As this journey begins, Steve will explain how the science of pain has changed significantly in the last two decades — uncovering lots of good news about how you have the power to change your pain experience.

Steve will guide you to explore big questions, including how to define pain and what’s really happening when something hurts.

As Steve will explain, pain is best understood as a protective feeling to the perception of danger. Understanding and embracing the complexity of pain can lead to effective strategies for overcoming it.

You’ll learn how the skill of mindfully paying attention to how you feel is a central tool in understanding your pain.

In this opening module, you’ll explore:

• A key insight: pain is a protective reflex, not an accurate measure of tissue damage
• The fundamentals of modern pain science
• Skills for investigating intense sensations with curiosity rather than fear
• How to become more optimistic about moving your body, using gentle movement and self-touch exercises for helping you feel more connected
• Self-brushing and self-squeezing as simple tools for connecting to the size, shape, and weight of your limbs
• How to develop a felt sense of resources and presence

You now know that pain always involves emotion and meaning. There is always a backstory…

Learning to accept the difficult stories linked to your pain, and reframing why you think you hurt, will change your pain experience.

The science of mindset — the study of all the prior experiences and attitudes you hold inside — can make a big difference in understanding your pain.
You might be surprised at how your thoughts, memories, and beliefs are framing your experience of chronic pain. How you understand and describe your pain is deeply important.

You’ll learn how to harness the protective power of inflammation.

Steve will also guide you to look at how your nervous system can become sensitized to this new information you’re learning.

In this module, you’ll explore:

• How to tell your pain story to establish a feeling of being safe
• Finding safe metaphors that can help you heal
• How you can develop a pain-free mindset
• The mindfulness practice of open monitoring, or trying to become aware of awareness
• Movements for raising your heart rate and feeling your blood flow, learning how you respond to some mildly intense sensations

Inflammation, a protective reflex of the immune system, is a major player in persistent pain.

As Steve will explain, the immune, hormone, digestive, and nervous systems all secrete informational chemicals that can change the environment in the body as well as every cell.

Dysfunction at the fluid-chemical-cellular level of these systems creates an environment in the body that leads to sensitization, inflammation, and pain.

Understanding how your cells grow and connect according to their environment is crucial to reducing pain and inflammation.

For example, if you practice pain, you’ll get better at pain — and if you practice joy and movement, they can become your default response and reduce inflammation within your body’s ecosystems.

Managing stress, sleep, diet, and breath are all tools for creating more harmony and balance in the body and managing or alleviating chronic pain.

In this module, you’ll explore:

• Insights into how feeling safe and settled will soothe your immune system
• How to use painkillers safely (when you need to)
• A special meditative awareness practice for breath and the power of slow, gentle breathing
• How muscles secrete anti-inflammatory chemicals while fat cells secrete pro-inflammatory chemicals
• How the right doses of movement will reduce inflammation

The issue of low back pain cannot be ignored, as it is the leading cause of disability globally.
— World Health Organization

Back pain is incredibly common.

It’s often persistent, negatively impacting your ability to participate in family, social, and work activities. It can also worsen your mental health.

Unfortunately, there are also many myths around back pain. For instance, did you know you can’t only blame getting old, being misaligned, slipped discs, bad posture, or lifting with a bent back for your back pain?

Steve will explain ways to adapt, move, and feel in a way that makes you feel less afraid of intense sensations in your back.

You’ll explore how back pain, even the worst lingering pain, is more often about your protective systems working too hard.

In this module, you’ll explore:

• Myths and facts about back pain
• What science actually says about lifting objects — including that you should bend your back
• Why you don’t need to worry about how you sit or your posture, but you should worry about holding fixed positions and not moving
• New models to help you better understand your amazing, adaptable, and resilient spine
• Mindfulness techniques to connect to the whole spine
• Simple movements for promoting a strong back

Arthritis can be scary. If it’s an issue for you, you may worry that your joints are wearing out.

Steve will share ways to keep your joints healthy, whether or not you’ve been told you’re arthritic. (Many of us have arthritic signs on imaging but we have no pain.)

Knee arthritis is the most common form of osteoarthritis (OA). Steve will present an amazing set of studies on knee and hip OA that reveal hopeful findings if you’re among those who’ve been told they need to replace their joints.

You’ll learn how arthritis is primarily an inflammatory condition — not a wear and tear, biomechanical issue. This condition responds well to exercise and to a deeper understanding of pain as a protective feeling.

In this module, you’ll explore:

• Accurate up-to-date information on joint health
• How you can embrace the metaphor “motion is lotion” and leave behind the notion that “bone on bone” is an issue
• Meditative awareness tools for tuning into the potency and power in joints
• Simple graded movements for building strong and resilient knees
• How to find joy and delight in challenging your shoulders to develop strength and flexibility

Steve will present the latest findings in pain science for a rich and detailed look at one of the most common health complaints: headaches.

By uncoupling stress and trauma defense responses from feelings in your head, it is possible to significantly reduce the incidence of headaches.

One cause of headaches is neck tension. Many people report feeling fragile when they think about their necks.

You’ll discover a powerful tool: slow head-turning to release defense patterns locked in the head and neck region. By understanding the orienting reflex, you’ll gain control of stuck patterns in the head and neck region.

In this module, you’ll:

• Learn to be less scared of intense sensations in the head and neck
• Understand how trauma can affect blood flow to the head and create chronic neck tension
• Engage in meditative awareness as you feel all the spaces and cavities in your head — there is more to feel than you probably think!
• Learn how your head works, developing a relationship to the spaces and connections in your head, neck, and jaw
• Practice movement exercises including slow head-turning and reprogramming protective reflexes

As this course comes to a close, Steve will guide you to consider how you can apply the principles you’ve learned to any painful experience — including abdominal pain, period pain, chest pain, and more.

You’ll explore more tools for uncovering your hidden feelings and delving into hard questions and issues in your life to help you overcome what’s commonly misunderstood as physical pain.

You’ll review the big picture of the models of suffering and pain you’ve learned about throughout the course.

You’ll learn powerful tools to help you return to being playful and finding joy, safety, and connection to your body. These tools include movement, staying in touch with your feelings, and staying up-to-date on your pain management knowledge.

In this final module, you’ll:

• Strengthen your understanding of the bridge between pain and trauma
• Discover the power of finding the hidden parts of your body — and switching on the bits that are absent and quiet, rather than endlessly trying to switch off the noisy, painful parts
• Deepen your meditation skills and practice open monitoring of your sensations as they arise
• Reconnect to squatting, crawling, twisting, and jumping as you move like a playing child to find ease and confidence in your body
• Learn some closing movements and principles to help you feel strong and pain-free

Changing Your Framework of Pain
Audio Teaching With Steve Haines and Catherine Oberson

In this hopeful 46-minute audio conversation full of practical advice, Steve and Catherine explore how, to successfully overcome pain, you must understand how it works. Catherine shares insights from her work as a hospital physiotherapist specializing in pain, honoring her patients’ stories, and promoting active strategies to empower them. Steve and Catherine share tips for avoiding feeling overwhelmed by difficult sensations and expanding your movement and exercise patterns.

Register by June 29 to claim this bonus before it expires.

Navigate & Understand Your Pain
Two Guided Audio Meditations With Steve Haines

In this 27-minute audio recording (with an accompanying transcript), Steve introduces two pain meditations featuring simple yet powerful techniques to observe and engage with intense sensations in new ways. Steve emphasizes the importance of curiosity and reframing habitual responses to pain. By focusing on the present moment and exploring your body’s messages, you can enhance your awareness and foster a more constructive relationship with pain. Engage with these practices to uncover new possibilities for managing discomfort and promoting wellbeing.

Register by July 12 to claim this bonus before it expires.

Sometimes it’s easy to disconnect and numb yourself to the anxiety and pain you feel in your body. Steve’s 30-minute video teaching will give you a deeper appreciation for the power of feeling every sensation in our bodies (yes, even the difficult ones!) along with simple, safe steps to become more skillful at regulating them. By embracing the complex, messy world of feeling, you can change your pain experience.

This 5-page article explores Steve’s insightful approach to overcoming pain and trauma. Explore the non-linear journey to recovery and the importance of balancing challenge with rest. Steve delves into practical strategies for building resilience and redefining your relationship with pain. Follow along with these five key strategies for overcoming pain, with simple tips, tools, and follow-up resources outlined in the article.