I'm Italy Mone and this is The Slowdown.

There's been a lot of good work being done about how we store trauma in the body or how

pain can change us, ranging from creative and experimental to traditionally scientific.

I'm thinking of the books the pain woman takes your keys and the body keeps the score.

Our recent study in the New York Times talked about new research in glial cells and how

they can accelerate the pain system into an endless inflammatory loop that provokes the

nerves into generating a perpetual pain alarm.

My interest in physical pain is both intellectual and personal.

As someone who often suffers from pain, I can't bring myself to say the word chronic here

because I like to make room for my pain to ease up and even disappear.

I am always fascinated about how the body works, what injuries it chooses to remember,

what happens once it has been wounded in some way.

As the daughter of a woman who was in an accident and now has burned scars on much of her body,

I've had a mentor to show me what grace in one's skin can look like.

He taught me what it is to love the body in all its iterations.

Over the last couple years or so, I have given up fighting my body and have instead chosen

to move in tandem with my body.

I want somehow to surrender together to this life and I no longer want to be in battle

with how I feel.

Of course, this takes work and I'm not always good at it.

In fact, after being on tour for launching my new book, I finally saw my physical therapist

and she asked, how has your body been feeling?

...