Feeding Frenzy

Posted on May 12, 2008
Filed Under Awakening, Consciousness |

As I have made a commitment here in my little corner of the blogosphere to be as honest as possible, I am thereby forced to come clean with an embarrassing and bewildering shard of information.

Feeding the Pain Body

In his latest book, "A New Earth," author Eckhart Tolle talks about feeding the pain body. Tolle explains that this non-physical body is born as a result of our painful experiences in our dysfunctional childhoods. In order to feel "normal" as an adult, we "feed" it by doing or thinking anything that results in feeling pain.

I know I do this, for example, when I intend to have 2 cookies and instead eat 6 or 10. This particular scenario is actually a great 2 for 1 deal, as it’s something I can feel badly about twice: Once upon completion of said gobblefest and again at a later date when I can’t zip up my jeans.

Other ways of causing pain include recalling mistakes and beating myself over the head with them, otherwise known as regrets. Or feeling sorry for myself and wallowing in a puddle of self pity. There are many ways to feed the pain body but it’s interesting to note they are all done on an unconscious level. Kind of like how your tongue keeps finding it’s way back to the sore tooth just to see if it really hurts.

Experiencing it for Myself

It’s one thing to know this intellectually but it’s quite another to actually catch yourself doing it.  Weirdly enough I had just that experience the other day.

Yikes! I can’t believe I said that and worse, I can’t believe I felt it. Obviously my mind had nothing better to do with itself at the time. Rather than standing around kicking up dirt, it decided to feed the pain body instead. One would think those pesky little neurons could go for a little jog down their neural pathways or brush up on their broad jumps across the synapse, but no.

It’s hard to describe any further than to say that I spontaneously "came to" out of the numbness that usually passes for my consciousness. As I did I realized that my brain was doing a search on the word "pain" with intentions of plugging the results into the next blank slot. 

Evolution

While I’m happy to be evolving into a conscious individual, it’s strange to actually experience the void beyond the brain in all it’s various manifestations.  The good news is that now that I’ve encountered this one, I can recognize it next time and turn my brain to happier times or more productive tasks.

And that’s my true confession for today.

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Comments

2 Responses to “Feeding Frenzy”

  1. heidi on May 13th, 2008 9:54 pm

    I think I live in guilt over things I did, things I do and things I haven’t ven done yet. It is ridiculous and I really need to get that book and get beyond it. It really slows down my happiness when I think like you said above. Great post.

    heidis last blog post..Tired Of Dry Or Oily Skin? Give These Healthy Tips A Try

  2. vimoh on May 14th, 2008 8:59 am

    I read once in a Buddhist book that physical pain is manifestation of mental pain that we keep canned up in our heads.

    That is perhaps why bad moods sometimes cause physical pain to surface. And when we are happy, we feel great no matter how bad the illness.

    Came from the pack. :) Good to find a like-minded blog.

    vimohs last blog post..What do you feed your genie?

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