Original subtitles

-So, why are we in Korea, BJ?

You are seeking help.

Here we have the benefit of millennia of thinking

around pain.

BJ Miller is a palliative care doctor.

He's the expert in the world of pain.

-What is your personal history with pain?

-Back pain.

I've had, I've had back pain since I was probably 15,

and I have tried everything over the years.

I'm hoping that he can offer me some advice to truly understand

how much of it is here, versus in the body.

-Even though about two-ish billion people in

the world suffer from long-term or chronic pain,

it's not well understood in the West,

but in a country as old as South Korea,

pain is a part of life.

This is a place where they use the power of the mind

to tackle pain.

Chris will learn a toolbox of techniques...

...from a culture devoted to studying pain for

thousands of years.

And at the end of his time here,

I will not be asking Chris to avoid pain.

I will be asking him to embrace it...

...to accept it...

...to run towards it, even...

Oh my God

...in a unique experiment that could help all of us.

Pain.

I think we all want the silver bullet.

The solution to not feeling any pain.

I first remember having back pain when I was in high school,

being diagnosed with mild scoliosis.

It caused incredible spasms in my back and

I couldn't walk properly, twist or bend, or play sport.

Over the years, I tried everything to try and fix this

problem and I'd have relief...

...and then my back would flare up,

but I would still have to keep training, still working,

pushing through it.

I think I've become good at hiding it and managing it.

But then one thing would happen,

and then it would all collapse.

I guess, like so many people,

I'm trying to sort of navigate the pain experience.

Playing with my kids is painful a lot of the time.

Every time I bend over, my back,

my kids would roll their eyes, it's,

"Oh, your back's always sore"

and, and it's not the healthiest state to be in.

I'm looking for ways to change my relationship to pain.

The first tool to reducing pain is to understand how it works.

BJ reckons the best place to learn is downtown Seoul.

-Pain, what is it?

-One thing to understand is pain is, actually, really important.

It’s kind of your friend.

It is the thing that keeps you safe.

-Yeah. -That’s its purpose.

Something happens, you know,

like if you were to put your hand on this stove, right,

you know, warm, even pleasant.

Without much thought, you pull away.

Mm-hmm.

-That’s your nervous system being functional

and doing its job,

and it’s all happening in a millisecond.

-Yeah.

Pain is a signal that helps us realize that

if you touch a hot plate,

it's going to hurt because you're going to do damage if

you keep your hand there.

Sensory cells in our fingers are triggered.

A signal shoots up to our brain.

It suspects there's damage, so it sends a pain response.

Imagine a pain speedometer that returns to normal when

that threat of damage has passed.

This is acute or short-acting pain but in some people,

these signals can misfire over time,

keeping the speedometer right up in the red zone.

This becomes long -term or chronic pain.

-Do we have the ability to minimize chronic pain?

-Totally. -Yeah.

-Our brains can dampen that signal,

or it can ignite a signal, turn the dial up,

or turn the dial down.

You like hot food? Spicy food?

-Yeah. To a point.

I love spicy food.

I kind of like to see how much I can take.

Eating a chili pepper, it's not dangerous,

it's not an actual threat, but it can really hurt.

-Oh, it’s got some, so, really peppery isn't it?

-Mm-hm. -I mean, it’s really hurting me.

-Yeah. -And it’s not affecting you.

-Right, because my brain has decided it’s not a threat and

so now I can enjoy the sensation in my own weird ways.

-I’ve got to tell my brain it’s not a danger?

-Yeah. Not a danger. Not a danger.

You're safe.

-Oh, it's a bad idea.

You got any milk?

-Yes.

-I would love to understand how to regulate that signal,

change my sort of mindset so it’s not on full blast and it’s

not sort of being amplified.

Milk and Korean barbecue.

Yeah.

-Sells itself.

Our relationship to pain is not static, it's not fixed,

it's not something we're born with.

It's something that's sculpted by experience and by time.

My own dance with pain began at college.

I was messing about on top of a commuter train,

until 11,000 volts went through my body and I'm a

trilateral amputee now.

I have been for 35 years.

Skin grafts.

Um, burn is a, is a particularly tricky, tricky one.

But I've learned a lot from it.

To be alive means to have pain.

I'd like Chris to understand that using the power

of his mind,

he can changes his relationship to it,

by actively engaging with his pain.

So, BJ's brought me to a valley outside of Seoul.

It's the first time I get a sense of his plans.

What are we doing here and why?

Well, we can’t talk too much about it now.

It’s a little bit of a secret, because that’s sort of the

nature of pain.

You don’t know when it’s coming.

You don’t know how bad it will be and you don’t know

when it’ll end.

-OK.

Over the course of this week,

we'll give Chris a toolbox of techniques to

help him live with pain.

And then, in four days' time,

we'll put all of that into practice...

...in the ultimate pain experiment.

I want Chris to join up with the South Korean Special Forces

who have one of the toughest training regimes in the world.

They use pain as a tool to prepare their troops for combat.

We're keeping the details of the challenge secret from Chris

to keep the experience of long-lasting pain as

realistic as possible.

Come on guys, let’s go!

Success will be judged if he can better tolerate pain

whilst doing some of the most painful things on earth.

-Thanks in advance for hurting me.

-Oh yeah, my pleasure. -This is gonna suck.

Yeah, I think I'm a little surprised.

It's just like, I don't know, how that's gonna help in this

situation with my back pain.

I'm sort of at this point bracing for the worst, in a way.

For my second lesson in reframing pain,

BJ has brought me to a hospital in Seoul.

Over the years, when different training methods

or treatments didn't work,

I would have to use medication to manage my back pain,

whether it be anti-inflammatories and

painkillers, and all sorts of things,

and they were all kind of Band-Aids.

Medications provide vital pain relief to more than

80 million Americans each year,

but our minds can also do remarkable things to

provide pain relief.

I want to experiment with Chris's ability to make

his own painkillers.

So, I have recruited two close childhood friends,

Zoc and Azza...

-Do you want a better abs shot? Is everyone happy with that?

...and I'm going to electrocute them all in the

name of science.

Have you ever had a nerve stimulator before?

-No, but I do know a little bit about electricity.

-Mm?

-I used to be an electrician.

-Oh! OK.

-So, I hated getting electrocuted.

-Oh, me too, brother. -Yeah, you too.

I’ve given each of them electrical impulse machines to

test their tolerance to pain.

Shouldn’t hurt a lot, but we are looking for that line where

something becomes uncomfortable.

-Mm.

I’m slowly increasing the electrical impulses

to their stomach.

One is mild discomfort but it goes all the way to 15.

My aim is to find their pain threshold,

the level it becomes uncomfortable.

It’s weird.

-It’s weird.

But I’m aware they are competitive animals.

Do you want me to come back down?

-No, give us another one. Come on, you dirtbag, let’s go.

Go, ah!

-Oh God! OK, this is bad now.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, come down.

-OK, I’m gonna come down. Coming down.

-OK.

-Brings me a huge amount of joy watching my mates suffer

in such a way.

-What level am I at right now? -It’s six.

-Out of ten? -No, out of 15.

-Oh boy!

Ah!

-Remember, you’re supposed to tell me

when it’s uncomfortable,

not when, what you can take.

-Why, do I look uncomfortable? -Yeah!

-It’s uncomfortable. -OK.

-When you test the other boys, say I made it to 15.

-For ten bucks, no problem.

Pain is personal.

Each of them is having a very different experience.

Each of them having a wildly different suite of numbers.

-And when I get wired up, something interesting happens.

Oh! Here it comes.

It actually feels like one of my abs is

being removed with a spoon.

It's horrible.

-Does that hurt? -Oh, get it down, get it down.

-Yep, yep. Come down. -Turn it off, yeah.

-Yep. It’s off.

-I was like,

'Oh yeah, I'll have the highest pain threshold'.

Three again?

And I had the lowest.

Three? That's terrible.

It's 'cos I did so many sit-ups.

-Of course. Of course, yeah.

-It’s an extreme thing. -Yes, you beast.

-Er, a very weak one.

In the second part of the experiment,

we’ll do it all over again but this time,

he’s got to work through that in a social environment.

-Your job is to play Jenga.

-OK.

-And at some point, we'll start going up the numbers

just like we experienced...

-OK. -...OK?

-I’m nervous.

-You got Chris and two of his oldest buddies sitting around,

playing a game.

-Go. -You put it on top.

No, the other way.

-I haven’t played Jenga since the late ‘90s, I reckon.

-We’re gonna see how laughter affects his pain experience.

-It’s not that bad, I’m fine.

I’m getting nothing.

This is easy. I could do this all day.

-What’s my safe word again?

-Keep playing Jenga. -What’s my safe word?

-Play Jenga! Get in the game!

-It helps if you flex.

It's one of the most painful games of Jenga I've ever played,

uh, but also the funniest.

-Keep going, Chris, you can do this.

Look at me.

Look at my eyes. Say 'Jenga'.

-Painful laughter, it’s just a sort of mash up of emotions.

-I will not quit! I will not quit!

OK, it’s starting to really hurt now!

I'm getting it.

All the while, the dial is being turned up.

No, no, no, no, I’m not quitting!

I will not quit.

-It is too much now!

This is dangerous levels.

-I’m out!

-And for some reason,

I’m having a much better time dealing with the pain

in this place than I did on my own.

-You guys wanna hear your results?

-Yeah.

-Jenga, this, in other words, social,

you boys being together and laughing and everything

you were doing,

completely radically changed your number.

Chris, you went to 15.

The social...

-Yeah.

-...cue for you is huge.

It's a big one...

-Mm-hm. -...which isn't surprising.

I mean...

-Yeah. -...look at you guys.

-If you’d have told me I was gonna get to number 15 when

I was tapping out at number three,

I would have said there’s no way.

-What have I done?

What have I?

Our bodies can make their own painkillers,

hormones called endorphins,

and these can help block pain signals

before they reach the brain.

-Crunch me to 15, put me down, go!

We can boost our endorphin release

through laughter...

...music and exercise.

-I don’t know which one’s controlling which.

Turning down the pain dial even more.

I think dealing with pain, too often we think it’s,

you know, my problem to fix and my problem alone,

rather than looking around and seeing how we can pick

each other up and support each other.

-And another thing, Chris, for you to be aware of,

these numbers seem low but what they also tell us

is that you have in fact been dealing with a lot of pain.

-One of the things we want to help Chris understand is

although pain meds are effective,

the side effect of taking them regularly is that his body gets

used to them, lowering his pain threshold.

-This doesn’t point to any sort of weakness, as much as boy,

you’ve dealt with some pain.

-Yeah.

For years, I wasn't healing like I should have been

and that used to drive me crazy and I would

just keep training to try and fix this problem

I have with my back.

Doing dead lifts, sprinting on the treadmill,

lifting weights and then sometimes I would have to slam

medication and just train through the pain.

That mentality can be incredibly disruptive and,

and brutal.

And I realize now that sometimes I was

just overcooking it.

-I feel for Chris.

He's a little bit more at war with himself than

he needs to be, and ironically or otherwise,

being at war with yourself is a great way to lower your pain

threshold and hurt more than you need to.

For his third lesson, I've brought Chris to a

fighting gym in Seoul.

To build his tolerance for pain he needs to learn

how to work with it, not fight against it.

Stun Gun is an incredible fighter, MMA fighter.

I've watched a number of his fights and he's,

he's an absolute weapon for sure.

-Oh! Hathaway is out cold!

The amount of pain that one receives and

inflicts is wild.

And you think, why would you do such a thing?

How do you build up tolerance for that?

How, you must have a trick up your sleeve or there must be

something to learn from this individual, these individuals,

in the space of pain.

How, how do you, um, did you have different ways of

dealing with pain, or was it always just brutal?

I have been able to endure pain since I was a child

For example, when I was at school

we had to endure pain when we were punished

So I lived with pain

I took it for granted

Kim Dong Hyun grew up in a culture where

martial arts are taught in schools and a common life

philosophy is that if we expose ourselves to

small amounts of pain,

then we accept it as a part of life and that

makes us stronger.

I began to realize the purpose of pain

is just to signal the brain

that you are about to get injured

So I found the sweet spot

I would fight and train one day

then take the next day off

That made me stronger

because when you are hit many times, you feel less pain

-OK. -OK. More strong.

Hui!

-Any of us can increase our pain tolerance through

systematic graded exposure.

But you have to be methodical about it.

By exposing ourselves to some pain in a controlled way,

we can slowly train our brains to settle on the experience and

understand it's not a threat, thereby increasing our pain

tolerance bit by bit.

The key is to not overdo it.

-Did you find that the more you exposed

yourself to painful situations,

it became normal and then you accepted it,

so it wasn’t as bad?

With a lot of experience and achievements

I started seeing the pain as a glorious pain

This is something only a fighter can feel and understand

a very pleasant and happy pain

I realized this too late

And of course, when you lose a fight

it’s the opposite

Even a tiny scratch

can feel like a knife wound

-What I found fascinating about this meeting was Stun Gun

embodies that pain and, and it's a,

it's a glorified pain and he feels great about it.

Whereas I had been treating myself with such aggression and

a lot of that was to do with being in a constant

fight with it.

Because so many times, people with serious injuries

have been told, "Ah, it's unwarranted.

You're not injured.

Get over yourself. Toughen up.

Rub some dirt in it, get back out there"

and so I had this, like,

rejection to, um, any sort of weakness.

Chris, he's kind of realized the limitations of

that approach to pain.

Gritting your teeth all the time to prove your toughness.

I want him to soften a little bit around the total experience

of his pain.

And Stun Gun's approach to both reframing pain and graded

exposure are two great techniques for our toolbox.

Incoming! Get down!

Come on, let's go!

Especially when Chris encounters unexpected pain with

the South Korean Special Forces.

Keep moving forward!

Ah!

For my next lesson,

BJ is taking me to an ancient monastery in the mountains.

A place that's steeped in Buddhism,

a religion that has a long history of confronting and

working with pain.

OK, ooh!

I want Chris to meet the Spiritual Patriarch to truly

engage with his mind,

as this could be key to his suffering.

In a word, I’d love Chris to find a little bit more peace.

If you observe pain closely

It's a sensation and a thought

nothing more, nothing less

Your thoughts

make the suffering a reality

-So, we have pain, then we have suffering.

How do we identify the difference between the two?

When you look closely at your pain’s origin,

you will realize

pain is part of life

and you must be able to accept it in your heart

I guess I've never been able to separate the pain

and the suffering.

Over the years,

I've tried physiotherapy and acupuncture, yoga,

strength training, and although sometimes I would get relief,

nothing would permanently fix the problem...

...and it scared the hell out of me.

Didn't know if I'd be able to go and perform that stunt or

train properly in prep for a role.

I didn't know that I could go surfing, you know.

But I think what was worse than the physical pain was the

emotional discomfort, the anxiety that comes with it.

There'd be such a vulnerability and the insanity that rattled

around my experience was, um, maddening.

I would sort of wallow in that suffering.

I couldn't get out of that space.

Humans have 108 types of pain

By practicing the art of prostrations 108 times

we believe we can shake away every one of them

These monks use prostrations, a type of bowing,

to reframe their experience of pain.

It's a more active type of meditation that could help

Chris separate his pain from his suffering.

As your forehead lowers to the ground

you will find yourself in the most humble position

At first your legs will hurt

but your cluttered thoughts

will fade away one by one

and slowly you become at one with yourself

After about 20 prostrations,

I'm starting to sweat.

As I feel twinges in my back and small pain signals.

And then I look around at a hall of calm faces and

no one else seems to be struggling.

Scientific studies show that those who meditate can

process pain with a greater clarity and less distress.

That's because the region of their brain that deals with

emotions uncouples from the region that deals with pain.

That doesn't mean people who meditate don't feel pain.

It means they don't suffer from it in the same way.

So, for all of us, practicing static or moving meditation can

help increase our pain tolerance and

reduce long-term suffering.

The more I observe my pain without

judgment or attachment...

...the more I surrender myself to movement.

And I begin to separate myself from it.

And I feel like I broke through something.

What is my relationship to this pain?

Am I storing anger, resentment, trauma?

Maybe I'm causing this,

or I'm definitely inflating it, or elevating it.

Maybe...

...it's, it's up here.

How did you find taking part

in our prostrations?

-I was considering a lot of what you had talked about

earlier about sitting with the pain,

being in a sort of compassionate,

non-judgmental space and,

um, found myself in a sort of flow state

with everybody, which was quite a wonderful experience.

I don’t think it is ordinary Karma

that you are wearing monk’s clothes today

in your past life maybe you were a monk

I would really like to see you shave your head as well

-Sure.

That was a remarkable experience.

Yeah, it was beautiful.

Sitting with the pain, the acceptance of it,

surrendering to it, not being in opposition to it,

not trying to avoid it entirely,

but respectfully observing it.

And, um, the sort of combination

of all of those things,

I think is gonna be quite powerful.

-And I think that’ll be key for you going into tomorrow.

-Yeah.

-Over the course of this week, we have offered Chris a toolbox

with a bunch of tools in it, and now that he's become

something of a student of his own pain,

I'm confident he understands all the theory, he gets it,

but can he live it?

That's what the final lesson is all about.

Any concerns, any questions?

-Part of the anxiety or nervousness is based around the

fact that I don’t know what I’m walking into.

-Yeah, no, my apologies.

I mean, this set up feels a little cruel tomorrow,

but it's important that we don't tell you what's coming

because that's much more realistic.

That is kind of how life is, you know.

You don't know when the pain's coming,

you don't know when it will end and you just know

you can't avoid it.

Can he stop resisting the pain and instead, accept it?

The day has arrived...

...and the anticipation is gnawing away at me.

My mind is racing.

I'm grappling now with like, the, the fear of, er...

Mm-hm.

-...what's to come, because it's completely unknown.

You have a bunch of different tools to pull from and

the trick is being in the moment.

That gives you the best chance to stay with what's actually

happening and move through it.

For this constructed experiment,

we needed to find someone who is an expert in inflicting pain,

not treating it.

One, two...

So we're going to immerse him into this created

environment with the Special Forces.

It has four stages.

Like chronic pain, it will build in intensity,

so each stage will turn up the dial even further,

adding a different kind of pain to the mix.

I mean, it's, it's, you know, it's pain on pain on pain.

First off, is commando crawl.

This is an electric wire.

The first stage will provide a base level

of throbbing, aggravating pain.

Are they live the whole time?

It’s live the whole time.

We’re not trying to be jerks about it,

but we are trying to be, approximate reality.

It’s a long way.

Brutal.

Right, let's go, let's go!

Commando crawl!

Crawl! Crawl! Come on!

Incoming!

Incoming, keep your head down!

The course is 160 feet long,

teeming with electrical current.

It's like being stung by a wasp...

...every time.

Your knees down, toes down, heels down!

But then I remembered BJ's lesson in the restaurant.

Incoming!

This is just a sensation.

Incoming! Head down!

This pain is not damage.

Come on, let’s go!

Keep moving.

Come on, Chris!

That's minus two toes, let's go!

That's it go!

Come on guys!

Squad, we are not done here yet.

Climb up that hill.

Let's go!

I want there to be no let up for Chris and this of course

is by design.

Now we're throwing in a new pain sensation...

...extreme cold.

This exercise simulates the recovery of supplies dropped

from a helicopter.

Chris and his teammate must swim across the icy river...

-What do you reckon? -Across is more.

-Yeah. There you go.

...and release the crate from the parachute.

OK buddy, when you get in that water, you might panic.

Your body might revolt.

Roll with it. Keep breathing through it.

Try to slow your breath.

Let’s go!

OK, brother.

Now a lot of it is just the, the mind overriding the sort of

body screaming at you that...

-Exactly.

...-we're gonna die. We're gonna die...

-Exactly.

-...this is cold. This is bad.

-You won't die and you're not your thoughts.

-And then I fall over.

The initial fall was a shock. Now the doubt is coming in.

Woo!

Am I gonna be able to do this or not?

The water temperature is freezing.

But I guess I'm trying to convince myself otherwise.

We got this!

-Woo! -Quite warm!

Sun warm!

By saying it's not that cold, it's not that cold,

it's not that cold.

And it worked for like, ten meters and

then I'm like, "Uh-oh, 'I'm freezing."

-We have temperature receptors in our sensory neurons

that respond to the cold.

Oh!

To preserve heat, blood vessels in Chris’s skin,

his hands, feet and extremities, narrow quickly,

causing sharp, aching pain.

My body feels like burning,

feels like I have frostbite.

But I've learnt to make my own painkillers.

Woo-hoo! We have one!

-Come on Chris!

Because like playing Jenga with my mates,

I can release endorphins...

...by embracing humor and camaraderie.

-I'll be Rose, you be Jack.

Now as Chris leaves the water,

his blood vessels reopen,

reactivating the nerves and causing a burning sensation.

Uh, Chris, we’re not done yet.

It’s your stuff and you’re gonna get it open.

-OK. Get it open.

Squad, move away.

Give him space.

Now, stay focused.

I literally can't feel my fingers.

I just can't get the, uh...

And no amount of persistence helps.

It's like a, er, a Rubik's cube.

My fingernails feel like they're being torn off.

They're burning.

Who's got a knife?

Squad.

It’s, it’s, it’s not, it’s not successful.

And then the pain gets even more ridiculous.

I've never been pepper-sprayed before,

and I don't wanna be pepper-sprayed again.

It feels like a...

This is stage three. Severe pain.

How will Chris now deal with this very different

type of pain?

Keep your pose! Keep your pose!

I didn’t tell you to open your eyes, keep the pose!

Ah,!

Alright, squad, open your eyes!

Let’s go! Come on, let’s go!

So now, the teams must deal with the constant

physical exertion of moving 300-pound truck tires...

-One, two, three...

one, two, three...

...while their eyes burn and swell from

the pepper spray...

...and their lungs fill with the fumes

of flash grenades.

You literally can’t breathe,

you literally can’t see.

And so you’re kind of flying blind.

- Oh,! - Hang on.

I'm doing the best I can.

I'm dribbling and spitting and swearing and...

it's an ugly sight.

How are you doing, boys?

What are you doing?

Keep moving. Keep moving!

-Alright.

It hurts like hell.

The sting is unbearable.

I try to talk myself out of it.

What are you doing, Chris? Why are you in pain?

Stop being such a wimp.

Get over yourself. It's all in the mind.

It’s not all in the mind, it's in my eyes!

But beating myself up about it isn't working...

...and I feel ready to tap out.

Chris! What did I tell you?

-I can’t remember.

I told you to use your hand, man.

-Yeah.

In the fog of this debilitating pain,

I'm forgetting that I'm not on my own.

The team will help me get through this.

Yeah.

I told you to move the tires, alright?

-Yeah.

I didn’t tell you to drag it.

-Didn’t tell me to drag it.

-We should roll it.

-You OK, Chris? -We roll the tire.

Realizing your teammates are going through

the same thing....

-Taste your pepper on the steak.

-Makes me wanna slam my head in the,

big bowl of squash.

Delicious.

-Delicious.

-It does kind of lessen the burden.

OK, here we go!

We are social animals.

We're designed to share the load and carry the

weight together and support each other.

Alright! Everyone OK.

carry to fire positions.

But team or not,

I don't know when this is ending.

And of course,

I keep worrying about my back and every little

twinge or movement,

and every time we change exercise, I think,

should I be doing this?

But I am and my back is holding.

What Chris doesn't know is that this is his final exercise.

Get your injured bodies,

bring them safely to the finish line over there.

Come on!

It simulates the recovery of injured soldiers

from the battlefield.

Each of these dummies weighs as much as a fully grown man

and must be dragged away from the frontlines

as fast as possible.

Chris, you got this one.

Careful position and EVAC.

Let's go, squad, let's go!

Keep moving, keep moving!

High-pressure hoses provide the effect

of constant bombardment.

This is replicating chronic pain at its cumulative worst.

There's pain on pain on pain at the highest level.

The ice-cold water on my aching muscles makes

me feel like I've got nothing left to give.

And it takes everything I've got to keep going.

Go, we're not gonna quit today, keep going!

I’m moving almost on autopilot now.

Keep going! Keep going!

And I don't think I've ever felt this exhausted and

I'm now realizing the very profound sort of meaning

under it all...

...which is that throughout my life,

the suffering I have with my back,

had become my badge of honor.

It was like a part of me, and I was in this constant

fight with it.

And getting stuck in that mindset

was incredibly detrimental.

...let's go!

And that, that was the big one.

You know, the,

the pain signals are not, they're not alive.

We don't need to let them take over our lives or be

defined by them.

...cross the line, you get running!

-It’s up to us how we respond to our pain.

Woo! Yes! Let’s do it!

I’m soaking wet,

I’m exhausted but I feel a huge sense of joy

because like all great lessons,

the hardest ones teach us the most.

Alright, you made it, Chris.

-Everyone back in the water.

Let’s go, let’s go.

-All pain is real.

Period.

Full stop.

It is one of the most important messages of this.

Although we all experience it very differently,

we can all change the stories we tell ourselves.

-The more where we attach ourselves to the narrative,

the more intense it becomes.

-Mmm-hmm.

And that alone will affect our experience of pain.

We all have the power to change how pain affects our lives.

-Yeah, the goal is not to kind of be void of suffering, it’s,

it’s like, to accept, the experience, to move with it.

-Move with it, and keep living.

This experience in South Korea has been

transformative and now what I've realized after learning

BJ's tools is that I'm not afraid of my back anymore.

But I'm not entirely like,

pain free, you know, I haven't like, oh wow,

I've evolved to a state of like, non-suffering.

But I do have a better,

more compassionate relationship toward it,

and myself.

And a toolbox...

...to help me dial down the unnecessary pain signals.

-I'm out!

Next time, I travel to Switzerland...

...to discover if taking extreme risks...

...is actually good for you.

I look down...

and I immediately get that wave of like, terror.