​The concept known as pain-body was developed by a spiritual teacher, known as Eckhart Tolle. Eckhart Tolle is a spiritual teacher and author, which writes mostly about spirituality, consciousness, mental clarity, and sort of self-development. Furthermore, Eckhart has also written books that became bestsellers, such as The Power of Now, The New Earth, and Stillness Speaks. On the other hand, Eckhart Tolle has received some criticism because of the lack of empirical evidence he has provided. Specifically, the book The New Earth has been criticised for lacking empirical evidence because Eckhart proposed that we are entering into a new level of consciousness both personally and collectively. Besides, Eckhart has credited his books and teaching to spirituality and intuition instead of any form of sciences.

 Nevertheless, the concept of the pain-body has some validity and is congruent with some scientific fields. The pain-body is an accumulated and unprocessed pain in an individual’s physical body and psyche, which influences the individual’s behaviour, thought patterns, etc. In other words, Eckhart Tolle was referring basically to trauma and how people cannot be present in their bodies due to excessive traumatic experiences. The traumatic experiences have led the individual to be mainly in the sympathetic nervous system. In other words, the person is mainly in fight or flight. Hence, total disconnection from their body because of one or several traumatic experiences. Trauma can be described as an intense and overwhelming event, which causes an emotional response. However, I want to inform you that there are several types of trauma, and it is often idiosyncratic if an event can be labelled as traumatic.  
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Nonetheless, Tolle’s solution to dissolve the emotional pain and reduce the pain-body’s influence/ unconscious is to practice being. According to Tolle, being is when an individual consciously observes their mind, is present in their body, and not feeding into their thoughts. In other words, the individual is just being present and not focusing on the future or the past. As a result, Tolle proposed that some emotional pain might arise, such as grief, anger, irritability, joy, bliss, etc. Based on personal experience, the emotional releases take time. Most of the time, you will be in a battle between redirecting your focus to being instead of indulging in your thoughts. On the other hand, I realised that Tolle was referring to a shift from the sympathetic nervous system to the parasympathetic nervous system (rest & digest).
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The main issue with being is that people who have suffered from severe traumatic experiences are most likely not able to execute it correctly. Also, being present in their body might raise various emotions that can cause other mental illnesses. If they are not being supported by a mental professional who cannot process such events properly, they can cause more damage. On the other hand, several other methods are used to acquire a more peaceful, grounded, and present mind, such as Yin Yoga, TRE (Trauma Release Exercises), bioenergetic movement, and psychotherapy. Last of all, I want to emphasise the importance of practice and a rational approach, which means you attempt to execute this through intervals. Also, do not overcomplicate this all you have to do is sit somewhere and be present in your body.
 
My personal experience with being has been a challenging process because of the intrusive and automatic thoughts. Additionally, the emotional releases took several days, weeks, and months to arise because of the various defence mechanisms of the ego. According to Tolle, the ego attempts to avoid being in order to avoid feeling pain and unpleasant emotions, which leads to lessening its influence on an individual’s behaviour and general life.  In other words, you as an individual are just shining the light of consciousness and becoming more observant, which leads to more presence and a higher level of consciousness. Therefore, the most helpful advice I could give is to practice Yin Yoga because it influences your nervous system, which has helped tremendously over a couple of months.
 
Here are some videos to help you, and feel free to book an appointment!
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpKnvctmjBM
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yg6aV23NdLY
 
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/trauma
 
https://www.yogajournal.com/lifestyle/balance/stress-balance/10-reasons-make-time-yin-yoga/
 

​The past year has been wild and unpredictable, with various difficulties and challenges arising almost everywhere. On the other side, it has been one of the most successful years for me, mainly because of all the internal work I have done over the past two years. As a result of my internal work, I have experienced more positive synchronicities and serendipities. First of all, my university marks improved again from last years’ above average overall. As a result, my personal tutor has continuously suggested that I would be a great PhD candidate after I finish my bachelor and master’s degree. Surprisingly, I have thought about a PhD before but felt it was a far reach for myself because of all the negative views and beliefs I had internalised. The beliefs come from previous teachers from my adolescent years telling me that I was not suited for academics and would most likely be a blue-collar worker at best. Secondly, my finances improved excessively, and I have gained several other opportunities to improve my finances further. The surprising part is that I honestly was terrified of leaving my last job as an electrician to again go for an unpredictable path, which I had no clue how it would go. Last of all, the most important lesson I learned this year was to become more aware of the meaning I give perceived unfavourable circumstances. Consequently, my general mood and perception of life have changed for the better. The statement I have constantly been using for about six months is “what an experience”, which seems trivial, but honestly, it has changed my life. Also, it reminds me to take things less seriously and have made a perceived negative situation into something more enjoyable. For example, some months ago the showerhead in my flatmates and I’s shared accommodation broke. Due to the broken shower head, the receptionists told us to use the shower in their accessible toilet because they could not fix it immediately. The shower in the accessible toilet was terrible. Still, honestly, I had a blast because I kept reminding myself that it was an odd and most likely unique experience most people never get to experience. Currently, I feel that this new perspective has led to other unusual opportunities and experiences, making life more fun. In other words, instead of constantly labelling perceived adverse circumstances as unfavourable, try to flip into something positive because it gets us out of the same old routine.