Remember when Eckhart Tolle’s book, A New Earth came out? It was in 2008! I have a distinct memory of reading that book one summer while driving around rural North Carolina. I know, random.
That book was filled with amazing insights, and if you’ve never read it, I highly recommend it. In fact, writing this now is giving me the urge to pick it back up! I know there’s more there for me.
But what I wanted to share today was an idea I learned from that book that was a major game changer for me. I’ve been sharing it recently with some of my clients which is what gave me the idea to write about it, too.
First, let’s start with a basic definition to what Eckhart Tolle refers to as the pain-body. He describes it as, “an invisible, semi-autonomous energy field of accumulated, repressed emotional pain.”
EVERYONE has this – places or pockets of suffering that we experience in our lives.
Tolle has actually recorded a lot about this idea. There are videos and even a book about it if you want to know more, or learn about his approach to healing your pain body.
In A New Earth, he goes on to share that there’s also a “collective female pain-body" that women, particularly when we are menstruating, can access. He explains that this collective pain body is “the shared generational history of suppression, abuse, and suffering that women have endured for centuries.”
What struck me about this was that up to that point, often when I had my menses, I would feel this incredible amount of suffering. It often felt like a deep well and when I found myself in it, it was as if no amount of tears could be shed that would make the pain ease.
But reading his words got me thinking about that experience- the one where I fell into that well of suffering. Something I had experienced many times. I’d always assumed that pain was mine. But what if it wasn’t? What if some of it was mine – as in my own personal pain body- but the larger aspect of it was actually this collective pain that I had unwittingly tapped into?
That’s when I realized I had agency.
So, I began doing a visualization.
Whenever I felt that deep well of all consuming suffering come into my field, I’d remind myself, “oh, that’s the collective pain body.”
And then I’d close my eyes and imagine that collective body as a dark cloud over my head. Once I saw it there, I’d then watch it move away from me.
That’s the guidance and the imagery that came to me.
Use it or change it.
The point here is that you do not have to take it on.
Accept what’s yours and work with that but don’t hold on to the larger suffering. It does no one any good.
Seriously, this little exercise was a massive game changer for me. I encourage you to try it and make it your own.
AND let me know how it goes!
Want more tools to help you stay sane and explore yourself more deeply? Get them in your inbox every Wednesday, FREE.
Image courtesy of Getty Images on Unsplash