Todd & Anne's Journey: Turning Pain into Purpose

At Herbal Mana, our motto is simple: Hurt Less – Live More. But we didn’t pick that because it sounded good on a t‑shirt. We picked it because pain has a way of turning even “normal life” into a full-contact sport… and nobody gave us the rulebook.

Here’s the short version: Here’s the short version—I’m Todd. I've had more surgeries than most people have pairs of socks. Nights were brutal. Sleep came in one-hour “episodes,” like a TV show nobody asked for.

And then Anne tried something natural… and everything shifted.

The night that changed everything

I remember those nights like they’re engraved on my titanium joints. Pain meds would help… for about an hour.
Then I’d stare at the ceiling thinking, “Well, this is going great.”

Anne looked at me and basically said, “We’re not doing this forever.” So she made a cream with essential oils—simple, natural ingredients like wintergreen and frankincense—and started rubbing it on my feet at night.

And that very first night?

I slept three hours instead of one.

Now, that might not sound like winning the lottery… but when you’ve been living on one-hour increments, three hours feels like a Disney FastPass for your nervous system. That was our turning point.

Why sleep matters when you hurt

If you’ve lived with pain, you already know this truth:

Pain messes with sleep… and bad sleep can make pain feel louder the next day.

Researchers describe this as a two-way relationship—pain disrupts sleep, and short or disturbed sleep can lower pain thresholds and increase pain sensitivity.

So when Anne helped me get even a little more sleep, it wasn’t “just rest.” It was momentum.

And momentum is what pain hates most.

A simple bedtime routine for pain warriors (try this tonight)

No pressure. No perfection. Just progress.

1) Warm-up the body (5–10 minutes)

• Warm shower, heating pad, or warm compress on the area that complains the most.
• Gentle movement, not hero workouts.

2) Calm the signal (2 minutes)

• Slow breathing: inhale 4 seconds, exhale 6 seconds, repeat 5 times.
• Tell your shoulders they’re fired from their job of “protecting your ears.”

3) Support the spot (topical + massage)

• Don’t just “wipe and hope.” Massage it in—slow and steady.
• And here’s a key tip we follow in our house: clean skin first. (Especially with DMSO products—simple soap and water is the move.)

What we built from that breakthrough

That one small win lit a bigger fire. We realized something: There are a lot of people out there doing their best… while hurting.

So Herbal Mana was born out of a mission to give pain warriors relief tools that are:

• natural
• practical
• and built by people who actually get it
  (And yes… we love yoga. We just know it’s not always the miracle cure people make it out to be.)

Like i said in the video, “It didn’t make the knee replacements easy, but it made life manageable again. That’s when I realized we could truly Hurt Less and Live More—and do it naturally.”

Topical Support that Flips the Script

If you want to use what we use, Inner Warrior Calming Relief DMSO Cream is our go-to topical support for winding down at night and feeling more comfortable. It’s formulated with DMSO + magnesium and a calming essential oil blend, and it’s designed to absorb fast and feel non-greasy.

If you want to check the ingredients and directions first (a smart move), you can find them HERE.

Pain may be part of your story… but it doesn’t get to write the whole book.
If tonight you get one extra hour of sleep, that’s not small. That’s a crack in the wall.

Click here to learn more about Inner Warrior and see the ingredients + directions.