Mind-Body FAQ 2: How do I heal?
Understanding the nature of pain and then understanding your body’s messages to you are essential to moving forward with healing.
Q: If I do have Mind-Body Syndrome (MBS), how do I heal?
A: Getting better from MBS is a little bit different for everyone, but in very broad terms there are two main tasks to accomplish.
Step 1: Understand the Nature of Pain
The first step in healing is to understand the nature of pain and symptoms and why they’re present. They’re not present because something is wrong in your body; they’re present because something is going on in your life that needs expression. If you don’t make this connection, then you can only use physically based treatments (such as medications or procedures) to treat your pain, and it’s very, very difficult to make these strategies work.
Educate Yourself
Once you do understand the nature of pain and symptoms, then there’s actually lots you can do, and the pathway forward is a little bit different for everyone. Everyone can benefit from learning more about the true nature of pain and symptoms, and there are lots of resources to do this. Some of the best places to start include:
Cormendi Health’s class, Foundations of Pain Science
The introductory lecture on Cormendi Health’s website
Books by John Sarno, MD, such as The Mind-Body Prescription or Healing Back Pain
Books by Howard Schubiner, MD, including Unlearn Your Pain
The Aivo app
The Curable app
The work of Lorimer Moseley
Books by David Schechter, MD, including Think Away Your Pain and The Mind-Body
The Psychophysiological Disorders Association website
Lee Canter’s book on migraine headaches, My Migraine Breakthrough
Calm Your Mind and Body
It’s also always helpful to learn how to calm your mind and body down, which may include time spent meditating, or doing relaxation exercises, or playing, or daydreaming, or doing yoga, or tai chi. Some ways to access this more easily include:
Our class on Calming the Nervous System
The Curable app
A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction class (a free one can be found at
I say regularly, though, that meditation is a necessary but not sufficient practice for healing chronic symptoms. Being able to calm your mind and put yourself in a relaxed state is useful for healing, but it won’t in and of itself do the job. Until you have a framework for why only calming your mind is not likely to get you very far, then you’re unlikely to make a lot of progress. This is why it’s essential not only to understand the theory behind modern pain science, but also how it is that the theories of modern pain science apply to you. Part of getting better involves having an understanding in your own mind both of what’s causing the pain and/or symptoms (from a psychological perspective) and also what’s happening in your body that leads to the resolution of symptoms. Without this understanding, progress can be extraordinarily slow.
Step 2: Understand Your Body’s Message
After you’ve created that understanding and know that your body isn’t broken just because symptoms are present, the next step is to decrease fear so that you can understand what your body is trying to tell you. This means fostering a sense of curiosity about symptoms rather than fear or repulsion. Many of my clients have found that if they’re able to appropriately understand what their body is telling them, then the symptoms have done their job and tend to go away rather quickly.
At Cormendi Health, we’ve come up with our handout outlining 10 Reasons for Pain and Other Chronic Symptoms that symptoms are frequently present. As you read through the categories, see which of those categories are relevant for you. Remember, though, symptoms are not the enemy. They just frequently point in the direction of what needs taking care of. Once the fear of the symptoms has calmed down, you can use the knowledge that your body is pointing in a certain direction to decide where you want to focus and what you want to work on. As the issues in each of those various categories start to calm down, most people experience a decrease in physical symptoms at the same time.
For some people, just learning about this connection between mind and body is enough to get them well. Others need more education and home-based strategies. Still others need the education, home-based strategies, and the instruction of a professional in the field. At Cormendi Health, we have practitioners who can help when you get stuck, so please reach out to us if you have questions and want to work with someone.