Breaking the Pain Cycle: How to Start Healing Your Nervous System

Hi and welcome to how humans heal. I'm Dr. Donni Wilson and today I'm really excited to introduce you to Jane Hogan. She's a functional medicine certified health coach and wellness educator. And she's the best selling author of Pain free on purpose. I love that name. The subtitle is use your mind to heal your body and get your life back. Which sounds amazing and so helpful. I can't wait to hear all about your new book. Jane, thank you so much for joining us today.

Thank you, Dr. Donnie. I'm so happy to be here and truly honored, Truly honored. So I'm excited about this conversation today.

Yes. And I was sharing with you and a lot of the listeners from how humans heal will know a bit about my story too and my health journey. I spent so many years in pain, whether that was pain from migraines, pain from having ehlers Danlos syndrome and joint hypermobility, pain from having a chronic arthritis. And so I understand what it's like to be in pain and how much how it feels to want to get out of pain. And so often as humans we also have not just physical pain, but emotional pain. And often they go together. And what can happen as humans in that experience of physical and emotional pain is we go towards substances to try to get us out of pain, even if it's temporarily and sometimes even if there's side effects or addictions. And what you're here to share with us is how you were able to get yourself out of pain without side effects and addictions other than something that's good for you. So again, I'm so glad. Maybe start off by sharing a little bit about how you found your way to writing this book and helping people to get out of pain.

Well, I guess it starts for me. I was working as an engineer and you know, had this career and then I had this really stressful year that began with my dear mother who passed away suddenly. And then I was the executor of her estate and my parents have been collectors and so there was a lot of stuff. I have two older siblings, a younger sibling, so it was a stressful year. And she lives seven hours away from me, so I had a lot to deal with. And it was, there was a lot of tensions and things like that. And I wasn't sleeping, so it was incredibly stressful. And about, about a year after she passed is when the pain started. And it started really suddenly and I went within three months I went from being strong and healthy to being barely able to walk. Grotesque swelling on my Knees, my hands. I couldn't make a fist. I didn't have grip, strength. My jaw, my shoulders, my feet. It was all over. It was all over. I felt like someone had a voodoo doll and was sticking pins in me.

Oh, my goodness. You're like, I can't even move now. What? How am I going to do anything, exactly?

Well, that was the feelings that I had. And I thought, okay, I just need to have my mother's house sold and everything taken care of and the estate settled and I'll be fine. And so I took a little vacation.

But I got worse.

And I was lying in bed one morning, my husband had gone to work, and I was like, you know that feeling when you wake up in the morning? You're like, oh, this wasn't a dream. I have pain in my body, and what's gonna happen in my life? I'm not. Can we stay in this house? I could barely walk the stairs. And, you know, how am I gonna do all these things we wanted to do when I can barely walk and hardly look after myself? Anyway, I had this. All these thoughts, you know, kind of like, worst moment of my life. And then I. I remember thinking, if this is the way my life is going to be, I'm ready to be done. I don't want to be a burden on people. I don't want to live like this. And in the next moment, I heard a voice in my head that wasn't my voice, and it said, this is not how your life is going to turn out. You're. You're going to figure this out, and. And you will teach other people. And so that was the. Like, everything changed from there. I was still in pain, but I had the deepest inner knowing that I would figure it out. And I just started experimenting. Dr. Donnie, I'm really lucky that I have my family physician at the time. She was lovely, and she said, you know, sometimes food can cause joint pain. And I thought that was the wildest thing I had ever heard, but I was desperate, so I said, okay. She said, gluten and dairy and sugar are common.

I started with food, definitely.

Yeah, I just eliminated. I had no idea what I was doing.

And I just start there.

Yeah, I just stopped them cold turkey. And I did have, like, a significant reduction in pain within about five days. So I'm like, okay, this is it. Food is medicine. I'm going to heal myself by just not eating all these foods. And then it would get to be more and more and more. And then I started developing fear of food over time.

Right.

And so then I knew that if just food wasn't the answer, I started working with a naturopathic doctor. She was wonderful. But, you know, we started on supplements and testing and all of that. And so I was taking like handfuls of supplements and. And I was getting better, but I wasn't like, it wasn't gone. I still had pain. I have a lot of flares. Right. And so I knew that wasn't the answer. And then it wasn't. Then I started, you know, I was researching all this time because that's what I do, this 50,000 foot view as a systems thinker, like an engineer.

Right.

It's like, okay, stress, turn this on. Stress must be part of this. And why can't I just turn it off? I should be able to turn it off.

I see that. I love always working with engineers, by the way, when patients or engineers, I'm like. Because then we can, we can, they can, we can think it through like an engineer. It makes so much sense. And then you can, yeah, you can say, hey, if, if stress caused this, let's just reverse this. Reverse engineer. What happened?

Yeah. And so what I found was, okay, well, this stress is done, so why isn't it gone? But I realized in these, in, in that year when I was dealing with everything and with my siblings, you know, Ram Dass says, if you think you're enlightened, go spend a week with your family.

Exactly.

So I think it brought up childhood stuff, right. That I thought, I'm 50 years old, I should be past this now.

But it also was because you lost your mom. Sometimes, just when we lose this significant person in our life, all of a sudden our emotions start processing.

Yeah. And it was a lot of. I really relied on my mother. We had a really beautiful relationship as we got older, and I really relied on her to be my champion, but I wasn't my own champion.

So then she was gone. You didn't have someone to really encourage you.

Yeah. I mean, my husband is wonderful and loves me and thinks I'm the best thing ever, but I didn't have it in me. And that's where we need it. Right. And so I realized that that feeling came from childhood and, and it wasn't mild, it wasn't major trauma, it was just mild trauma. But I hadn't really dealt with it. I hadn't forgiven something. So there was all this other, all these other things I had. I didn't have to, but I wanted to.

Emotional pain ties in with the physical pain.

Yeah.

Same centers in the Brain.

Isn't that wild?

It really is. It really. That's when you wear, you know, like, because at first, just like you were saying, what does food have to do with joint pain? But now we're saying, what do emotions have to do with joint pain? And they have absolutely everything to do with each other.

So true. And I've done like so much research in the last. So this happened in 2016. So it's been nine years now of doing research, way more studying than I ever did for my engineering degree. And, and I, so I did end up leaving my engineering degree, became a functional medicine certified health coach, started living my purpose actually, which that voice told me I was going to teach other people. So then I, you know, started just coaching people, teaching people podcast. Now I've written this book and really fulfilling what I believe is my mission, to really help other people have hope and empower them. Because this, the feeling, the thoughts and feelings that create healing in the body ties to the nervous system. And the only person that can change your thoughts and feelings really is you. And so that's what I teach now. I teach people how to change their thoughts and feelings so that the nervous system gets the message of safety. And in that way the body does its own healing.

Oh my gosh, it's so powerful. And there's a lot of research and there's a lot of backing behind this. Right? This is, you've probably now, in all of those hours of research, read it all, you know, and just see like it's. It is. And I would love to even touch on this part where you're saying, you know, where we're the ones who decide the thought that then is going to lead to the feeling and the action and the outcome. And so much of the time, because I think we're racing through life from one stress to the next that we, we forget that we're the ones who are decision makers. We lose track of who we are in this human experience, don't we?

Yeah. And actually, I mean, what we know is that 90 to 95% of the time we're just running on automatic pilot. Old thoughts repeated, old habits repeated, same things going in, so the same outcome coming out. Right. So if we want a different outcome in this physical body, then we have to change the input so that the nervous system gets a different message. And that takes, I mean, it's really brain retraining and that the brain learns through repetition, consistent repetition. And it's really as simple as that. Simple, but not necessarily easy.

And it's on this concept of neuroplasticity, we have sinus. We first of all, just to even know that we can change these pathways. Because once you start to see, oh my gosh, I'm. And I think a lot of people, right, at some point we kind of, whether we wake up because we're in pain or we wake up because something else, a crisis or trauma happens or a health issue happens, and we kind of have to look at what's going on in our body, in our life, and we go, oh my gosh, I've been repeating the same pattern from my childhood and maybe even from our parents, right? We, we just learn these familiar patterns. We repeat it repeated and then, and of course it, it results in some health issue, physical, emotional, or both at some point in our life. And, and so that's sometimes that pivot moment, right, where you go, like for you, where you, you hit, you got to a point where you're like, I have to find another answer. Because otherwise, what's the point of being here?

Exactly. And I think we are meant to be here to live our purpose and feel good and love life. And the same thought processes, whether they're conscious or subconscious, that created the pain in our body or illness, really, it could manifest in different ways. Those come from feelings of not being safe, feeling safe or loved or good enough. And how can we live our life joyfully and live out our purpose if we, if we don't love ourselves, if we don't feel safe in the world? So I believe, I honestly believe that this was actually the best thing that happened to me because otherwise I would have been living that limited version of me that didn't feel good enough, that wasn't, you know, wasn't truly happy. And actually pain was just a wake up call. And actually that's all a pain is. It's just a messenger, it's neutral and it's protection, right?

I remember one day, like just in pain on the bathroom floor because pain would make me nauseous. And so I'd be in the bathroom, I'd be like. And I'd be, yeah, like, what's happening? What is the message of this pain? What am I supposed to learn from this? And I, I had, I got so many messages from the pain. But one day there was this message that it was like, wait a minute. If you create, if I could create time for myself, a break, a time to rest, then I could be able to recover without having to go through pain to get me to take a break, right? Like getting into that much Pain was the only way I was allowing myself to take a break. And I think that that's exactly like, Right. Those are these patterns we get in is like we just keep pushing ourselves, pushing, pushing. We're taught from a young age to keep. You can do more, you got to go another day. You don't need a break. You don't. Whether. Sometimes we don't even realize that it has to do with worthiness or deserving. We just think we're supposed to keep, keep going. And it's when we hit that, like for me, hitting the bathroom floor and pain. And I finally realized, oh, my gosh, if I could just put in my schedule, four hours or a day where I can just not have to do anything and just rest and take care of myself, then I. My body's not going to have to get to the point of forcing me to take a day off because I'm in pain.

Exactly. Yeah. I mean it. And that's actually one way that people can know whether it is the brain that's turning on pain.

We've got all learned that there's always a physical reason for pain. But what they know now from neuroscience is that a lot of times, I mean, I've heard different numbers. I've heard 85% of the time the pain is actually caused. It's just the brain that's turning it on in this protection response. So if the pain, you know, dissipates or goes away or reduces while you're on vacation or while you're taking a break, when you're feeling relaxed and calm or happy or with friends, that's a sign that it is the brain that's turning on pain to protect you.

Yeah. Isn't that interesting? And so then you were touching on how. How to do the healing process. Because I know for myself and for others who have been in so much physical and emotional pain for a long time, it can feel like sometimes we assume it's going to have to be something really big in order to match. Right. Like if the pain is this big, then it's going to need something bigger to override it. And yet sometimes it's the simplest little tweak of perspective, like you're saying, right? Yeah, the simplest tweak of perspective. But then it does. To create new neural pathways, does, like you said, you have to have this repetition and consistency over time to retrain your system that what does safety feel like? What does taking care of yourself feel like and create these new habits?

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. What does loving yourself feel like? I'm always amazed, Dr. Donnie.

I do.

When I'm teaching and webinars and things like that. I'll lead people through a little visualization exercise. So I get them to rate their pain out of 10 before we begin. And then I take. Go through the exercise, and it's a visualization kind of combining with breath work and then feeling a feeling in their body and expanding that feeling. And then afterwards, I get them to rate the pain again out of 10. And like every time people's pain goes. I went from a six to a two, an eight to a four, my pain is gone now. You know, so many people every single time. And so what I, what I love about that exercise is it really gives people the opportunity to experience. Wow. I can change my thoughts and the way I'm thinking and the way I'm feeling and have a physical result.

And that really helps them believe that they can shift it.

Yeah, you can shift it and it can shift quickly. The nervous system can be so responsive. And then it's a matter of how to just each day, stay committed to.

Keep doing it.

Shift.

Right.

Yeah.

Is that when. Because I know you, you, you work with people one on one in groups. How do you, how is it that you then support people through this process?

Well, mostly it's in group. I love group coaching and what I've done and it's in my book as well, so people could get the book and follow the process. But I've put it all together in what I call. Because I'm an engineer and I love this design, my design blueprint. And so the, the word design stands for the six steps in. In the process. So it's, it stands for desire, explore, surrender, integrate, generate, navigate. And within each of those six steps, there's two habits or rituals that are related to that step that begin to calm the nervous system. And I suggest, you know how to do it. I've got tracking sheets because our brain, we have to. If we're retraining our brain, we've got to like, pull in all the support. So we, we make, we build these habits one on another, so that one habit cues another habit. We have. I have the, the tracking sheet so that the brain gets little rewards. Our brain loves rewards, even if it's just ticking a little circle off right on a sheet. And so, so I've got these tools to help people, you know, with that repetition and consistency, because that's what it is. It's repetition and consistency. And over time, what happens is people become more aware. Oh, I realize that I was like in my. In a tight tightness and holding that, you know, bracing all the time or maybe breathing in a shallow way. They start to have awareness of where they were before and so they can shift back. So often. I say, really, your only job is to feel good. That's it.

Right. Like you start to. And we don't learn this. Like, we don't learn this in childhood. We don't learn this. I hope in the future children do learn this in childhood because amazing how that will be for them to have that experience of first of all feeling loved and also knowing how to regulate the nervous system. Those are important tools and it's so worth learning. Absolutely. I say it's like you want to then build your toolbox, right? Because then you can. You'll just know going forward. And at first it feels like, okay, I have to, like with anything, right? With anything we're learning how to play an instrument or how to. To do a dance, you have to like, put your focus on it and go little by little. And then as you repeat it, it becomes easier, right. Then you become second nature.

Yeah, that's kind of like the title of the book. Like, part of it, pain free on purpose was me, you know, that it led pain, led me to my purpose, but also pain free on purpose. Like it's intentional. You have to be intentional about it. And through that, you can actually then begin to calm the mind so that the nervous system can calm down, so that the body can shift into the rest, digest, repair state most of the time. And in that state, it heals and starts to take care of itself. It's not that we do the healing or that we have to think about what are the exercises I have to do to release pain. It's all about how can I create calm? How do I create more calm?

Having optimal cortisol and adrenaline levels is essential for health and longevity. And yet the stress in the present and in the past can affect our cortisol and adrenaline levels, causing them to be too high or too low.

The thing is that we're not all.

Affected by stress in the same way. So over the past two decades, I've been researching and discovering how to help my patients recover from stress. And I've identified the five stress types, which are the. The five common patterns of disruption in cortisol and adrenaline levels.

The reason why this is so important.

Is because the treatment is different. When cortisol is too high, we use different herbs, nutrients, and other modalities to bring levels back to optimal than if the Levels are too low. So that's why I, through research, developed the stress type quiz, which allows you in under two minutes to discover what likely your cortisol and adrenaline levels are. So then you can make decisions about which herbs, nutrients and other healing activities to choose to help optimize your cortisol and adrenaline again and improve your health now and into the future. Just go to stresstypequiz.com where you can take the quiz and take it from there.

Amazing. Is so, so powerful. I've, I've. And I hear from what you know, from what you're describing, like using lots of different tools from. You can tell me, tell me more, but I'm, I'm hearing already like breath work, biofeedback, mindfulness meditation, guided imagery. It sounds like you're using all of those tools.

Yeah. And you know, long before I, I had this physical pain in my body, I was really interested in personal development and growth and, and so I borrowed some things from that arena as well because, you know, things like visualization. It works, it work, it works for athletes to achieve goals. It works for, you know, in any, any goal that someone's trying to achieve, whether it's a business goal. But it also works when we can visualize our healed and healthy self doing the something we'd love to do and really getting in the. So these are some of the tools that, that I use, but a lot of different things, but. And it kind of starts with some of the, you know, I would call it not really heavy hitters because that sounds a little bit negative. But breath work is foundational. Right. It's the quickest way to calm the nervous system. You've always got it with you. It's free. So that, that's kind of a foundational. I've got some other foundational ones, but in, in the habits that are like, further along on the blueprint.

Those ones.

Are more about like, stop putting your life on hold because of your pain or your health condition. What is, you know, what's something that brings you joy, like something creative and playful and it doesn't have to be artistic, creative, but any, anything like what, what we're meant to be creative on some level. And then also we're, we are, we have a desire to learn things. So what's something that you've been putting off that you've always wanted to learn more about? And then making time for that really is kind of a lifestyle approach. And actually I've got it set up so that it's circular because it starts with desire Right. And so as people go around the blueprint and they, you know, met that desire, then they have a new desire, and then they can apply the blueprint again on a new desire, new growth. Because life, you know, we kind of go around in these bigger and bigger spirals, expanding spirals, hopefully expanding, because we're learning the lessons and we're not as reactive as we used to be to certain. Certain situations.

Reminds me of Joseph Campbell's hero's Journey.

With that, you know, right? Where we, like, find, oh, here's my new adventure. And how do I go on this adventure outside of our. But to kind of go outside of our comfort zone, which is not even comfortable. It's painful in that comfort zone. We're just used to being in pain. Right? But we have to go outside of that comfort familiar and to learn something new with a guy like, like you to say, hey, how do I implement and integrate so that I can then, yeah, move forward in this, in this journey toward expansion and. And purpose.

It's exactly how I saw this. And I do actually read in the book. I talk a lot about, like, you're the hero of your own story. You are the hero. You're meant to be the hero of your own story. And so really you are. And yes, I am the guide. But you, you can be the hero when you take these steps, when you take the call to adventure. Because, you know, our brains really like predictability. And even if it's not that comfortable, like being in pain, our brains like, what. What's familiar. And so to step out of that does take some effort.

But it's possible. It's possible to do. And I really just love this, having an approach that's really easy. You start with step one, the very first habit. You do that until it becomes a habit, becomes, you know, what is a habit? It's when you kind of do it more easily than you don't do it right. And so kind of go at your pace like that in a pace that works for you. Because we know that habits, they used to say 21 days. Now it's like all over the place with habits. So everyone is unique. So just encourage people to be aware yourself of. Is this easier for me to do as part of my day than to not do it? And that's where ideally where they want to get.

I love that and I love how you're helping people to. It's not like you have a cookie cutter approach. It's more like, we're going to follow this path and you're going to learn what resonates with you, what is it that you want to be doing and what feels good to your body. I think that's so important that we. Because now the person is tuning into their own uniqueness and at the same time still getting the benefits from it. I also talk about this similar journey when I work with women who have high risk HPV and abnormal pap smears and they're working to prevent cervical cancer. We talk about this as the heroine's journey. So we change it into the feminine heroine because it's the same idea. Right. And I love what you're saying, like how we, you know, we, when, when learning how to take care of ourselves and love ourselves, it takes that gentleness and patience and, and in going step by step, right. And not. Because as soon as we're expecting things to be all at once and perfect, then that's a stress again and it just knocks us right back off track.

Yeah, yeah. Yes. And so many people, I think that when they come to me, they've been so focused. I get a lot of people that have already been doing a lot of, you know, I would say holistic practices like I did. And it's like they've been working so hard on their health and that's unknowingly, they're creating stress and this hyper focus on I'm not well and I'm broken and I must be fixed and right. Instead of, in this moment I'm calm, in this moment I'm grateful and in this moment I can think about something that was very loving for me and remember that. And we know from all the science of like, from the Heartmath Institute that when we do that, we can create so much shift in our system and we think better, we have better relationships in that, that way because we're not, you know, our cognitive function is more online. We're not going to lash out at people. And so really what I see is all areas of someone's life starts to improve, like their relationships, their finances, their health. It's all, it's all connected. Right? There's no separation.

It is. It's amazing how, yeah. All of a sudden people start having all. It starts showing up in so many different ways. And then that's when like, someone who knows them might be like, oh, did you get a haircut? Oh, your skin is glowing, you know, and, and, and, and lo and behold, it's because their whole, the whole system is shifting. Right. And it can show up in different ways that you're like, wouldn't Expect you're like, oh, yeah, you know, no, I didn't get a haircut. But I have been making a lot of changes on the inside. Right.

People can tell. I. Years ago, when I taught. When I was in. When I was an engineer, I taught engineering at a. And I had this one student who was always down, like, shoulders hunched, head forward, never didn't smile. And, you know, it was just really hard to kind of, like, connect with him. And one day I was out in the mall or something, and I saw him and he was all like, cheerful, head up, shoulders down, smiling. And I went on. Horse said, hi, how are you doing? It was really great to see you. And he said, oh, you must be mixing me up with my twin brother.

And it's like, oh, my gosh. Just like, you can just tell with someone and that their. Their inside is worn on their outside, right?

Yeah. Amazing. Well, I'm wondering if. I mean, maybe I would love if. I mean, you've been sharing your story with us, but I wonder if you. You were just sharing a little story there, but if you have any other stories of people who you've worked with and what their transformation looks like?

Oh, gosh, there's so many. Yeah. I mean, one that's coming to mind in. So I have a program. It's a very small group program with just eight people, and I do these 12 habits over 12 weeks. So it's kind of a faster pace, but with a lot of support. Coaching, private coaching, group coaching, and so on. And one of the members, I mean, she was so sweet, really doing all the things. And four weeks in. Well, actually about three weeks in, she said the pain is gone, but it kind of worries me. Like, again, the brain was so used to pain now, no pain. She was like, this is weird. And I don't know what. Like, I feel weird about it. And I don't know, like, you know, on some level, probably worrying that it might come back too good to be true, all that kind of stuff. So week four, when I said to her, like, how are you feeling now with the pain being gone? Are you feeling more comfortable?

And.

And.

And she said, what pain?

Yeah, she's like, it's behind me now. And I just seeing, like, so many of them really, you know, it really. When they embrace this, okay. Lifestyle change and they. When they really get the idea of it's not about doing, it's about being. It's a new way of being. And when they get that, that way of being is what puts them in the healing state, then it just all starts to happen.

I love it. And imagine that's even just in. You said four to eight weeks. People are really experiencing change. So I can't wait for. So everyone who is listening in. I'm going to definitely have information in the notes about Jane's book Pain Free on purpose and how you can find out more about her program that you do this online so people could be anywhere and join you for this, this program to learn how to get out of pain, but also retrain your nervous system and retrain your relationship with your whole body.

Exactly. Your body, your spirit, your mind, your. Your whole self, I would say. Yeah. I live in Newfoundland in Canada, and so I have. I have my. My. My students are. And clients are all over the world. The, the last cohort of my. I call it Calm by Design program. The last cohort of my Comm By Design program. I had students from six countries.

Yeah, it was really amazing.

Well, humans everywhere need help with this because again, we're. We don't learn it. And, and yes, there's a lot of these tools out there and books and, you know, things people can start to learn. But I really loving your system from this engineer's perspective to say, hey, from it. From a, you know, a person who figured it out yourself how to implement it, because I think that's the thing. We can have a. We can have a lot of tools sitting around, but if we don't know how to implement it and benefit from it, then it's not helping us. So, yeah, like, here's the tools now. Here's how to use them in a systematic way where you can benefit.

Yeah.

We're not short of information. Right? We have all the information. Everything that I teach, these, these habits and rituals, they're all like that. It's no secret. It's all out there. You can find it all.

I've just.

I put it together in a way and also provide the support to help people, you know, stick to the plan.

Right.

Stick to the blueprint so that they can be successful and have quick results. But I also have other programs where they can go at it at their own pace as well. So, you know, there's different things that people can do. But I always say baby steps will take you anywhere as long as you keep taking them. It's. It's just those little steps that you take day by day. And what you do every day matters way more than what you do once in a while.

Wow. Wow. So beautiful. I love that. I love that I have one patient where we Would even talk about fetus steps. You know.

Tiniest little step. It's still a step.

Yeah.

Adds up over time. Is it that you might be able to, like, maybe we can share, I don't know, a little breath work or a little, like, just right now while we're here together? Is there a.

Sure. Would you like to do like a little visualization practice? Okay. All right, let's. Let's do that. So actually what I'll get you to do. So do you have any pain right now?

I don't.

Okay, maybe. Maybe this also works for emotional pain. So maybe there's been a situation or something that's come up recently that kind of like, you know, been a little bit of a trigger for you. So people that are. Yeah. People that are watching or listening, just think about that. You can either rate the pain or both, right?

Yep.

Physical pain, emotional pain, whatever. Just give that pain that you're feeling around that a value out of 10. So 0 is no pain at all. And 10 is the worst that you could imagine. So you got a number in your head. Okay. All right, now I'd like you to think about what you would do if that situation was resolved. So if you had no pain, what's something you would love to do? Or if this situation was completely resolved, what would you do in that way? How would you feel? How would you live? So think about that. But I'm going to start you with just a little, like, closing down. So you can close your eyes and let your hands relax on your lap.

Or at your sides.

And then.

Oh, I just did it. I inhaled and I let out a sigh as an exhale.

And then just begin to notice as.

You'Re breathing, notice the support that you have.

You've got support below you.

Your hands are supported.

You never have to worry about that.

There's always support there for you.

Just noticing your breath.

You've always got another breath as long as you want. Whenever you want to breathe, there's always air there for you.

And.

Now I'd like you to think.

About that resolved situation.

So what you would do if the situation was resolved or what you would do if you didn't have pain. Something you'd love to do. It doesn't have to be huge. Might just be something small, but it can be huge. Just bring that to mind now.

And imagine that you're there.

Notice in this situation, are you inside or outside?

Notice what's around you.

What objects are around you, or is there nature around you? Are there other people around you? Or are you alone.

Take notice of the colors that you see.

Just look around and notice the colors.

And notice if you hear any sounds. What are those sounds?

Is it people talking, or maybe music? Or.

Is it the wind in the trees? The ocean waves?

Or maybe it's silent and that's okay too.

Just notice.

And then notice.

What you feel on your skin.

Do you feel any sense of warmth or coolness?

Do you feel any movement of air?

Do you feel the clothes that you're wearing touching your body?

If you're sitting or walking, What. What's the surface that you are on? Can you feel the contact with that surface? Notice if there's anything you can smell.

Food or flowers or salty air, or maybe nothing that you notice at all. And that's okay.

Maybe you can taste something. Just notice it in your mouth. Can you taste anything at all? And maybe you don't, and that's okay.

And now in this scene where you're doing this thing that you love, or the situation is resolved, if you could come up with one word for the emotion that you're feeling, what would that be? Is it.

Love?

Joy? Happiness?

Exhilaration?

Calmness? Peace?

Excitement?

What is that one word?

Doesn't have to be perfect, just something that's close.

And now switch from thinking about this word to feeling it. Take your attention into your body.

So starting at the neck, start to.

Go down and notice where you feel this feeling. See if there's an area where you're picking up this feeling that matches the word emotion.

It could be in the neck, chest, the upper abdomen, lower abdomen, your hips.

And if you're not sure, you can just go to your heart.

Wherever this feeling is that you're feeling, imagine that you can breathe into this area and make this feeling bigger. So as you inhale, it's blowing up like a balloon.

This beautiful feeling with every inhale getting bigger.

And bigger and bigger.

It can get so big that it's bigger than your body.

You can keep breathing into it and let it get as big as the room that you're in.

And notice how good it feels to be bathed in this feeling.

All around you.

And know that this feeling is yours.

And you can even say in your mind, this is mine. And as you say that, imagine pulling this feeling back to where you first felt it. Whether it was your heart or somewhere else.

Pull it back now and imagine that.

It'S turning into a tiny dot of light that you're tucking away inside.

This light may have a color or it may be white, but it's yours.

And You've tucked it away for you.

You can make it as big as you want again anytime you want, just by breathing into it. But until then, it's tucked away.

It's yours, always there.

And now.

Notice the support beneath you. Again.

Notice your breath.

You may want to wiggle your hands.

Toes, move any part of your body.

That feels like it needs to move.

And then when you're ready, you can slowly and gently open your eyes again.

Welcome back.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

I love your voice in this. This visualization of guided imagery that your voice really is just so gentle and loving.

Beautiful. Thank you, Jane. Wow. So powerful.

You're welcome.

When you can go. Okay, now, how do you feel? Right.

Yes. What is it out of 10 now?

Yeah, much better.

So what was it before and what was it after?

It was an eight and now it's a zero.

Wow. That is so wonderful.

Yeah. Because it just feels. I can be fully relating to the experience of this being resolved. And like, why not choose to be there? Why not choose to.

Exactly. Feels good to be there.

Yeah. And for anyone that's watching, listening, you know, if you had a. Your second number was lower than the first number. That's wonderful. But even if it wasn't, I want you to know that anytime you can create calm, you're starting to shift the nervous system. And so you're already beginning to heal, even if you're not noticing a difference right away. The more you can do this, the more you can really get into it and feel the feelings, the faster your body can, like, shift back into that healing state and then begin to do what it's meant to do. And that's like run your body as, as, as. As everything works and do the repair.

That it needs to do.

Yeah. It's really so true. And it's such a great way to just. I love how you have us connecting with our senses.

Yeah.

That you're guiding us because our. Our senses give us so much information and that really speaking to the nervous system. Right. That's the job of our nervous system, is to pick up on our environment.

Yes.

Say you're helping us retrain. Hey, what is it that I'm picking up on in my environment? And. And especially in. In a place where we want to be. What is it? So then you're. We're creating. And it's amazing how the nervous system works that way, that when we think that we've placed ourselves in this safe space, then we pick up on. Let our nervous system pick up on those signals.

Exactly.

Actually Believes that that's where we are and can help us stay there. Like, yeah, because sometimes I know people might be like, well, what's really happening? Or how's that working? But it just shows you. Like, first of all, we can be in the driver's seat. You're just showing us how. Right? You're showing us how we can be in the driver's seat and we can create experiences for our nervous system. For our nervous system to feel safe, secure, calm, peace, and then live from there.

Exactly, exactly. And then, I mean, we've all heard the expression that I'm sure at the knowing that our brain can't tell the difference between something we visualize in our mind and what's in the real world. So we're just giving it a different expression experience. And then through that experience, then we can just begin to do the shifting and help that nervous system, like, just be calm. And then when stressors do show up, we can. We are already built up resilience. Right. We're not. Our bucket isn't already full, so we can experience those from a more calm place.

Love it. Oh, my gosh. Thank you so much for sharing that with us, Jane. And you're welcome. All of your brilliance and your work and your book. The Pain Free on Purpose book is available on Amazon and other places too.

Yes. Yeah. And if they use your link and then they go back and share their, you know, their email address and their receipt number, then I can send them some bonuses as well. They'll get those automatically. And so, like, really super bonuses to go along with the book.

Okay, so we're going to have a link below where you can. You can get the book Pain Free on purpose. You can also be able to connect in with Jane as the wellness engineer and all of the programs she offers to help us heal as humans. Thank you again so much for joining us today.

Thank you, Dr. Donnie. And I love what you do, and I'm so happy that you are out of pain now and just, you know, you are helping other people in such a bright light in the world. So thanks for what you do.

Thank you. You're welcome. And thanks, everyone, for joining us here today. If you haven't already subscribed to the How Humans Heal podcast, I welcome you to do so and join us for the next episode. I'll talk to you soon, Jane.

All right.

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