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What if the question running through your mind every time a new symptom appears isn’t “What is this?”—but “Am I in pain, or am I in danger?”
When you live with chronic pain, endometriosis, pelvic pain, EDS, PCOS, Hashimoto’s, MCAS, or other overlapping conditions, your nervous system can learn to treat every new sensation like an emergency. After years of delayed diagnosis, medical trauma, and having your symptoms dismissed, that fear makes complete sense.
But what if there’s another way to respond?
In this Quick Connect episode of Endo Battery, we’re joined by Dr. Taylor Reyes, a licensed physical therapist and board-certified functional manual therapist, to explore the connection between chronic pain, the brain, the nervous system, movement, and healing.
We unpack the “onion layers” of healing and why symptoms can change, move, or show up differently as your body and nervous system evolve. Dr. Reyes explains how to distinguish pain from signs of true medical danger without dismissing or minimizing what you feel.
We also explore a powerful cognitive behavioral therapy grounding statement:
“I’m in pain, but I’m not in danger.”
And we get practical about what you can actually do when pain shows up—including gentle therapeutic movement, working within a pain-free or tolerable range of motion, understanding the difference between sharp pain and safe discomfort, and using a forceful exhale to create core support and make movement feel more comfortable.
Plus, we talk about another layer that can complicate the picture for many people in their late 20s and 30s: perimenopause, changing hormones, and new or shifting symptoms.
If you’ve ever felt afraid of your own body because you don’t know what the next pain, sensation, or symptom means, this conversation is for you.
In this episode, we discuss:
• Chronic pain and the brain
• Pain neuroscience and the nervous system
• Endometriosis and chronic pelvic pain
• EDS, PCOS, Hashimoto’s and MCAS
• Why symptoms can shift over time
• The difference between pain and medical danger
• “I’m in pain, but I’m not in danger”
• Retraining chronic pain patterns
• Cognitive behavioral therapy and pain
• Therapeutic movement and pain-free range of motion
• Sharp pain vs. safe discomfort
• Breathing, exhalation and core support
• Pelvic health and physical therapy
• Perimenopause and changing symptoms
• Building trust in your body again
🎧 Press play, subscribe to Endo Battery, and share this episode with someone who needs a different way to think about chronic pain.
And if this conversation helped you, leave a review—it helps more people find the information, validation, and community they deserve.
Endo Battery is here to help you recharge your knowledge, challenge outdated thinking, and navigate endometriosis, chronic pain, pelvic health, and life with chronic illness.
Website endobattery.com
Quick Connect Show Setup
SPEAKER_01
0:00
Life moves fast, and so should the answers to your biggest questions. Welcome to Indo Batteries Quick Connect, your direct line to expert insights. Short, powerful, and right to the point. You send in the questions, I bring in the experts, and in just five minutes, you get the knowledge you need. No long episodes, no extra time needed. And just remember, expert opinions shared here are for general information and not for personalized medical advice. Always consult your provider for your case-specific guidance. Got a question? Send it in and let's quickly get you the answers. I'm your host, Alana, and it's time to connect.
Meet Dr. Taylor Reyes
SPEAKER_01
0:41
Today I am thrilled to be joined by Dr. Taylor Reyes, a powerhouse physical therapist whose work beautifully blends science, compassion, and true whole body healing. Dr. Reyes is a licensed physical therapist, doctor of physical therapy, and a board-certified functional manual therapist. She is known for treating patients from all walks of life and for her passion in helping those with chronic pain shift their mindset, rebuild their trust in their bodies, and reclaim an empowered healing journey. Her approach is rooted in what she calls the pillars of healing, exercise, nutrition, and sleep. Her training is extensive and continually evolving from gynecological visceral manipulation to advanced obstetrics and pelvic floor physical therapy, and board certification in functional manual therapy, a system that honors the intricate interconnectedness of every tissue and system in the body. With national and international experience and deep commitment to patient-centered care, Dr. Reez brings heart and expertise to every conversation. So grab that cup of coffee, settle in, and help me welcoming Dr. Taylor Reez.
The Onion Layers Of Pain
SPEAKER_01
1:49
Something that I think is interesting is that sometimes I will address one pain generator and think that I'm good. And then another one pops up. It's like my trainer calls me a little onion. He's like, and I tell him, like, at least I'm sweet. I'm a sweet onion. But I like on covering those layers. And I think a lot of that is those years and years of delayed diagnosis, failed treatments, and not understanding the disease and all of the subset diseases that kind of followed after, you know?
SPEAKER_00
2:23
That and I think there's just also the bittersweet, which I know there's people that aren't gonna like me saying this, but there's also just the bittersweet concept of being a human.
SPEAKER_01
2:34
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00
2:35
Like people without pathology still have stuff come up, you know. So it's like, is this my endo? Is this my hashes? Is this my PCOS? Is this my EDS? Is this my MCAS? Is this my you know, or am I just existing on a planet with gravity? Like we don't know. And so it's like, and I think that's why having some gaining information or having somebody that you can dialogue with when you're like, oh, like OMG, what am I gonna do about this? But not, you know, so and I tell people this, I was like, not every pain has to be processed.
Pain But Not Danger Mantra
SPEAKER_00
3:08
Like, you know, as a physical therapist, I my rule of thumb, because I I'm perfectly capable of hurting myself or getting tweaked um or getting a crick in my neck or whatever. And so I'll if I say I wake up with a pain, I'm like, okay, I'm gonna breathe and I'm gonna say, I'm in pain, but I'm not in danger. And that's that's a little bit of cognitive behavioral therapy tips, right? Sometimes when we're we're really retraining a pain pattern, we'll say out loud, seven times I'm in pain, but I'm not in danger. I'm in pain, but I'm not in danger. I'm in pain. Not try to gaslight yourself, but just to like ground yourself, right? So because we're not in danger. Right. My facet joint is being stupid. That's what's happening, you know, or it's like a part of my vertebra is being weird. So there is no danger. So I'll pause, like, okay, this is what it is, and then I'll get up and I'll move. I'll do therapeutic movement and find just do some movement that's in a there's a difference between sharp, sharp shooting pain and like dull achy pain. Right. Or like, hey, that's a stretch. So find a pain-free or an acute pain-free or a acute pain-free range of motion and just kind of like like nope, that's not good. But if I do this, I'm okay. And if I breathe while I do that, and maybe I can add some arm motion in, like, hey, like either in a few hours it's gonna go away because some inflammation probably built up, and I probably need some time for that inflammation to get out of my system. And so after about three to five days, if I'm still really like struggling with it, then I might ask one of my coworkers to be like, hey, like, can you can you like hook me up? Like either throw a dry needle in there or like give me a little pop or some, you know, just something to disrupt the nervous system, right? So that so that the movements are more effective, or I'll pop into one of my Cairo friends and just be like, Help Yeah, I tweak myself. And then you just go about, you know, you just kind of go about your day because we we all are gonna encounter things.
Breathing And Movement For Relief
SPEAKER_00
5:05
And then the kicker, the other thing that is just like awesome about the delayed diagnosis is that typically you're in your like late 20s, early 30s, and then guess what's around the corner? Perimenopause. Yep. So it's like, is this endo or is this perimenopause? Like, I don't know, or am I just being a human? And so just and so I think it's like having I don't, I'm not gonna call it the ability because really it comes with repetitions in life of experiencing pain, is you just kind of have to be able to step back and just what is the most important question? I am not in medical danger. My life is not in danger. I am not about to have a heart attack, I am not having a stroke, I am not hemorrhaging.
SPEAKER_01
5:44
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00
5:45
So what what's the what's the next tier? What's the next level of triage when it comes to pain? And then, you know, what what's in my toolbox? What what has my therapist taught me? When I go to lift my leg, do I need to forcefully exhale as I lift to kind of counter counterbalance that pressure? Right. Because a lot of my patients, whether they're endo, low back, ankle, shoulder, oh, when I moved, it hurt. Okay, let's do that again. But before you do, I want you to forcefully exhale through your mouth and then start to move. And that creates that pressure system. We're not that we're not holding our breath, but we're just supporting, we're engaging our core to help support our physical body. And then so again, it's like number of reps you get because we're we're gonna have moments of pain. Right. So how do we manage it?
Send Questions And Stay Empowered
SPEAKER_01
6:31
That's a wrap for this quick connect. I hope today's insights helped you move forward with more clarity and confidence. Do you have more questions? Keep them coming. Send them in, and I'll bring you the expert answers. You can send them in by using the link in the top of the description of this podcast episode or by emailing contact at Indobattery.com or visiting the Indobattery.com contact page. Until next time, keep feeling empowered through knowledge.