“Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD. Behold, the LORD is about to pass by.” And a great and mighty wind tore into the mountains and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake there was a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And afterthe fire came a still, small voice.” Neuroscience, if followed all the way down always leads to faith. Science can only reduce the problem so far before reaching “I don’t know.” Faith, as I’ve come to learn, always leads back to the “still small voice” and your willingness to listen to it. As far as I can tell, that’s the answer to neuroscience.

Here in Lourdes, the city of the sick and of hope, I appeal to the entire healthcare community to remember the profound meaning of your vocation, which is to care for a suffering person, not to eliminate that person. Be passionate servants of life! No one ever has the right to decide the life of any person. Medicine must never become the servant of programmed death! #ApostolicJourney #France vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/e…

The Devil Finds Work for Idle Hands The elevator doors shut and I am suddenly aware of the void that has overtaken me. What am I to do while I am carried up to my floor? I notice my hand moving on its own heading in the direction of my pocket. It reaches into my jeans and pulls out my black rectangle and with a few swipes of my thumb, I am launched into an infinite universe of sensory noise more than capable of filling the void that my brief elevator ride has thrust me into. How very ironic it is that my black rectangle has an apple with a single bit taken out of it on the back. The devil finds work for idle hands. You know, the religious knew this centuries ago. In the Bhagavad Gita, the great Hindu text, Arjuna complains that the mind is “as restless as the wind.” Krishna offers the japa, or the silent repetition of a word. Of course this is nearly identical to Transcendental Meditation. Each T.M. certified individual gets his or her own mantra that is to be repeated continuously during meditation. Distracting the restless mind and allowing it to access the subconscious. Catholics have rosary beads. A tradition stemming from 1 Thessalonians 5:17, where we are directed to “Pray without ceasing.” Why? Because the devil finds work for idle hands. You may apply any mythology you wish around the action but the premise remains the same. The restless mind prevents peace of mind. As a man of neuroscience, this also means a restless mind prevents parasympathetic downregulation. In simpler terms, you cannot turn off your fight-or-flight system. I set out to study science when I began my career in chronic pain. I wanted concrete answers. But, as it would appear, there are limits to concrete answers. Limits to science. There are mysteries in this world that we will never solve. One of those mysteries is idiopathic pain. Pain of unknown origin. Where did it come from? How come so many doctors fail at figuring this out? Just yesterday I saw a new client who claimed to have seen 30 different doctors along his path. If science had the answer, surely one of those would have stumbled upon it. I believe that modern medicine is remarkable at dealing with issues of the physical body. I believe that the brain, however, has the ability to lock you into states of stress that prevent physical healing. Lastly, and most powerfully, I believe that science will never solve that problem. And I also believe that humanity has already solved it…and it’s written in mythology. L. Frank Baum was a restless man. A serial entrepreneur, he opened a theatre, started a baseball team, sold fine china, built a novelty store and wrote children’s books. His endless pursuit of success brought him to the world’s fair in Chicago in 1893 where he heard Swami Vivekananda speak. Vivekananda had travelled to Chicago from India by boat to tell the world his story and share with him his pathway to inner peace. His pathway consisted of “yogas.” For someone who lacked knowledge, he suggested jnana yoga. For someone who lacked love, he recommended bhakti yoga. For someone who was short on courage, he prescribed karma yoga. As it turned out, this speech became the final piece of L. Frank Baum’s puzzle. He went on to write his most famous work about a young girl on a mysterious journey accompanied by three companions, a lion in need of courage, a tin-man in need of a heart and a scarecrow in need of a brain. L. Frank Baum, of course, is the author of the Wizard of Oz. In one of the most famous scenes of the movie, Dorothy is in Muchkin-Land when Glinda, the good witch appears to send her on her way. Glinda instructs Dorothy to simply follow the yellow brick road. Dorothy, unsatisfied with this direction, fearfully begins asking questions. Glinda replies with repetition… Just follow the Yellow Brick Road Just follow the Yellow Brick Road Just follow the Yellow Brick Road The devil finds work for idle hands.

UHHHHHHH YEAHHHH WVU’S BACK BACK Michael Hawkins JR is THE MAN

As far as I can tell, the work never ends. It’s an infinite line of labor. And that’s exactly how it’s supposed to be.

This is My Opinion on Treating Chronic Pain There are 4 systems of the body that contribute to pain… 1. Posture & Breathing 2. Strength 3. Metabolic Efficiency 4. Nervous System Control Each system is working great when you are born and slowly drifts into dysfunction over time. This is the Law of Entropy. The second law of thermodynamics. Everything moves from a state of order to a state of disorder. Treating chronic pain is about doing the work to maintain adequate function of each system. I call this doing the work. Sounds simple enough. The challenge is that one of these systems has vastly outweighs the others. That’s the brain. Without the permission of your brain, you never have a chance at influencing the other three systems. Fixing the brain is far more difficult. I call this doing the Work. With a capital W. Because this is a spiritual game. Doing the Work (capital W), is doing what it takes to influence all four systems in a way that actually works.

I am finding that being the best version of yourself is literal medicine. Pushing past fears. Not listening to doubts. Obliterating procrastination. All have a medicinal effect on a body experiencing physical symptoms.

I am beginning to wonder how much of chronic pain is tied to not living up to your own standards. I am beginning to wonder how much fear, doubt and procrastination actually weighs on the body. I am beginning to wonder how much disease is a manifestation of this. The more I study and work with chronic pain clients, the closer I get to certainty on this.

I am beginning to be of the belief that a disproportionate amount of chronic pain is neurological in origin. That being said, our chronic pain clients are statistically far lower on our movement assessment than those who have no pain. An average of 20 percentage points different. There are clear posture/strength deficits but the brain stands in the way of making changes.

I have this, kind of, insane thing happening to me right now. I have had 2.5 years of gut issues essentially completely disappear over the last week. I tried all the traditional methods: doctors, supplements, dietary changes, various testing measures, ChatGPT... For various reasons, I began to wonder if it was generated as a result of repressed emotions. To make a long story short; if I stopped procrastinating on the business-related tasks that I have been putting off for a long time...is it possible that the symptoms would dissipate. I started this exactly one week ago. The symptoms are 98% gone.

Why is it that treating lower back pain in an NBA player took me a few minutes but treating the same issue in the general population may take months to make any progress?

I'm fascinated by the evolution of medicine. The practices used 200 years ago would put doctors in jail today. Just now, I'm watching a video on big toe extension. The speaker is brilliant. And yet, he talks about how his way of thinking in the early 2000's was fragmented and incomplete. One can only conclude that the same can be said for most or all of our practices today. And yet, many of these practices that will eventually be outlawed are deemed successful. So is it the method that's successful? Or are there other elements at play?

Cornerback Michael Coats, who never played high school football and was an undrafted free agent out of West Virginia, made the Browns 53 man roster today.

I have studied the brain for 15 years for the following reasons. 1. How can an athlete not get nervous in big moments? 2. How to get rid of my lifelong migraine headaches? 3. How can I get out of my own way as an entrepreneur? 4. How can I eliminate difficult chronic pain in my clients? Here’s my great conclusion… Not living up to your potential is the heaviest weight your brain can bear. Deep down, it knows you are less than what you could be and it seems to be able to produce various symptoms throughout the body as a way of distracting you from confronting that insufficiency. In the pressure moments for an athlete, that vulnerability cannot hide in the shadows. It is exposed. The anxiety is the fear of being found out. At the point of a necessary leap of faith for the entrepreneur, if you cannot trust yourself to handle whatever may come, how can you take that leap? The goal then, is to overcome the human condition of procrastination and do what you are supposed to do, when you are supposed to do it, the way it is supposed to be done, whether you feel like it or not. I’m telling you right now, this is the answer. It’s not humming to stimulate the vagus nerve. It’s not getting direct sunlight in the morning. The protocols will fail you. This will not.

How do you walk from your living room to your bedroom? What happens after you die? One has an obvious answer. One does not. Life has many unknowns. It is in these unknowns where your brain decides to be anxious or confident. Mythology overs infinite frameworks for coping with those unknowns. The story you tell yourself in the moment of uncertainty determines the destiny of your nervous system.

The cost of your happiness is your life. This is the story of Jesus. “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” The human brain can operate in a state of faith or fear. Fight or Flight or Rest and Digest Sympathetic or Parasympathetic Anxious or Calm To quiet the mind, to get yourself out of the way, to calm you worries the answer is to give all of yourself to the world and become the best version of yourself. To overcome your humanity and do what you’re supposed to do it, when you’re supposed to do it, whether you feel like it or not. This is what the entire biblical corpus is trying to tell you.

Nothing weighs heavier n the mind than the weight of procrastinating your destiny. After fifteen years of neuroscience study, I can confidently say that almost all anxieties, fears and life’s stressors stem from the secret knowledge that you are not living up to your potential.

Life is full of mysteries. The condition of your brain is determined by the ways in which you deal with those unknowns. Myths offer frameworks for dealing with those mysteries. For example: I am an entrepreneur and I am nervous about running Facebook ads. They cost $1,000s of dollars and “what if it doesn’t work?” But Dante, in his great myth wrote about when the pilgrim approaches reaches the very edge of paradise but is confronted with a wall of fire. Virgil, the pilgrim’s guide, tells him that “it will be painful, you will be scared but on the other side is paradise.” If I subscribe to that story, in my moment of need, I can rest on that framework and take the necessary leap of faith. It is in the story you subscribe to, in those moments of mystery, that your nervous system will either be created in faith or in fear.

Pain is just an alarm bell. It’s the check-engine light on your vehicle. It’s indicating that one or more of the systems has broken down somewhere. Traditional medicine is only focused on the pain. It’s only focused on why that check-engine light is coming on. In fact, there is a procedure called a Nerve Ablation which is quite literally frying the end of the nerve so it stops sending the pain signal. This is the equivalent of just unplugging the wires so the check-engine light turns off. Sure, the check-engine light is off, but there is still a problem under the surface. Pain is just the tip of the iceberg. Its role is to tell you that one or more of the systems is breaking down.

The problem you are trying to solve is not chronic pain. The real problem is the Law of Entropy. The Law of Entropy states that everything in the universe is moving from a state of order to a state of disorder. If I buy bananas at the grocery store, the clock is ticking. They are slowly growing rotten. They are moving from a state of order (fresh) to a state of disorder (brown and rotten). The major systems of your body operate under the same conditions. At the moment of your birth, you were flawless. Everything was working perfectly. But slowly, over time, screws became loose. Over a long enough period of time, something is bound to break. Pain is inevitable. It’s the Law of Entropy. The key then, is to keep the major systems of your body functioning at a high level. When you buy a car, if you never take it to a mechanic, it’s only a matter of time before it breaks down. But annual inspections, oil changes and tire rotations keep it running smoothly for much longer. To keep a car running smoothly, you must consistently assess and maintain its major systems… The Brakes The Engine The Transmission The Electronics To keep your body running smoothly, you must consistently assess and maintain your major systems… Posture & Breathing Strength Energy Production Nervous System Control