452: Dancing with Discomfort: Re-train Your Brain to Conquer Illness | Ben Ahrens

Ancient Health Podcast

Medicine, Alternative Health, Health & Fitness

4.8 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 21 November 2025

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Can you re-train your brain to make it through illness or injury, and even improve your healing outcomes? Dr. Motley sits down with Ben Ahrens, a brain-retraining educator, to learn how neuroplasticity truly can help those battling chronic illnesses. Ben shares his story of how a debilitating Lyme infection left him bedridden for years, and how a few simple brain tools made a key difference for him, motivating him to help others. Takeaways: Limbic kindling, the concept of many imperceptible stressors leading to a nervous system crash, may explain why some people are beaten so hard by infections and others aren’t. It’s possible to be strengthened by stress if we approach challenges with a sense of safety and a relaxed nervous system. Breathwork and vision casting, focusing our brains on what brings us joy, made all the difference for Ben. Reading List of Books Mentioned: Positivity by Barbara Frederickson: https://shorturl.at/z0Zl1 The Brain that Changes Itself and The Brain’s Way of Healing by Dr. Norman Doidge: https://shorturl.at/7r5Ho LiveWired by David Eagleman: https://shorturl.at/yVHXd SuperBetter by Jane McGonigal: https://shorturl.at/05mdS The Stress Prescription by Dr. Elissa Eppel: https://tinyurl.com/3wp4uaku Chronic Pain Reset by Dr. Afton Hessett: https://tinyurl.com/avu95ezz Want more of The Ancient Health Podcast? Subscribe to Doctor Motley YouTube channel. ------ Follow Dr. Chris Motley Instagram TikTok Facebook Website Follow Ben Ahrens + his work Website: http://www.re-origin.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reorigin_official YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@re_origin LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ahrensben ------ *If you’re a health coach looking to advise parents and families, or even if you’re a hardcore health nerd who wants to dive deeper and take advantage of ALL Doctor Motley’s clinical experience, he has a membership to help you get the most out of your health and help the people you love. To poke around in there for free for 15 days, check out: https://www.doctormotley.com/15 *Coffee-lovers unite! Lifeboost Coffee is gentle on the stomach, clean - we’re talking third-party tested for mold and other toxins - and won’t spike your anxiety. Right now you can get 58% off at lifeboostcoffee.com/DRMOTLEY⁠

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everyone, Dr. Josh Axe here. I'm going to go out on a limb and say you're probably someone who's
0:05.4	deeply interested in elevating your health, right? Yeah, I think so if you're listening to this
0:10.1	podcast. Well, if there's anything I've learned over the past few decades of helping patients
0:14.6	and other people heal and transform their health, it's this. If you truly want to heal and
0:19.1	experience a breakthrough, it happens at the intersection of natural health, it's this. If you truly want to heal and experience a breakthrough, it happens at
0:21.0	the intersection of natural health, holistic medicine, personal growth, and even psychology.
0:26.3	And that's exactly what I dive into on the Dr. Josh Axe show. On my show, I give practical
0:31.5	tips and insights on how to grow in body, mind, and spirit and overcome conditions like hypothyroidism.
0:39.3	I teach principles like how to become a better
0:41.3	methylator, improve gut health, experience a breakthrough
0:45.1	and autoimmune disease, how to detoxify your body,
0:48.8	and how to heal using food as medicine,
0:51.3	but also mindset medicine.
0:53.7	Whether you're looking for a mindset breakthrough, a spiritual breakthrough, or a health
0:57.5	breakthrough, you're not going to want to miss the next episode of the Dr. Joshak show.
1:02.1	You can find it on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube.
1:05.8	Go to those channels now and subscribe today.
1:10.5	Welcome to the Ancient Health podcast, where East meets West in the world of medicine.
1:15.4	I'm Dr. Chris Motley, and here we explore how modern Western science and traditional
1:19.8	Eastern wisdom come together to unlock the body's full healing potential.
1:24.2	Each week, we'll dive into powerful tools, techniques techniques and approaches from both sides of the world
1:29.2	to help you optimize your health and live with vitality let's bridge the gap between ancient
	...

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