Mindful Courage

The American Buddhist monk Jack Kornfield said in his 2014 blog post “Mindfulness as Fearless Presence, “Sitting mindfully with our sorrows and fears, or with those of another, is an act of courage.  It is not easy.” I enCOURAGE you to apply such bravery to considering your past, present, and future.  It may set you free from chronic pain and neuroplastic symptoms.

Be courageous in confronting your past

Mediated by emotions and past experiences, the nervous system creates symptoms that ingrain in the body.  Difficult experiences incite stress hormone release from the brain which negatively influence the immune and nervous systems and every other body system.  As a physician, I have seen no body part spared from such symptoms.  Many times, multiple body systems wreak havoc simultaneously.  Think: Long-Covid, Chronic Fatigue, Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), and many others.  Whether insidious stress or a clear acute traumatic event triggers the symptoms, the results can be equally devastating.  It may be tough to even get out of bed, let alone keep a job or manage other obligations. 

Whether insidious stress or a clear acute traumatic event triggers the symptoms, the results can be equally devastating. 

And you might find it harder to address the issues that underlie your symptoms.  It may be unfathomable to dig up difficult memories.  Easier on the mind to repress them.  But is it?  And what about the body?  Insidious self-negating childhood experiences shape our personalities and how we cope with future experiences.  At first glance, you may think your childhood was “fine.”  Dr. David Clarke, gastroenterologist, Mind-Body expert, and author of “They Can’t Find Anything Wrong!” says to consider how you would feel if a child you knew was growing up with the same circumstances you had.  Would you wish the same challenges upon them?  Despite even well-meaning parents, could there have been a chronic hypervigilant state you took on that contributed to your vulnerability to neuroplastic symptoms?  Such symptoms result when actions and experiences don’t align with your values or needs. 

Emotional pain and physical pain are processed in the same brain regions.  The body is an extension of the mind and 95% of brain functioning is unconscious.  This includes pumping the heart and digesting food, for example, plus instilled beliefs and memory. When Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy (EAET) can effectively reprocess the original symptom-inciting emotions and reassociate the body with feelings of safety, is it worth continuing to feel that nervous system memory manifesting as Fibromyalgia, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, or chronic pelvic pain, in order to avoid facing the past?  

The body is an extension of the mind and 95% of brain functioning is unconscious. 

When you don’t sit with your sorrows with mindful courage, it creates vulnerability for secondary emotions of guilt, shame, anxiety, and depression.  In It’s Not Always Depression: Working the Change Triangle to Listen to the Body, Discover Core Emotions, and Connect to Your Authentic Self, Hilary Jacobs Hendel states that secondary emotions cover up the primary emotions of fear, anger, sadness, disgust, even joy.  Don’t hold back your authentic self.  I challenge you to be courageous in confronting those incongruous feelings and traumatic events. 

Don’t hold back your authentic self. 

Fear fuels neuroplastic symptoms. Dr. Lissa Rankin states in The Fear Cure that fears point to past influences that need to be addressed.  Fear lurks even in the most trivial thoughts.  “I ought to help so-and-so,” or “I should know the answer.”  Identify fear any time you think “I should” or “I need to…”  Fear is often about not being good enough or smart enough or justified to exist without doing, helping, or knowing.  When you can acknowledge how many of your thoughts are these false fears (your life is not really in danger!) and who or what in your past created these types of fears in you, it may help you let them go. 

60-80% of all doctor visits are likely stress-related.

If you let it, fear can direct your path to healing and find its opposite, joy.  So be bold and face your fears.  Dr. Rankin states that doing so leads to more positive health effects than exercise, diet, vitamins, or quitting bad health habits.  60-80% of all doctor visits are likely stress-related [Nerurkar A, et al, 2013]. Translate: fear-related.  That goes even beyond neuroplastic symptoms.  When stress hormones run the body, the immune system can’t manage its cancer and infection-fighting objectives and may even turn on itself, creating autoimmune conditions. The courage to confront your past is essential to move forward.  But be clear, it is not about regret, it’s about being proud of who you have become despite the challenges. 

Be courageous in recognizing your present

It takes courage and a leap of faith in the now to be open to the novelty of the neuroplastic paradigm.  It goes against the grain of our micro-managing culture and traditional medicine to consider a holistic approach that requires confronting the stigma of psychology and taking time to introspect.  Albert Einstein said, “What is right is not always popular and what is popular is not always right.”  What does your intuition say?  When I had chronic repetitive motion arm pain, palpitations, and difficulty swallowing, my intuition told me that something didn’t make sense in the biomedical paradigm I had been taught to practice.  Yet it took me time to build courage to listen to my intuition.  

Step back and consider what your symptoms are trying to tell you.  What are they saying ‘no’ to? 

So before you take that new prescription, accept an injection, or undergo surgery, step back and consider what your symptoms are trying to tell you.  What are they saying ‘no’ to?  If your symptoms are so entrenched now that they are ever-present, you may need to think back to the early days.  Did the back pain come on initially when you were carrying heavy equipment for an obligation you didn’t feel right about?  Did the fibromyalgia pain start during a stressful educational program?  Courage seeks healing from within rather than an external savior. 

Maybe you’re on disability for your symptoms or had significant procedures or surgeries and the thought of considering that it was all for naught is too much to bear.  Courage allows letting go of that time lost.  There is no sense in holding onto regret, nor in victimization or identification with bodily symptoms. 

There is no sense in holding onto regret, nor in victimization or identification with bodily symptoms. 

Pain & Symptom Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) involves gradually reexposing yourself to your symptom triggers with a state of confidence and safety.  Courage here comes in confronting your symptoms.  As prolific Mind-Body researcher and healer Dr. Howard Schubiner likes to say, “Bring it on!”  For most people, it’s not an overnight process.  It’s normal to have doubts and setbacks during stressful periods.  But be brave. Change will come.  You are attempting to actively rewire your brain and nervous system, no different than if you were practicing a modification of a tennis serve to unlearn poor form.

Be courageous in guiding your future

It takes courage to move forward into the unknown.  Many people fear uncertainty more than known dissatisfaction.  It takes courage to get unstuck and make a change.  It could be that a relationship needs amends or reinvigoration or you need modification in your job or a change in employment altogether.  Long-term changes may involve integrating new life habits such as practicing mindfulness, meditation, yoga, flow activities, or saying “no.”  You may need to avoid people and toxic media that propagate your fears and negativity.  

Courage will come naturally because you’ll realize that fear has been the fuel for your symptoms all along.

However, some of these changes may be easier than you think.  When you find your neuroplastic symptoms have improved from a better understanding of your nervous system and working at symptom reprocessing and emotional awareness, you may have no qualms in making life changes.  Courage will come naturally because you’ll realize that fear has been the fuel for your symptoms all along.  After all, your previous way of life was hurting you.  Decisions may be easier to make when they are in line with your values and basic needs.  You will have newfound self-compassion and in turn, compassion for others.

Live now and be mindfully courageous about your past, present, and future

Jack Kornfield suggested that mindfulness lets experience be the teacher. Mindfulness means being fully present in the now.  Yet it does not disregard the past or future.  Be mindful and courageous in confronting your past experiences and in guiding your future to free yourself from chronic pain and neuroplastic symptoms. As a soundtrack to your journey, here are a couple of my husband’s favorite songs: “Shangri-La” and “Ready or Not” by Reggae band Wookiefoot, perfectly apropos. 

With mindful courage, there may be new sunrises and new adventures in your future.

(Rachel taking a sunrise moment from biking over the Big Dam Bridge, Little Rock, Arkansas, March 1, 2025.)