The following is a transcription of a Hearts Open Power session and how HOP approaches pain. We only added titles and small summaries, but the rest is almost word for word, except some artifacts that were removed from the transcription. Enjoy ❤️

Part 1: Chronic Symptoms, Medical Limits, and the Willpower Trap

In this opening segment, Adrian checks in with Andreea regarding her persistent back, neck, and shoulder discomfort. Andreea shares that her symptoms fluctuate unpredictably and mentions that her knee pain recently flared up after eighteen months of relief, triggering anxiety. When she consulted Dori (the AI companion), it repeatedly instructed her to see a physician—a protocol Adrian notes is medically safe but often ineffective for chronic neuroplastic pain, as conventional medicine frequently defaults to pharmaceuticals and passive modalities rather than addressing nervous system sensitization. Andreea admits to carrying continuous underlying stress for months and reveals her reluctance to speak up for fear of sounding like she is merely complaining. Adrian reframes complaining, explaining that sharing distress is a natural human call for guidance when one feels stuck. As they explore the onset of Andreea's tension, she recalls striving rigorously to maintain rigid, upright posture. Adrian highlights an unexpected paradox: chronic tension often stems not from laziness, but from intense willpower and hyper-vigilance, where an individual expends immense effort attempting to fulfill perceived rules and physical standards.

Adrian: Let's get back to our bubbles. Andreea, how is it with your back pain? Are you okay?

Andreea: Mmm, ish. Because I have days when I don't feel any tension or back pain, but I have days when it hurts a lot.

Adrian: Okay.

Andreea: And lately, it's not the whole back—it's mostly the neck.

Maura: Hmm.

Adrian: Okay.

Andreea: And I had really bad days when my shoulder also hurts, and I felt like everything hurts in that moment.

Maura: Hmm. Okay.

Adrian: Okay, so we'll need to have a session about this or something. Because I didn't train—for example, the AI is not trained on this. You can use it, but it's not trained specifically on the physical, and I don't think it understands very well the specifics.

Andreea: Oh.

Adrian: Yes, because it is still a belief thing. But it might be useful to put some examples there for the AI, to have some very specific examples of how this was solved in other situations.

Andreea: Yeah, the AI kept sending me to the doctor.

Adrian: Yeah. Well, it's okay, I'm glad that it did that.

Andreea: "Two weeks, okay." He insisted.

Adrian: Well, of course, if it's very bad, you can go to the doctor, but if it's chronic, again: what is the doctor going to do? Give you pills and send you to physiotherapy?

Maura: Yeah, they're not trained in pain science nor in pain science education.

Adrian: Yeah.

Andreea: And I remember I really got scared a few weeks ago because my knees started to hurt again after almost one and a half years with no pain. It was very weird. I played tennis, but also before that I was hiking and it didn't hurt. And yeah, I got a little bit scared in the first place.

Adrian: Yeah. Well, of course you need to notice what you were up to—what you were actually thinking, what was your state of being in the previous days or hours. Because I'm sure that if you are honest with yourself and look, something was putting you off, kind of stressing you definitely before.

Andreea: If I'm being honest, I don't feel 100% free or relaxed for months right now.

Adrian: Okay.

Andreea: I mean, I'm aware of it. I don't know what to do, but at least I know it.

Adrian: Okay, yeah.

Andreea: And I feel like I didn't talk about it a lot because I don't feel as bad as I did before, and that's why I'm feeling bad to complain about it. It's not that bad, I mean. It was worse before, and...

Adrian: What? But why do you say that you are complaining? Because complaining, from my point of view, what people receive as complaining is usually the cry for help that exists in a person who wants help, and the person doesn't really know the way out. And it's normal to say it to people. Usually people say, "Don't complain so much" simply because they don't know what to do with what you are telling them. This is why they tell you not to complain or give you the impression that you are bugging them—because they don't actually know what to do, and they feel bad hearing it. But if you are telling us, for example, it's not complaining. It's actually quite interesting.

Maura: Yes, absolutely.

Andreea: Well, I will start the list then and present it to you.

Adrian: Do you remember the first time when the back pain disappeared completely? When we were talking?

Andreea: Yeah.

Adrian: Okay, what was happening? Do you remember more or less what was the point, and what was the focus that you put in that moment?

Andreea: Right now I don't remember the focus, but I remember exactly the feeling when nothing was hurting anymore.

Adrian: So you remember the feeling. But the feeling is a result of a belief. So the belief is more important. The feeling is important, of course, because that's the experience, but the belief that actually triggered that feeling is way more important. Take a few seconds. Just see if you remember it, because I would personally prefer for you to search for it in your memories; your system will remember it much better compared to if I just tell you directly.

Andreea: I'm trying.

Adrian: Yeah, take a few seconds. Just think about the feeling and ask: what went with this feeling? What was it before? What was I actually thinking just before having that feeling of freedom, of it not hurting anymore?

Andreea: I don't know. The only thing that I'm thinking about is that before that feeling, I was thinking about my position, my posture—somehow that I have to stay in a specific way.

Adrian: Exactly.

Andreea: That's the only thing that I remember. That's the only thing that popped into my mind.

Adrian: Well, of course it's related. And you see, based on your vibration right now, the information that comes to you is literally synced with your state of being. We are like radios: we set ourselves on one specific vibration frequency, and then we just receive information from this specific channel. So it's much easier for you to remember: "I was trying to hold myself in a fixed position, holding myself upright, being straight." These are the common beliefs. Maybe someone tells you in school when you're writing, "Sit straight." And you tried it, I suppose.

Andreea: Yeah. And I tried.

Adrian: You were one of the people that said, "I'm going to do this right. I'm just going to do it." You are not lazy. Most people will hear, "You need to be straight," and they will say, "Yeah, okay, but I don't care, I don't want to." So they're not going to get the back pain.

Andreea: Mm-hmm. Because I've tried it, and it hurts more.

Adrian: Most people don't have the willpower to actually go with those beliefs. We are all sharing those beliefs in consciousness, but some people don't want to put in the effort. They say, "I'm not willing to work hard for that." This is why they don't develop a lot of issues—because they're just too lazy to actually enforce it. You need to put a lot of effort to create back pain! It's not so easy; you have to have willpower, you have to be determined. You have to develop a skill to actually have back pain. If you don't put in the effort, you're just not going to get it.

Andreea: Honestly, today I was thinking about the fact that I don't have willpower, generally speaking. My parents told me a lot that I don't have willpower.

Adrian: Okay. So you were determined to prove them wrong.

Andreea: Apparently.

Adrian: I can tell you for sure that you have a lot of willpower. This is not an issue.

Andreea: Honestly, right now, I don't know if I will take it as a compliment.

Adrian: Well, there's no judgment behind it; it's just what I noticed. You have a lot of willpower to create this pain and suffering. It's your choice; I'm just making you aware of it. If you didn't have this willpower, I assure you that you would not have any back pain.

Andreea: That's great.

Part 2: Hyper-Control, Mental Software, and the Illusion of Fixing

Continuing the discussion on control and physical strain, Maura shares her personal journey recovering from eating disorders through Overeaters Anonymous. She describes how extreme dietary discipline created an exhausting cycle of hyper-control, willpower depletion, and guilt, which ultimately alienated her from her true preferences. Letting go of that rigid grip felt like lifting a heavy metal cage—an insight Adrian connects to the excessive effort people exert trying to feel good. Adrian reflects on how pain occasionally attempts to resurface during high-stakes situations, such as launching a new project, because the brain perceives bodily limitation as a tool for sharp focus. However, relying on physical limitation as a focusing mechanism proves maladaptive and draining over time. He emphasizes that the mind is not an adversary or a malicious entity; rather, it functions like software executing whatever subconscious beliefs an individual holds. Attempting to suppress pain through brute willpower invariably fails because the conscious effort reinforces hyper-vigilance. Adrian introduces the core principle of cognitive inquiry: resolving persistent physical discomfort requires moving above emotional reactivity to examine the foundational belief driving the mind's fixation—specifically, the belief that the pain must be actively managed and fixed.

Adrian: Maura, if you want to intervene...

Maura: Yeah, it's the same story that I told you before about my eating disorders—how much I was controlling. I remember while I was healing, I noticed there was this control freak in me saying, "Okay, now we are doing the diet." Three weeks of diet, and then I have enough, and then the guilt comes. It's going into guilt, and then again willpower and guilt and willpower and guilt. There was this one moment I saw that I really didn't know myself. Even when it came to food, I had no idea what I liked, because it was either dieting or stuffing myself with whatever was forbidden during the diet. Eating was taking half of my time, thinking about it and doing this or not doing this. I was thinking: do I have any other hobbies or passions? I would like to know what Maura really likes. When I started to meet myself, it was just letting go. It felt like taking a huge, heavy metal cage away. It really resonates with Heart's Open Power now.

Adrian: You see, these are the best teachers of Heart's Open Power. This is what's needed—this willpower.

Maura: People who went through it, yes, I guess so.

Andreea: Yeah, it makes sense.

Maura: In Overeaters Anonymous, somebody told me that we suffered a lot, but once we start to walk, we walk so fast because we know so much more than people who didn't suffer.

Adrian: We know so much more, but is it actually useful?

Maura: For teaching, it might be. For happiness, I don't know!

Adrian: And this is what is going to make you a very good teacher. You don't have to teach formally like we are doing, but when you discover these things and they are clear to you, you automatically influence everyone around you. In everything you say, you reflect your experience and your willingness to feel good. Because if you think about it, with all this willingness and all this effort, the only goal was to feel good.

Andreea: Oh, yeah.

Adrian: That's the goal: "I'm willing to put in the effort, I'm willing to do the work to feel good." I've been there for many years, and sometimes I'm still there. It never really goes away completely. Sometimes I catch myself putting a lot of effort in, and then I laugh about it. It just seems funny. Your mind and system remember, and there can be triggers that put you in the exact same place. Last year, I was starting a new project, and right in the morning before the initial kickoff meeting, I started to have back pain. And I said, "Oh, this is funny." I really started to laugh by myself. "You remembered!" But I was so detached and amused. I said, "You remembered. That's nice, thank you, but it's clear that this is not needed anymore." It literally disappeared in about five minutes.

Maura: Hmm.

Adrian: My system remembered: "Going into a project you care about? Let's bring the back pain back because that's definitely going to help." Pain is a limitation, but if you put a limitation on your system, you can actually focus better. The issue is the downsides. It can't work well in the long term. You need to discover that you don't actually need this limitation in your life; you can choose to guide yourself from a place of freedom. If you're in pain, your mind spends a lot of time ruminating. Think of how much time is spent there that could be used for wonderful things. In the long term, it's wasted time.

When your mind is thinking about the pain, your mind is not wrong. Your mind is simply executing whatever you believe. In some frameworks, the mind is treated as the bad guy keeping you limited, but that is not the case here. Your mind is simply like your phone or your computer—doing whatever you tell it to do. There is no bad motive, and there is no independent consciousness to your mind by itself. It can focus on the pain, or it can not focus on the pain. The choice exists in every moment. But it's not enough to simply say, "Don't focus on the pain anymore," because that's not going to work. Your mind will still go back. Your willpower is not going to hold up. So you need to go higher.

Higher means: "Okay, I notice my mind focusing on the pain. Great, my mind is working, I'm alive. My mind's only job is to know what I believe and execute it." How do we discover the beliefs? Because when you are in the pain, the thoughts, and the worrying, the beliefs are hidden. They are on a level above emotions. One way is to ask smart questions: What do I need to believe in order to focus on the pain? What do I need to believe for my mind to be so determined to fix the pain? That is the question for you, Andreea.

Andreea: Because it hurts, and my mind thinks it can solve it.

Adrian: It's not your mind that thinks; it's that you hold the belief: "I can fix the pain." It's true that the sensation is unpleasant—that is an experience, not a belief. But "I need to believe that I can fix it"—does that seem right?

Andreea: Yep. Right.

Adrian: In all your experience, did you ever manage to fix the pain this way? Your mind says, "It never worked, but I'm still going for it because this is the only thing I know." Does "I can fix the pain" seem like an absolute truth—like the Earth revolving around the sun—or does it seem like something you simply believe?

Andreea: It's something that I believe.

Adrian: Perfect. That is one step forward. You are aware logically that this is a belief. When you believe something, you can prove whether it is true or find another possibility. So let's play with this belief: I believe I can fix the pain. Keep it in mind and observe it. Your experience shows you that you never actually succeeded with this approach. If you take your experience as the reference of truth, the belief is false. So if the pain cannot be directly solved by trying to fix it, what is the point of the pain? Why is your system producing this experience?

Part 3: The Messenger Metaphor, Neuroplastic Alarms, and Rapid Realignment

Adrian guides Andreea through a focused inquiry to deconstruct her unconscious belief that she must actively fix her physical discomfort. When Andreea recognizes that years of trying to "fix" the pain have produced zero lasting success, Adrian invites her to test an alternative paradigm: viewing pain not as an obstacle or broken mechanism, but simply as a messenger. Under this model, attempting to suppress or eliminate pain is equivalent to "shooting the messenger," which only causes the alarm signal to escalate. Adrian explains that there are no dedicated pain receptors in the human anatomy; instead, the brain synthesizes sensory data and generates pain as an interpretation based on perceived safety, threat, and prior conditioning. Often, a flare-up is merely a benign neuroplastic remnant—a learned, conditioned reflex triggered by familiar environmental cues rather than structural damage. By stepping back, surveying her immediate environment, and rationally concluding that she is physically safe, Andreea stops fighting the alarm. Within moments of adopting this perspective, Andreea confirms her pain has lifted, her posture naturally and effortlessly straightens without muscular strain, and her breathing spontaneously shifts into a deep, rhythmic, and satisfying state.

Adrian: If something comes up, tell me what shows up.

Andreea: I think it's the fact that I have a lot of thoughts that are not very helpful lately, and I don't have space—literally space to relax and have an empty space in mind.

Adrian: Before going there, it seems to me like you are going a little too far. Let's take it step by step. What you said seems a bit fuzzy. If we go slower, each step is clear and safe, like climbing a mountain. You went directly looking for thoughts as the reason for the pain. But before that, what if the pain is simply a message?

Andreea: Yeah.

Adrian: The pain is a messenger. When you believe it is the problem and say "I can fix it," it's like a messenger trying to deliver a message and you trying to shoot the messenger! The messenger keeps dodging the bullets and coming back because it wants you to get the message. Does it make sense to try to kill the messenger?

Andreea: Nope.

Adrian: If the pain is a messenger, does it make sense to have the belief "I can fix the messenger"? Stay with this a little bit: The pain is a messenger. How do you feel when you hold that in mind?

Andreea: Yeah, good. But right after feeling good, I was thinking: but what is the message?

Adrian: That's the next question. We take it step by step—classic David Gorman approach. We don't make big assumptions or dig into fuzzy memories. Notice the feedback: when you think "Pain is a message," it feels right. Now play with the other belief: "Pain is the problem, and I need to fix it." Notice how that feels.

Andreea: Not so good.

Adrian: Your guidance system works perfectly. It tells you instantly what is aligned and what is off. It's not me deciding what is right or wrong for you; it's your own guidance system. Now we ask: What's the message? Just stay with the question mark for a few seconds, even if you don't have an answer.

Pain is an internal message. What does pain mean in general? There are no specific sensors for pain in the body; there are sensory nerves, but pain itself is an interpretation generated by the brain when input crosses a calculated threshold. The brain decides whether to produce pain based on your beliefs and perceived threat. Pain is not absolute; it can appear even when there is no physical problem simply because a protective belief has been activated.

Often, pain is simply a learned response to specific situations. It's not necessarily tied to your current thoughts; it's a conditioned trigger. In my case, starting a new project triggered an old interpretation: "You need some pain now." If I had panicked and tried to push it away, the pain would have grown bigger. Instead, I recognized it as an old response, saw that it was unneeded, and it disappeared.

You can treat this as an experiment. When the message comes, view it from that higher perspective: This is a message. Is it just a reminder or conditioned reflex from the past? Instead of trying to fix it, you say, "I got the message. Everything is okay." You re-evaluate your environment, see that you are safe, and decide not to shoot the messenger. How do you feel right now?

Andreea: Good.

Adrian: Did you have pain before?

Andreea: Yes.

Adrian: Do you have pain right now?

Andreea: No. Maybe just a tiny bit.

Adrian: It can take a few seconds to clear out completely. We didn't have to dig into complex thoughts. And notice: your posture changed. You are sitting higher and more upright without forcing yourself to hold that posture.

Andreea: Yeah, I didn't realize.

Adrian: It was involuntary. You have an internal coordinating system that works by itself. When you hold beliefs that are aligned and true for you, your body coordinates itself automatically. How does your breath feel?

Andreea: Easier, somehow. Deeper and slower.

Adrian: Do you feel it as satisfying?

Andreea: Yep.

Adrian: That is a great indicator from your guidance system in you. When your breath becomes naturally free and satisfying without coaching, it shows that your current thoughts are constructive.

Part 4: Modern Pain Science, Past Knee Surgeries, and Core Belief Integration

In the concluding segment, Maura reinforces the discussion using contemporary pain science education, reiterating that pain serves purely as a protective alarm generated by the brain rather than an accurate barometer of tissue health. She illustrates this by describing how ordinary postpartum stiffness can easily trigger catastrophic narratives of bodily decline unless one actively reminds oneself that perceived safety modulates pain. Andreea corroborates this reality by sharing her medical history: having undergone ten knee surgeries that provided only temporary relief, her chronic knee pain vanished completely once she addressed the underlying neural pathway, enabling her to hike twenty kilometers and play tennis for hours without tissue complications. Adrian summarizes the four foundational beliefs uncovered during the session: one disempowering belief to discard (the futile attempt to "fix" pain) and three empowering beliefs to integrate (recognizing pain as a protective messenger, trusting the internal guidance system that signals cognitive alignment, and relying on the body's autonomous coordinating intelligence). The session concludes warmly, with the participants agreeing to document and share these insights with their broader community.

Adrian: Maura, does this align with pain science?

Maura: Absolutely. In pain science education, everything contributes to pain or to safety: what you touch, see, hear, and believe. Pain is defined as protection. Whenever you feel safe, pain goes down; whenever you feel in danger, pain goes up. If your finger is burning while you are protecting your child, you won't feel the finger because the brain prioritizes what is most urgent to protect. Pain is about protection, not tissue damage. When I feel stiff from nursing my baby without moving, my mind starts to think, "Oh, I'm getting old, my body is breaking down." Then I remind myself: pain is about protection, not the state of the tissues. Once I remember that, the discomfort leaves. What about you, Andreea?

Andreea: I don't believe that something is wrong with my tissues. Years ago, I had ten surgeries on my knees—almost every year—and I couldn't even walk up one flight of stairs without pain. After working on the back pain two years ago, the knee pain vanished too. I was able to hike twenty kilometers a day and play tennis for three and a half hours with no issues.

Maura: Wow, ten surgeries. That's crazy.

Andreea: It was normal for me: go to the hospital, get surgery, feel fine for a few months, and then the pain returned.

Adrian: Doctors do their best and work hard, but in Andreea's case, there was a much easier path. Surgeries every year weren't what you truly wanted.

Andreea: At one point, I think I wanted them because I wanted an excuse to quit the sports that I did**,** but my parents didn't agree.

Adrian: We don't need to dig into that right now. To recap, we identified key beliefs around pain:

• The Disempowering Belief: "I can fix the pain." This is a dead end that causes the mind to fight the sensation and shoot the messenger.
• The Protective Messenger Belief: "Pain is a messenger." When you recognize the signal as benign protection, the mind stops fighting.
• The Guidance System Belief: "I have a reliable internal guidance system." Your emotional feedback and ease of breathing tell you immediately when a thought is aligned.
• The Coordinating System Belief: "My body has an autonomous coordinating system." When your beliefs are aligned, posture and physical function regulate themselves without forced effort.

Andreea: Thank you.

Adrian: You see, much better than the AI! I will feed this conversation to the AI so it learns what it was missing. May I turn this conversation into an article for our community?

Andreea: Yes, 100%.

Adrian: David Gorman's articles were fascinating because of that clarity. Whenever you encounter contrast, Andreea, it's not complaining—it's a gift for exploration.

Andreea: If it's not complaining, I have a long list of gifts for you guys!

Adrian: Wonderful. Thank you all, and have a great week!