Christiane Wolf, MD, PhD is a former physician and an internationally known mindfulness and Insight (Vipassana) meditation teacher. She is passionate about translating ancient wisdom teachings into accessible and applicable modern-day language. She aims to live from the heart informed by the brain and inspires her students to explore the same. 

She is the author of “Outsmart Your Pain – Mindfulness and Self-Compassion to Help You Leave Chronic Pain Behind”and the co-author of the classic training manual for mindfulness teachers “A Clinician’s Guide To Teaching Mindfulness”. Christiane is the lead-consultant and teacher trainer for the VA’s (US Department of Veteran Affairs) National Mindfulness Facilitator Training and a senior teacher at InsightLA.

3:38 Originally I just wanted to provide a print out for patients and providers of what mindfulness and self compassion are and where to find resources. We ended up with a user friendly book.
4:45 When our body goes into pain, this is the body's priority: paying attention to pain.  This gets complicated with chronic pain.
6:48 Our body  learns pain. In chronic pain our body becomes over protective.
When we say the pain is killing me today, be careful because your body is  listening.
8:00 When we are in pain, the mind goes into rumination, replays stories of what happened to us. 
10:00 We have a story with a history.  What did you do? what are you regretting? We have a story of the past  and a story  of the future. With each thought comes a particular emotion.
10:57 We might have a future story - we might know that the condition we have is progressive. We might worry that the pain will not go away....so you will not be able to go on hikes, lift your grandchildren.....

11:47 When the pain comes rushing in, this is a reminder of our past and future story:  fear, frustration, and worry set in.

12:08 The past is over and the future isn't here. You might recognize your thoughts and say "the past story is really running right now."

12:16  You can  learn practices to put that story down for a while. May say "I don't need to go down that path right now...at this moment."

For further episode transcript please visit my  website Treesmendus.com

Follow Christiane Wolf on her website here
and on Instagram: christianewolfmindfulness

For peer reviewed research on how your time spent in green space can change your mindset, balance your nervous system and your heart rate please go to verlafortier.substack.com and check out my books Take Back Your Outside Mindset: Live Longer, Stress Less, and Control Your Chronic Illness and Optimize Your Heart Rate: Balance Your Mind and Body With Green Space