Initial worsening of symptoms...

[neil_l]

I started the program on the 1st December.

The following weekend was a revelation, the most clear I've felt in many years and loads of energy.

Then the week after that on the Thursday 11th I started getting a cold. Which my wife also got. We were both knocked out for a couple of weeks, including the first week of our holiday visiting friends in Boston over Christmas/New Year.

While I was away I did my best to do some meditation but didn't get a huge amount done.

Last week - 5th Jan. We started back at work and had a very stressful few days as we had a fire at work, which was on top of the jetlag and me buying a new car!

This week I am back in the proper routine again. However, I am so tired and have so many pain symptoms, which I was also experiencing in December but put down to having a cold.

To be honest I have only had that one good weekend at the start of the treatment and the rest of the time been as bad or frequently worse than I would have been without the program.

I am not losing faith and I know that my brain needs to be calmed down. I am also feeling less anxious about my symptoms and coping well considering how bad I am at the moment.

I'm just interested to know if this is a common reaction to the program. I guess I just have to sit it out and see...

[Emergo]

Neil_l, sorry to hear that.

I hook on to this topic, because it's interesting. I have a similar experience.

Since I've learned about the Amydgala RP, I started to feel better, mainly because of the hope and mental relaxation that the free online session 2 gave me (finally I got the explanation I had been looking for, for over 10 years!).

I started the programme 2 weeks later on Jan 1st 2009, which is quite recently. Initially, I felt great the first week in which I put the STOP-technique into practice. At the end of that week and this last week, I feel more tired than before (note: I still have this incredible feeling of hope and confidence).

Now, please don't take this the wrong way, but from what I read in your story, you've had quite a busy period. This might have caused extra stress, costing you more energy or triggering the amygdala instead of relaxing it. I might be wrong. If so, I apologize.

Another explanation - and this I derive from my own experience - could be that your body/ mind is (finally!) relaxing, letting go. The process releases tension in both body and mind after a long time of being under pressure. Imagine what would happen after you've worked hard for a week (whilst being able to cope, whilst being healthy); how would you feel? Tired! So this too might be a normal, logical and healthy reaction of the body. Release = relieve.

I say this, because I practised EFT for a year before starting on the ARP. Feeling tired after an EFT session is common and often explained as tension taken away from issues, the body relaxing and finally being able to rest, etc. EFT retrains the brain too so it finally can give a healthy or normal response. But the body has to shift towards this new approach. The feeling is the same to me as what happens now using the ARP.

Hope this might help. And anybody; please, correct me if I'm wrong.

[neil_l]

Hi,

Thanks for the response.

Yes I have had a very busy period, and it's for that reason that I decided to start my 6 months again from last weekend. December was a very busy month and the cold virus threw me completely - but it did the same to my wife who is not ill at all. She slept for 3 days solid.

I'm not being negative about the situation, just curious really. In some ways I feel like my brain is learning how to work at these lower stress levels, as it has constantly been working overtime in the past, and that is making it feel almost slow and lethargic.

[neil_l]

I wonder if it's some kind of withdrawl from the chemicals that are put into the body when the amygdala is on high alert

[niaholt]

Hi Neil,
I feel you are like I was and wanting results fast. I went into the AR program in Sept working toward a goal that I would be better in a certain time frame. I pushed myself, taking a plane trip I waited 11 yrs for and came home in a heap. No program for about 6 wks but kept up the mediation. I started over again in Dec and am doing bettter. I had coaching from Ashoks team for 30 mins and did not get a great deal from it. The best thing she did say was to just DO the program and STOP looking for results.

I think that was an excellent piece of advice. I think the help and encouragement from this forum has helped me no end....just being patient and waitng for results and this week I am seeing some. I had great help from a forum member this week and it has turned out to be so good. Taking her advice on how to approach a lot of talking and visiting when I leave home, she showed me how to handle it. This week I have survived, living, doing lot of what normal people do without being wiped out.

Ashok says to relax with the program and now I am doing that....I was a bit rigid before....thinking about it lot. Now I am thinking about life more and slotting in the program more calmly. My friend recovered very fast so I wanted that too. I desperately wanted to work toward a dream for returning to Canada this year. Now I have put that on hold and am "calmly" waiting instead of "desperately" waiting. I think the brain knows the difference as it is a kind of tension. Just relaxing with the idea of change I think the Amygdala may not get itself to be so reactive.

With the program now I go for walk to the beach and I do it or walking home and I might get all the words mixed up but my brain knows by now what I am doing....its like, taking a packed lunch everywhere I go.
I had a severe adrenal collapse this year so I had the adrenaline running overtime for 8 mths. Nothing has calmed it but the meditation and this program. I am religous about the meditation. Yes I was getting very high and I asked my DR if I was becoming Manic. That seems to have leveled out now and I just feel pure joy and I know it is the mediation and the program

Whilst I am thinking joy I am not thinking negatively I find this to be profound. I do no think I have ever had such happiness and I am changing every aspect of my daily life...like rising earlier for a beach walk...learning to drive again after 11 yrs....eating on the patio in the lovely summer breeze. I am using all the the wonderful gifts life has given us and taking a lot more advantage and feeling more gratitude for everything around me. I read this week that genes change if you change environment and beliefs systems and I found that amazing. I just thought you were stuck with what you got given.

Yes I still have symptoms but I am ignoring them and giving myself a longer time frame. I have been sick 20 yrs worse in the past 11 yrs so I am grateful for any improvement and am prepared to wait for as long as it takes. Maybe my Amygdala is tougher and more rigid than others.

Just continue what you are doing and wait in line for your turn.....I believe it will happen Just be patient.....I have witnessed my friend after 13 yrs in bed to be a fully functioning business lady again in short time.

Cheers
Nia

[JR]

Thank you so much, Nia. Your post really helps me. I, too, have a tendency to get frustrated when I'm not improving as fast as others. But I AM improving and just have to accept that this is my pace, at this point. It's ok. There's nothing wrong with it, and I can just enjoy the good stuff and give myself permission to take as long as it takes. Take care!

[neil_l]

Thanks for posting Nia. I really appreciate the time you put into that post and it is very interesting.

I don't think that I'm desperate for results. I am already doing pretty much everything I want to do - I work full time, I play in a band with my friends, I have some great cars and am well enough to go and drive them most of the time. Regarding my trip to the states - that is something that I would have done with or without the program.

I can live my life like this, but it is a battle sometimes.

My post was just noting that I am seeing an increase in symptoms and severity of symptoms since starting the program. I'm still following the program and will for the 6 months as I do believe that it is the root of my problems.