 Maybe to my net friends welcome back today. I have a special treat for us I'm actually just as excited for this as I am for you guys to consume it because I've always been very jealous of creators who have like I changed my life in 30 days by journaling or meditation what I've never had the dedication to actually follow through with something for 30 days until now Today's video is gonna be all about solving chronic pain in 30 days and no don't worry I'm not gonna give you a magical solution to heal chronic pain in four weeks because generally speaking life doesn't work that way But I did try something for 30 days. I'm excited to share with you guys the results this video is sponsored by the app that I tried Curable, thank you so much to curable for sharing your app with me and for letting me honestly review your product Let's dive in if you know anything about me or my story It will come as no surprise to you that I have dealt with chronic pain for the last 15 years of my life I had a really bad horseback riding accident when I was 13 really messed up my neck and my ankle Which is why I'm not missing a leg But I also have chronic migraines and a kiari male formation Which is a brain condition where the back of my brain is essentially compressed against my skull and my spinal cord long story short There's not a day that I'm not in pain and it's frustrating and I've found different ways of dealing with it over the years I've always been looking for an answer or a new way to deal with pain And I think that if you've dealt with chronic pain, I don't have to tell you that it's a complicated issue It's emotional and it's exhausting and it's a mental battle let alone the physical aspect of it I've found that really often when I talk to a professional about it or when I like find a program that deals with it or an article It's from a very specific perspective and usually that perspective is one-sided like medications are the devil Great for juice fasting is the way to cure yourself acupuncture only they're usually really biased And I'm not a very biased person Like I don't like adhering to only one way of thinking because that is not been effective in my own life And so when you guys suggested curable to me because there were a number of you guys who commented that I should look into this app I was a little hesitant at first because I honestly have trouble trusting anyone when it comes to chronic pain Just because I've been burnt a lot, but I did look into it and I reached out to the company and then we decided to do this Collaboration, so I have been trying this app for 30 days and it has been a really good and really difficult So curable the app approaches pain from a biopsychosocial approach That means that they're looking at pain from a very rounded scientific approach that takes into Consideration things like psychology that takes into consideration Trauma as well as physical things that are out of alignment or tissue damage It takes everything into consideration and brings it together Understanding that pain is a complicated issue a very real issue that you're not making up I am listening to one of the pain science lesson and they just said something that resonates with me so much And is really really affirming as a chronic pain patient They talk about how sometimes pain becomes chronic right and you you can't see Tissue damage you can't see an actual issue because of it and a lot of the times that leads to us feeling like we're crazy Or like we're making it up like if nothing shows up on imaging It's easy for doctors to kind of be like and nothing's really wrong and then we start thinking Oh, maybe nothing's really wrong So why am I in so much pain all the time? But there have been brain studies done on people who are experiencing chronic pain where pain centers are lighting up I'm not losing my mind because those brain centers those pain centers in our brains are actually lighting up You are experiencing pain and hearing the science behind some of this is not something you hear in doctors offices a whole lot This is really cool so far. I'm really enjoying learning about it how this program works Is there are five basically lectures that you start with lecture doesn't sound very fun. I actually really enjoyed these They're basically like five mini podcasts on the science of pain. I learned a lot from these I made time every afternoon because I work from home to go sit in the backyard Press play and listen for like 15 minutes and learn a little bit more about pain You may be wondering what the point of learning about pain is Learning about pain is certainly interesting But many people don't know that it is also a form of therapy health care practitioners call this Therapeutic neuroscience education and it is exactly as simple as it sounds to be honest It's a little hard to start thinking about chronic pain because you feel it all the time, right? To like additionally be spending time thinking about it and that was kind of a hurdle for me to get over But once I got over that hurdle and started making it a part of my daily routine It was really nice to spend a few minutes learning a little bit more about what's going on internally and what's behind it As I said before it was a little bit terrified going into this program that they would like place blame or fault You may disagree with this but from my own understanding from my research and also science backs this up trauma Does play a significant part in chronic pain and I have experienced a lot of trauma in my life and sometimes it's really hard to talk about Psychological pain being linked to physical pain without making it sound like you're making it up or like it's your fault And they actually walk that line really really well They discuss how it can be related, but how it's still not your fault how you're still not Creating this problem then once you get past those five Introductory lectures podcast tidbits speeches whatever you want to call them that sounds fun to you because they actually are pretty enjoyable Then the program has opened up to you and you get to click a button and decide every day What you want to do next the options are education meditation writing or brain trading There's also a button right at the top that you can hit if you're in pain right now If you're a chronic pain patient, I think we all know we could hit that button most moments of the day But for moments when you're really hurting and you need something right now You can hit that sign and it'll bring you to a screen where you can choose what to do Have you take a deep breath which honestly is always a good place to start because pain makes our bodies tense up And I always find myself breathing a lot shallower and less then you have the option of meditation Visualization identifying emotions, which is like an audio guy or a pep talk audio guy now personally I found the visualization exercise is pretty helpful Now if you're just following through the guide and picking one of those exercises to do every day For instance, the first one I chose to do was the writing assignment So the first writing assignment I had was a stress assessment It has you sit in quiet place for 30 minutes and write down all of the stressful events that you remember throughout your childhood And your current life and self-imposed pressures and gives you different examples if you have trouble thinking of them And yeah, that sounds like a lot of fun, doesn't it? It's a little difficult to do it can bring up a lot of emotion It can even bring up tension in your body But it also helps walk you through that and it has you take that information Ask you a few questions about it logs that information into its own system to help better recommend exercises in the future And then the future exercises build on that one part of it is about Deconstructing things that have affected us in ways that we treat ourselves that also ties into some of the educational segments like perfectionism For instance being a perfectionist is tied to a higher instances of chronic pain And I know I've definitely had times in my life where I tend to be a perfectionist also people pleasing Guess what is also tied to higher rates of chronic pain. I'm gonna have to raise my hand for that as well It's absolutely not blaming you for those things if you are a perfectionist or your people pleaser But simply identifying that hey if you really really strongly gravitate towards these traits notice that take note of it And then maybe start noticing the unhealthy parts of it and deconstructing those Chronic pain is on a simple problem, and they don't treat it that way They don't condemn any particular way of dealing with it So if you're on medication or you're not on medication cool, they're not gonna have a problem with that They're not gonna shame you for either side of that or if you're seeing Western medicine or Eastern medicine or whatever you're doing cool That's awesome. This is not gonna conflict with that as with anything talk to your doctor about this see what they think about this program Recommend that they check it out. I'm gonna pause here for a moment and talk about some of the challenging aspects of this for me I think the best way to express this is that hope is dangerous I just got done with the first brain training exercise from curable It was called word swap even opening up the idea that I could have less pain in a weird way kind of freaks me out I have a decade and a half of baggage when it comes to chronic pain. This is going to be hard This is gonna be a challenge hoping that chronic pain could get better is terrifying Like even having the hope that maybe there's an answer out there that would make me even like 10% in less pain every day That is scary. Sometimes it's easier to live with just like your hands thrown up saying I have no control over this It's just gonna suck forever because that takes less energy But hope and reference the sign in the background hope though dangerous is powerful and can get us to amazing places And so that was something I had to work through and a warning that I would give you guys take it slow Take breaks as needed talk through the assignments with other people do what you need to do to take care of your mental And your physical health through this the creators of this app are people who have dealt with chronic pain themselves Which I honestly appreciate. I don't know about you But I don't love when people try to tell me about things that I'm experiencing who have never experienced them themselves So I appreciate that these are people who know what it's like There's also an expert interview section Which is kind of like a continuing podcast where you can check in where they're talking to experts in the field to summon All up for me personally. I would absolutely recommend this to people I would recommend this to you personally and I do not get any kind of referral credit if you sign up or anything Like that I am getting paid for this video to give you my honest feedback But that is it. I feel like there's something that's programmed for everybody For instance, I really like writing, but I don't like meditation. That's just uncomfortable for me A skill I need to practice more another day of meditation down But it usually makes me more aware of my pain presently and that's okay because I can just choose different exercises more often As I work on a meditation if that's something I choose. I want to do their science based education was also fantastic I don't know about you, but I do prefer to get my medical advice from scientific research pretty much everything that they said that I listened to did come from actual experts and actual studies instead of just opinion And now the question you've been waiting for didn't help my chronic pain I think to be honest with you that is a question that's going to take a little bit longer to answer Overall, I've had good days. I've had bad days I think understanding more about what's going on with my body is a huge first step Taking the time out of days to take care of that part of myself and to start opening myself up to hope To start opening myself up to the idea that maybe someday I won't hurt as much is a huge step for me personally And I think it's movement in the right direction. Am I magically better? No And if I was I would urge you not to believe me But there have been small changes like realizing one I'm stressed how I'm holding my body doesn't really help my neck position, right? Or when I'm so focused on perfectionism in my job and I like really get in that mindset Realizing how much that's spiking my anxiety and how much that's actually like compressing my frame and making it More difficult to breathe and often triggering pain which triggers migraines and just like this this spiral and the more I'm aware of those things in myself the more I identify them the better I can beat the better I can take care of myself in every aspect and I really like that So with all of that said that is my experience. I'd like to turn this back to you guys What do you think I'm going to put a link to the curable app website down below You can find the app there if you deal with any kind of chronic pain curable incurable whatever Check it out. There might be something there for you and I'd love to hear from you if you've tried it already I'd love to hear from you if you liked it If it wasn't your thing, let me know in the comments down below And I'll continue to update you guys as time goes on and the progress of this and if it continues to work And if I feel less pain daily or not But I think that this is a really good start and I really appreciate curable's willingness to partner with me For this video. So thank you to curable for sponsoring this video and for sponsoring me through this program As always, thank you guys so much for listening. I'm really glad to actually completed a 30 days trying something video Let me know if you'd like to see more like this in the future. I love you guys I'm thinking of you and I will see you in the next video