One of the concepts that have the potential to improve the lives of many individuals if they became aware of is the one introduced by Eckhart Tolle as The Pain Body.
Sometimes we feel buffeted by someone’s overreaction to something we have said or done. Everyone has experienced an exaggerated response to a simple comment or action. On the other hand, from time to time we discover that we overreacted in certain situations where things were much simpler, we felt more anxious about situations that later smoothly passed without turning into a total disaster as we had anticipated.
One of the reasons we magnify a not so good situation or keep anticipating the worst to happen or dwelling in our negative emotions is the pain body.
The energetic body that is built out of past negative experiences is how Tolle addressed The Pain Body. Every unresolved negative emotion leaves a residue of its energy in the human body. These small amounts of energy accumulate to form the pain body.
Imagine the pain body as an entity of its own that strives for and feeds on negative emotions. When triggered they take over our minds and take us down a rabbit hole of negative emotions, bringing about torrents of negative thoughts and let us interpret every situation in such a way that makes us feel worse.
On the other hand, pain bodies as negative energy attract more negative energy into our lives in the form of situations that create more negativity for them to feed on. The more we dwell in victim mentality, believe that others conspire against us, anticipate what might go wrong or simply are overwhelmed with anxious thoughts the more we are prone to attract such things into our lives.
Due to lack of awareness of How the pain body works and surrendering to negative thoughts some people live with continuously active pain bodies. From time to time we meet someone who is extremely sensitive to others’ actions and words, who can easily get broke over the simplest criticism, who takes things personally despite their being irrelevant to him or who feels offended by other’s opinions about general topics.
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Besides the individual’s pain body there exists the collective pain body. A family that suffered a painful trauma for a long while, a nation with a long history of wars or tyranny, or a group of people who suffered persecution over their ideologies or beliefs would have developed a mutual pain body. The collective pain body makes them overly sensitive to certain occurrences or concepts that are relevant to their old suffering. Their negative energy can easily be sensed by an outsider who comes into contact with them.
The mere realization that the major part of what you feel about something comes from the pain body alleviates its effects on your emotional state and spares you the additional suffering brought about by it. Moreover, it is helpful to realize that most of the others’ overreactions or misunderstanding of your actions or speech comes from their own pain bodies and have nothing personal about you.
The Pain Body, in essence, is a part of the personal energy field, and like other emotions, it can’t be overcome by resistance or rejection -Emotions intensify upon resistance- It is by the conscious awareness that we can neutralize its energy. Focusing on what you feel when your pain body is triggered, with no judgment, frees your mind from its dominance, protects you from falling into emotional upheaval and keeps you in control of your thoughts. By keeping an eye on the pain body each time it is triggered, negative situations become less painful and the less painful they become the less energy there is to feed the pain body.
Thank You :)