This Is Why Pain Doesn’t Go Away: The Science-Backed Ways To Live More & Hurt Less - With Dr. Sean Pastuch

Shawn Stevenson (0:00)

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Live more, hurt less.

Isn't that something that we all aspire to do? But a big emphasis needs to be pointed on the living more part of it. When we're experiencing chronic pain, when we are hurting, it's very difficult for us to be aware of the things that the pain is robbing us of and to focus on those things so that we can get back to living our lives. Today's episode is a very, very powerful masterclass on not just the physical approach to our healing, but looking at the psychology component and the bigger mission of getting out of pain. It isn't just being free of the pain. Pain sucks, absolutely. But it's getting back to the life that we desire to live, and understanding that we have the birthright to live life on our terms. But so often, we give our power away. We give our power away to the pain. We give our power away to the systems that might tell us that this is our lot in life. And I'm here to tell you that it's just not so. And so I'm very, very excited about this. And also, we're gonna get a huge reframing in what it takes to get out of pain, and also what it takes to create the body and the health that we want. We know that discipline, discipline is a big part of that, of following the steps. You might get the full steps laid out to you, but you need the discipline to execute. And so you're gonna get a powerful reframe on discipline that I've never heard before. And once I heard it, instantly click for me. And so I'm very, very excited to share this very powerful and important conversation with you. And without further ado, let's get to our special guest in Topic of the Day. For more than 20 years, Dr. Sean Pastuch has helped people to reclaim the life that pain has interrupted. His clients include elite athletes competing at the highest levels of sport, business leaders, and parents committed to building strong families with lasting legacies. As the founder of Active Life, he and his team help people to overcome chronic pain, think differently, and return to full participation in the lives that they want to live.

Let's dive into this conversation with the incredible Dr. Sean Pastuch.

Yes, it's on. It's good to see you, man. Thank you for coming out with us today.

Sean Pastuch (2:32)

It's my pleasure, man. I've been listening and watching your content for a long time. You're a pro, and I'm excited to sit across from you.

Shawn Stevenson (2:39)

Let's go. I appreciate that so much, man. Well, obviously, in our world today, this paradigm that we're existing in, there is a war against pain, and rightfully so.

But the perception of pain and how we're dealing with pain has kind of gotten skewed, to put it lightly.

And your approach, you've helped so many people. Your approach, funny enough, is out of the gate. Pain is the wrong thing for us to focus on. Why is that?

Sean Pastuch (3:12)

Because no one actually cares that they're in pain until pain robs them of the life that they want to live. So if you think about it this way, we've all experienced some kind of an ache or a pain in our life that we were like, it'll go away. And usually it does. We don't care. It's when we get the ache or the pain that doesn't go away, that then starts to inhibit how we live, that has us thinking, is this permanent? Am I going to have to change my hobbies? Am I going to have to change the way I get to work? Am I going to have to change the way I interact with my friends and my kids? That's when we seek help. And so what happens is the pain isn't actually the problem. The pain is a part of the problem. The problem is the compromise that pain forces us to make. And compromise, the way I define it, is the acceptance that living less is reasonable or even responsible.

It's the life that we live less that hurts.

So we can't work on getting out of pain to live more. We have to live more to get out of pain.

Shawn Stevenson (4:14)

Yeah, yeah.

Thank you. I haven't heard anybody put it like that before, you know, because again, we get so hyper-focused on the symptom, and it's the bigger things, like what is the pain appearing to take away from me? That's what really hurts. And you start to stack those things, it can be very difficult to kind of break that vicious circle.