All pain is real. If you feel it, it's real. If you suffer from chronic pain, it doesn't mean your pain is fake, or that it's less valid than pain experienced during a trauma, or that you are making up your pain. All pain is real. But some elements may suggest that there are some forms of pain (neuroplastic pain) for which focusing on fixing the body is not the right strategy. We need to target the mind.

When we come into an experience with expectations, our finger is so rigidly pointed at one thing that we can't appreciate anything else. We can't be surprised. The mindset that brings us places is one where we are curious, open-minded, and light-hearted. One where we don't know what we'll find, and we are happy to find out. What's best is that, with this mindset, there's always something to take home. It might not be what we had hoped for, but it will still be something. And at some point, we stop even having hopes. We just show up to experiences and have a good time.