Pain: The Toughest Teacher

 Pain is one of the greatest motivators.
And often, the toughest teacher.

Depending on your relationship with it, pain can stop you in your tracks. It demands your attention. It whispers—or shouts—“Something needs to change.”

And while pain feels like it lives in the body, here’s the mind-blowing part: pain lives in the brain.

It’s not always a direct signal from injury.
We have something called nociceptors—receptors that detect potential threat. They don’t actually create pain. They send information to the brain, and the brain decides if it’s enough of a threat to warn you with pain.

That means pain is influenced by far more than just tissue damage.
It can be shaped by stress, memory, fear, inflammation, sleep, past injuries—even your beliefs.

In applied neurology, we call this the “threat bucket.” When too many stressors pour in—physical, emotional, environmental—the nervous system may respond with pain. Not to punish you. But to protect you.

So no, pain doesn’t always equal injury.
But it is your body asking for something different.
A new input. A new way of being.

If you’re curious, this short video from one of my mentors is a great intro to the neuroscience of pain. It’s fascinating and might just change the way you think about healing.

More soon—and as always, I’m so glad we’re in this together.

With care,
Lila