I have been reading Eckhart Tolle's book "A New Earth". and I have to say it has been resonating with me. The idea that really hit me was the concept of a "Pain-body". The idea that we are all born with some DNA-like human pain of regret or shame or...undefined pain. It can cause some babies to cry and cry for no reason. It can cause normal people to look at life and seize upon the unkind word, the feelings of shame and holding onto stories that hold deep emotion. Mr. Tolle says that the emotion is something to sit with ...to allow. It's the story connected to it that is unnecessary and what feeds the "Pain- body".
We all do it. A memory of some slight or action against you that can bring that pain and emotion to the surface in an instance when you recall it. Or something someone said that you replay over and over...even if the incident happened 20 years ago. The body, not knowing the story is 20 years old, reacts as if it were the now, happening this moment. How can that be good for us??
On the eve of my 50th birthday - one that make me fully an adult (and I can't tell you why I feel that way) I am pledging to stop the stories in my head. To take the emotion, when it comes up, and sit in it. To take a moment to examine it and to think through the possible trigger. TO TAKE A MOMENT TO NOTE THE DATE OF THE INCIDENT.
I don't know about you but that was a big point for me to understand. What do you think?
