crushing doubt

Link to sign up https://anchor.fm/drdanratner Hi, everyone. I wanted to update you all on where to find the latest content for the Crushing Daily Podcast. We have shifted over to a paid subscription on Spotify of $5.99 a month. There is already new video content on YouTube, but the audio version of that content will be arriving on Spotify in the next week or two. In addition, new episodes will be coming out weekly from now on, and I will update you if there will be a break in the schedule. Looking forward to bring you all of the mind body information you need.  

In this episode of Brothers in Arms, Edgar, Eric, and Dr. Dan welcome Rob Davon-Butler to the show and the brothers discuss the many facets of fatherhood. Rob shares a concern that, in an effort to correct all of the things about which he suffered as a child, he may have taken things too far and not prepared his kids for the reality of the world. Dr. Dan encourages him that he has done a good job putting all of his love into them and that he can always now make adjustments. Eric brings the stats, as always, and we find staggering numbers on the impact of the absence of fathers — something 1/4 of all children experience in not having a father figure in their lives at all — as the likelihood of jail time, teen pregnancy, and more gets much higher in these circumstances. The brothers explore the different angles that can make being a father tough, including how we can be tough on ourselves. Dr. Dan puts the emphasis on learning to let your kids be exactly who they are, trusting in that, and focusing on listening to who they are in an effort to be there for them best. The conversation shifts, when Rob walks the walk, as the group dives in deeper to his concerns about how he has done as a father, and Edgar shares some similar worries in relation to his son. But the whole group can agree that they best way to be is to recognize that, while no one is perfect, the thing your kids most need is for you to be ‘perfectly you.'

In this interview, I sit down with Rita LaBarbera and Tamara Gurin, two former CRPS (complex regional pain syndrome) sufferers who are now both devoting a big part of their time and work to bringing hope to people with similar ailments. Rita and Tamara talk about the plight of patients who do not have just one symptom and how the literature focuses so much on back pain that some can feel even more discouraged about their ability to get better. Both describe their stories here and each are harrowing tales of crippling pain experiences and the seeming loss of all kinds of function and hope. Luckily, Rita and Tamara each found their way and even found each other on the TMS Wiki, which calls to mind how important it is to continue building community among pain sufferers so we can support each other and continue to bring hope to the sometimes difficult process of recovery. Rita talks about being a mind body coach now, while Tamara shares more about the book she wrote on CRPS (Complex Regional Pain Syndrome) — formerly known as RSD (Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy). They partnered and created a website where they share their knowledge and success stories with CRPS patients: http://www.defeatcrps.com. Both echo the sentiment that, while doubt can be larger with such a symptom profile, it really is no different than the other symptoms and that this is a message the entire pain and symptom sufferer community needs to hear in multiple ways.

In this episode of our How To series, I do a deeper dive into the nuts and bolts of how to expose doubts as illogical and hard to continue believing once looked at in the right way. In specific, I help the viewer consider laying out two theories next to one another so that we can see which ones hold up to scientific and logical scrutiny. Today, we look at level one doubt: when you are not sure if your symptoms are mind body issues or if they might be structural in some way. I lay out the mind body interpretation of a specific doubt — that we might just be re-injuring an initial injury over and over — versus a structural theory of what is happening. As we look at the structural theory, we find that science is, decidedly, against it, and then the logic starts to fall apart as well. One of the things I point out is that, to keep supporting such an illogical theory, a secondary theory is usually required and the process continues until there are so many assumptions required to keep it going that it becomes obviously false. This is a major way that I engage in using logic against each one of my doubts and I am hopeful that, in your being able to see it in action, you can make further headway in winning the many battles against doubt, just as I have.

This is a live Q&A about mind body symptoms with Crushing Doubt host Dr. Dan Ratner. If you have chronic pain or other physical symptoms that haven't been able to be explained or helped by medical doctors or other alternative treatments, this information can change your life. By changing the way we think and feel, we can change our actual physiological processes to relieve — or even cure — many symptoms, from head to toe.

In this episode of Brothers in Arms, the brothers are back to look at some of the most difficult to explore topics — today, toxic masculinity. Eric brings the research, as always, and we find out where the term toxic masculinity comes from in the first place (shout out to the 80s). One of the most enlightening moments comes in our exploration of how men can be toxic to themselves, as they feel tied into preconceived notions about what it is to be a man. We also consider the effects this can ultimately have on others, as these men can take that toxicity and bring it to each other in groups or to women in violence. In Breaking the Mold, the brothers discuss actor Terry Crews having had the courage to report a production executive for inappropriate sexual touching and how he must have had to get past caring what people might think of him as a big, strong man. We talked about the bravery of breaking the mold in any way and that this is one of the keys to getting away from toxic thinking — to be yourself and be aligned with yourself no matter what people might think of who you are. This is also a special episode because Edgar, Eric, and Dr. Dan take a step back to take stock of how they have grown together in sharing some of their hardest experiences. This segment shows, more than any other, what men learning to talk to each other for real support can reveal about who we are and who we can become.

Dani and I sat down to talk about our respective mind body recoveries and journeys and we continued our bond over the power column and how important it has been to each of us. As we both note, power is something that must be addressed on a moment to moment basis, but is always available to anyone to make an adjustment in their lives that can help them. We start out by exploring Dani's mind body history that hit a crescendo in 2015 with the most typical TMS symptom of back pain — crippling, scary, and deeply frustrating in the confusion of it all. She and I also share a very similar story of recognizing ourselves in the works of Sarno and this cementing our belief in what he was saying, but then wanting more on how, exactly, to go about doing the work. Dani's conquering of her pain, which included getting herself used to movement again, and her interest in yoga has led her to create a program for pain sufferers of all kinds (not just back pain!) to learn how to calm their central nervous systems, learn trust in their bodies, and regain functionality. But, as she and I noted together, it is in the growth as a person — whether in understanding our emotions, reducing our doubts, or in finding our powerful path — that we get the most out of living. It was a pleasure to see her continuing to make gains and know how she is helping others in our community.

When trying to get better from mind body symptoms, the key is having the right information and feeling clear on what is happening in your mind that is helping you or harming you. In this episode of our How To Series, I distinguish between two types of questions — ones that come from a genuine desire to understand more and find advancement in the work and ones that, unbeknownst to the asker are driven by fear and doubt and are designed to get you even deeper in trouble with symptom life. I name these A and B questions so that we can start discussing this concept and how it may be affecting your ability to get better. A questions are the ones that come from a motivation to understand things better. You might think that all of your questions are like this, but this is one of the ways that doubt finds a way to bite you — by hiding in a question that really doesn't have an answer and is only designed to create confusion, fear, and a dead end. These types of questions are B questions. We all ask both kinds of questions, but it is vital that we learn to recognize when our questions are serving doubt and not ourselves. What we end up doing with these questions is also totally divergent, so the distinction is crucial. B questions are not to be taken seriously, because they actually have no good answers (by design, in fact…the more baffling they are, the happier doubt is with having this question on your mind), and aren't even questions, really. What they are is worries, fears, and doubts. Learn to ask the A questions and you will always make headway in your understanding, because that is their goal.

This is a live Q&A about mind body symptoms with Crushing Doubt host Dr. Dan Ratner. If you have chronic pain or other physical symptoms that haven't been able to be explained or helped by medical doctors or other alternative treatments, this information can change your life. By changing the way we think and feel, we can change our actual physiological processes to relieve — or even cure — many symptoms, from head to toe.

I continue to connect with as many people in the world of mind body practitioners as I can, in an effort to unify our message about these important issues. I would be remiss if I did not include Dr. Bob Evans, a therapist in New Jersey who trained with Dr. Sarno and Dr. Feinblatt, as they pioneered the TMS treatments in the early days. Much to my surprise, I found out that Bob did not get into mind body work because of his own suffering, but more because of proximity to NYU Langone and running into Dr. Sarno. But his interest in spirituality, mysticism, and buddhism ended up fitting very well with a psychological approach that incorporated the body and a sense of holistic work. Bob and I noted together how each clinician has to fold our understanding of the mind body work into who we are as therapists and talked about the ways that this unfolded for him. We consider the direction of the field and what we find to be important as things continue to expand.

In this episode of our How To Series, I concentrate on how to think about symptoms when the primary profile the sufferer experiences is through the lens of not being able to stop focusing on the symptoms. This video will help you make the crucial distinction between a focus on the symptoms that is driven by obsessional thinking and the same presentation being driven by fear. I note that the pathway to getting the symptoms to recede is different in these two cases and lay out a plan for each. Mind body issues present in a variety of ways, but I have been getting a lot of questions, of late, about these issues of attending to the symptoms and not being able to move forward. When the focus comes from an obsessional personality, you need to use your emotions and power columns to refocus your thoughts in a more productive way. But when it is fear based, it is purely the work of the doubt column and the specific doubt needs to be articulated and contradicted with science and logic. Each column has its function and can help you to locate the nature of your particular struggle within the system. While attentional mind body issues have a doubt origin, the solution is quite different for different presentations, and these ideas should help you to distinguish between varying types and choose appropriate action steps accordingly.

This is a live Q&A about mind body symptoms with Crushing Doubt host Dr. Dan Ratner. If you have chronic pain or other physical symptoms that haven't been able to be explained or helped by medical doctors or other alternative treatments, this information can change your life. By changing the way we think and feel, we can change our actual physiological processes to relieve — or even cure — many symptoms, from head to toe.

In this episode of Brothers in Arms, we're back to the three amigos. We jump right into Old News, focusing on some celebrities who have been accused of thinking in narcissistic ways and discuss what makes someone an actual narcissist. Dr. Dan sheds some light on narcissism as more of a developmental issue than a built in flaw of the person, but also notes that it is very unlikely for these people to get the full help they need because they can't recognize their problem and are motivated, in fact, to not even question it. In Breaking the Mold, the brothers revisit the idea of mani pedis and note that it really did bring up some surprising, uncomfortable feelings in Dr. Dan and Eric that indicate what goes on in our expectations of ourselves as typically gendered beings. Finally, in the segment that is the heartbeat of this show, Dr. Dan walks the walk again, talking about a very difficult experience in therapy with a psychoanalyst who proved to be threatened by him and abusive in some reality bending ways. Edgar and Eric show up, as always, to support and understand this process that Dr. Dan feared would not be understood by others because it isn't as obvious a struggle, but Eric highlights how much of a violation it is to have a therapist fail you so badly that you are left doubting your own worth.

Today's interview features Dr. Liz Croton, a general practitioner in the United Kingdom, who has caught on to mind body treatment and incorporated it in her work. Liz has practiced as a GP for fifteen years, but it is only in the last 6 years that she has folded mind body experience into her work, after learning about it with our Crushing Doubt friend, Georgie Oldfield. Given the short amount of time any GP has with their patients — Liz notes that she usually only gets ten minutes with each — it becomes all the more imperative that doctors understand how to assess what is going on for people from an emotional angle, particularly if we are going to stand a chance at getting people diagnosed correctly and set on a course for the right treatment. Dr. Croton is a fine example of what can happen in our society when a good practitioner continues to think scientifically and logically and even change their whole practice if required to do good work. She notes that it often felt scary to make such changes because it ran counter to so many of her colleagues, but she expresses being glad she did it and optimistic that it is helping those with whom she works.

Today, I got to sit down with Patty to discuss her recovery experience through her work in the seminars with me. She shares that she has engaged in decades of TMS/mind body work and has gotten certain symptoms to go away, but has struggled with others. We talked about her journey and how she decided to make the leap and take my seminar. In this video testimonial, you will hear how she managed with the large amount of information people get in the seminars and she wisely points out that you have to trust that the information will come together in time as they let it wash over them. One really fun aspect of this interaction for me came from how this video came to be, since it was serendipitous. Patty had emailed me with a brilliant thought she had about the three columns system and compares TMS, through my lens, to the Wizard of Oz. The Tin Man needs a heart (the emotions column), The Scarecrow needs a brain (the doubt column), and the Cowardly Lion needs the power column. All the while, Dorothy has the resources within her to get home and to safety and all it takes is exposing the all powerful Oz (TMS) as a fraud. In having her on to tell the story, I was not only happy to see her direct, vibrant telling of the analogy, but to hear about how she worked through the information in my system and in the seminars. She points out another valuable piece of the seminars, as well, in the observing of others asking their questions, getting settled about things, and making headway. It was a pleasure hearing from Patty and knowing the work had made such a difference to her after years of not feeling like she had entirely the right information.

In this episode of the Mind Body Connection Series, I cover the topic of judgment and how it can impact your recovery adversely. When looking at the themes of the emotions column, it is of paramount importance that you learn to do so without judging yourself. As I now say regularly, the emotions column needs to be a ‘judgment free zone'. This video looks at the potential consequences of judging ourselves for themes that we did not choose for ourselves, continue to operate the way they do whether we like it or not, and, when you look more closely at them, have no inherent reason to be judged anyway. We look at how to recognize when you are judging yourself, because it can be a very slippery slope towards judgment with the slightest bad feeling about yourself. After learning to identify judgment, you will need to turn your attention to that ever-important question with respect to what to do next: How do I stop myself from judging? I go over my way of thinking about the emotional themes you develop and how and why you can set those judgments down and never look back. I hope this proves useful in your recovery process, as I know it can make a big impact on the using the emotions column much more effectively.

This is a live Q&A about mind body symptoms with Crushing Doubt host Dr. Dan Ratner. If you have chronic pain or other physical symptoms that haven't been able to be explained or helped by medical doctors or other alternative treatments, this information can change your life. By changing the way we think and feel, we can change our actual physiological processes to relieve — or even cure — many symptoms, from head to toe.

In this episode of Brothers in Arms, the Brothers welcome Momo Rodriguez to the the show. Mom lost his mother to Covid this past year and Edgar and he bonded over having had the same thing occur to him and a very similar experience of these tragic events. We begin with Eric providing some research numbers, including the fact that men are more likely to die of Covid and, even more so, when they fall in the age rage of 40-59. Edgar, Eric, and Dr. Dan explore with Mom why men tend to put themselves in vulnerable spots out of stubborn pride, and more, but the group settles on their being less likely to talk about vulnerabilities as the centerpiece of the risk. In Breaking the Mold, Momo blows the doors off of the segment, sharing his unabashed love of romantic movies — and how they inform writing more than other genres — and he and Edgar bond further over getting mani-pedis. While Eric and Dr. Dan can't personally relate, all four applaud letting something fun and positive into their lives if it feels good to them. Momo walks the walk this week and tells the story of losing his mother and needing to put off the grief so completely to get through that he ended up sinking into his acting role as Steve to the degree that ‘Momo' wasn't really there. The Brothers consider how mourning processes work and the key way that others can help, not with empty words, but by being able to stay present, with or without words.

In this interview with mind body coach Fred Amir, I got to enjoy a taste of Fred's effusive spirit, logical mind, and engaged planning as we hear the tail of his recovery from 25 months of full body suffering during a bout with mind body issues. Fred shares that he did need to find the right information to begin getting better and that he did so in Dr. Sarno's work, just as I did, but we also agreed that there are other aspects of the healing that require people to find their own system to make it work. One of the main things on which we bonded was the now laughable notions of structural theories, as they do not fit with even the most basic observations we can make so easily. Fred shares that he got a lot of what made him better simply by asking himself to find joy and excitement, rather than fear and worry. His nine step process that he crafted for himself can now be found in book form, as he, in his own words, became an ‘accidental author'. Fred's ideas on how to get better have freed up hundreds, if not thousands of people to get better, and his sense of humor, along with the inspiration of Rocky soundtracks helped him make rapid progress once he understood the mind body process. His system shows that it isn't always what you do, so much as what you come to believe from what you do. It was a pleasure having him on and I look forward to more time with this energetic mind body coach.

In this testimonial, Marc R. shares how he was able to get better from his latest mind body suffering using the Crushing Doubt Podcast, alone. Marc has recognized his mind body experience many times over and is even a veteran of Sarno reading and book cures, which makes it all the more honor that he sees the added value in my system. As he discusses here, what he can often find missing in the rest of the mind body literature is an organized way to understand what is happening. Perhaps it isn't a surprise that a long time veteran of the Air Force — with the military's penchant for precision and organization — took so well to my system. But Marc also showcases many of those great qualities that can also lead us into some difficult places. His goodist tendencies, his empathy, his intelligence, and more had left him with too much information and not enough information, as I often say. Marc also makes the crucial point that he did not get my system right away. He had to work it through, keep asking questions, and give himself time. But I am extremely gratified to see that he was able to use it to conquer his latest symptom which had taken hold with a stronger level of doubt than previous ones. I am grateful to him for sharing his success story so generously highlighting my work in such a positive light. If you aren't making the breakthrough the way Marc did, fear not! There are many ways to get the system to click. Just keep asking your questions and get them answered to your full satisfaction.

On this episode of our How To Series, I help you consider how depression can be seen like any other mind body symptom, as long as it isn't attached to major psychological catastrophes or medical conditions. The columns work, thankfully, can be a big help when you are feeling depressed because its application to this other kind of symptom does all of the same things — bringing the full emotions into consciousness so that they do not manifest as symptoms, reducing doubt by cutting through faulty narratives we have with or about ourselves, and increasing power by breaking us out of one of the least powerful positions possible: the state of depression. One of the things I cover in this video is how we can think of our own psychologies as having a structure — the consistent things that are always true — versus the moment to moment experience which dominates most things. Depressed thoughts try to fool us into thinking things are permanent and ‘structural' just as doubt does with triggers about physical symptoms. People are always looking for what makes sense and depression will attach to any plausible explanation it can and hide out there. Once we've ruled out a big, present day explanation for feeling depressed, we can attack these seemingly plausible ideas and expose them for what they are: illogical, nonsensical self-attacks. Depression derives much of its power by being seen as a different, harder to manage symptom than most. But this proves to not be true when we apply mind body thinking. It is our doubts that it can be managed this way that, at times, stands in the way.

This very special episode of Brothers in Arms brings on our first guest, comedian Nick Alexander. Our theme today relates to his Walking the Walk segment, as both he and Edgar lost a mutual friend to suicide one year ago — an event that turned out to be the biggest thrust of the creation of this show. We start with questions for Dr. Dan, including Nick wondering about how to deal with resentment, which ties into his experience of losing his good friend and having to try to operate normally after that. Eric brings up the numbers on suicide which helps the Brothers discuss this issue, including the impact of trauma and feeling that there is not way out. After a brief interlude in Breaking the Mold, where we find out about Nick's favorite romantic comedies, Nick shares a deeply personal story: his struggle with suicidal ideation and tremendous anger that left him not feeling remotely like himself. The loss of his friend changed him dramatically, but the Brothers reflect back the very positive aspect of Nick's response, in which he listened to his soul to guide him towards the kind of listening and connection he needed to get through.

In this Crushing Doubt interview, Adriana Bucci joins me to discuss her growing expertise as a life coach, helping her clients get free from toxic relationships, with a particular focus on narcissism. She and I cover a lot of ground, noting the similarities between the gaslighting and confusion that narcissists render in a very similar manner to which doubt works in symptoms. We talked about the importance of absolute certainty that is needed to stay clear on what is happening, not fall prey to fear, and be able to keep the right boundaries for yourself to not be harmed by such people (or by doubt!). In this Crushing Doubt interview, Adriana Bucci joins me to discuss her growing expertise as a life coach, helping her clients get free from toxic relationships, with a particular focus on narcissism. She and I cover a lot of ground, noting the similarities between the gaslighting and confusion that narcissists render in a very similar manner to which doubt works in symptoms. We talked about the importance of absolute certainty that is needed to stay clear on what is happening, not fall prey to fear, and be able to keep the right boundaries for yourself to not be harmed by such people (or by doubt!). This interview can help you to recognize the signs of a narcissist and it is important to note that they do not usually start off toxic, but, on the contrary, quite charming and beginning a cycle that leaves their victims confused and afraid so that they can keep getting narcissistic supplies from you in your suffering. She outlines the cycle of love bomb, devalue, discard, and repeat that leads to people falling into these cycles with them and we both note the tremendous suffering that comes from such abusive behavior. One other important fact to note is our conviction that you must see that they know exactly what they are doing when they perpetrate these abuses, so that you don't feel guilty about getting them out of your life.

On this testimonial video, Dorisa joins me to tell her story of recovery from numerous mind body symptoms. She shares that she got better by cobbling together a number of different sources that made sense to her in certain ways and we get to hear her horrific journey through multiple symptoms that became truly crippling at various points. What became clear, as Dorisa and I talked is how her confidence in the diagnosis and the wide range of experience that explains what she sees and feels in her own body continues to grow. We talked about enjoying this journey and how it relates to my power column work. Dorisa is another example of a success story and she shares how her awareness of her emotional life was a huge factor in getting better, but that my focus on doubt and power work enhances what she can know about herself and how to get better.

In this segment of our How To Series, I focus in on the details of one way to channel anger, as I so often say can be useful in the power column. Stemming from one of my sessions, I realized the specific power of the word determination and what it means for you. I explore how, instead of being stuck with anger and having it grow in that frustration, you can use every ounce of it as fuel to keep you better motivated to make progress. Whether in relation to symptoms or not, problems will require a significant level of determination and I talk in this video about learning to anticipate the call to give up the fight — from depression, doubt, fatigue, or running out of gas. Another aspect of the how of it all is the different sources of motivation and energy. While intrinsic motivation can be fleeting, and self care (as important as it is) takes time and thought, anger is readily available as fuel virtually all the time. In the end, the main thing we get to in this video is this: It is a huge factor in getting better from mind body symptoms to be sure you win the battle against doubt and that is going to take a lot of work and determination. But you can do it and you can multitask by finding something productive to do with your anger, relieving it as such, and using the energy that is contained within it.

This is a live Q&A about mind body symptoms with Crushing Doubt host Dr. Dan Ratner. If you have chronic pain or other physical symptoms that haven't been able to be explained or helped by medical doctors or other alternative treatments, this information can change your life. By changing the way we think and feel, we can change our actual physiological processes to relieve — or even cure — many symptoms, from head to toe.

In this episode of Brothers in Arms, Eric has a question for Dr. Dan about the things men try to do to increase self esteem that end up backfiring. Dr. Dan shares that anything that genuinely makes you feel good about you, and aligns with who you are, will always increase your self esteem. But the doc notes that there are plenty of efforts to do this that stem from false motivations or are designed to defend the self against bad feelings. These are the things that are actually harmful to self esteem, even if they were initially meant to help. In Old News, the Brothers look at some statistics on women earning higher wages than their men and explore how this tends to impact men in their feelings about themselves. The group recognizes that certain societal constructs can often drive expectations men have for themselves, preventing them from operating more flexibility within this space. This brings us right into Breaking the Mold, where we look at another way that men can feel boxed in and having to pretend something that runs counter to the true nature of most: our love of romantic comedies. All three Brothers validate the idea that we love these types of movies, even if we might get teased about it (ridiculously so, as it is totally natural to love these imaginings). And yet, Edgar still has not seen The Princess Bride OR Say Anything! And, finally, in our most profound segment on each show, Eric Walks the Walk, sharing a hugely influential experience in his life in finding out his ex-girlfriend was seven months pregnant with his child and lost the baby in a car accident. Eric shares how this affected him so deeply that he decided not to have kids and Edgar and Dan are there to support him, help him see what a good dad he might have been, and to know his full value comes in who he is as a person, regardless of his choice to be a parent or not. 

In this Crushing Doubt interview, I got to sit down with Dr. Mark Lumley, the chief research partner in Dr. Howard Schubiner's research on pain and the various practices to use to retrain the brain to get rid of it. Mark and I talk about how important it is to the scientific and logical endeavors of chronic pain and other mind body suffering that we can show just what is going on and what it actually means for treatment. Mark and I also discuss the importance of disclosure for patients, both in their ability to entrust us with what is going on for them emotionally, but with respect to their ability to trust the genuineness of the treatment provider. I express appreciation for the research happening out there, as I note that not everyone is as drawn to this area of the work, despite how important it is. In fact, as we explored what got Mark into the mind body field, he shares a story of the first time he came to be aware of his own mind body process and how far it went. I marvel with him about the scientific mind he had even back at nine years old and how he continues to apply these skills in ways that benefit the entire mind body community and the sufferers who so badly need our help.

We have reached the fourth and final session of my Three Columns mind body consultation with Diane, which has been an absolute pleasure. Today, we focus on the concept of action steps and apply it to each of the three columns. The central idea of action steps in my program to alleviate mind body chronic pain and other symptoms is to see new ways of thinking as an ‘action step' that can change your moment to moment physiology through changed thought patterns. Each consultation has a life of its own and a different rhythm, and Diane and I found that the power column was a particularly active one for her awakening and ability to start to master her symptoms. We have seen some symptom reduction, but also a big change in the way she views herself and the different actions she takes because of this new thinking. We used my action steps as a template to begin to craft what will be her own plan for dealing with symptoms, under the umbrella of my system. Among the changes that might most apply were accepting that she has had actual trauma )as she hadn't seen it that way in the past), learning to empathize with herself about that experience, using the core narrative as an emotional mantra, and evaluating each situation to make the most powerful choice that she can. We even found that she was able to make more self aligned choices both before and during the session. We plan to keep in touch as needed for her to continue making progress.

In this episode of our Mind Body Connection Series, I consider how viewing mind body symptoms through a developmental lens can reduce doubt, shed light on the nature of the symptoms, and allow us to receive the communication within the symptoms more fully. This video came from my observation that many people who become less difficult over time (through therapy) tend to develop mind body pain right around that time, which suggested a very real connection. As it turns out, there is a major connection, and this can help us understand the meaning and function of mind body symptoms all the more. I describe how we can see development in three phases: 1) The part of life in which we are learning to manage the conflicts between external demands and our internal needs; 2) When our internal setups won't function well enough anymore, and we begin to get more in touch with certain dissatisfactions, leading to the emergence of symptoms; and 3) The stage in which we receive the message of the symptoms and can now live without chronic symptoms, but with a more fully developed and adaptive sense of self. Even though it is very hard to have symptoms, it becomes a lot easier to see them as temporary when you understand their developmental nature. No matter what the symptoms, they are an intermediary step between who you had to be to get by and who you want to be to thrive.

This is a live Q&A about mind body symptoms with Crushing Doubt host Dr. Dan Ratner. If you have chronic pain or other physical symptoms that haven't been able to be explained or helped by medical doctors or other alternative treatments, this information can change your life. By changing the way we think and feel, we can change our actual physiological processes to relieve — or even cure — many symptoms, from head to toe.

Edgar, Eric, and Dr. Dan continue to find ways to talk openly about all kinds of difficult topics and to pinpoint what opens doors or closes them off. In the roundtable discussion, after some fun joking to loosen things up, the Brothers in Arms take up the conversation about vaccinations and the judgments people make about the people who make different decisions and all three men agree that having less judgment in the discussion would allow for people to talk more freely and make better decisions. The group then returns to some of the surprising statistics on domestic violence against men and Eric brings up some even more surprising ones. They consider what these statistics mean, but Dr. Dan highlights that the numbers show, in part, how much shame there is in talking about certain issues, since the perception is so different than the reality. This is the perfect lead in to a follow up on Edgar's harrowing and traumatic experience with his ex-girlfriend over 14 years ago. The group helps Edgar process what this all means for him and he shares how much thinking he has been doing about the impact of these events on him in ways he hadn't fully considered.

In this interview, we hear the fascinating story of a mind body recovery related to the circulatory system, as Irralee was able to use Wim Hof's cold water immersion techniques and breathing exercises to stop a decades long experience of cold hands and other symptoms associated with the condition. The fact that she was able to change her thinking about the cold in such a way that changed her physiology is another strong piece of evidence for mind body experience and the incredible power of changing our mindsets. Irralee's story is all the more compelling because of how much she hated the cold and how miserable it always made her. She took her personal experience changing her symptoms and found her way to SIRPA training with Crushing Doubt friend, Georgie Oldfield, in England and now helps others recover from their mind body symptoms. As we continue to gather personal and professional stories of recovery — especially from such a wide variety of symptoms — the evidence becomes stronger and stronger, which should help our community have less and less doubt.

Today, Diane and I met for our third session of an actual consultation right here, in the moment, on the podcast. I am so appreciative that she showed the courage and generosity to engage in the actual process with me so that we can bring to all of you a direct view of how the work goes and what it looks like. In this session, we look, in depth, at the power column and how it affects us all in how we relate to ourselves, others, and our symptoms. You'll get to see Diane and I build her core narrative and begin to discuss how she can utilize this emotional mantra, of sorts. From the broad, high stakes central emotional experience of her life to the specific way it impacted her, we use the information to create a goal with respect to what she can do about this enduring experience. I also help her to articulate and highlight the ways she can feel out of power in her interactions with herself, as well as exploring certain relationships with others. Finally, we explored whether the symptoms still feel in control of her or not and stated our goal of reversing that experience, as she learns to understand the flow of her emotional life into symptoms, reduces doubt, and becomes more powerful feeling in his own right. This is the third of four meetings with Diane, so that you can see the full mind body mapping process, how it works, and why. She and I will continue to get her emotional themes articulated, polished, and honed, until she is able to understand each symptom onset or uptick through this lens, giving her the tools to disable the mind body pain process from these acute moments of suffering. We will also continue to get all of her doubts articulated, so that I can help her get answers to them to her satisfaction. Now, we add in her thinking about power in different situations, so that she is more able to make a powerful choice for herself in many different areas. Next week, we turn to the action steps for the four columns. I look forward to carrying this process forward with Diane and hope it is of value to you all to see how the process works!

In this episode of our Mind Body Connection Series, I look at the simple way you can understand the speed of your process of recovery. As always, the speed of your recovery is going to be affected by the level of understanding and peace you have with each of the three columns, as well as your sense of your action steps. I review the basics of each element so you can see how it might affect your getting better more quickly or vice versa. But I also use a term that I discovered in working with a patient of mine and then extend it to a new one of my own. In working with a couples' therapist, this patient was introduced to the idea that they would get better at ‘the speed of trust'. I found this to be a fascinating and accurate view that quickly pinpoints how and why people get better quickly. In this video, I review the various aspects of trust that can slow down your process, when trust is not there, or speed it up when it is. There is trust in your body, in your mind, in the process, in me, in yourselves, and more. Each element can change the speed of your getting better. But it isn't only trust and the columns that determine the speed, but my adaptation on this trust idea, which is that you will also get better at the speed of doubt. Apart from the doubt column itself, which determines a part of whether or not you can get better (you can!), the level of doubt you have determines the speed at which you get better. The more doubt, the slower the speed of recovery. But this is not to make you worried about doubt, so much as to show you yet another way that moment to moment thinking can give you hope: if doubt determines the speed of recovery, then that means you can always speed things up very rapidly once doubt is pinned to the ground.

This is a live Q&A about mind body symptoms with Crushing Doubt host Dr. Dan Ratner. If you have chronic pain or other physical symptoms that haven't been able to be explained or helped by medical doctors or other alternative treatments, this information can change your life. By changing the way we think and feel, we can change our actual physiological processes to relieve — or even cure — many symptoms, from head to toe.

On this episode of Brothers in Arms, Edgar, Eric, and Dr. Dan explore a topic that is rarely covered: domestic abuse against men. Edgar kicks things off by bringing in a question from a female viewer about how to leave ‘the devil' behind, referring to her dead husband, who was physically and emotionally abusive to her. We consider how she can manage her internal experience to let herself hate him, while doing a good job externally to see the other sides of him, particularly where her eleven year old son is concerned, as he sees him as a hero of the police force. We talked about the importance of letting in the full reality with her son, however, as well, as he can also see multiple sides of his father and seeing the reality helps. In Old News (Maybe From Yesterday), Eric brings the statistical heat, as we find out what the CDC numbers say about the frequency of men as domestic victims and all three Brothers are surprised. We talk about why men shy away from talking about these topics and link it, most primarily, to a sense of shame. This leads us directly into Edgar ‘walking the walk', and this episode is not for the faint of heart. He relates his experience of seven years in an abusive relationship with an ex-girlfriend and we explore the societal expectations that make talking about such things feel shameful and difficult. But Edgar also reveals that this perpetuation eventually got so dangerous that she attacked him with a knife. The scene is terrifying and Eric and Dr. Dan help Edgar to recognize why he doesn't remember those years so well and how much more processing this might take as we plan to explore it further in the next episode and beyond.

On this episode of our How To Series, I share a new way of thinking about the columns work, and living in general, that can help you organize your experience between what I call the internal and external track. The key comes in recognizing that we are all taught to integrate everything into one way of operating, but this leaves us trying to deal with internal functions within the confines of the external environment. Instead of doing that, I recommend being able to think of yourself as being on two separate tracks: the internal and the external. On the external track, you will continue to strive to operate at the highest functioning level possible — doing good for others, behaving well, and even going for perfection as much as you want. You'll keep looking at nuances and taking the other perspective, etc. All good things to be doing! But, when it comes to your symptoms and your internal needs, you'll need another place to process these things. I present: the internal track! On the internal track, you deal with your emotional life almost entirely between you and yourself (occasionally, an external boundary is required if someone is crossing a line). Here is where all of those action steps of the mind I recommend can really take off: black and white thinking, for example, can be a place that is relatively permanent in your internal track, while you are only dipping into it on your external track. Putting the blame where it belongs can be the same, where you might put it there permanently internally, but make it not very relevant externally. Come check out this new way of organizing your thinking so that the columns become all that more effective.

Today, I got to sit down with a remarkable young man, in Freddie Stevenson — a college football champion fullback who has now turned author with his book, Trials to Triumph. Freddie's story is a remarkable one and at its center are the very parts of his personality that got him through all of the adversity. He shares his story of going from having a lot of money and resources to the family living in destitution, after they found out the money had been coming from his father's drug dealing when he was sent to jail for these crimes. What followed was a harrowing journey, including his story of his mother using her literal last dollar to allow her five kids to split a McDonald's burger five ways. Fortunately, Freddie and his family continued to fight through and things got easier when his father got out of jail and was able to help again. But the other thing that helped Freddie, in his external life, was football. From the age of five, he showed remarkable talent and by the time he reached high school, he was the undeniable top talent on the team. He received multiple scholarship offers, but went to Florida State, where he battled through the hardship of a position change — from linebacker to fullback — and won a national title in his freshman year. Even so, with fullback being such a limited need in the NFL, he went undrafted and had to try to catch on with the Bears, who claim they would have drafted him if they hadn't traded away two of their picks. When he did not make the team, he thought his life was over. He suffered through suicidal ideation, returned to the streets, and was living recklessly. Freddie's story is still unfolding, but he has a tenacity, a drive to succeed and be the best he can be, and a belief in himself that we recognized had always been there, and this led him to begin telling his story. Through the telling of his story, he has found a new purpose in life and now inspires people around the world. We can all learn from what he has learned and I encourage you to check out his book on Amazon and many other platforms!

Today, I am joined, once again, by Diane, for the second session of an actual consultation right here, in the moment, on the podcast. As always, I am so appreciative of anyone willing to share their story with the rest of our community, as it takes such courage and generosity and it provides such a help to people in understanding the process in a more direct manner. In this second session, we look, in depth, at the doubt column, the three levels of doubt and the four categories of it as well. You'll get to see how I take Diane's various narratives and locate the doubt within each of them. We uncover her questions, lack of certainty, confusion, and fear. Diane and I found that her doubt is not the main active ingredient in her mind body experience, despite the fact that it is there, like in anyone else. However, she has a leg up on some in this column, because she is optimistic and open and this can lead to conquering doubts more quickly.  This is the second of four meetings with Diane, so that you can see the full mind body mapping process, how it works, and why. She and I will continue to get her emotional themes articulated, polished, and honed, until she is able to understand each symptom onset or uptick through this lens, giving her the tools to disable the mind body pain process from these acute moments of suffering. But now we will also continue to get all of her doubts articulated, so that I can help her get answers to them to her satisfaction. I look forward to carrying this process forward with her and hope it is of value to you all to see yet another example of how the process works!

When it comes to becoming powerful, I have good news for you — being your most powerful self actually doesn't hurt anyone else at all. In fact, if anything, you becoming powerful can inspire someone else to become powerful. This is one of the reasons why I chose this word for the third column: there is an unlimited supply of it. What that means is that you can take as much of it as you want and it only makes things better, not just for you, but for everybody. This video also helps us consider why accepting the word power has its advantages. The word is vague enough to have multiple meanings, and doesn't have the disadvantage of being so overly specific that it would not describe all situations. In addition to leaving enough room for multiple and widespread meanings, it also is more accurate of a reflection because it sticks to the simple feeling of whether or not you feel good or not. It covers being in control, feeling confident and/or competent, feeling well liked, feeling safe, feeling like you understand what is happening, and so much more. I also address the fact that the term power, precisely because some people do object to it, affords us a chance to open up new territory in which to get better. Now we are calling into question the things that leave us feeling afraid or under much more because of the, ahem, power of this word. But, at base, the main reason I find it to be the crucial word is because of two things: 1) It covers all of the territory necessary to address the wide range of issues, and 2) It captures the unlimited supply of power in the world, which can allow you to feel comfortable taking up your space and power in the world, knowing with full comfort that it not only doesn't hurt anyone, but can help them do the same.

In this episode of Brothers in Arms, Edgar, Eric, and Dr. Dan continue to build ways to talk to each other and to show men — and women, too! — how we can talk to each other. Edgar and Eric ask Dr. Dan questions about how to approach conversation with people to get them to open up and share, even when they are reticent to do so initially. Dr. Dan shares that the key is not in what you say, but in the listening that we do, both actively with the other person and in interpreting whether or not they mean it when they say they are fine. The dynamic trio then move into Old News (Maybe From Yesterday), where they discuss Simone Biles' withdrawing from the Olympics and compare her stance on mental health to some other recent athletes and comedians of the past. Dan Prescott, Kevin Love, Dave Chappell, and Robin Williams all are discussed, but the discussion was perhaps most poignant around Robin Williams, as Eric considered what might have happened if the famed comedian had felt more comfortable talking openly about the part of himself that was suffering so much. In Walking the Walk, Dr. Dan takes another turn, this time all to himself, and talked about the birth of his first daughter and how it crystallized a sense in him that he had really always been alone before then, having now felt the primacy of his role with his daughter. Edgar and Eric are connected, encouraging, and helpful in validating Dr. Dan's suffering in this regard and the three note together how it changed his life and helped him evaluate the people with whom he could now build the closest bonds.

In this episode of our How To Series, I concentrate on the nuts and bolts of what to do in the power column. We begin with the information from the emotions column and doubt column that require a power column solution. Included in this is the ongoing work of emotional themes as they relate to the core narrative. I cover the way fear flows from the doubt column into a needed intervention in the power column, and explore the same way this relates to level three doubt — doubts about the self and our ability to get better. Within the power column, itself, you're going to want to take two main actions, once your core narrative is created and some of your power column themes are outlines: 1) You'll need to compare what is going on in the present moment to the core narrative and find action steps that bring you back into alignment with the core narrative goals; and 2) You will be assessing your level of power with respect to yourself, others, and your symptoms, and adjusting accordingly when you slip out of power. One quick tip on the whole thing: knowing whether or not you are in power is as simple as assessing whether or not you feel good at a given moment. Once you've recognized when you are out of power, pinpoint what led to that feeling and then choose an action step that can address that problem.

In this interview with Dr. Harold Koplewicz, the founder and medical director of the Child Mind Institute, we get to hear about the brilliant mind of a doctor who wanted to make more of a difference to the community at large and how many wonderful developments have come from this fact. From his growing up with two Holocaust survivors as parents to his interest in finding a cutting edge aspect of whatever field in which he decided to partake, Harold has always chosen his own distinct and principled path. The Child Mind Institute is at the forefront of research on mental health in children, which is incredibly significant given some of the stats Harold and I discussed here today. With 50 percent of all mental health diagnoses coming before the age of 14 and 75 recent before the age of 24, we know just how big mental well being looms for the youth of our country and across the globe. Harold and I talked about how they have managed to speed up the process of research by not being so hung up on protecting the data for full and proper credit and, instead, launching it out in to the ether earlier to get things done faster. We also discussed some of the high profile celebrities who have joined in some of the initiatives of the organization, as well as exploring his scaffolding idea of parenting, in which a scaffold is built to support the child until they are ready to stand on their own. It was a pleasure connecting with Harold, with all of his kindness, intelligence, and drive to help others, and our discussion gave me all kinds of ideas about how to use research to verify the results of my three columns work.

Today begins the first of my four session consultation series with Diane, who is already known in our Crushing Doubt community for her kind words and wisdom, as she responds to comments and encourages others in their healing, as well as sharing about her own. Diane has suffered from migraines, sciatica, and numerous other symptoms, on top of having had to deal with an autoimmune issue that led to a liver transplant — all for helping a sick fellow passenger on a plane. This four session consultation shows how each person can fill out their individual columns on their mind body map so that they can understand the role of emotions, doubt, and power in their chronic pain or symptoms, as well some specific action steps the sufferer can take to create their own program to get better, using my overarching system. I was so appreciative that Diane showed the bravery and openness to engage in the actual process with me so that we can bring to all of you a direct view of how the work goes and what it looks like. In this first session, I orient her to the mind body map work and we began to develop her emotional themes, so that she can recognize the broad, high stakes, but specific experiences and feelings that can lead to the onset and uptick in symptoms. Among the themes we hit upon were the toxicity of one of her family members, feeling dismissed and under appreciated in her family, and feeling unworthy and not measuring up. We talked about how she will feel so much better and with significantly more hope once she understands the mind body experience and how it works inside and out. This is the first of four meetings with Diane, which will allow you to see the full mind body mapping process, how it works, and why. She and I will continue to get her emotional themes articulated, polished, and honed, until she is able to understand each symptom onset or uptick through this lens, giving her the tools to disable the mind body pain process from these acute moments of suffering. I look forward to carrying this process forward with her and hope it is of value to you all to see how the process works!

In this episode of the Mind Body Connection Series, I develop a short hand for how to think about how to operate the three columns on a day to day basis. Where other systems seem to suggest that you endlessly explore your emotional life to get to the heart of things, the three columns system offers more organization and specific nuance. The emotions column, while seeming to be solely about self awareness, is actually the place where you can turn the system on and off, depending on whether or not you are experiencing the onset or uptick in symptoms. The doubt column is meant to always be in the on position, but at a low hum, as I put it, meaning that you stay vigilant about doubt generally and turn the column up to high when combatting a specific doubt. Lastly, the power column is the column that is always on high. There is no reason to ever switch it off because feeling powerful happens when we are feeling good and when we don't feel good, power goes down. This is why we live in the power column — it is the column that should never be dormant or in low gear. Let's see how this shorthand works out for you all!

This is a live Q&A about mind body symptoms with Crushing Doubt host Dr. Dan Ratner. If you have chronic pain or other physical symptoms that haven't been able to be explained or helped by medical doctors or other alternative treatments, this information can change your life. By changing the way we think and feel, we can change our actual physiological processes to relieve — or even cure — many symptoms, from head to toe.

In the third episode of Brothers in Arms, Edgar, Eric, and Dr. Dan continue to discuss how we all can do a better job talking to each other — as men, and otherwise — but the show is also rounding into forms with new segments defining parts of the exploration. After a brief catch up with everyone, the guys finally make sure to let Dr. Dan introduce what he does, since some of the feedback from viewers focused on wondering this very thing. After the check in, we move on to Old News (Maybe From Yesterday) and discuss Cosby being let out of jail after his conviction was overturned on a technicality. The guys discuss how hard certain topics are to even begin to explore, what this would be like for the apparent victims of the abuse, and how Cosby could possibly move forward in any way with comedy. Next up, in Breaking the Mold, all three men deal with the aspects of typical manhood in which they do not fit well and the show focuses on how this does not change who they are as men in any way. Both serious and hilarious observations are made here. Lastly, on Walking the Walk, Eric finally takes his turn, telling Edgar, Dr. Dan, and the audience of a time in his life — following the death of his father — when he came to the end of his ability to cope with things and knew he had to get help. We talked about the strength of this decision, as well as in sharing it with our audience.

On this week's How To, I delve into the tremendous importance and power of inclusion. I begin with the concept of things that are high stakes and what it is that determines what is a high stakes experience versus not. One of my main points today is that the earlier the need in life, the more intense and important it will loom for all of your days. Well, what is more important than feeling loved? In this episode, I will help you consider why it is so crucially important to err heavily on the side of being inclusive and welcoming, since not feeling welcome can be devastating to a person's sense of belonging and self worth. Like it or not, through the lens of a child — and even of a baby — we are constantly measuring whether or not we are wanted. The world is full of confirmations and, unfortunately many more disconfirmations of our being wanted. As a community, we can help each other live happier lives and even prevent depression and suicide if we just remember to take the extra time, sometimes in little gestures, to make people feel included, accepted, and welcome. The bottom line is that we can all start to feel quite powerful, in the best way possible, when we recognize the impact we can have on others. This way of thinking about things simplifies things, so that you can go the extra mile, in a relatively easy way, and make all the difference in the world to someone. Because what is more powerful than feeling that you are valid and wanted?

In today's interview, I got to sit down with Dr. Andrea Leonard-Segal, a board certified rheumatologist who not only worked collaboratively with Dr. Sarno for over twenty years, but even wrote one of the chapters in his masterpiece, The Divided Mind. Andrea is a staunch supporter of Dr. Sarno, not only in terms of the way he helped hundreds of thousands people, but also in his manner as a person. Andrea shares her personal and professional memories of Dr. Sarno and how his culture of mutual respect made such a difference for her and her patients. But we spent a good deal of time exploring what it was that allowed Dr. Sarno to be so able to focus on science and rational thinking so that he could see past what the rest of the medical field could not. Andrea and I also explored the issues patients can face in rheumatology with respect to mind body experience and her tremendous expertise and wisdom that has helped countless other people. It was a pleasure connecting with Andrea and getting to relate how her chapter helped me personally as well.

Edgar and I met for the fourth session in our mind body consultation series, focusing on the various action steps he can take — mainly in the realm of thinking differently — to change his physiological and emotional experience. We noted together how far he has already come in changing so many of his perspectives and he shares how much it has all made him think about things. We reflected back on what he has experienced so far and got into more detail about what he can actually do when he becomes aware of the themes that are affecting him in the moment. Among the things we discussed was the idea of not trying to make the feelings he has go away and, instead, letting himself sink into them more. We also discussed some power column solutions, such as remembering to always be in his own journey in the world, so that he does not let others decide on his value as a person or in his choice to do comedy. Overall, we talked about this as a process that will require further work and we both expressed happiness that we get to continue our journey together in our new show Brothers in Arms.