What They Don't Tell You About Healing Stress-Induced Illnesses

When you’re working through a physical pain syndrome that’s stress-induced (often called TMS or MBS), you need four different approaches at once to make the healing process as efficient as possible: emotional healing, a mind-body mindset, nervous system regulation, and inner wisdom guidance.

Often you’ll see information in health publications or hear in your doctor’s office that stress impacts our well-being, but you don’t often get really clear information around how to actually implement stress-relieving practices in a way that actually works.

For example, when I first heard this when I was dealing with chronic pain, I started doing meditation and breathwork in order to heal.

I actually didn’t even think of them as stress-relieving activities; I wanted to heal so badly that I was approaching those practices with a great deal of intensity. 

Then, when I discovered the work of Dr. John Sarno, who coined the term TMS for stress-induced illness and discovered the power of emotional processing for healing (well - at least re-discovered it in our current Western culture), the same thing happened.

I applied what Sarno shared in his book with a great deal of zeal and self-pressure, hoping to heal faster.

I didn’t really have any desire to reduce my stress, per se. My chronic pain was so frustrating that I just wanted it to heal. NOW.

Without taking all of that into account when you tell someone that this, that, or the other process will help them heal a stress-induced illness, everything can really backfire.

Yoga and meditation can become stressors, not stress relievers. Mind-body healing work can become hard, heavy work. Drudgery only increases, not decreases. And, as you might have guessed, this makes it awfully hard to actually reduce stress and therefore, heal.

I’ve found, after working with clients for the last fourteen years, that I am not alone in this tendency to pressure myself into the ground while attempting to relieve stress!

Most people are also somewhat confused as to HOW to apply Sarno’s work, yoga, meditation, or any healing practice to their chronic syndrome. It is confusing!

When I first learned about all of these various healing methods, I felt confused, so I set out to systematize it for myself. Whenever I feel overwhelmed, I turn the new process into a system so I can just do it without exhausting my brain.

I realized that you really just need these four elements, applied in this way:

1. You need to be feeling your emotions regularly each day, without analyzing why they’re here or where they came from (that will show up naturally if you need it to). It’s important to feel the emotions as a sensory experience, not a mental experience (my chest feels heavy versus I’m mad at that asshole).
2. You need to be in a mindset that you CAN heal, that feeling your emotions is what you do anytime you freak out about your pain, and that you’re no longer going to pressure yourself incessantly. You also need to know you’ll doubt the process and not to get caught up in that.
3. You need to do something that regulates your nervous system daily; sitting wrapped in a cozy blanket, a breathing practice that works for you, listening to music or humming, or anything you find calming and lovely. The more you do it, the better, as long as it doesn’t feel like pressure. Stop if you start pressuring yourself to continue and move on with your day.
4. You need to ask inner wisdom to guide you even when you feel like you can’t hear it or don’t trust it. Eventually, it gets clearer and clearer. Start with simple things, like what type of toothpaste inner wisdom suggests.

Obviously, we can go quite deep into each of those elements of mind-body healing, but even just doing what I wrote above is enough to heal your stress-induced illness.

One of my gifts is to take enormous amounts of the varied and amazing mind-body healing information out there and synthesize it into a simple how-to process for you that really works.

It has to be a system of somatic mind-body practices that allows you to take the pressure OFF of yourself and allows for flexibility so that you can keep what you love and toss what you don’t.

If your nervous system is more regulated, you’ve released the constant fight, flight, or freeze energy in your body, you’re not suppressing emotions (which causes chronic tension and pain), you are not pressuring yourself, and you’re listening to your inner wisdom, healing simply has to happen!

Sharing my straightforward how-to steps for mind-body healing in a way that teaches you to release self-pressure (my Mind-Body Magic Method) is a big part of what I do in my Mind-Body Magic Life Coach Training Program. It’s so easy to get caught in perfectionism and self-pressure, so the whole program is designed to help you get out of that trap. Even the “homework” is actually you applying the tools to yourself and de-stressing. (Pretty cool, yeah?)

Then I also give you my Slacker Magic System for running your coaching practice and your life without hustle and pressure so that your manifesting can start working in high gear for clients and income. If you don’t want to run a biz, that’s fine - you’ll get plenty out of the Slacker Magic System for your general life experience to really get out of that habit of running yourself into the ground anytime you want to get results.

You can learn more about this program and others here.