How Your Nervous System Holds On to Pain (And How to Let It Go)

Here's something I've learned after fifteen years of doing this work: the body doesn't know the difference between a lion in the wild and a lion on the page of a children's book.

It doesn't care about context, logic, or the fact that you're perfectly safe sitting in your living room. It just knows: that thing you're seeing, hearing, smelling, or touching — that thing is danger.

And it reacts accordingly.

I tell a story in my seminars. It's a simple one, but it's stuck with people for years.

A man went on safari in Africa. Against the advice of the guides, he decided to leave the safety of the enclosure and go for a walk in the wild. And as he was walking, he saw a lion in the distance.

Now, something happens in the  ...