Mike found a physician who works with TMS (tension myositis syndrome) patients and began learning about repressed emotions and the role they’ve played in his life.

Working with Dr. Stracks and a therapist, he isn't seeing a shift in your pain. If he were mentoring someone, he would tell them it isn’t a straight path, you have to be patient. He was being asked to notice spikes in pain. All sensations were incredibly threatening. That led to fear and increased pain. He was encouraged to notice what he was feeling before there was a spike in pain. With months of meditation, he noticed his pain threshold dropping. Then he was able to witness a spike in pain.

Now he can go back and see how he repressed his emotions and his body could take no more. He hid behind a veneer of success – thinking money can buy happiness. Money definitely makes life easier, but it doesn’t eliminate suffering.

Being able to be with his pain rather than being consumed by his pain was a total shift. Pain was such a threat to his way of life. It was shocking to learn that he could be in pain but still find some peace. Being able to calm myself down he could face what needed to be faced.

Meditation has changed his life in powerful ways. But it is something that takes time and practice. It took time to take hold but now he’s now less judgmental, more open.

Tune in tomorrow for the conclusion of my interview with Mike,

We’ll discuss the way his emotions ran under the surface of his experience throughout his life without his conscious awareness of their power.

Also Mike will talk a bit about his father, and the way ancestral trauma formed him and created emotional triggers related to his repressed emotions.

And how the simple act of talking about emotions releases some of the pain.

You won’t want to miss the conclusion of my interview

I'm Annette Leonard, speaker, coach, and sick person who believes that my illnesses do not define me. If health is the absence of disease and wellness is the presence of wholeness, then no matter what your disease status, we can work toward your wellness, your wholeness.

Whether or not you are ever "healthy" on paper, you can be well. Join me and others on the path back to wholeness at AnnetteLeonard.com. Whether you are a person experiencing chronic illness or are someone who loves or serves people with chronic illness I have great resources here on this channel or on my website for you.

WIN A COPY OF MIKE'S BOOK Here's how to enter:

1) Leave me a rating or review on whatever audio podcast platform you listen to.

2) Let me know you've done that by emailing me at [email protected] or leaving me a comment about it on YouTube so that you can be entered in to the drawing. If you have a preference about which book you'd like, let me know in your comment or email. (I’m also giving away a copy of Arlene Faulk's "Walking on Pins and Needles.")

3) If you'd like to be entered multiple times you can also post about one (or both of the books) and tag me on Instagram @theAnnetteLeonard including tag of either #mypainbodysolution or @arlenefaulk for up to two additional entries. The drawing is planned for Mike's book is on 7/5 (Arlene's will be on 6/30).