelvis to just let go of any tension.

Just let it go.

Just let it go.

Feeling the sense of letting go now spreading up your abdomen and your low back.

Let your belly and your low back be very relaxed.

Let any tension melt out of your chest.

Just let your heart gently relax into your chest.

Let your lungs gently relax in your chest.

Release all tension in your upper back and shoulders and feel this wonderful feeling of relaxation spreading down both arms,

Allowing all the muscles in your arms and shoulder.

Just let them go.

Let go of all tension in your elbows and wrists and hands.

And finally,

Release all tension out of the neck,

Face and scalp.

Just let it all go.

Your eyelids are still so heavy.

Notice now that the entire body is heavily and perfectly supported by this cloud.

So relaxed.

Notice now that the cloud is gently beginning to descend.

And as this cloud safely and slowly descends,

You in fact are descending into a deeper state of concentration,

Deeper state of consciousness.

As you continue to descend more deeply,

Notice that you're starting to go back in time.

In your mind,

Revisiting some past experiences which may have caused you at that time to experience some very strong emotions.

Maybe you were thinking about the past experiences that you might have experienced.

Maybe you were physically or emotionally hurt.

Perhaps you grew up in an abusive family.

Maybe there were alcoholics in the family.

Were you rejected or experienced pain or abandonment?

Just continue to rest peacefully on this cloud as you descend further into these past emotions.

And stick with the memory and strongest emotion that you have right now.

And just let it wash over you.

Resist the temptation to push it away.

It must be fully experienced so that we can let it go.

This can cause you a feeling of sadness,

Wanting to cry.

If that's the case,

Just let it flow.

Let it go.

You might feel angry or sad or lonely.

You might feel like you're in a deep state of deep depression.

You might feel like you're in a deep state of deep depression.

Let it go.

You might feel angry or sad or lonely.

And that's okay.

These emotions will not harm you.

You're just experiencing it as a memory.

And by experiencing it,

We bring it to the surface so we can let it go.

The harm comes from pushing it down.

Let it go.

As you experience this emotion and when it feels right,

Begin to see these emotions coming from the deep recesses of your mind as bubbles,

Bubbles of emotion,

Which are washing over your body.

You may notice in fact that in your area of physical discomfort or pain,

That the emotional bubbles tend to flow from your mind right to this area.

Perhaps the bubbles are flowing to your back or your neck,

Your shoulders,

Hips,

Or knees,

Wherever you have experienced this pain,

Just allow these emotions to flow.

Stay with the memory and the emotions.

Let it flow.

Let it go.

Now we begin to notice once again,

The part of your body where those strong physical pains are been experienced.

And notice in this area that there's a little valve with a little handle on it.

And that as you open that valve,

The bubbles that are flowing from your body,

The bubbles that are flowing from your body,

The emotions that are flowing from your valve,

The bubbles,

Those emotional bubbles start to flow out of your body,

Out of that area.

Feel that pressure releasing as those bubbles flow out and just bubble out of you.

What a tremendous relief.

As you stay with this memory,

Notice that the associated emotions are now flowing directly past the area of discomfort and right out of your body,

Bubbling out of your body.

See this stream of emotion pouring out of your body and see the bubbles rising up and right up and out of you.

Keep the flow going.

Bubble out these emotions.

Bubble out these emotions.

Let it flow.

As these emotions associated with your past memory begin to start to lose some pressure,

Notice that your entire body is feeling less pressure and the bubbles start to slow down.

They stop in fact being produced.

They stop bubbling out of your body and are not stored anywhere in your body.

Turn off that valve now in your mind's eye and direct your attention to the area where you had discomfort or pain and bring warmth to the area.

Surround this area by a warm glowing healing light,

Which is bringing healing oxygen to the muscles and tendons,

Ligaments or joints.

Notice that beautiful warm feeling spreading throughout your entire body.

Feel a pleasant warmth over every part of your body.

So relaxed and so warm.

And so warm.

Notice the feeling of decreased pressure overall.

Notice as the emotional stress was released,

So with it goes the physical pain.

Notice now that the cloud is gently beginning to ascend,

Slowly coming up and as this cloud begins to rise up,

There's a feeling of warmth and lightness in your entire body and this feeling of happiness spreads all over you.

The corners of your mouth begin to rise,

Feeling lighter and happier.

Notice that your eyelids are becoming lighter and lighter and they begin to flutter.

I will now count backwards from five to one.

And when I say the number one,

You will feel completely awake with a sense of lightness,

Happiness and pain removed,

If not entirely significantly reduced in your body.

Feeling more and more awake for feeling happier and lighter.

Three more and more optimistic to feeling no sense of pressure excited,

Excited to start life anew.

And one come completely awake and open your eyes,

Bring movement into your body and notice how you feel.

Take a moment and rate the pain in your body again.

Maybe you're feeling a little bit more relaxed,

Take a moment and rate the pain in your body again.

Maybe it is less and maybe it's completely gone.

Feel free to visit this meditation as often as you like or as often as you need.

Dr.

Sarno found that when patients understood their chronic pain or TMS was almost exclusively related to past trauma or emotions that people began to experience an almost immediately and complete resolution of symptoms or at least a significant improvement in pain and function.

I hope you've enjoyed this guided meditation for chronic pain and emotional release.

But if your emotional issues seem so strong and so so intense that you're not ready to deal with them in the meditation like this,

Seeing a psychologist or a counselor may be an effective way to start the process for you.

Peacefully,

Brett.

Reviews

Very nice! This is perfect for those who are new to beginning to explore the mind-body connection.

We can definitely be our own worst enemy 😊🙏😇💐.

Love Dr Sarno’s work. You bring it to life so well and my pain diminished quite a bit ! Ty for this

This was pretty incredible! Pain did diminish somewhat. I'm going to research this topic. Thank you!

I have just discovered Dr. Sarno’s book and this meditation has really helped me. Will use again. 🙏

Interesting!

I have Dr. Sarno’s books so this meditation really resonated with me. You have a fabulous voice!

Thanks. 🙏🌺

I’m so glad I found this!

Thank you so much for that 💯🙏🏽

Very powerful meditation/hypnosis. My pain was significantly better after listening to it. Thank you, I will be listening to this often 🙏🏻💜💙💚

Wow will definitely re visit ... pain went to 0 only for a brief moment but confirms to me that it definitely TMS pain

I just discovered dr sarnos work today and I’m all in now finding ways to reduce emotional the tension in my body after 20 years of chronic back pain. My pain was 7/10 before the meditation and definitely lessened as a result. Thank you dr Brett.

Thank you for being so caring and kind, that in itself is healing. And I like the bubbles!

I really enjoy this lesson and session. I’ve been dealing with chronic pain for almost 3 years now-this has become part of my routine to manage symptoms. Dealing with past trauma is tough, this is also helpful for growth. Will continue listening and I hope with time to be pain free. Any other suggestions on courses for chronic pain? In search of more tools for healing.

This meditation was excellent and really spoke to Dr. John Sarno’s work. I also do journal speak which was created by Nicole Sachs, inspired by Dr. Sarno. This mediation, combined with journal speak, can really help with chronic pain symptoms.

Excellent meditation for pain! Thanks

I did not help the pain but I really appreciate the concept. I am attempting pain management through meditation versus medication...😔🙏🏻

This was an informative meditation. My back is feeling so much better.Now I know what TMS means. I will revisit this daily. Thank you for enlightening me 🙏

Thank you for this. I’ll be coming back to it frequently. 🙏🏼

I feel like this Meditation will really help.. I will revisit daily for sure!!