Issue No. 10: Sometimes your nervous system needs trashy TV
CEO & Founder
By Nora Rodden
A big Nervana announcement + permission to switch off
Hello readers,
We have a big Nervana announcement today, plus a nervous-system reminder for anyone who, like me, has been feeling a little too “on” lately.
🎉 Nervana now has human mind-body coaches!
I’m very excited about this one.
The whole reason I created Nervana was to make research-backed mind-body recovery tools more accessible for people dealing with chronic pain, digestive symptoms, insomnia, fatigue, migraines, and other persistent symptoms, especially after it feels like you have tried everything under the sun.
I was incredibly lucky to discover this approach through a clinical research study while I was a graduate student at Harvard. The study combined education, mind-body exercises, and coaching to help people with chronic back pain better understand and change patterns that could be keeping pain going.
The results were pretty remarkable. In this small pilot study, 63.6% of participants receiving the intervention reported being pain-free at six months, compared with 16.7% in the usual-care group. You can read the study here.
That experience changed my life, and ultimately led me to build Nervana.
A lot of what I experienced in that program is now built into the app: education, exercises, reflection, symptom pattern work, and conversational coaching.
We primarily use an AI coach because it allows us to give people support whenever they need it, without making every conversation a paid appointment.
I have been working on the Nervana AI coach for almost a year now, constantly improving the underlying models, reviewing its knowledge base with our medical advisory board, and learning from what our members need in real time.
But I also know there is something really special about working with another human.
In a perfect world, everyone who wanted one-on-one support would be able to access an experienced mind-body coach. Coaching can also be expensive, which is one reason I have always been excited about conversational AI as a way to help close that gap.
Now, you can have both.
The AI coach is there for your day-to-day, at-home, and between-session support. Human coaching is there when you want to go deeper, get another perspective, or work through something with a person. And it is completely optional.
We now have four wonderful coaches on Nervana, each with a different background, perspective, and area of experience.
We also put together a guide on how to work with a mind-body coach if you are curious about what coaching can actually look like.
Human coaching available in the Nervana app!
🧠 This week’s nervous-system reminder: sometimes you need to turn your brain OFF
This past week, my “squirrel brain” has been extremely activated.
I am just overstimulated. Work, emails, AI tools, travel, notifications. Even my yoga class somehow turned out to be a power flow when what I probably needed was to lie on the floor for an hour.
I have been struggling to do less.
Something that has genuinely helped?
Trashy TV. Seriously.
I can actually turn my brain off when I watch Love Island. And I used to judge myself for that. I would think I should be reading, listening to a podcast, getting something done, or at least watching something vaguely educational.
But sometimes the whole point is to stop taking in information.
If your nervous system already feels overloaded, not every spare moment needs to become an opportunity for self-improvement.
So I’m curious: What is your guilty pleasure that actually helps you switch off?
Reply and tell me. And maybe try enjoying it this week without immediately figuring out how to make it productive.
Actually, perhaps we can retire the phrase “guilty pleasure” altogether.
✍🏼 A new guest story: When Your Body Keeps You Guessing
We are continuing to publish free resources and stories on Nervana, including perspectives from people approaching chronic symptoms from different backgrounds.
Our newest guest post is by Sara Parikh, a bioethics graduate student at Harvard Medical School, who writes about the uncertainty of living in a body that does not always behave predictably.
Read “When Your Body Keeps You Guessing” →
And if you have your own story, professional perspective, or an angle you would like to share, we would love to hear from you. Just reply to this email if you are interested in contributing a guest post.
✍🏼 You can now refer friends to Nervana
This has been one of our most requested features.
Nervana members can now receive a $15 gift card for every friend they refer who joins Nervana, and their friend will receive $15 off too.
We hope this makes it a little easier to share Nervana with someone in your life who might benefit, while making it more accessible for them to try.
🎥 New on the Nervana YouTube channel
We have also been recording more conversations about chronic symptoms, recovery, and the science behind mind-body approaches.
I recently interviewed Dr. Howard Schubiner, author of Unlearn Your Pain, about the science and clinical practice of helping people unlearn chronic symptoms.
Watch my conversation with Dr. Schubiner →
And we launched a new series that is especially close to my heart: Brown Girls, Many Symptoms.
In the series, I talk with Dr. Rita Gupta and Narinder Sheena about chronic symptoms, mind-body recovery, family and cultural expectations, and what it is like navigating all of this when you do not always feel represented in the conversations around chronic illness.
All three of us come from immigrant backgrounds, and we wanted to create the kind of candid conversation we wished we had been able to hear when we were struggling ourselves.
Watch the first episode of Brown Girls, Many Symptoms →
🎥
Watch This Might Hurt for 20% off
The team behind the documentary This Might Hurt has also offered the Nervana community a discount to watch the film.
The documentary follows three people living with chronic pain as they enter a program led by Dr. Howard Schubiner focused on understanding and unlearning pain.
You can rent This Might Hurt here and use code NERVANA20 for 20% off.
As always, I love hearing from you. If you try human coaching, have thoughts about Nervana, want to contribute a story, or simply want to tell me what you watch when your brain needs to turn off, hit reply.
I read every message.
Best,
Nora
Founder & CEO, Nervana
