Saturday, July 19, 2008

The Final Member of the Family and an update



     Finally!  The finished family.  Yes, the cat took me a week.  Or rather, the cat took me a few hours, but motivating myself to make the cat took me a week.  My back, neck and shoulders have not improved in 2 weeks (!).  BUT, I have stumbled upon this book by Dr. Sarno.  I have never heard of this man before, but apparently Howard Stern (of whom I am not a fan) has had his back pain cured by him as well as oodles and oodles of other people who then went on to write positive, if not utterly giddy, reviews of his book on Amazon.com.  Basically, in a nutshell, Dr. Sarno's theory is that chronic back pain is caused by tension and stress.  It is painful, but it is not real pain because it is your brain's way of dealing with repressed emotions (I know, I know, I can almost see some of the eye-rolls).  Once you accept this as your diagnosis (it's called TMS), then your brain can't hide these repressed emotions as pain in your back anymore and it starts to release itself.  I fit the personality type of people who are prone to develop TMS like a glove.  I still have pain, but it's not supposed to be lifted away until my subconscious mind also accepts the diagnosis.  I felt a little bit silly writing that last sentence, but I honestly believe that TMS is real.  Dr Sarno makes valid points in his book.  I'll hold my recommendation for a couple of weeks, but if the pain does go away, you will see a giddy review of my own.  I have to say though, that one of his strategies is to go ahead with your normal activity instead of being intimidated by the pain, so you will see more pillow monsters being blogged!
    In other news, I decided to go to school in the fall.  I was accepted into the Masters in Art Education program awhile ago, but I was a bit wishy-washy about whether or not I wanted to go back to school or pursue Pillow Monstering full-time.  I love my pillow monsters from the bottom of my heart, but I think while I have the time and no babies (something that will hopefully change in the next year or so) I mine as well go for it this year.  The decision has not really sunk in yet, but it's made!  

I hope you all have been wonderful, and thanks to the oober patient family who made the request to be pillow-monstered!  I had a great time!

7 comments:

Sarah said...

I love your pillow monsters!

Congratulations on going to school :D

Archie and Melissa said...

hi nicole!
ooooh! the kitty is perfect! am so glad you found that book. i do not think it is silly at all. emotions, especially ones that are repressed can be very elusive but show up as pain and lots of stuff. good for you for looking at it from different angles. it can only help and not hurt!

congratulations on going back to school. how exciting. good things happening all over the place. you always have a wonderful positve energy.

xo
melissa

Hello, I'm Sally. said...

I totally believe that your mind and body are connected. I just went to a mind body specialist to talk about sleeping troubles. It all makes perfect sense to me! Good luck, I'm waiting for your giddy response.

Eva said...

yay- pillow monster family is finished! it's awesome and congrats on going back to school :D every semester i enroll in one class... i guess i'm a nerd but i like learning new things. right now, i'm trying to learn french. i'd like to take japanese for a bit maybe too because then maybe i can decipher all those japanese craft books i own :) keeping your mind challenged is great!

thanks nichol for the recommendation on the book- the next time i make an order from amazon or get a sweet coupon to borders- i'll look it up. i'm always of the opinion that it's worth a try. i used to be afraid of flying on planes even though i did it all the time... but all it took was reading a book as silly as it seems, but it explained all the noises and gave little techniques to do if you got freaked out and now i fly without any fear :) the only part i find stressful now is just dealing with the airport, but once i'm on the plane i'm relaxed. i hope the book helps you! can't wait to read it myself- i wonder if i fit the bill for that too?! the mind is a powerful thing...

anyway, also thanks for adding me on the treasury- that made my day! i'm off to sew another mushroom :D have a good weekend!

Anonymous said...

Dr. Sarno is for real. To build your confidence, check out the 20/20 program on him from 1999, which cured John Stossel of 20 years of back pain. It's at:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6660313127569317147

There's also an active TMS Help Forum.

Best,
Ralph

indianafuji said...

Congratulations on going back to school! I've loved seeing your work, and I hope you continue to post on the blog (even if you're busy in grad school).

Sincerely,
Sarah

Aly- Bliss Monkey Studio said...

ha ha ha!!! I'm actually responding to your post about Weeds and games! But wanted to make sure you read it. I love Ticket to Ride AND Carcasonne (even if I can't spell it). We have Hunters and Gatherers and the Cities with a few of the expansions. Seems some expansions are good and some are not so great.

I was hoping to hear you are feeling better.... sounds like your wrists are to a manageable level?

Also, I have Weeds on my netflicks cue but haven't seen it yet. I laughed a lot over what you said about the cussing! I'll be sure to $%^&$ing check it out!

Aly