Can Mindfulness Meditation Cure TMS Chronic Pain?

Does Meditation work to cure TMS chronic Pain? The answer is unfortunately no, although it would be a lot cooler if it did. How do I know that Meditation does not cure TMS? If it did you would not be reading this. I already was a regular meditator before and during the entire time I was struggling with TMS chronic pain. My meditation practice remained stable as I healed. My meditation practice is stable again, but it has not always been stable throughout the last decade that I have remained pain free. Without a doubt, the only healing change I made is the knowledge I had and the mindset that the knowledge allowed me to permanently adopt about my chronic pain. Could I have made the mindset change without being a regular meditator already. Probably, yes, but to be completely honest, I am not sure. I didn’t have a lot of patience before I started meditation. I don’t know if I would have had the stability of mind to see the alternative truths and apply them to a new mindful mindset as quickly as I did. And if I would not have gotten the very powerful and quick initial healing experience, I likely would have bailed. I don’t meditate every single day because I am some super Zen type of person by nature. I meditate because I am not a super Zen type of person by nature.

I see the same all the time and have probably done the same. Well intentioned supporters see someone in pain and emotional stress and suggest that they try meditation. Doctors these days might even prescribe meditation as a way to reduce stress to bring down blood pressure. All I can say is that this is not how meditation works for me. It is not something I sit down to do with the intention of completing the meditation and walking away relieved of stress for the day. Maybe you can do that with these guided meditations that I see which appear to mostly be soothing Ted Talks. That is not exactly what I do. The purpose of my daily practice is the long-term goal of quieting and stabilizing my mind, not a short term goal like stress relief. I may well have increased stress relief the longer I practice and the more stable my mind becomes, but that is not an individual session goal for me.

I completely understand when people report that “Meditation” did not work when they tried it for TMS relief. I did the same thing years ago. I started meditating to help me with stress and my golf game. It didn’t work at all! The more I meditated about golf and searched for instant stress relief, the more disappointed my results made me.

Fortunately for me, I also started reading some good books on meditation and mindfulness and I began to notice more subtle changes over time as I continued to practice. I was learning to shut the monkey-mind down and I was feeling different! The more silent, present, and stable my mind became, the more at peace and centered I began to feel. And I also became more able to adopt a new mindset based on an unconventionally healing approach like Sarno’s TMS.

Did meditation eventually help my golf scores? No, not really. Probably because the stabilized and more open mind helped me understand that insatiably chasing sports accomplishments was just one of many recurring stressors from my past that I might finally be ready to let go of. Maybe there are more worthy things to focus my time learning to be a pro at?

I have seen this over and over, again and I stand by my previous advisement that mediation does not cure TMS. Ultimately self-empowerment and knowledge is still the cure. All the meditation or stress relieving in the world doesn’t change that fact. But I am equally certain, through my own experience and from what I have seen from others, meditation can make a difference. In my experience, regular meditators do have an easier time accepting and applying TMS principals than non-meditators. But really that is just the tip of the iceberg on what regular meditation can do and what it can help with when applied correctly.

So, should you start a daily meditation practice, tomorrow? Absolutely yes, just do not start that practice for the purpose of TMS chronic pain or golf score improvement! Set your goals higher and farther out with meditation, and the small stuff with get better on its own over time as you practice and stabilize your mind.

In the next blog I will go a little deeper into my specific mindfulness meditation processes.