Passive care are things like Chiropractic, Acupuncture, Acupressure, Massage, etc. Essentially it is where someone is doing something to you with the intent of fixing you. Active care are things like exercise, certain forms of PT, rehabilitation exercises, etc. If you are actively doing movements to fix yourself then you are doing active care. Now, passive care does sometimes have benefits but let me be clear... In almost every single case... Only you can fix you. And you must move in order to fix yourself. That means active care is required. Many pain issues are a problem of poor movements that cause one area of the body to get overused. Often this is because a different area is weak and uncoordinated. This can come from a past injury or simply disuse. Use it or lose it comes to mind. The only way to change your movement patterns, become stronger, and more coordinated is for you to move. Now you might not know what movements to do to fix yourself. That is why there are people like me around. Just like you cannot learn to play the piano by having someone tie their fingers to yours and then they play the piano while you watch TV... you cannot improve your strength or coordination or change a poor movement pattern to a good one by sitting and having someone just fix you.