Repurpose Your Pain

Added: 2026-06-04

[00:00:00]Hey, it's your friend Dr. Lee Warren back with another Friday selfbrain surgery operation for you. I don't know why I call these five minute selfrain surgeries because they always take longer than that, but it's okay. I'm not going to hang up on that, right? Hey, today we're going to talk about pain.

[00:00:14]Now, we did an operation a few weeks ago, and by the way, all these operations are taken out of my new book, The Life-Changing Art of Selfrain Surgery. If you haven't read it yet, it's a treasure trove of useful information about how you can really change your life by learning how to manage your mind and your brain and your body in a different way. But this operation comes from that. And a few weeks ago on a Friday, we did one about chronic illness, chronic pain, chronic situations, just the the sort of chronic stuff that bothers us. But this episode specifically is for you if you deal with some sort of chronic pain syndrome. and we're going to learn an operation we call repurposing pain. So, let's just scrub in like we always do. Take a breath, calm yourself, center your mind, make sure you're fully present. And you want to know that you're going to use this operation whenever you have pain that has no clear cause, like persistent pain after an injury or a surgical wound has healed. When you have fibromyalgia or phantom limb syndrome or chronic headaches, but your brain scans are all normal. these frustrating situations where nobody can figure it out and you seem to be stuck with it. When you're dealing with chronic pain loops and you need to unlearn the ways in which your brain has [clears throat] remembered the pain and then create healthier pathways.

[00:01:30]We're going to take a time out here, make sure we're all on the same page.

[00:01:33]We're preparing to perform the repurposing pain procedure and we're going to acknowledge that pain is not the enemy. Pain is designed to signal the presence of danger. But in chronic pain syndrome, something funny happens in the brain. The [snorts] brain creates a memory circuit of the old problem which can continue to fire even when the original issue has been resolved. And once this pain loop forms, your brain perceives that the injury or problem is still happening now. And unless the loop is interrupted with self-brain surgery, you will respond to it emotionally and physiologically just as you did when the injury was fresh. Now, pain is a natural alarm signal. Okay? Pain in and of itself is a good thing. It's a gift. And if your mind responds as if there's an ongoing and painful problem, you may feel despair and hopelessness if you're thinking nothing can help me. However, the second commandment of self brain surgery reminds us that feelings are not facts. They're chemical events in our brain. You can address your brain's memory of pain by reprogramming these circuits and reducing the impact of your pain. Chronic pain may feel overwhelming, but neuroplasticity means that change is always possible. And this procedure will guide you toward that change. So, the goals are to reduce your brain's learned pain response and to unlearn the pathways that your pain has created in your memory circuits. We want to wire in new pathways that are focused less on the pain and more on your brain's natural pain relieving mechanisms. We want to experience a reduction in the intensity and the emotional activation of your pain and develop a new mental reaction to it. We want to begin to feel more resilient and empowered as we become convinced that we can actually train our brain to revalue the pain signals and re-engage in our life more fully. The neuroscience is fascinating. Brain scans reveal that acute pain from fresh injuries activates circuits in the brain that are specifically mapped to the injured part of the body. That means if you injure your arm and it hurts, that's going to map onto the part of your brain that relates to the function of your arm. But fascinatingly, chronic pain stems from a really surprising shift. When you have pain that persists without a clear ongoing cause or it lingers after the actual injury has healed, the brain redirects those signals into areas that are related to memory processing. And that means that your brain is rewiring itself to remember that you used to have pain even when the original injury is no longer present. And this shift causes chronic pain to become kind of sticky in your neuronal circuits. and it makes it harder to manage because it's no longer confined to the part of the brain that responds to pain medication or to traditional pain management techniques.

[00:04:23]That's why narcotics and certain medicines don't really help anymore after a while. Your brain literally learns to relive memories of old pain.

[00:04:32]And this memory forming circuit begins to cascade like a snowball rolling downhill. And over time, it can amplify your sensitivity even to non-p painful stimuli. Like I've got patients who just a light touch on their skin will set them off in a horrible pain that causes minor things like watch bands and rings to feel excruciating sometimes. Now fortunately neuroplasticity our brain's ability to adapt and change gives us a way out of this because by engaging in techniques that retrain memory circuits like visualization, mindfulness, and gratitude, you can redirect neuronal pathways away from the pain loop. This is really hard to sell in the office, by the way. I have patients that are completely convinced that there really is something still wrong and all of the scans and all of the tests are normal.

[00:05:21]But if you put them in a functional scanner, the part of their brain that's lighting up is not the area of their body that's mapped for that pain. It's the memory areas. And memory circuits don't respond to narcotic pain relievers. so hard to get people to believe that when they feel pain, the treatment is not pain medicine. That just shuts your brain off, but it's not actually treating the underlying problem. But neuroplasticity can.

[00:05:45]Visualization, mindfulness, and gratitude have been shown in good studies to help unwind and retrain your brain to make new memory circuits that aren't so painful. These practices help activate areas of the brain that are responsible for reward, relaxation, and positive experiences. So over time, the miracle of neuroplasticity allows these new pathways to strengthen and gradually override the old pain circuits and give you hope of relief and renewal. Our guiding scripture here is Psalm 147:3.

[00:06:19]He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. And he'll do it for you, too. God's healing is available whenever you feel brokenhearted, discouraged, exhausted, or grieved because of your pain. The psalmist here reminds you that restoration and wholeness in your mind and your body are possible. Your heart can heal even as you relearn new ways to manage old pains in Romans 5 3-4. But we give glory in our suffering because we know that suffering produces perseverance. Perseverance produces character and character produces hope.

[00:06:54]Your pain doesn't have to rob you of hope, friend. Instead, you can rejoice that pain has the potential to strengthen your resilience, deepen your character, and help you persevere.

[00:07:04]Knowing that God uses your hurt to create something meaningful inside you.

[00:07:09]Just as perseverance strengthens character, your persistence in retraining your brain will build resilience and foster hope. So, how do you do it? First, acknowledge the truth.

[00:07:19]If you've recovered from an illness or an injury or a surgical procedure, the chronic pain that you're continuing to feel is a learned experience that is stored in your memory circuits. You have to tell your brain that you know what's up and that you know whose boss. Your mind is the boss of your brain. Make the patient to doctor switch and mentally reframe your pain as something that your brain has learned rather than an unchangeable condition. Expose it for what it is. This pain is something that my brain has learned and I can unlearn it. Then position yourself for success.

[00:07:52]Practice this operation while you're sober. Okay? Don't try to do it while you're numb or hung over or high or you've taken a bunch of pain medicine.

[00:07:59]Realize that since the pain you feel is not happening in the areas of your brain that are related to pain, then pain medication and other numbing agents like alcohol aren't really going to help. So shift your focus to unlearning the memory circuits and seek to sever those sick synapses that are keeping them firing and take control. Take a moment to be grateful that although pain can be amplified and reinforced by your brain's lyic system, you're not just your brain.

[00:08:29]So pause to breathe in for 4 seconds.

[00:08:31]And as you do, draw in the knowledge that you can change your brain by changing your mind. Slowly exhale for 6 seconds as you acknowledge the persistence of your pain while affirming your ability to change how you experience it. And then transplant.

[00:08:48]Choose a specific pleasant memory, an uplifting scripture, or a calming image to transplant and to replace the plane.

[00:08:56]Close your eyes, breathe slowly, and visualize this memory, this verse, or this image with as much detail as possible. Make your brain focus on it.

[00:09:05]This is going to activate the areas of your brain that are related to positive emotions and relaxation and it's going to reduce your lyic system's ability to reinforce the pain and then change the task. Remember, your brain can't really multitask. When the pain comes to mind, rob it of its power by purposefully doing something. Move your body. Engage in a task that requires your full attention. Work out. Engage in a deep conversation. Do something like a puzzle. something that requires cognitive power because your brain can't do two things at once. Really, research shows that by focusing your mind and taking action, you activate your brain's reward system and reduce your capacity to pay attention to the circuits that your brain is trying to remember. And then you're going to repurpose them.

[00:09:52]You're going to remember that when you sever a sick synapse, the physical structural brain parts, the microtubules become available to rebuild more helpful synapses. So see yourself in your mind performing this selfbrain surgery, taking this synapse out and moving those microtubules over here to let a new synapse form. You're going to cut out harmful pain memories and use those pieces, those brain parts to make new and helpful circuits. Write down three things you're grateful for, focusing on what is possible despite your pain. This type of self-brain surgery will help you build positive neural pathways and shift your brain's focus away from pain and toward contentment and resilience.

[00:10:33]Remind yourself of who you are and who you're becoming. And say things, affirm things to yourself like, "I am resilient. I am stronger than this pain." Or verses like Romans 5:3-4, "The suffering produces endurance and character and hope." Remind yourself of the strength and perseverance that you are developing within yourself and regularly remind yourself of these truths and that will build new patterns in your brain. Say something like uh Emil Kouay said, "Every day in every way I'm getting better and better and better." That's a great line to say to yourself. And then practice persistent prayer. Isaiah 62:6 says, "Be a watchman on the wall. Be prayerful. Be persistent. Look out for it. Keep telling God you're going to overcome this with his help and it will happen for you, friend. It can happen for you.

[00:11:21]You're going to trust that even as pain persists, you're building a stronger, more resilient mind. And remember what you're doing, you're getting better at.

[00:11:29]That's our ninth commandment of self-brain surgery. Make sure you do an OPNO, okay? Keep a journal of your pain scales and your progress over time.

[00:11:37]Record moments when you successfully directed yourself away from the pain to remind yourself that you do have that power. Encourage yourself with a burst, a pleasant memory, or something else.

[00:11:46]Keep track of the times that you were able to do that. And then note the decrease in the intensity or frequency of your pain when you perform this operation. Notice over time how your attitude towards the pain starts to change. Because keeping good records reinforces the rewiring process. It'll help you reclaim the parts of your life that pain has impacted and it will strengthen your overall resilience. If this episode was helpful to you, share it with a friend. Make sure you smash that subscribe button, hit the bell icon so you get notified of new episodes. I'm your friend, Dr. Lee Warren, hopefully your favorite internet brain surgeon. I just want to remind you, you can't change your life until you change your mind. And the good news is you can start today, even with your chronic pain.

[00:12:29]We'll see you next time.

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