# How To Rewire the Brain’s Response to Pain and Reward | Eric Garland Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALcVwyEX8VA Recap page: https://rapidrecap.app/video/ALcVwyEX8VA Generated: 2026-03-09T09:03:36.092+00:00 --- ## Quick Overview Mindfulness Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE) is a breakthrough evidence-based mindbody therapy proven three times as effective as standard therapy for simultaneously addressing addictive behavior, emotional distress, and chronic pain, rooted in ancient wisdom and modern neuroscience. **Key Points:** - MORE is a breakthrough evidence-based mindbody therapy proven three times as effective as standard therapy in 16 clinical trials backed by $90 million in federal research. - The MORE protocol consists of three core parts: Mindfulness, Reappraisal, and Savoring, designed to rewire the brain's response to pain and reward. - Mindfulness practice in MORE focuses on cultivating meta-awareness, making the unconscious conscious to regulate automatic addictive behaviors like phone scrolling. - The mindful pain technique involves 'zooming in' on pain sensations (heat, tightness, tingling) and 'zooming out' to the space around the body, which cuts chronic pain by about 25% after an 8-week program. - Reappraisal, the second component, challenges negative thought patterns using the ABCDE model (Activating event, Beliefs, Consequences, Dispute, Evaluate) to decrease stress arousal and increase prefrontal cortical activity. - Savoring teaches individuals to use mindfulness to relish natural, healthy pleasures, which helps the brain regain sensitivity to healthy rewards, thereby weakening the pull of addictive substances. - Eric Garland avoided spinal surgery by applying the principles of MORE to his severe herniated disc pain, demonstrating personal efficacy of the treatment. **Context:** The interview features Eric Garland discussing his development of Mindfulness Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE), a therapy he created while working as a psychotherapist treating complex patients with overlapping chronic conditions like mental health issues, substance use disorders, and chronic pain. Garland's journey into this field began with his early attraction to meditative states, followed by an unexpected career pivot from clinical hypnosis research to mindfulness study after his initial PhD mentor dropped him, leading to two decades of research and clinical practice informed by neuroscience and contemplative traditions. ## Detailed Analysis Eric Garland details his integrated therapeutic approach, MORE, which simultaneously treats addiction, emotional distress, and chronic pain by leveraging insights from neuroscience and ancient contemplative wisdom. The therapy's foundation rests on three pillars: Mindfulness, Reappraisal, and Savoring. Mindfulness aims to break automatic addictive habits by increasing meta-awareness—the awareness of awareness—using practices like mindful breathing and body scans that extend to non-dual, self-transcendent awareness to quiet the Default Mode Network associated with self-rumination in pain and addiction. Reappraisal, drawing from Stoicism and CBT, involves challenging threat-based interpretations of stressors using the ABCDE model to reduce negative emotions and physiological stress responses, evidenced by decreased skin conductance responses. Savoring is crucial for rewiring the reward system; by teaching patients to consciously appreciate natural, healthy pleasures, the therapy reverses the brain's hypersensitivity to drug cues, weakening cravings. Garland noted that MORE has shown significant results, cutting chronic pain by 25% over nine months post-treatment, and that acute mindfulness practice can alleviate pain by 30%, comparable to 5mg of Oxycontin. ### Origin and Validation of MORE - Therapy integrates ancient wisdom and modern neuroscience to treat addiction, distress, and pain - Backed by $90 million in federal research across 16 clinical trials - Garland developed the approach while integrating mindfulness into CBT for complex patients. ### Mindfulness Component - Cultivates meta-awareness to interrupt automatic addictive habits, exemplified by noticing the mind wandering during mindful breathing - Practices include variations like extending awareness to the space around the body, aiming for non-dual awareness or self-transcendence. ### Self-Transcendence and Reward - Non-dual awareness fades subject-object duality, offering experiences of interconnectedness that carry inherent reward value - These positive states serve as a 'Bigger Better Offer' than addictive behaviors, potentially interrupting activity in the Default Mode Network fused with suffering. ### Mindfulness of Craving (STOP) - A four-step off-cushion practice: Stop before the addictive habit - Take mindful breaths to calm physiology - Observe thoughts/feelings/sensations of craving, noting their impermanence - Proceed with intention, choosing mindfully whether to engage. ### Mindfulness for Pain - Pain is decoded in the brain (thalamus relays damage signals to cortex/amygdala), and higher brain regions act as a volume knob - The 'Zooming In and Out' technique breaks pain into sub-sensations (heat, tightness) and notices surrounding space, softening the experience. ### Reappraisal Technique - Challenges negative stress appraisals by reframing situations as opportunities for growth, rooted in the Stoic idea that views, not events, disturb us - Uses the ABCDE model to dispute negative beliefs and reduce fight-or-flight response, evidenced by lower skin conductance. ### Savoring for Reward System Repair - Addiction rewires the brain to be hyper-sensitive to drugs but dull to healthy pleasures, creating emptiness - Savoring increases sensitivity to natural rewards, weakening the pull of the addictive substance and reducing craving.