I hate to draw comparisons of Eckhart Tolle and myself BUT........

As I was riding my bike this morning, I listened to the fabulous soul searching words of Oprah and Eckhart Tolle. If you haven't already checked out Oprah's "Soul Series" podcasts, you should. They are free and they are fabulous.

A woman called in to ask a question about being present in the 'now' one moment, but then sliding back into the mundane competition and dirty life we all desperately hate. Eckhart began explaining what he calls the "pain body", or the part of us that desperately needs to feed on negative emotion. This "pain body" rises up in our selves at different times, for some people more often than others. It hinders our ability to be fully present, and it makes us feel negative emotions that we don't want, and don't need to feel. Past memories from childhood, heartbreak, etc; all things we have been able to overcome, but yet this part of us, the "pain body", seeks to attach itself to the other negative emotions we are feeling because it needs that. Eckhart explains that if we can recognize this "pain body" in ourselves, and in our partners, we can be better equipped to NOT feed it what it wants and needs.

I have to say, this is a theory I have been applying to my life for the past year or so as I have maneuvered through a heartbreak that left me highly devastated. However, this is my theory, and although it is not as eloquently written about or titled as Eckhart's, it is very similar.

After weeks of crying myself to sleep, putting on a happy face during the day and convincing my friends that I was the ultimate survivor (I am wonder woman here to save the world and can overcome ANYTHING), I decided that nobody was going to fix me, but me. I was highly frustrated with the part of me that was so devastated, that was so heartbroken, I hated feeling that way. I hated having those chains around my heart and the doubt slowly creep into my soul. I had SO much to do, literally, SO much to do with my workshop looming in the distance and my class work piling up, that I desperately needed a change.

So I decided to do something about it. Every time I would begin to feel the pain and agony, I told that part of me, that woman inside of me that fed on those feelings and wouldn't go away, that she needed to leave the room. I was working on a highly developed curriculum to change girls' worlds, and she had no place in my soul right now. Pretty soon, that became the norm, every time I would feel sad or lonely, I simply told that woman to 'leave'.

It was amazing the immediate changes I began to see and feel in my body and soul. It worked and it works. I still have to make her leave from time to time. I am not shutting her out, because I truly acknowledge that those feelings are there, the pain is real, but I don't want to feel that way any longer. Therefore I let it go. I let her go.

Once we can recognize that 'woman' inside of us, that 'man' inside of us, that 'transvestite' inside of us, who is dragging us down and making us feel lonely and not good enough, tell them to leave. MAKE THEM LEAVE.

Try it. It works.

And thus, I found that Eckhart Tolle and I are not too different in the way we view our souls and the souls around us. Perhaps I should become a spiritual advisor, write some books, and find myself on Oprah's couch making podcasts :)