Understanding pain is an important part of changing it.
Below is a collection of resources for learning more about how pain works.
Online Videos
- Understanding Pain in Less than 5 Minutes – A quick look at how complicated pain can be and the broad categories that commonly help people get better
- Why Things Hurt by Lorimer Moseley – Probably one of the most popular “learn about pain” videos on the planet. 15 minutes, engaging, and entertaining.
- The Pain Revolution with Lorimer Moseley – A 21-minute presentation by one of the leading pain looking at “7 Amazing Pain Discoveries to Change Your Life”
- Tame The Beast — It’s time to rethink persistent pain – Another short (5 minutes) animated video with Lorimer Moseley, looking more specifically at how the brain learns pain.
- Rubber Arm Experiment – A 4-minute clip from the show Magic for Humans. Not intended to teach about pain, but demonstrates how our experience is based on our brain’s interpretation.
- Chronic Pain and Anxiety: Why Doctors Get It Wrong & How to Hack Your Brain – Helpful for understanding how pain (and anxiety) can become chronic and how we can begin to unlearn
- What is Chronic Pain and How Does It Work? – A short 3-minute overview of the official types of pain. A bit more technical and jargony than the other videos.
- Pain, the Brain, and Your Amazing Protectometer – Lorimer Moseley – If you enjoyed the shorter Lorimer videos above, this longer one (1h 23m) is well-worth watching as well.
Online Articles & Other Written Resources
- What is Pain and What is Happening When We Feel It? – Capturing why, to reduce pain, we need to reduce evidence of danger and increase evidence of safety.
- Why Chronic Pain Isn’t in Your Head – Illustrating how the historical divisions of mental and physical, or mind and body, have limited our capacity to understand pain.
- Ten Evidence-Based Strategies for Pain Relief – The title sums it up. Serves as a helpful checklist for guiding a more comprehensive approach to changing pain.
- Restorative Yoga for Chronic Pain – An overview of how using practices like restorative yoga can support a calmer state and, with consistent practice, change pain.
- Recovery Strategies: Your Pain Guidebook – A 71-page resource created by Greg Lehman to guide you in understanding and recovering from persistent pain.