The key to getting rid of the pain body is to realize that it only holds power over you for as long as you continue to give it that power. The pain body wants to survive, and it’s tool for survival is to get you to identify with it.
Source: https://thejoywithin.org/authors/eckhart-tolle/how-to-get-rid-of-the-pain-body
What Is The Pain Body? Meaning and Theory
The pain-body is a term Tolle uses to describe our state of internal suffering. As we move through our lives, we inevitably encounter circumstances that trigger negative emotions within us.
While we can release this negativity immediately, most of the time we do not. Over time, these small negative moments compound to form a field of negative energy that we carry with us throughout our lives.
Let’s look at an example:
Imagine you have a fight with your spouse about washing the dishes. On the surface, this could be a very minor issue and, were you to let the negativity pass through you, it could be over very quickly. More often than not, however, that small negative energy about cleaning up from dinner spirals into a much larger issue.
Maybe it triggers feelings about how one of you doesn’t contribute enough to the household and that the other always cleans. Maybe it begins to build a slight resentment about who does more work, or even spills over into latent feelings about other areas of your life: who earns more money, who does more with the kids, who is more supporting of the other. A simple disagreement over washing dishes has spiraled into a major divide your relationship.
For most people, this type of thinking happens over and over, across almost every area of our lives. When we cannot release negative energy freely, it builds up. Over time, this creates an immense barrier to releasing future negative energy on that subject, as it impacts our beliefs, our actions, and our entire lives.
Even worse: we are often completely unaware that we do this. In the moment of the argument (or other negative emotion) we begin to identify with the negativity. It may even consume our behavior entirely. We do not notice that this negativity is not apart from us; we do not see it as a field that simply passes through us, were we to allow it to pass.
Instead we grip onto it, identify with it, and allow it to create further negative energy within us. This turmoil stops us from living fully, and takes away our ability to be at peace with ourselves.
Fortunately, releasing this energy does not have to be difficult.
How To Dissolve The Emotional Pain Body
The key to getting rid of the pain body is to realize that it only holds power over you for as long as you continue to give it that power. The pain body wants to survive, and it’s tool for survival is to get you to identify with it.
When you no longer identify with it – that is: when you no longer become embroiled in the emotion and believe you are that emotion – the negative energy will dissolve quickly and effortlessly.
With practice, you can learn to step back from the pain body and see it for what it truly is: a distortion of your natural, peaceful energy. You can even learn how to let go of everything in a single breath, so that any time negativity arises, you are prepared to deal with it.
Releasing the pain body requires you to center fully in the Now-moment. When you are present in the Eternal Now, you cannot experience energy that has accumulated from the past. You are mindful only of the current moment, and you awareness steps back to a higher, more enlightened perspective.
One of the best ways to do this is through meditation, as meditation will allow you to refocus on your inner state of joy, and release any energy that does not serve you.