If there is one thing that it is safe to say everyone has experienced, it’s pain. The twist of an ankle. A sore back. Carpenter elbow and gillnetter knee. In local physical therapist and yoga teacher Dr. Marnie Hartman’s new book, “Pain Science-Yoga-Life: Bridging neuroscience and yoga for pain care,” co-written with Niamh Moloney PhD, a musculoskeletal physiotherapist, pain researcher and yoga teacher living in England, the two experts explain in great detail the science of why we hurt, and make the case for yoga as part of a pain management plan.

The authors include case studies and yoga exercises, and encourage readers to take their lessons “off the mat and into life.” The text is meant to be a guide for clinicians and yoga instructors, as well as anyone interested in learning more about pain and yoga as medicine. “All you need is an open mind and sense of curiosity,” they write. And time.

There is a lot of complex information here, but it is imparted effectively, respectfully, and above all trusts and empowers the reader - be they patient, teacher, or student - to, “Consider whether the movement strategies you’d adopted are adaptive (helpful) or maladaptive (unhelpful)… the goal is to find what is best for you right now.”

Full disclosure: Hartman, who owns Body IQ and Yoga Medicine restored me to an active life following a devastating accident in 2005. I know that she practices what she preaches and that it works. It remains my great good fortune that she came to Haines when she did. It’s especially enlightening to read the why behind her healing ways.

Pain Science-Yoga-Life is well written, rigorously researched and loaded with footnotes. The high quality illustrations, design and layout add to its function and clarity. Much of the clinical neuroscience is over my head, but I learned plenty, thanks to the way the book is structured in chapters that speak to the heart of the matter, such as Thoughts, Beliefs and Pain; Emotions and Pain; Perceptions and Pain and Exercise and Pain.

My one quibble, which is no doubt a non-issue to most readers, given that the text has a global market, is that it is not always clear which author is speaking. Still, I am pretty sure I can recognize Hartman’s voice on the page.

To their credit, the co-authors present their data and thoughts on the pathology of pain and the history of treating it seamlessly, and make a compelling argument for new ways to both understand discomfort and manage it. This is timely work, considering that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 1 in 5 Americans suffers from chronic pain and that the American College of Physicians now recommends yoga and other non-drug treatments for pain.

My favorite chapter is titled “And This Too: Shifting Perspective Through Mindfulness Practices.” The authors share the Buddhist parable of the darts. The first dart is real and the second isn’t, however believing it is real can be debilitating. The example they use is a runner who feels a twinge in his knee three miles into a race. That’s the first dart. Then he fires the second imaginary dart, “‘I will never run a marathon again.’” It’s human nature to ask “what if?” but the authors suggest that when you feel discomfort due to a physical pain, instead ask yourself, “what is the symptom of the first dart. Identify it.” Notice the change and the pain, they say, but stop yourself from predicting what’s next. Don’t fire that second dart. The narrator that sounds a lot like my physical therapist advises: “Can you simply begin to acknowledge that you are in fact uncomfortable but also fine?”

Clip and save this: “Do we hold onto our previous beliefs with vigor? Can we allow our perspective to shift with integrity knowing what we have learned may hold some truth and that other valuable perspectives exist? Can we make space for another viewpoint?... When we play with leaning in and changing our own reactions we may improve our ability to identify and assist others to do this as well.”

The power of Pain Science-Yoga- Life is in the authors’ commitment to making us feel better, in body, mind and spirit, and their faith that with understanding, practice and patience it is possible.