The Pain-Body: A Doorway to Transformation
Our pain-body reactions are doorways to the transformation of our consciousness.
The emotional pain we suffer in our lives occurs from the identifications and attachments that arise from our ego.
Some days our pain is not very severe. We move through the day with a relatively minor amount of emotional pain and difficulty. Other days we seem to suffer enormous pain, perhaps from a single incident or from a "bad day" filled with challenges, cruelty or conflict.
It is very helpful to learn to notice and name the sources of our emotional reactivity. Most of us react to the same types of incidents or experiences, over and over, throughout our life.
If we remain unconscious of these triggers, we will fall victim again and again to the torment of emotional outbursts or woundings that seem to be inevitable conditions of life on planet Earth. We may be surprised even, when, out of nowhere, something happens or someone says something that sends us into a fit of rage or a deep depression.
The degree to which we are surprised or taken off guard by a pain-body upset is the degree to which we are unconscious of the triggers that affect us personally and the inner landscape of your pain-body.
It is possible to begin to identify the triggers that set off your pain-body. This, in fact, is the most important work you can do.
The very act of identifying your pain-body triggers immediately dis-empowers them. As you see, in the moment, that you are being triggered by something or someone, the trigger has less power over you. The power a trigger ever has is the fact that you don't see it. It can then affect you in the typical fashion, often setting off a cascade of emotional reactions and ensuing behavior.
Be a detective in your life today. Watch for those moments when you feel a twinge of pain, a sudden burst of anger, an irrational fear or a deep sense of dread or despair. Ask yourself, what just happened? What set off this emotional response?
These questions pull you into the present moment and help you dis-identify from your emotional pain.
Then Presence itself will actually burn up the negative emotional energy you were experiencing. This is because the pain-body cannot tolerate the light of Presence.
Those moments when you "lose it", when you are overcome with an emotional reaction, can serve as doorways to Presence. Instead of letting your emotions take over like a runaway horse, stop and be curious.
Be curious about what you are feeling and why. Even if you don't accurately assess your condition, the very act of asking will transform you.
