Rebecca

Boston, MA, United States

Stacey

Bonnie

Redwater

Brighton, UK

Explore the neuroscience of chronic pain and learn practical mindfulness tools to reduce its impact.

Pain Is Normal, Real And Protective

How We See Things Makes A Difference

There Are Danger Sensors Not Pain Sensors

The Pain Signature

Hurt Not Harm

The Power Of Emotions

Pain Depends On The Balance Between Danger And Safety Signals

Safety As A Way Out Of The Pain-Fear Cycle

Safe In My System - Somatic Tracking

Pain As A Complex Emergent System - Untangling The Pain Knot

The Pain Story

Warmongering Metaphors Of Pain

The Importance Of Context In The Pain Experience

The Pain Of Disconnection

Kindness For Self And Others

Pain Is One Of Many Protective Outputs

Balancing The Neuroimmune System

We Are More Than Neuroplastic - We Are Bioplastic

I Am Not My Pain

The Road Less Travelled

English

Welcome to Mindfulness and Pain Explained with Dr. Adele Stewart. I’ve been a GP for over 30 years and bring that experience—along with my background as a mindfulness teacher, my interest in modern pain neuroscience, and my role as Chair of the Royal Australian College of GPs Pain Group—to this course. I also have my own lived experience of chronic pain.

My hope is that this course helps you discover a transformative approach to understanding and processing pain. You’ll explore the neuroscience behind chronic pain and uncover how greater awareness can reduce its intensity and impact.

By shifting focus from a fixed “diagnosis” to a mind-body perspective—one that highly considers the level of safety and danger in our whole system—you’ll gain practical tools to navigate the pain-fear cycle. You’ll also learn how your thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and even aspects of life that may seem unrelated to pain influence your experience.

We’ll demystify complex topics like neuroplasticity, nociplastic pain, and neuroimmune interactions, making them accessible and applicable to everyday life.

Bring along a pen and paper or an electronic journal to capture your reflections as we embark on this journey of curiosity and self-discovery.

Each lesson will begin with a brief grounding practice, followed by some of the following: education, reflection, meditation and exercises. Each lesson ends with a suggested home practice, including one of my meditations from the free Insight Timer app. The names of these meditations are listed in the lesson audios and the course descriptions. Once found, they can be bookmarked and saved in a folder, which you might name Mindfulness and Pain Explained. The home practice is an important part of consolidating your learning in an experiential way.

This course is quite an ask. The lessons only average 15 minutes—some a few minutes shorter, some a bit longer. However the course represents a paradigm shift in understanding pain, challenging deeply help beliefs and requiring substantial energy to engage with. Like most things in life, the more you put in, the more you’ll get out. Be patient with yourself though, as you navigate this new perspective. Although the course is structured as daily lessons, I recommend leaving a few days to a week between lessons to allow the learning to integrate and to give you time to practice.

You’re encouraged to post in the course as much as you like. Reading others’ posts and my responses can be inspiring along the way. I will usually get back to you within 24 hours, except for once a year when I do a 14-day silent retreat and am offline.

Let’s get started!

A mind-body approach to understanding and transforming chronic pain using modern pain neuroscience and the power of mindfulness.

Mindfulness And Pain Explained

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Hi there, welcome to Mindfulness and Pain Explained with Dr Adele Stewart. I'm Dr Adele Stewart, I've been a GP for over 30 years and I bring that experience along with my background as a certified mindfulness teacher and interest in modern pain neuroscience and being the chair of the Royal Australian College of GPs pain group to this course and I have my own lived experience of chronic pain which is much better these days. This course is an invitation to explore a transformative way of understanding and processing pain. Together we'll dive into the neuroscience behind chronic pain and discover how greater awareness can help reduce its impact on your life and improve the intensity of the pain. Rather than focusing solely on a fixed diagnosis, this course takes a mind-body perspective. As well as learning about the most up-to-date view of pain, you'll learn practical tools to navigate the pain-fear cycle and understand how your thoughts, emotions and behaviours and things in life that might seem to have nothing to do with pain can influence your experience of pain. We're going to break down big ideas like neuroplasticity, nociceptors, nociplastic pain, neuroimmune interactions into simple accessible concepts that you can apply in daily life. For this journey I encourage you to journal electronically or even have an old-fashioned pen and paper nearby to capture your reflections. Most lessons will begin with a brief grounding practice and they will contain a mixture of education, meditation, reflection and exercises. At the end of the lesson you'll receive a suggested mindfulness home practice to deepen your understanding. These are guided meditations that I've recorded on the free Insight Timer app. You'll find the names of the recommended meditations in the lesson audios and also in the course descriptions. And once searched you can bookmark and save them in a folder, you might call it Mindfulness and Pain Explained or just Pain Course. These practices are a great way to consolidate what you're learning in an experiential, practical way. You know what, the course is quite an ask. The lessons only average 15 minutes, some a few minutes shorter, some a bit longer. However, the course represents a paradigm shift in understanding pain. It can challenge deeply held beliefs and require quite a bit of energy to engage with. And like most things in life, the more you put in, the more you'll get out. Please be patient with yourself though as you navigate this new perspective. And although the course is structured as daily lessons, I recommend leaving a few days to a week between lessons to allow the learning to integrate and to give you time to practice. Please post lots. Being able to read other posts and my responses can be very inspiring along the way. I'll usually get back to you within 24 hours. With the exception of once a year, I do a 14 day silent retreat where I'm completely offline. I really look forward to embarking on this journey of curiosity and self-discovery with you. Let's get started.