By the time most people with chronic pain and symptoms embark down the mind-body path, they have often spent a lot of money on failed physical treatments. Luckily, there are many fantastic free resources to support your healing journey. Whether you are new to learning about neuroplastic symptoms, or a seasoned mind-body veteran, these resources can help offer new learning and perspectives to guide your healing.
Understanding Neuroplastic Symptoms
The mind-body connection illustrates how our stress, thoughts, emotions, and personality traits can affect pain and physical symptoms. For instance, heightened stress can lead to issues like headaches, gastrointestinal distress, or other forms of chronic pain.
Understanding this link is the first step toward leveraging it for your healing. Studies show that even learning about how the brain plays a role in chronic pain and symptoms can help relieve them.
The Association for the Treatment of Neuroplastic Symptoms is a great free resource for learning about what neuroplastic symptoms are, why they develop, and if you're unsure if your symptoms are neuroplastic, you can take the 12 Question Quiz.
Free Somatic Tracking Videos
Somatic tracking is a powerful tool that I use frequently with my clients, because it is an evidence-based practice that helps retrain the brain's perception of physical sensations in the body. It's similar to a mindfulness meditation but instead of observing thoughts, we are observing physical sensations in the body (including discomfort) through a lens of safety. By doing so, we can send messages of safety to the primitive parts of our brain that are on high-alert, and help dial down pain signals being sent from the brain.
Online Support Communities
Connecting with others on a similar journey is invaluable. Online forums and support groups offer community and understanding, reducing feelings of isolation. Look for groups that offer uplifting support and resources, rather than symptom horror stories. Don't hesitate to engage—asking questions might unveil a wealth of shared experiences and insights.
Mobile Apps
Several mind-body apps offer free trials that can support you toward healing from symptoms.
The Curable app provides evidence-based chronic pain lessons in your pocket. It uses a combination of pain science education and research-backed techniques to address pain from every angle. The program helps you connect the dots between what’s happening in your brain, in your body, and in your life, to get a full picture of what's causing your symptoms and how to relieve them.
Digestible (for digestive issues like IBS)
Digestible is a program designed to empower IBS sufferers by addressing the root cause of their symptoms: the brain-gut connection. Using science-backed, bite-sized lessons and interactive exercises, Digestible helps users identify their unique symptom triggers and apply proven strategies to change how the brain influences digestion and pain perception.
With an innovative approach, Brain-Gut Regulation (BGR), helps users find relief without restrictive diets, medications, or invasive treatments. Digestible offers a personalized, expert-guided program that makes healing simple, effective, and sustainable.
Digestible is launching in April 2025 and will be offering a 30-day free trial to all users.
Insight Timer is a free app and website that helps users meditate, improve sleep, and reduce stress. With over 300,000 titles, Insight Timer publishes the largest ad-free library of guided meditations, music tracks and talks on earth. Research suggests that meditation, particularly mindfulness meditation, can be helpful for managing chronic pain, with studies showing it can reduce pain intensity, improve pain tolerance, and enhance quality of life for those experiencing chronic pain.
Headspace is a mental health app that offers guided meditation, sleep, and mindfulness resources. It also provides coaching and therapy services.
Starting with just a few minutes each day can lead to substantial improvements in chronic pain and symptoms. The built-in reminders and progress tracking within these applications also help keep you motivated.
Podcasts and YouTube Channels
Podcasts and Youtube channels offer longer-form content on mind-body healing that provide great insights and support.
Here are some of my personal favorites to offer education and guidance on your healing journey:
Tell Me About Your Pain podcast. Join Alan Gordon, LCSW (Founder of the Pain Psychology Center) and Alon Ziv as they respond to the experiences of real chronic pain sufferers. With its digestible topics focused around Pain Reprocessing Therapy, this is a great introductory podcast for anyone first starting on their mind-body journey.
The Cure for Chronic Pain podcast with Nichole Sachs, LCSW offers insights from her personal journey working with Dr. John Sarno and counseling individuals with chronic pain. Nicole's work focuses on emotional expression techniques as a tool to relieve chronic pain and symptoms.
The Pain PT Youtube Channel with Jim Prussack, The Pain PT. Jim is a a licensed physical therapist and coach for individuals with chronic pain. Jim's channel offers insights and education about the research and tools for healing from neuroplastic symptoms. He also shares many success stories to offer hope for healing.
Pain Free You Youtube Channel with Dan Buglio. Dan is a Pain Coach who offers daily videos to help reduce fear of symptoms and shift into the mindset for healing. He also shares many success stories to offer hope for healing.
Journaling Exercises
Emotional healing often necessitates tools that assist in self-reflection and emotional expression. Journaling is a fantastic, free tool that you can use to give an outlet for emotional expression and gain deeper self-awareness.
Here's an expressive journaling prompt you can use to get you started:
Find a comfortable, private space. Set a timer for 20 minutes to journal about an event that occurred or a period in your life that was stressful, emotional, or challenging in some way. This could be a recent event or something from your past.
What events were going on at that time and how did you feel about it? What did you think? Write in detail about the situation and allow any emotions to come up. Perhaps there are feelings of anger, fear, sadness, grief, shame, or jealousy. Allow whatever emotions are present to be expressed without judgement. Do not worry about being polite or socially acceptable. Do not worry about grammatical or spelling errors. Just keep the pen moving for the full 20 minutes and aim for pure honesty about your thoughts and feelings.
At the end of the 20 minutes, take a few moments to acknowledge the gift you've just given yourself by letting these emotions out that you've been carrying with you. You can also write down a few things that you are grateful for from the experience (or in general) to help ground you. You could also try a self-compassion meditation.
Once you are finished, you can also rip the paper up and throw it out so you don't have to worry about anyone reading it.
You may repeat this as many times as you wish, for as many events as you still feel some lingering emotions about. Keep in mind that it can be the events that we have the most resistance to revisiting that need processing the most. Also take it at your own pace, and if thinking about parts of your past feels overwhelming for you right now, consider working with a mental health professional to process these emotions when you feel ready.
More free tools
Breathing exercises are helpful for in-the-moment anxiety and stress relief and can be done anywhere.
Spending time outdoors has a proven positive effect on mental and physical health. Local parks, hiking trails, and community gardens offer free opportunities to connect with nature. Studies have indicated that spending a minimum of 120 minutes per week in natural settings significantly correlates with better health and well-being outcomes (White et al., 2019).
Yoga can help improve mindfulness and body awareness. Studies show that practices like yoga not only improve physical flexibility and strength but also engage neurobiological pathways associated with pain relief (Sirucek et al., 2021).
Social connection: Supportive relationships foster positive emotional states conducive to pain relief, aligning with study findings that highlight the influence of social and psychological factors on pain perception (Becker et al., 2021).
Reducing screen time is a simple way to help reduce stress and chronic symptoms. Research has shown that excessive engagement with screens may lead to forms of psychological distress that can promote or intensify pain symptoms.
Personalize Your Healing Toolkit
Starting your healing journey from mind-body symptoms does not have to be an overwhelming experience. With an abundance of free mind-body resources available, you can confidently take steps toward feeling better. Whether you choose somatic tracking exercises, podcasts, or support groups you can build a personalized toolkit for your healing journey. As you start small and gradually exploring different practices, you may uncover new insights about which tools resonate best for you.
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