Tips from Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection by John E. Sarno, M.D.

This book is a classic in showing the mind-body connection. Here is the main activity he suggests to bring up the resentments from the unconscious mind and address them so they don't come out through the body.

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Set aside time every day, possibly 15 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening to review the following material:

• Make a list of everything that may contribute to those feelings

• Write an essay about each item on your list —the longer the better. This forces you to focus on the important emotions in your life. There are a number of possible sources of those feelings:

  • Anger, hurt, emotional pain and sadness generated during your childhood or throughout your life; physical, sexual or emotional abuse, including not receiving enough emotional support, warmth or love; excessive discipline or unreasonable expectations.

  • Certain personality traits can contribute to emotional pain: if you expect a great deal of yourself; if you drive yourself to be perfect, to achieve, to succeed; if you are your own harshest critic;if you have a strong need to please people, to want them to like you, or if you tend to be very helpful to everyone and anyone.

• You should put on your list anything in your life that represents pressure or responsibility: your job, your spouse if you are married, your children if you are a parent, your parents if they are living and, of course, any major problems in your life.

• Add to your list those situations in which you become consciously angry and annoyed but cannot express it, whatever the reason may be.

He says, "You must sit down and think about these things every day in order to bring your ideas from your unconscious mind into your conscious mind. That’s where they have to get to in order for the brain to stop the protective mechanism, and for the symptoms to disappear."