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If You Are in Pain, this May Help. It Helped Me

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Are you in pain? Does your body ache?

Well, it’s called life. But there’s something you can do about it.

We all have heard about mind over body. This is different.

Let me introduce you to the late Dr. John E. Sarno, who during his life helped relieve the pain of people like Harvard Medical School grad and guru of alt medicine Dr. Andrew Weil, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Seinfeld creator Larry David, TV personality John Stossel, and shock-jock Howard Stern.

What Dr. Sarno has done for them and for others is to understand that sometimes our mind-body connection is disconnected.

Our hidden or unconscious anger (rage) expresses itself through physical pain without our mind even knowing it.

The Key to Healing

What Dr. Sarno explains in his books is that the key to healing is for you to tell your body to cut the &#%!@ crap.

To tell your body “I know what you’re doing to me.”

Why should you care?

Because maybe you’re the type of person who fits the back-pain profile.

Read what this initial skeptic and pain free patient has to say:

Think about what you are like—what is it in you that lets problems create such pain. I am a typical Sarno type—perfectionist, easily angered, highly motivated, high achiever, somewhat compulsive and impatient with other people. Those are the parts of my personality that led my mind to develop back pain. However, there are other types that get it. One of my co-workers is a happy, easygoing, very pleasant woman, but she got back pain as bad as mine, and the book cured her, too. (It took her about three months, by the way, but she is perfectly healthy now.) Try to learn what is inside you that needs distraction. What permits the pain to develop and persist? Be honest about yourself. Again, remember that you don’t have to change your personality for the cure to work—you just have to understand and fight it.

The Fears of Retirement

Much of my day is spent speaking with investors who have been extremely successful in their lives.

They are family oriented. Most are financially independent or well on their way to achieving independence.

But they are crossing a bridge that is new to them.

They don’t have to work anymore.

But they still have fears.

  • Fear of not knowing what to do with their time.
  • Fear of what aging will feel like.
  • Fear of whether or not they have enough money.
  • Fear of not having meaning.
  • Fear of not being happy.

These are big worries. They matter. They can’t simply be swept under the rug.

Your body won’t let you—even though you may shrug your shoulders and think: “I’m fine.”

You may be a type S personality—type S for the need of Dr. Sarno’s wisdom.

Top 20 Causes of Stress

Take a look at this list created years ago by psychiatrists Thomas Holmes and Richard Rahe on the causative role of stressful life events in the natural history of many diseases.

Many items on this list are negative, but many are what you and I would consider desirable.

Notice how six of the top 20 have to do with money.

Money is a huge psychological stressor that can express itself through physical pain without us even knowing it.

  1. Death of a spouse
  2. Divorce
  3. Marital separation
  4. Jail term
  5. Death of a close family member
  6. Personal injury or illness
  7. Marriage
  8. Fired at work
  9. Marital reconciliation
  10. Retirement
  11. Change in health of family member
  12. Pregnancy
  13. Sex difficulties
  14. Gain of a new family member
  15. Business readjustment
  16. Change in financial state
  17. Death of a close friend
  18. Change to different line of work
  19. Change in number of arguments with spouse
  20. Mortgage over $10,000 (in the 1960s)

If you suffer from physical pain then believe me, getting to know Dr. Sarno will be time well spent.

Dr. Sarno’s Best Books

Here are my favorite books by Dr. Sarno:

Here is the trailer to his documentary (pay no attention to the ding-bats in Congress): All the Rage

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E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

E.J. Smith is Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zilldjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com
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