#260 The Neuroscience of Chronic Pain: Why Your Body May Not Be Broken with Irena O'Brien | Jane Hogan
Chronic stress, anxiety, and chronic pain can keep your brain stuck in protection mode. Learn how to calm your nervous system, retrain your brain, and create more safety for healing and resilience.
Why does your brain keep repeating the same stress patterns, anxious thoughts, or pain responses… even when you want to change?
Join me and my guest, Dr. Irena O’Brien, neuroscientist and founder of The Neuroscience School, to learn more about how the brain predicts, protects, and shapes our behaviors, emotions, and even chronic pain experiences.
👉 Download my free guide to understand why pain persists:
https://www.thewellnessengineer.com/whypainpersists
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In this episode, you’ll learn:
⏰ 00:00 - Introduction
⏰ 02:45 - The Brain's Role in Safety and Energy Management
⏰ 12:47 - Understanding Pain as Protection
⏰ 21:42 - Stress and Its Impact on Energy
⏰ 34:25 - Finding Personal Practices for Calmness
⏰ 42:23 - The ONE thing you can do to activate self-healing
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Check out Irena O'Brien’s Bio:
Dr. Irena O’Brien is a cognitive neuroscientist, educator, and founder of The Neuroscience School. She is known for making complex brain science practical and accessible, helping coaches, leaders, and helping professionals better understand behavior, stress, resilience, and change through the lens of neuroscience.
After beginning her career in accounting, Dr. O’Brien returned to university and discovered a passion for neurobiology that changed the direction of her life. She earned her PhD in Psychology from the Université du Québec à Montréal and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at McGill University. Today, she is the creator of an ICF-accredited Applied Neuroscience program and host of the Neuroscience of Coaching podcast.
Irena O'Brien’s gift:
The Neuroscience of Why Clients Get Stuck and The Brain-Based Change Blueprint offer practical, neuroscience-based insights into why change can feel difficult and the key conditions that help lasting transformation become possible. Check it out at https://loveneuroscience.com/wellness
Connect with Irena O'Brien:
Website: https://neuroscienceschool.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/irenaobrien/
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Hi there! I am Jane Hogan, the Wellness Engineer, and the host of Wellness By Design. I spent 30 years designing foundations for buildings until the pain and inflammation of rheumatoid arthritis led me to hang up my hard hat and follow my heart. Now I blend my backgrounds in science and spirituality to teach people how to tap into the power of their mind, body and soul. I help them release pain naturally so they can become the best version of themselves.
Wellness By Design is a show dedicated to helping people achieve wellness, not by reacting to the world around them but by intentionally designing a life based on what their own body needs. In this show, we explore practices, methods, and scientific principles that help naturally relieve pain and inflammation.
Learn more at https://thewellnessengineer.com
Connect with Jane:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JaneHoganHealth/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thewellnessengineer/
DISCLAIMER: The information contained in this podcast is for educational purposes only and is not intended to treat, diagnose, cure or prevent any disease. You should always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you have regarding a medical condition before undertaking any diet, exercise, supplement, health program, or other procedure discussed in this podcast.
