10/20/2025
Move as your future self.
Your brain will follow.
I work with people whose pain has rewritten their identity, and they move like someone who's broken - carefully, protectively, like every step might trigger the next flare that keeps them up at night wondering if this is just how life is now.
But here's what changes everything.
Your brain doesn't just respond to movement. It predicts it. Before you even take that step, your nervous system is running simulations based on who it thinks you are, and those predictions determine how much pain you'll feel before you even move.
Identity.
If your identity is "person in pain," your brain predicts threat. If your identity is "person healing," your brain predicts safety. Same movement, different prediction, different pain experience.
This is predictive processing, and it's why two people with identical MRI findings can have completely different pain levels. Your brain uses your identity story to decide how much danger you're in. When you move like your future self - the version already free from this pain - you're not faking it or pretending everything's fine.
You're teaching your brain a new prediction by providing evidence that contradicts the old story.
I had a patient who couldn't walk her dog without bracing for pain. We didn't start with longer walks or pushing through or any of that "mind over matter" nonsense. We started with one ritual: every morning, she'd stand at her door and take three steps the way her future self would. Relaxed shoulders. Confident stride. No protective bracing.
Just three steps.
Her brain started building a memory bank of "walking feels safe." Within weeks, those three steps became three blocks, not because the pain magically disappeared, but because her nervous system updated its predictions based on repeated evidence that movement could feel different.
Here's your practice for this week:
Pick one movement you avoid or do with fear. Could be reaching overhead, bending down, turning your head... whatever you've been protecting. Now script how your future self would do it - what would your posture look like, how would you breathe, what pace would feel natural if pain wasn't running the show. Do it once daily for 60 seconds, and notice what changes in your body when you move as "already healed" instead of "still broken."
You're not pretending.
You're providing evidence. Your brain learns from repeated behavior, and every time you move as your future self, you're reinforcing new neural pathways that say "this is safe" instead of "this is dangerous." The identity shift happens in the movement itself, not after the pain goes away.
Your pain is real. Your fear makes sense. And your brain is capable of learning that movement can feel different when you show up as the person you're becoming, not the person pain tried to make you.
What's one movement you'd do differently if you moved as your future self?
Comment below if you're ready to move as your future self, not your painful past 💙
