Your Brain Can Heal Your Body

The World Health Organization defines health as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being—not merely the absence of disease. This has been the definition of health since 1948.

Despite this understanding, most doctors treat the body in isolation—ignoring how mental and emotional stress can cause an effect in the physical health of their patients. They near purely look for pathogens, mechanical issues and clear physical damage in the body. This is of course useful, but it takes the mental and emotional parts of a human being out of the picture. And it divorces biology from its inseparable mind-body connection.

“The mind and body are not separate. What happens in the mind happens in the body.” — Gabor Maté, MD

There’s a new model of medicine silently emerging within the nooks of western medicine and It’s called the bio-psycho-social model—and it’s redefining what we once thought was incurable.

⸻

What Are Neuroplastic Conditions?

In this new model, a vast number of illnesses previously labeled “chronic” or “incurable” are now being reclassified as neuroplastic.

That means:

• They are not caused by structural damage in the body (like broken bones or tumors).

• They stem from the brain’s stress-based response (a brain conditioned to being stressed even when the stressor has passed).

• And most importantly…they are reversible (the brain is a neuroplastic organ).

Neuroplastic = Changeable

The human brain is incredibly adaptive. So adaptive, in fact, that it can learn to produce pain and dysfunction—in response to perceived, remembered or imagined stress.

Most doctors don’t learn brain science, but in this emerging field, nearly every doctor and researcher I’ve met, is learning brain science, psychology, as well as the common biological and pharmacological model of medicine. This new model of understanding, is changing everything for the future of health.

⸻

The Brain: The Master Regulator of the Body

"Everything that we perceive—consciously or unconsciously—is a construction of the brain." — Neuroscientist, Anil Seth

Everything you experience, sight, sound, touch, pain, emotion, is created by your brain. Your eyes detect light, but your brain turns that light into pictures. Your ears receive vibration, but your brain turns it into meaningful sounds. Even pain is not something you “feel” directly. Your brain evaluates nerve signals and decides whether or not there is a threat (pain).

This process is called predictive coding. Your brain is constantly making its best guess about what is happening, based on past experiences and present input.

“All pain is created by the brain.” — Howard Schubiner, MD

So, this understanding about the brain-body connection, begs us the question. Can chronic pain, depression, anxiety and other chronic conditions be connected to learned neural pathways in the brain?

Turns out, the answer is YES.

When the brain has been chronically stressed, it can begin to interpret safe signals as dangerous. It creates pain where there is no damage. It triggers stress hormones and tells the body to brace for impact, even when there is no danger.

These are not imaginary symptoms. They are real. But they are learned neural pathways. And the brain can unlearn them.

This is where the neuroplasticity revolution steps in:

⸻

66% Became Pain-Free in just 30 Days…

In a groundbreaking study at the University of Boulder Colorado, published in JAMA Psychiatry, 2021, 66% of participants with chronic pain became pain-free or nearly pain-free after just 30 days of a mind-body approach.

Some of these people had chronic pain for 10 years, some of them were told you have a bulging disk, a herniated disk and slippage in your L5. They believed the cause of pain is some sort of damage to their bodies.

Dr. John Sarno, a mind-body pioneers in America famously said: “Many people have bulging discs and no pain at all. There is little correlation between disc abnormalities and chronic pain.”

And, within 30 days, with an approach that takes into account the Mind-Brain and Body, chronic pain patients became pain free or nearly pain free. These results are unheard of in chronic pain patients.

I was one of these people a few years back.

⸻

My Story

From age 18 to 25, I lived with debilitating pain in my thoracic spine, mid back, shoulders and neck. I saw top chiropractors, became a yoga teacher, tried raw veganism, and even fasted on water only for 14 days at a clinic in Northern California. Within the span of 5 years, I had spent $12,000 on chiropractic adjustments as a broke college student.

The most skilled chiropractors and the loudest cracks in my spine, did not relieve my pain, near at all. The only thing that made me pain free was mind-body medicine.

I addressed my unexpressed grief, sadness, and anger behind my symptoms. All the difficulties I hadn’t processed in life, I suddenly had to face them in this unified science of mind and body. Lo and behold, the nearly decade long pain, anxiety, and depression began to lift one by one. And eventually, it vanished altogether leaving no trace besides empowerment.

The hardest part of my days used to be getting out of bed (depression) and sitting in my college classes (back pain). Now, I wake up everyday at sunrise, without an alarm and begin my day without hesitation. I workout regularly, I am emotionally poised, have a clear mind and I’m not in a chronic state of fight-or-flight (fear). I never thought I’d be able to utter these words: “I am pain free and in perfect health”.

⸻

A New Obsession Arose: Clinical Neuroplasticity

That experience changed me. I’ve spent the last few years studying how emotions, biology, and the brain are deeply connected.

Here’s what I’ve learned:

• Emotions are not just moods. They are biochemical signals designed by evolution to be listened to. They drive our actions, thoughts and affect our bodies on a chemical level.

• The limbic system drives our autonomic nervous system—our rest/digest and fight/flight responses which is also the center for our feelings and emotions.

• Suppressed emotions like anger, shame, and guilt put the limbic system under stress and turn on the fight-or-flight response in a chronic fashion.

When we’re suppressing emotions, we are actually controlled by them. “don’t think that, don’t feel that” becomes the default setting of the brain. It’s like the brain is always waiting for something to go wrong, for all hell to break loose. It keeps looking for things that confirm its own danger bias. Remember predictive coding? That mechanism makes us constantly predict danger where there is none.

In neuroplasticity treatments, you learn how to process emotions, teach the brain to face the emotions it has been fearing and relearn safety as it’s baseline conditioning. This increases the stress tolerance of the brain and relaxes the nervous system from fight or flight to rest and digest. I’d even say, the more uncomfortable the emotions, the greater the healing.

“This is physical therapy for your brain instead of your body.” — Neuroscientist and pain researcher, Dr. Yoni Ashar

⸻

By now, you can probably feel it—there’s a quiet revolution happening in Western medicine. Pharmacology may still dominate the system, but history shows that paradigm shifts take time. On average, a scientific revolution takes about 100 years. Mind-body medicine has already been practiced in the U.S. for over 50, and in the last decade alone, research and clinical adoption have accelerated.

I’ve met countless MDs and researchers who are taking this shift seriously. From the bottom of my heart, I thank them. If I had access to this science when I was 18, I could have spared myself years of unnecessary suffering.

“What we practice here is much more scientific than what they’re doing.” — Dr. John Sarno

⸻

Is your condition Neuroplastic in nature?

I’ve created a free quiz to help you determine if your symptoms are neuroplastic and treatable with brain-based methods. [Click Here]

Remember, Neuroplastic means changeable.

This work supports people struggling with:

Conditions we address include: • Chronic pain • IBS • Fibromyalgia • Tension headaches • Anxiety •Depression • Chronic fatigue • Long Covid • Brain Fog • Insomnia • Trauma Loops • Other Neuroplastic Conditions

⸻

Thank you for reading.

I hope this was insightful.

You can expect weekly newsletters every Saturday Morning, PDT from now on.

Soon, I’ll also share updates about our live cohorts and brain retraining programs for healing neuroplastic conditions.

I’m glad you’re here. This is just the beginning.

— Kimia

Mind-Body Coach & Neuroplasticity Educator