Settle
Before practice.
Short sessions to drop your nervous system into a healing state before any movement work.
Morning Settle
5 minPre-Practice Calm
3 minReset Between Tasks
4 minIIMeditation · The nervous system
The alarm inside you
can be taught to rest.
A library of guided meditations, a flagship 31-day Foundations course, focused multi-week programs for sleep and flares, and the standing recommendation: settle the system first, then move.
IIMeditation
Soften the alarm.
And the body listens.
The nervous system is the gatekeeper of every change you’re trying to make. When it’s on high alert, the body braces against the very work meant to heal it. Meditation lowers the alarm, so the movements can take root, and the lessons can actually land.
40%
less pain intensity
Zeidan et al., 2011
57%
less pain unpleasantness
same study
4 sessions
to produce the effect
20 minutes each
Non-opioid
separate analgesic pathway
Zeidan, 2016
Mindfulness meditation engages a pain-relief system in the brain that is mechanistically distinct from drugs, confirmed when blocking the opioid system with naloxone failed to reverse the effect. See the full research →
The order matters
Meditate first.
Then move.
Every Pain Academy session opens with three to seven minutes of guided breath. Not because it’s a nice ritual, because a sensitized nervous system is the single biggest barrier to progress. Settle that first, and the same movements that used to flare you suddenly land.
Most members tell us they were skeptical at first. Most also tell us it’s the part they’d miss most if it disappeared.
Now playing
Morning Settle
Pre-practice · 7 min · narrated by David
Breathe
2:437:00
Breathe
For flares.
Targeted breath work to interrupt pain spirals and bring the alarm down in real time.
4-7-8 Breath
6 minOcean Breath
8 minVagus Nerve Reset
10 minRestore
For evenings.
Deeper sessions for sleep, recovery, and weekly nervous-system maintenance.
Body Scan
12 minSleep Drift
20 minYoga Nidra
25 min+ 80 more guided sessions in the library · all included
The flagship
31 days
from skeptic to daily practice.
★ Members’ favorite
31-Day Foundations
The most-completed program in Pain Academy. A month-long meditation course built specifically for people in pain, short sessions, no jargon, no spiritual baggage. By Day 31, breath work isn’t a thing you do; it’s how you start every day.
- Five to fifteen minutes a day, audio-only
- Designed for absolute beginners, no experience needed
- Gentle weekly check-ins so the program adapts to you
- Pairs with any movement program you’re running
850+
Graduates
94%
Completion rate
5–15
Min / day
The 31-day arc
Foundations
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
Days 1–10
Settle
Days 11–22
Steady
Days 23–31
Sustain
Today · Day 1813 days remaining
More programs
A program for
every kind of day.
Beyond the daily library and Foundations, we run focused multi-week programs for the moments your nervous system needs a deeper intervention.
7 nights
Sleep Reset
For when pain owns the night.
A week of evening practices designed to stop the 2am wake-and-spiral. Body scans, yoga nidra, and breath that drops you into deeper sleep.
On-demand · 12 sessions
Flare First Aid
When the pain spikes.
Targeted breath work and grounding practices to interrupt a flare in real time. Pull this up when the alarm gets loud.
14 days
Stress Decompression
When life is the trigger.
A two-week course for the long, hard weeks. Pairs breath with body-based stress release so your work, family, and recovery stop competing.
In their words
The part they’d
miss the most.
Meditation is the most-skipped practice at the start, and the one members most often single out by month two. A few notes from the check-ins.
The breathing thing before each session sounded silly. It is not silly. My back stopped flaring at night.
Carla, 52
Lower Back Relief · Round 2
The 31-Day program was the first thing I’ve ever finished that wasn’t a Netflix series. And it changed my pain.
James, 44
Foundations · Day 31
I noticed my breath. In a meeting. I just took a real breath. I haven’t done that in years.
Priya, 38
Hip Relief · Round 4
Ready to
soften the alarm?
Take the 60-second placement test. We’ll show you exactly where to start, and the first seven days are on us.