Unstoppable Body and Mind

In this Episode I have the pleasure of interviewing Charlie Merrill,a well-known physical therapist specializing in the mind-body approach, to discuss the importance of emotional and physical healing in patient care. Learn more about how pain and many bodily symptoms are frequently generated by the brain as a protective state rather than only by tissue damage, and the importance of distinguishing primary neural drivers from secondary physical changes (tightness, weakness, spasm, swelling) that may resolve when the protective state is addressed. We explore how emotions and fear can impact physical pain and movement, with Charlie explaining concepts like "smudging" - where the brain loses clarity in perceiving the body - and the importance of introducing prediction errors to update harmful pain patterns. We cover practical applications including working with athletes, managing acute vs chronic pain, and the role of movement in healing, with Charlie emphasizing that the brain learns through mistakes and surprises, and that movement is crucial for feeding the brain accurate safety information. You can find Charlie Merrill on his website https://www.mperformance.com/ Email: charlie@Mperformance.com Listen for more, click subscribe, and share with someone who wants an Unstoppable Body and Mind!

You may have heard of the Love Language concept- that there are 5 main "Love Languages" which represent the ways we receive love best. Most of the time this concept is used in relationships, but what if we turned them inward? Self love is the biggest tool to recovery, so in this episode we explore the ways you could apply the five love languages to YOURSELF! Self-love isn’t indulgent — it’s regulating to your nervous system. It’s actually the kindest thing you can do for the people around you, to practice self love! Read that again and let it sink in. Listen for more, and click subscribe because this year I'll be recording more shows and bringing on some awesome guests!

Here's a quick recap of my 2025, where I took a step back from coaching, focused on Grief Recovery, and explored other things that brought me joy. The biggest change was my name- going from "Betsy" to "Elle" for my 50th Birthday. Listen for more, and click subscribe because this year I'll be recording more shows and bringing on some awesome guests!

In this episode, we welcome Jake Trembath, a dance teacher from Utah, who shares his journey from discovering dance as a social outlet to using it as a tool for psychological healing and brain rewiring. Jake explains how dance can help process emotions, improve self-love, and create a flow state that is beneficial for personal growth. He discusses the impact of dance on mental and physical health, highlighting its ability to rewire the brain, improve memory, and treat depression. The episode also covers the dynamics of lead and follow in dance, how it relates to masculine and feminine energies, and the importance of creating a safe space for self-expression. Jake's community, Soal Coast, and its various retreats and events are highlighted as spaces where people can experience these transformative benefits. 00:00 Introduction and Special Guest Announcement 00:34 Jake's Journey into Dance 01:55 From Dancing to Teaching 03:05 The Healing Power of Dance 05:17 Understanding Attachment Styles Through Dance 10:23 The Role of Self-Love in Dance 22:52 Creating Safety in Dance 24:56 Discovering the Power of Safe Dance Environments 25:59 Building a Supportive Dance Community 27:26 Health Benefits of Dance 29:34 Overcoming Personal Barriers Through Dance 40:17 The Flow State in Dance and Life 43:46 Upcoming Events and Retreats 45:41 Rapid Transformation Through Dance You can find more about Jake and Soul Coast events on the website: https://soulcoast.dance/ Instagram @soulcoast.dance

Wow, I had an MRI done on my back and I talk about my surprising results in this episode. I’ve had some previous back issues- a snowboarding injury and a mid back problem with my rib that developed during pregnancy. A couple times in the last few years that my back “went out” for a few days (last time was over a year ago.) I do not have chronic back pain, and I do not have to restrict my activity. But if I had pain and numbness and these same MRIs results, I could qualify for disability. MRI and X Ray results actually do not accurately predict the amount of pain someone is in. Structural changes in the body are actually normal with age. And addressing normal degenerative changes with surgery is really nothing more than a placebo. We now know it’s common for pain free people to have bulging discs, torn rotator cuffs, torn meniscus of the knee, hip labral tears. We just haven’t been doing MRI’s on pain free people to see that. Below are some of the research articles I mentioned: -Takatalo- 50% of healthy 21 year old Finns had at least one degenerative disc and 25% had a bulging disc. -Boos- 73% of adults without back pain had bulging discs. -Briggs- hip labral tears in 89% of pain free young athletes 16 years of age or older, & 56% of pain free athletes 16 years or younger. -S Rajasekaran- Delivery of MRI results affects pain and healing. -Karayannis Fear of movement is associated with trunk stiffness. If you are a woman experiencing chronic neck or back pain, I am forming a group especially for you! Details to come soon.

Today I have a special guest, a leader in the field of Mindbody medicine and President of the ATNS (Association for Treatment of Neuroplastic Symptoms, formerly PPDA), Dr David Clarke. Dr Clarke practiced Gastroenterology in Portland from 1984 to 2009, treating over 7000 patients whose symptoms were not explained by diagnostic testing. In this episode, Dr Clarke summarizes Pain relief Psychology. With research based methods teaching patients to take their focus off the symptom, shift attention to brain, and feel the emotions or deal with life stressors. Responding to chronic pain or symptoms this way rewires the brain, so that symptoms can be eliminated instead of just managed. Listen to hear more! Find Dr Clarke and the 12 question quiz on the ATNS website- https://www.symptomatic.me/ Dr Clarke's challenging patients course https://ppdassociation.org/online-course For fresh content on healing chronic pain or disease, follow Betsy on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bodyandmindlifecoach/ Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvXZSYYGL2cfJl-oEOzqspA Website https://bodyandmindlifecoach.com Transcript- Automatically Generated: This is Betsy Jensen, and you are listening to Unstoppable Body and Mind, Episode 135, Treating Neuroplastic Symptoms with Dr. David Clarke. In this podcast, we learn to upgrade our brain and understand the power of our thoughts, to heal and to create the results we want in our life. Become the person in control of your healing and make peace with your life. Become Unstoppable Body and Mind. All right. Hi, everyone. Welcome. We have a special, special guest today. This is Dr. David Clarke. Welcome. Great to be with you, Betsy. Well, we are so glad to have you here. So Dr. Clarke is one of the pioneers and leaders in this field. The head of the PPDA, which is now the ATNS, we can talk about what all of these initials mean and acronyms. But why don't we start with a little bit about your story, coming from being a Western physician to what you do now? Yeah, I didn't know anything about this. The first seven years of my formal training and education, you know, it's kind of embarrassing to admit as a physician that nobody ever mentioned the idea that your brain could cause serious pain or illness in your body, in the complete absence of anything wrong structurally or with your organs. But then I encountered a patient, I didn't know the first thing about diagnosing or treating. In year eight of my formal training, she was referred to us at UCLA where I was in training by another university because they couldn't find anything wrong to explain her symptoms. She was actually averaging one bowel movement per month, despite taking four different laxatives at double the usual doses. We did some specialized testing on her that also was normal. I was doing her exit interview and basically telling her she was just going to have to live with this because there wasn't anything more we could do. But just so the conversation wouldn't be over in two minutes, I started asking her about stress. She didn't really have any. You know, her current day life was really going just fine. But when I asked her about stress earlier, she started talking about having been molested as a girl by her father. Unfortunately, not just once or twice, which would have been bad enough, but hundreds of times. And I had never heard anybody say that before. I didn't know what to do with that information. I had no formal training in how to respond to that. But I fell back on basic instincts as a doctor, which is to try to get the story. When did it start? How often did it happen? When did it stop? Those kinds of things. And she was telling me the story in a perfectly calm tone of voice. It didn't look like she was distressed by this at all. If you didn't know better, you would think that, and I didn't know better at the time, you would think that she had completely processed this information and had moved on. And yet...

Fellow Physical Therapist, Jim Prussack, joins me today for an interesting interview about his experience moving from PT to pain reprocessing Coach. We discuss the principles of PRT (pain reprocessing therapy), and how we treat differently using a mind vs body based approach. Check out Jim at https://www.thepainpt.com/ >>> If you have not yet given my podcast a rating or review, PLEASE do that here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-unstoppable-body-and-minds-podcast/id1493360543

This Meditation will help you find and process your emotions. Many of us have learned to subconsciously repress our emotions, to talk ourselves out of them or judge ourselves for having them. But we also know that what you resist persists. So sometimes the best way to “get rid of the emotion” is actually to lean into and embrace it. Emotions are just sensations, and can not hurt you as long as you don’t resist them. Allowing your emotions and learning to feel them safely will prevent them from being expressed through your body. Today’s meditation is based on Dr Howard Schubiner’s “Embracing Emotions Meditation” from “Unlearn Your Pain.” For fresh content on healing chronic pain or disease, follow Betsy on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bodyandmindlifecoach/ Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvXZSYYGL2cfJl-oEOzqspA Website https://bodyandmindlifecoach.com

Join me today to hear Hypnotist, Melissa Tiers, as we discuss integrative hypnosis and how it helps with chronic pain. Melissa has been training clinicians in the use of hypnosis for pain relief for over 25 years and her own chronic pain history was pivotal in the creation of her pain protocols. Melissa struggled with years of migraines and is now migraine-free through this approach (as long as she stays congruent! Listen for more details as to what that all means...) We discuss the unconscious lens, how to be more mindful, and how to change your memories through memory reconsolidation Addressing the subconscious directy is the fastest way to see change. Melissa Tiers is a multi-award winning author, lecturer, key note speaker and hypnosis trainer. She is the founder of The Center for Integrative Hypnosis, co founder of The Ethical Coaching Collective and creator of Coaching the Unconscious Mind. Melissa has earned three IMDHA Pen and Quill awards for her books, Integrative Hypnosis, Keeping the brain in mind, and Integrative Hypnosis for kids and teens:Playing for change. Check out "Integrative Hypnosis for Pain Relief" by Melissa Tiers Thursday, August 8, 6:00-8:00 pm EST Sign up here: https://www.centerforintegrativehypnosis.com/offers/FNGSVfrz/checkout Find Melissa at https://www.melissatiers.com/ For fresh content on healing chronic pain or disease, follow Betsy on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bodyandmindlifecoach/ Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvXZSYYGL2cfJl-oEOzqspA Website https://bodyandmindlifecoach.com

Today I interviewed Renee Kammer, who has an amazing healing story. From 30 years of chronic pain and 5 years being bed bound, to now hiking, biking, and gardening. Renee had several diagnoses, including: Stiff person’s syndrome, Ulcerative colitis, Rheumatoid arthritis, Ankylosing spondylitis, Fibromyalgia, Headaches, Migraines, Back pain, Hip pain, Anxiety, Depression, Pelvic pain/ IC, Chronic fatigue, Chest pain and High blood pressure. Renee joined Alignment Academy and went through all of the exercises in Dr Schubiner's workbook to unlearn her pain. She got off 14 medications in the last year, and has been feeling better and better! She now has more joy and hope in her life, and is even starting a baking business with her new found time and energy. Listen here for Renee's story. And if you want to apply the work Renee did to your life this summer, be sure and check out my Book Club Integration Group! https://www.bodyandmindlifecoach.com/book-club-integration-group Transcript- Automatically Generated: This is Betsy Jensen, and you are listening to Unstoppable Body and Mind, episode 131, Life After 30 Years of Chronic Pain with Renee. In this podcast, we learned to upgrade our brain and understand the power of our thoughts, to heal and to create the results we want in our life. Become the person in control of your healing and make peace with your life. Become Unstoppable Body and Mind. Hello, my loves. Today we have an amazing episode, an amazing testimonial from Renee. I want you to listen to her story and apply anything that you can to your life, to what you're going through. Hi, everyone. Welcome. Today we have a special guest, Renee. She has such an amazing story. So welcome, Renee. Hi, it's good to be here. Great, great. It's so good having you. Renee has been in my coaching group, Alignment Academy. Oh, I was going to look up how long. Less than a year, I think, right? I think it's been since November, December. Yeah. So about like six months, seven months. And you've made such amazing progress. You were already on your way of this journey of like, getting rid of some medicines and some things. We'll go into your story, but watching your progress has been amazing. And I think it will be really inspirational for people. So let's just go ahead with maybe just a little bit about yourself and how you got to having chronic pain and the symptoms that you had. So my name is Renee. I live in Ohio and I grew up just across the river in Kentucky. I have two kids, a son who's 14 and a daughter who is going to be 17 next month. I've been married to my husband Justin for 23 years, and I love life. When I go to tell my story, it always starts when I was younger because as far back as I can remember, I remember carrying around Pepto-Bismol, because my stomach was always upset as a kid. As a kid, yeah. Yes, and it was kind of a family joke, you know, that she always has that Pepto with her. But my stomach was always upset, and I can see now that was just a lot of anxiety and worry. But there were just, there were several things that had happened with friends and in my life. When I was about 16, that I started getting chronic pain then. And so my story goes back over 30 years of chronic pain. It's honestly, when I think about it, it can be a bit overwhelming to see that the majority of my life, I've not known anything but pain. Right. Yeah. Yeah. We're getting deep fast here. But there's a happy ending though, you guys. Just very happy. But yeah, that's a lot, right? It's a long time. It's a long time. And so although I've had much easier years here and there coming and going, my body always managed to drag me down. And so I guess the relief that I feel now at being free from pain and not living in fear is just, it's so incredible. I have not felt like this the majority of my adult life. That is an amazing transformation. It's crazy. Yeah. Okay. So as far as your diagnoses that you've had or that you've been diagnosed...

This episode includes a 6 minute technique you can do to deactivate your triggers. My coach who studies hypnotherapy taught me this somatic hack to decrease the intense feelings of a trigger. It is not to ignore the trigger or brush it under a rug, but to make it more emotionally manageable so it can be processed and let go. Think of something that triggers you, and try the process along with me in this episode. Best if you can sit or lay down with your eyes closed. If you are a woman over age 35, and you're interested in a supportive coaching community to help accelerate your progress, check out Alignment Academy here: https://www.bodyandmindlifecoach.com/somatic-coaching

This episode is a clip from an Alignment Academy group coaching call. Listen in to see how I apply somatic tools in a real life situation to help Carrie feel calmer and even excited about a situation that caused anxiety. If you are interested in a supportive coaching community to help accelerate your progress, check out Alignment Academy here: https://www.bodyandmindlifecoach.com/somatic-coaching Transcript- Automatically Generated: This is Betsy Jensen, and you are listening to Unstoppable Body and Mind, Episode 129, Coaching Call. In this podcast, we learn to upgrade our brain and understand the power of our thoughts, to heal and to create the results we want in our life. Become the person in control of your healing and make peace with your life. Become unstoppable body and mind. Hello, my loves. Today's podcast is actually taken from a coaching call I did in my group coaching program, Alignment Academy. We have a couple of these group calls per week, and Carrie came on for some coaching about anxiety. I wanted you to have a chance to hear this so you can hear how I use these somatic tools in coaching to help create a different result. And with some of these techniques I use, think for yourself about something that may be causing symptoms or anxiety, and you can apply these same things to yourself. Maybe even if you can listen in a place where you can relax, you can do some of the meditations along with Carrie. My question is, tomorrow, I'm going to be away for a good chunk of the day. And so I'm trying to not drink out and keep myself calm. And I just need a little bit of help with that. Yeah. I'm curious, yeah, if you close your eyes and think of the anxiety that comes up, thinking about tomorrow, anything that gives you anxiety, how strong is that? Like how much intensity is there from 0 to 10? Like an 8. Oh, wow. Yeah. Okay. So a lot of intensity. Where do you feel that mainly? In your body? A little bit in like my throat and then between my eyes behind the bridge of my nose. Oh, interesting. Okay. And is this like the anxiety? Is that what you called it? Or is there another emotion? Yeah, okay. Yeah, it's anxiety, and now that I've been doing this long enough, it's fear. I mean, it's fear. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, do you want to try that peripheral vision technique? I have just really liked it, because it just seems to take the intensity out of it, and then we can still process other things, but it's hard to when there's, you know, 8 out of 10, when you're thinking about it. Yeah. We can't really talk ourselves out of anxiety. So, all right. So go ahead and find a spot that you can look at, not on the screen, but maybe on the wall behind you or out the window, and just focus on that one spot, and then start opening up your peripheral vision. So you kind of soften your eyes, let those, all those little eye muscles relax. Start to see kind of those blurs on the side, opening up more and more to the side of you. Keep focusing forward and even imagine that space behind you that you can somehow sense. If you can sense that room around you. How does that go? Yeah, that's, I'd give it a four. Okay, nice, so definitely a shift. Okay, so now I want you to just go back to those same thoughts, close your eyes, think of being gone tomorrow. How long you'll be gone. I just got the pain down my leg. I know that's like stress-related. There's a neural circuit there that, just thinking of that. Okay, that's cool. More evidence. More evidence, yeah, yeah, totally evidence, right? That's one of the fit criteria, pain that gets worse when somebody talks about it, or talks about, he doesn't say this, but something emotionally charged, or yeah, and then that happens. He does say under stress, but yeah. Okay, sorry, I'm gonna hijack for just a second, because there's another one I've been wanting to share with you, and I just remembered it. Oh, great. I finally hit the place in my pain journey where I have gratitude when, like...

In this episode, I interview Tai Kuncio. She is a fellow moderator in the "Tell Me About Your Pain" Facebook Group. (https://www.facebook.com/groups/695823314550483) Tai had various pains starting in childhood, which they attributed to being athletic. But she struggled the most with chronic knee pain. At one point after knee surgery, she was doing physical therapy 4 to 5 hours per day and still not getting better. It wasn’t her weakness or muscle dysfunction, but her fear that was driving her pain. Finally when she moved across the world to Africa and gave up the intensity with what she was trying to heal, she embraced the mind-body approach. She no longer struggles with chronic daily pain, and when symptoms come up she knows how to handle them so they don’t stick around long. Listen for her inspirational story and what she learned about letting go of the intensity to heal. You can find Tai at https://www.retrainyourchronicpain.com/ email : retrainyourchronicpain@gmail.com For fresh content on healing chronic pain or disease, follow Betsy Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bodyandmindlifecoach/ Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvXZSYYGL2cfJl-oEOzqspA Website https://bodyandmindlifecoach.com Here's a free 6 week link to Curable: http://www.curable.com/betsyjensen

This week I share an interview with my client, Lucas. He struggled with several years of anxiety that was getting worse and more debilitating with time. At times it was even difficult for him to go to the store or to lunch with a friend without worrying, "what if I get an anxiety attack?" After 3 months of somatic coaching with me, Lucas felt like he had found the missing piece. He had already tried meditation, breathing, yoga, acupuncture- all the "right" things to decrease the anxiety in his life. But this approach taught him the tools he needed to actually unlearn the anxiety- so his brain produced it less and less. Listen for more, and be sure and get on my "Unlearn Your Anxiety and Depression" Book Club list if you want more help in this area for free! https://body-and-mind-lifecoach.myflodesk.com/bookclub You can check out Lucas' music here: Hannah/Lucas Pop Music - Idylmind https://linktr.ee/idylmind Meditation Album- https://lucasfackler.bandcamp.com/album/meditations-vol-1 General info: lucasfackler.com For fresh content on healing chronic pain or disease, follow Betsy on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bodyandmindlifecoach/ Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvXZSYYGL2cfJl-oEOzqspA Website https://bodyandmindlifecoach.com Here's a free 6 week link to Curable: http://www.curable.com/betsyjensen Transcript- Automatically Generated: This is Betsy Jensen, and you are listening to Unstoppable Body and Mind, Episode 127, Unlearning Anxiety with Lucas. In this podcast, we learn to upgrade our brain and understand the power of our thoughts, to heal and to create the results we want in our life. Become the person in control of your healing and make peace with your life. Become Unstoppable Body and Mind. All right, today I have a special guest, and we're going to be talking more about anxiety. As you know, I've been doing that Unlearn Your Anxiety and Depression Book Club by Dr. Howard Schubiner, talking a lot about anxiety, really realizing how much it's actually so prevalent with my clients. But I asked Lucas to come here today because his story is mainly with more the anxiety, not complicated with a lot of other symptoms, although of course, some things come and go. But it's really been cool to see his progress over the last three months, addressing his anxiety somatically, and how that has just changed things so quickly for him. So welcome, Lucas. Thank you for coming. Yeah. You hit the nail on the head there. It's my anxiety drives my anxiety. It's kind of the thing. There's not a lot of tangible things I worry about other than having an anxiety attack. And it took a while to kind of realize that's what's going on. And so here we are. Here we are. Well, let's start at the beginning. And if you could just tell us kind of what brought you to this work. Like, how did anxiety develop for you? And like, where were you when you found this? I think I actually noticed anxiety when I was a kid, but it didn't really dominate my life, you know, but I just remember a couple of times when I was really young. And then in my early 20s, some periods of time that were tough, but it didn't really start to become like a problem affecting my day to day life until like about five years ago after some business stuff went south for me, where, you know, I had a video business and a music business, and I found where they both meet. And it was like making videos for audio brands. And it got like pretty quickly. It was doing really well. But then after a few years, some relationships changed and stuff changed and it fell out on me, which was like financially devastating. And that's really screwed with my confidence and everything, just all the things I was doing and everything I had planned. Didn't really pan out how I thought. And it left me kind of doubting myself often and ruminating on what I could have done. And doubt and ruminating and thinking about those situations turned me into an anxious mess...

In this episode, I interview 3 women with amazing healing stories. We all met as Moderators for the "Tell Me About Your Pain" Facebook group created by Alan Gordon. Kristina has a list of symptoms that were healed with the mind-body approach. Including anxiety, eating disorders, depression, hypothyoroidism, adrenal fatigue, POTS, leaky gut, histamine intolerance, insomnia, adrenal insufficiency, and hashimotos. Stacey suffered for 18 years with chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, IBS, Lyme disease, insomnia, body pains, and pelvic pain. Callie had anxiety, insomnia, fainting, and neck pain, which she found out was a congenital neck fusion with “creative wiring in her neck”. She was told if she moved her neck wrong and she could be paralyzed, so she had medical trauma and increased fear. Her pain spread through the left side of her body and she began to have joint instability (ankle sprains, knee dislocation, hip popping). She was diagnosed with myofascial pain syndrome, fibromyalgia, migraines, chronic fatigue, unexplained rashes, acne, and had pelvic pain with sitting. Listen for more about their healing journeys- what they found most helpful and advice they would give others when doing this work. You can find more about Kristina and Stacey's group coaching here: www.christianbrainrewire.com And Kristina's email is www.kristinacarlton.com Stacey has a free "Stretch and Breathe Nervous System Regulation Class" https://www.wholisticallyrenewed.com/fitness And Callie's contact info is coachcalliek@gmail.com or on her facebook page https://www.facebook.com/people/Brain-First-Chronic-Pain-Coaching/61555738854975/?mibextid=LQQJ4d Here's a free 6 week link to Curable: http://www.curable.com/betsyjensen For fresh content on healing chronic pain or disease, follow Betsy on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bodyandmindlifecoach/ Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvXZSYYGL2cfJl-oEOzqspA Website https://bodyandmindlifecoach.com

This Episode is what Dr Schubiner calls "The Six F's" in his book "Unlearn Your Pain" These are natural reactions to pain, but they also cause the brain to amplify the pain or symptoms. Here are the 6 F's, listen for more info: "Fear of the pain or other symptom: We fear the sensation of it as it can be so severe and unpleasant; we worry about whether it will go away and when or when it will return; we spend a lot of time wishing it will go away Focus on the pain or other symptom: We pay a lot of attention to it; we monitor it; we focus on how it feels and if it is changing or getting worse Frustration with it: We get upset, annoyed and angry at the pain or other symptom; we become resentful that doctors haven’t fixed it or don’t understand it; we become sad for what we have lost Fighting it: We work hard to overcome it; we try to push through it; and we get exhausted in the fight, especially when we feel we are losing the battle Trying to figure it out: We spend a lot of time thinking about it; we search for answers online, in doctor’s offices and with alternative care practices Trying to fix it: We spend a lot of time and money on treatments that haven’t worked; we try anything and everything that might work; we get desperate for a cure; we get depressed when one doesn’t materialize." The way you react to pain can cause your brain to produce more of it or decrease it, so reacting differently on purpose will help you feel better. For fresh content on healing chronic pain or disease, follow Betsy on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bodyandmindlifecoach/ Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvXZSYYGL2cfJl-oEOzqspA Website https://bodyandmindlifecoach.com Transcript- Automatically Generated: This is Betsy Jensen, and you are listening to Unstoppable Body and Mind, Episode 125, The Six Fs, Reactions That Increase Pain. In this podcast, we learned to upgrade our brain and understand the power of our thoughts, to heal and to create the results we want in our life. Become the person in control of your healing and make peace with your life. Become unstoppable body and mind. Hello, my loves. You may know that I did a book club for Dr. Schubiner's book, Unlearn Your Pain. All of the videos for the replays are actually on YouTube. You can go to my YouTube channel, Body and Mind Life Coach. And I really love doing these book clubs because I learn so much and I get to really study this information so I can present it to you guys. And Dr. Schubiner's Unlearn Your Pain is chock full of good information. He's been a researcher in this field for so long and has a great way of distilling down the concepts into simpler ways to understand what's going on with pain and especially with chronic pain and chronic symptoms. As you probably know by now, in most cases, chronic pain and disease doesn't actually show you that there is something structural going on or how much tissue damage there is. When you have chronic symptoms, it's often the case that you have neuroplastic pain. Your brain can produce pain even when there's no injury or long after an injury has healed, which is usually three to six months at the most. So one of the concepts that's really important to learn when doing this work is that the way that you respond to the pain actually makes a difference on whether the brain keeps producing the pain or not. Basically, it's like a volume knob. When you react in certain ways, the brain turns up the volume or amplifies your symptoms. The six Fs are normal reactions to pain. So if you have these reactions, don't beat yourself up. They're very normal. It's understandable. But you also want to know what these six Fs are and recognize them in yourself because you could be inadvertently causing your pain to become higher and higher. And there are more effective ways of handling your pain, reacting to pain that actually retrain the brain and rewire the brain to produce pain less and less. So pain is not...

In this episode I put together the 10 biggest myths I've seen around pain (especially chronic pain). Lots of new pain research is coming out, so if you think you know about pain (like I did as a Physical Therapist), there may be some new findings that surprise you. Here are the 10 biggest myths about pain, and be sure to listen for more explanation on each of them: 1-pain equals tissue damage 2-If I have pain or symptoms after exercise or food, it means that exercise or food is what caused my pain. 3-The longer I’ve had pain means the longer it will take to heal 4-I will have to re-live traumatic experiences in order to heal from them 5-If I don’t have significant childhood trauma then I shouldn’t have chronic pain 6-If my pain is mind body, I have to have 100% belief before I can heal 7-I need to be perfect at healing 8-If I have neuroplastic pain it means that I’m weak 9-If I have been doing the work and still have pain it means there are repressed emotions I haven’t yet found 10- The goal is to be totally regulated and pain free For fresh content on healing chronic pain or disease, follow Betsy on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bodyandmindlifecoach/ Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvXZSYYGL2cfJl-oEOzqspA Website https://bodyandmindlifecoach.com

Anxiety is a symptom that goes hand in hand with chronic pain and disease. In this episode I talk about what anxiety is, how it affects the body, why it's so common, and how to unlearn it! I give an example from my own life, and some techniques you can use to teach your brain to produce anxiety less and less. If you are looking to support your growth in a loving, fun and nurturing community, check out Alignment Oasis and the specials I have going on now: https://www.bodyandmindlifecoach.com/alignment-oasis For fresh content on healing chronic pain or disease, follow Betsy on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bodyandmindlifecoach/ Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvXZSYYGL2cfJl-oEOzqspA Website https://bodyandmindlifecoach.com Transcript-Automatically Generated: This is Betsy Jensen, and you are listening to Unstoppable Body and Mind, Episode 123, Unlearning Anxiety. In this podcast, we learn to upgrade our brain and understand the power of our thoughts, to heal and to create the results we want in our life. Become the person in control of your healing and make peace with your life. Become unstoppable body and mind. Hello, my loves. I really wanted to talk about anxiety today because it is a very common symptom for people who have chronic pain or disease. In fact, it's kind of like the chicken or the egg, which came first. Many people who have a tendency towards more anxious thoughts, they're more likely to develop this neuroplastic chronic pain. Alan Gordon said in his book The Way Out that the fear of his symptoms becoming chronic is actually what caused his symptoms to become chronic. And once you have pain or symptoms that don't go away quickly, it's common to develop a health anxiety about symptoms in your body. So I think of anxiety as just another version of one of the neuroplastic symptoms your brain can produce. So first, just a definition of anxiety. It's intense, excessive and persistent worry, and fear about everyday situations. So anxiety could be normal if you have a stressful situation, like public speaking, but it becomes a problem when anxiety feelings become excessive or interfere with your daily life. You might identify with some of these symptoms of productivity anxiety. This is what I really associated with before. So feeling like you're not doing enough, feeling guilty or ashamed when you take breaks or rest, feeling like you're always behind and you can never catch up, obsessively planning, checking emails, messages or to-do lists, feeling irritable or easily frustrated if things don't go according to plan, or feeling so overwhelmed that you procrastinate and avoid tasks. And you could feel on the edge, irritated, and like your mind is always racing. This can affect your sleep, and you could even have night anxiety where you can't stop worrying about the next day. You have intrusive thoughts that come up at night and a racing mind. You replay the day and keep thinking about what happened. You're tossing and turning in bed, and you're worried about not getting enough sleep, which causes you to get less sleep. And even though you're feeling physically exhausted, you can't sleep. With anxiety, you could have memory issues and trouble focusing. You notice that you worry a lot and overthink. You have a lack of patience and need constant reassurance, and you could even have panic attacks. Anxiety is this activated state of the nervous system. So it's like fight or flight. It's more in the flight. Like you're running from a tiger. You're running to try to constantly find problems and fix them and solve them so that you'll feel safe. And this can be depleting to your body if you're in this flight state of anxiety for too long. It takes its toll on your body. You could have a racing heart, shortness of breath, tightness in your chest, numbness, dizziness, or spinning vision, headaches, muscle tension and body aches, shaking, excessive sweating even when you're cold. You could feel a lump...

Pain when things are good is a phenomenon I see when people are unlearning pain and learning to regulate their nervous systems. When you're used to being in high alert, then letting your guard down and feeling safe can actually seem dangerous. We can expand our ability to stay in the "rest and repair state" longer, but some people have learned resting is "lazy" or having fun is "selfish". Watch for this in yourself- if your symptoms come in a time of more calm or peace, don't worry! This is actually a sign your nervous system is EXPANDING. The rest and repair state can become more normal for you than survival mode, but the nervous system has to go through growth to get there. If you are looking to support your growth in a loving, fun and nurturing community, check out Alignment Oasis and the specials I have going on now: https://www.bodyandmindlifecoach.com/alignment-oasis For fresh content on healing chronic pain or disease, follow Betsy on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bodyandmindlifecoach/ Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvXZSYYGL2cfJl-oEOzqspA Website https://bodyandmindlifecoach.com Transcript- Automatically Generated: This is Betsy Jensen and you are listening to Unstoppable Body and Mind, Episode 122, Pain When Things Are Good. In this podcast, we learn to upgrade our brain and understand the power of our thoughts, to heal and to create the results we want in our life. Become the person in control of your healing and make peace with your life. Become unstoppable body and mind. Hello, my loves. I wanted to record this episode because this is a phenomenon that I see a lot. As people are healing, making new neural pathways, rewiring, regulating their nervous system, it can actually feel unsafe in a way to just let your guard down and feel good. So if you think about the nervous system states, the rest and repair state, the parasympathetic calm state, that state is when you trust and feel okay about things, and things are going to work out, and you're not on high alert. But if you're used to being on high alert, being in the calm state can feel dangerous. And that's what I want to talk about. I actually experienced that over Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving was actually my birthday this year. And so it was a really, really fun weekend, basically. The Wednesday, the night before, I had my birthday dance. Actually, during the day, some friends helped me get this couch that I really wanted, and they moved it into my house, and it's in awesome condition, and it's so soft, and I just felt so grateful. I got spoiled all day Wednesday. And then Thursday was Thanksgiving, my actual birthday, and we had a great get together with my family, and some really good times, and people were celebrating me there. And then that night, I started getting some anxious thoughts, some familiar stomach symptoms, discomfort. And it would be easy to say like, oh, I just had Thanksgiving dinner, that's why my stomach is upset. But what really tipped me off were the kind of thoughts that I was having. I started kind of having these ruminating thoughts. I was actually thinking of that couch that I had gotten the day before. And there was another one on the Facebook Marketplace that I thought might have been slightly better. So I was regretting my decision about that couch. I had recently helped purchase a car for my daughter, like a used car, and then it had mechanical problems right off the bat within the first week. And so I was, you know, questioning my judgment. And the biggest tip off though for me was I was having these thoughts like, what if mind-body stuff isn't true? What if what I'm teaching, you know, doesn't actually work and doesn't help people? And that's when I was like, okay, brain, what's going on? I think what had happened was I'd seen someone in my family like rubbing their shoulder and talking about getting an injection. And it was from across the room. I wasn't part of the conversation....

Anxiety may be a familiar state for you - whether you have chronic pain or not. Anxiety is the nervous system state of "Flight". We are often not running from a tiger, but we are running to do more, scan for danger, and fix problems. Anxiety is uncomfortable in the body, and prompts action- doing or thinking constantly to feel better. The solution to unlearning anxiety and teaching the brain not to go into anxious habits is to go INTO the sensation instead of trying to avoid it. This tree meditation will help you explore the sensations of anxiety neutrally, so you can help them pass and train your brain to produce them less. For a limited time, book a 55 min Clarity Session with me for just $39. Bring a struggle in your life (chronic pain, relationships, business, emotions, health), and leave with understanding to improve it. New clients only, one per person https://calendly.com/thebetsyjensen/39-clarity-session For weekly calls and community support integrating this work into your life, check out Alignment Academy: https://www.bodyandmindlifecoach.com/alignment-academy-membership Please subscribe and share this podcast with someone who might love it! For fresh content on healing chronic pain or disease, follow Betsy on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bodyandmindlifecoach/ Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvXZSYYGL2cfJl-oEOzqspA Website https://bodyandmindlifecoach.com *Free Nervous System Modules- 4 free videos explaining the nervous system, how it affects your health, and how to regulate it https://view.flodesk.com/pages/620ffa96e0eda1a0d870b5a6 *Curable App- 6 Weeks Free with this code http://www.curable.com/betsyjensen If you like this podcast, please give it a five star rating and review on Itunes https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-unstoppable-body-and-minds-podcast/id1493360543