The Pain-Body
As heard on Muse by Mariah: The Podcast
The pain-body, as discussed in Eckhart Tolle’s book The Power of Now, is our body’s trigger to past trauma. This topic was important for me to discuss because everyone has a pain-body (or even pain-bodies) whether we know exactly what it is or it’s more of a spur-in-the-moment type thing. After reading and dissecting the excerpt from this book that discussed this topic, I found it easier for me to acknowledge and bring light to my own personal pain-bodies because I am finally putting a known word to an unknown trigger. I brought Paulina, mental health counselor, on the show to help me discuss it further.
The first thing to know about pain-bodies is they really NEVER go away. Our purpose is to silence them so much that they just become dust in the wind, but they will always be apart of our story, apart of who we are. Eckhart Tolle says the first step in tackling our pain-bodies is to bring awareness to them. For example, one of my pain-bodies is past anxieties, mostly from my childhood. When I get anxiety attacks, I acknowledge it as “my pain-body is being triggered”. With a few breathes and clearer focus, the anxiety begins to ease. Paulina’s pain-body is triggered by change. Tolle says this is the key to tackling our pain-bodies because our pain-bodies bring darkness onto us, so when we shine a light on them, they ultimately go away.
The second step is making sure our egos aren’t getting in the way. Almost always we tie together ego with the “macho man” or the “alpha male”, but ladies, we can be just as ego driven, too. What ego does is it blinds us or forces us to put a wall in between us and our pain-body. A common emotion that comes up is denial. We are in denial of what could be happening at this moment or something that has happened in the past. Ego is such a powerful tool that, most times, it buries all the other emotions we are feeling or should be feeling. One way to help lower that egoistic mind is to remind yourself (or whomever) that they are not always right. Ego can negatively control our whole beings and it’s hard to see that when a person has ‘tunnel vision’.
Lastly, for those who are unsure of what their pain-bodies might be, try to think of the earliest time you can remember you felt pain and I’m talking EARLIEST, even if you were four. Go through a mental timeline, or you could even journal to help you keep track, of each milestone that caused you to feel mental, emotional pain. Try to see if there is a pattern, the same situation occuring more than once. Solidify that as your pain-body. When we fully know what our pain-bodies are, the process of shutting them out becomes easier and you might notice your days start to get better and maybe that burden you’ve been carrying is beginning to feel a little lighter.
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Eckhart Tolle’s novel discusses the power of living in the now.