The Pain Body: Exploring the Accumulation of Hurt

Our pain memories accumulate and repeatedly surface in what Eckhart Tolle refers to as the Pain Body. Pain is a part of life. For the most part, we just wish the pain would go away. Pain descends and demands attention, drawing attention from the more pleasant feelings of living. Physicians, psychologists, and religious leaders all lend effort to our frenzied desires to manage pain. In 1997, spiritual teacher and best selling author Eckhart Tolle presented a simple, yet profound, concept of pain. He presented the concept of the pain body. He explained that the pain body is the accumulated hurt that lives inside of our bodies and minds.

For the most part, here at Psychology Fanatic, we prefer to rely on concepts with scientific backing, supporting our writing with peer reviewed articles and scientifically researched books. Occasionally, teachers that lean heavy on new age spirituality may diverge from science, relying on “feel good” remedies without legitimate accompanying research. Eckhart Tolle is no exception. However, Tolle’s concept of a “pain body” may be useful for dealing with our hurts.

​Tolle’s Pain  Body is Figurative

In his book the Power of Now, Tolle suggests looking at our accumulated pain as an invisible entity (1997). He suggests that this view of accumulated pain provides a helpful picture of our contacts with the repeated aches interfering with peace and disrupting wellness.

Tolle’s pain body does not physically exist in an identifiable physical location. Pain is intricately woven into our nervous system, with connections to memories, and conscious interpretations. Feeling pain is the conscious end point of many factors. Eckhart’s pain-body more accurately represents the entire process of feeling and experiencing pain.

Emotional Pain

Emotional and physical pain share many features. When we feel emotional pain, the same areas of our brain activate as when we feel physical pain, mainly the anterior insula and the anterior cingulate cortex. All pain is both a physical and an emotional experience. Physical pain arouses emotions and aroused emotions can hurt. Whether pain is initiated by stubbing your toe, or from faulty signals from the brain, both body and brain are involved. Sensations prick our consciousness and we hurt. With phantom limb syndrome, patients that have a limb amputated often continue to feel excruciating pain in the non-existent arm (or leg).

In an interesting paper about phantom headaches, researchers present the emotion-memory-pain (triangle) hypothesis, theorizing that all three are connected and influence the other (Prakash & Golwala 2011). This theory fits well with Tolle’s accumulating pain and pain-body.

Pain: Dormant and Active

​Like memories, Tolle teaches that pain can be either active or dormant. In happy people, he explains, the pain body lies dormant most of the time. Tolle doesn’t suggest that happy people don’t have painful memories, he teaches that the focal point of their attention isn’t typically fixated on the pain—the pain is dormant. Other people, Tolle warns, live almost entirely through their pain body. Tolle explains that when a pain body is “ready to awaken from its dormant stage, even a thought or an innocent remark made by someone close to you can activate it” (Tolle, 1997). 

Russ Harris, a physician and therapist that specializes in stress management, describes the activation of emotion as similar to the flipping of a switch. He suggests we envision a “struggle switch” in the back of our brain. “When it is switched on, it means we are going to struggle against any physical or emotional pain that comes our way, whatever discomfort we experience, we’ll see it as a problem and try hard to get rid of it or avoid it” (Harris, 2008).

Tolle continues that when the pain body is active, “Everything it says is deeply colored by the old, painful emotion of the pain body. Every interpretation…every judgement about your life, about other people, about a situation you are in, will be totally distorted by the old emotional pain” (Tolle, 2010).

The activated pain body sees a much different world. We see a dangerous world full of pain, threatening to hurt again. The activated pain body, according to Tolle, not only taints our interpretation of our world but also invites maladaptive behaviors to protect and defend against the sinister pain body, looming in the dark, waiting to lunge.

Pain Patterns

​The awakening of the pain body, following thoughts and emotions, and reactive behaviors become patterned. We become entrenched in pain patterns. Environmental cues set the arousal roller coaster in motion, leading to maladaptive and defensive responses that keep our lives suspended in painful dramas. Tolle explains that some people only react to certain situations, such as ‘intimate relationships, or situations linked to past loss or abandonment, physical or emotional hurt, and so on.” He continues, “Anything can trigger it, particularly if it resonates with a pain pattern from your past” (Tolle, 1997).

Residue of Pain

After my divorce, the painful experience that stretched over several years left scars—emotional residue. New relationships easily could track through the dusty floors of the past, stir up dormant pain, and awaken the demon. Although, with time, I believed I was completely healed, a sharp remark, lack of attentiveness or appreciation and I quickly am reminded that the beast was still alive and well. The awakened emotions beg for old patterns to play out, maladaptive protections, sorrowful regrets, and many other memories embodied in the pain.

​Diana Fosha wrote:

Positive emotions (e.g., pleasure, joy, tenderness), particular traits, qualities, ways of being that are either highly positive or at least benign (e.g., gentleness, independence, emotional sensitivity, intelligence, generosity) can become sources of great emotional pain when, for historical-dynamic reasons, the caregiver finds them intolerable, usually because they evoke intolerable vulnerability(Fosha, 2000).

A Stimulus Triggers Old Pain

Our environment plays a crucial role in shaping our emotional experiences, often triggering memories and feelings that can overwhelm us. When certain stimuli or situations arise, they can disrupt our sense of autonomy and bring forth past traumas that we may feel powerless to control.

This awakening of old emotions creates a repetitive cycle where familiar patterns resurface, making it challenging to navigate present circumstances without being influenced by the weight of past experiences. As these emotional patterns repeat, we find ourselves caught in a loop, struggling to break free from the shadows of previous hurts while yearning for greater agency over our lives and responses to new challenges.

See Emotional Patterns for more on this topic

​Identifying with the Pain Body

​Tolle teaches that the pain body wants to survive. It’s survival, he explains, is guaranteed only when we identify with the pain. The pain body then can “rises up, take you over, ‘become you,’ and live through you” (Tolle, 1997). Tolle’s portrayal of this inner demon is frightening stuff. However, those of us that have experienced recurring emotional pain know that memories can haunt, disrupt and destroy.

While I wince at assigning “wants” of inner sensations, I understand the metaphor succinctly describes our tendency to collaborate feelings with experience. When we feel frightened, we see threats everywhere. And with the pain body, when we resonate with emotional pain, we tend to find more pain in life. When tormented by the traumatic past, we want to inflict pain, suffer pain, or both. Hurt is familiar, pain resonates, and we become a painful portal for receiving and dulling out misery.

Our pain body casts a dark shadow on our lives and the lives of those around us. We feed the pain and it grows.

Parable of the Two Wolves

​A wise Cherokee grandfather taught the powerful parable of two wolves to his grandson:

“A fight is stirring inside me,” he told the curious child.

“A terrible fight between two wolves.” The grandfather pauses and then explains, “One wolf is evil; he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.”

“The other wolf is good,” the wise old man continues “he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.” After a short pause,, he warns the child,  “the same fight is going on inside you.”

The grandson stunned by the thought of an internal battle contemplated the lesson for a minute and then astutely asked: “Which wolf will win?”

The wise old man grateful for the chance to teach replied, “The one you feed.”

​We Feed Our Pain Body

​We unconsciously fuse with our pain memories and then feed those memories through stinging interpretations of the present. We continually reinforce the pain. “Life is unfair,” we cry and the scurry about seeking the painful unfairness that readily surrounds us.

We justify our hurt by filtering out the joys. We settle for less and relish in our suffering. “Come here,” we beckon, “let me tell you of my sorrows.” And thus, we give life to our pain body and our pain body “becomes us.” Harris warns, “If we fuse with these stories, the switch goes on and we perceive uncomfortable emotions are a threat. Our brain then responds to a threat with a fight or flight response, which then gives rise to a whole new set of unpleasant feelings” (Harris, 2008).

Mindfulness and the Pain Body

​Tolle believes that the cure is bringing the pain body to conscious awareness. Tolle is in good company with his remedy. Carl Jung taught “until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” Accordingly, “The pain body doesn’t want you to observe it directly and see it for what it is. the moment you observe it, feel its energy field within you, and take attention into it, the identification is broken” (Tolle, 1997). When we fuse with the pain, we don’t experience the hurt because we are the hurt. Or in Tolle’s words the hurt has “become us.” In mindful observation we objectively step back with curiosity. We drop the stories. We see the pain.

Lawrence Heller, Ph.D.,  and Aline LaPierre instruct therapists working with this method to help clients gain “awareness of their emotional pain while helping them see that these painful affects are often relics of the past.” This technique is a process of separation that forges a functional relationship with painful memories. Heller and LaPierre explain, “This mindful dual-awareness process supports increasing organization, and the increasing organization in turn supports a greater capacity for mindfulness” (Heller & LaPierre, 2012).

Fosha adds to this concept, “As patients gain access to previously warded-off affective and relational experiences, the process of mourning is activated. The realization of losses, deprivations, and missed opportunities triggers deep emotional pain, the experience of which sets in motion the healing process” (Fosha, 2000).

Seeing Pain from a Different Perspective

​As we move, changing angles, our view changes. We see pain differently. “New dimensions of the experiences of both pain (physical and emotional) and suffering and the potential for embracing them and understanding them differently become available to us when we give our inner selves over to the present moment and let go of all the thoughts of the future and the past at just those moments of highest intensity” (Williams et, al., 2012, p. 132).

“The real work of breaking free of the pain body,” Tolle exhorts, “is to acknowledge that you identify with it.” He continues, “Once an identification is seen and named, it will lose its power over you” (Tolle, 2019).

​”Deepest Me”

​In a religious article, Fr. Richard Rohr suggested we stop responding from the pain body, which he associated to the ‘flesh’ and ‘false self.’ Instead, he proposed we should respond from the ‘deepest me.’ He defined the ‘deepest me’ as a place of positive, loving energy (Rohr, 2015). While I’m not certain an innate temperament of the ‘deepest me” exists as Rohr presents, I do believe, as in the parable of the two wolves, we have a battle raging inside between many different traits, and the traits we identify with strengthen and take over our lives. We, in essence, choose who the ‘deepest me’ is by where we focus our attention.

Associated Concepts

• Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs): These refer to potentially traumatic events that occur during childhood (0-17 years). These experiences can include various forms of abuse, neglect, witnessing violence, and growing up in a household with mental health or substance use problems.
• Fragmentation Psychology: Fragmentation refers to the theoretical framework that explores the fragmentation of the human psyche into separate and often conflicting parts. The fragmentation is often related to early trauma experiences.
• Trauma Resiliency Model: This is an approach that focuses on building resilience and promoting healing in individuals who have experienced trauma. It emphasizes the natural and innate capacity of individuals to heal from trauma when provided with the right support and resources.
• Complex Trauma: This refers to multiple episodes and types of trauma occurring repeatedly. The impact cumulatively injuries developing children, causing a variety of psychological and physical ailments.
• Emotional Wounds: This is a term similar to Tolle’s Pain Body. It refers to psychological and cognitive pain that scars our minds and hearts, remaining in memory long after the traumatizing experience.
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: This is a mental health condition triggered by a terrifying event, either by experiencing it or witnessing it. Symptoms may include flashbacks, nightmares, severe anxiety, and uncontrollable thoughts about the event.
• Survival Styles: This refers to a concept coined by Dr. Lawrence Heller. He proposes that children adopt a particular survival style to adapt to harsh early environments.
• Unprocessed Trauma: This refers to emotional experiences or events that have not been adequately addressed, understood, or integrated into one’s psyche. When a person has unprocessed trauma, the associated emotions and distressing memories remain unresolved and may continue to negatively impact their mental and emotional well-being.

A Few Words by Psychology Fanatic

Acknowledging our painful memories is not a sign of weakness; rather, it is an essential step in the journey of healing and self-discovery. We need to recognize that while these scars may shape us, they do not define us. Just as Eckhart Tolle emphasizes the importance of recognizing the pain body within us, we must also find strength in celebrating the positive aspects of our lives that coexist with these experiences.

Focusing on gratitude and joy allows us to create a more balanced narrative—one where our struggles are woven into a larger tapestry of resilience and personal growth. By embracing both our wounds and triumphs, we empower ourselves to forge ahead with renewed vigor, transforming past hurts into lessons that guide us toward brighter horizons.

In this process of self-reflection and storytelling, we become the authors of our own narratives. We have the power to choose which “wolf” we feed—the one rooted in negativity or despair, or the one that embodies hope and compassion. As we navigate through life’s challenges, let’s remember Fr. Richard Rohr’s concept of responding from our “deepest me,” allowing love and positivity to overshadow feelings tied to pain and suffering. By consciously deciding what parts of ourselves we identify with—whether it be Tolle’s pain body or Rohr’s vision—we can cultivate a sense of agency over our emotional landscape.

Ultimately, this journey invites us not only to acknowledge our past but also to embrace it as an integral part of who we are today—a testament to our strength in overcoming adversity while nurturing a future filled with possibility and light.

Last Update: January 14, 2026

References:

Fosha, Diana (2000). The Transforming Power Of Affect: A Model For Accelerated Change. Basic Books. ISBN-13: 9780465095674; APA Record: 2000-00712-000
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Harris, Russ (2022). The Happiness Trap: How to Stop Struggling and Start Living (Second Edition). Shambhala. ISBN-10: 1645471160; APA Record: 2008-00854-000
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Heller, Lawrence; LaPierre, Aline (2012). Healing Developmental Trauma: How Early Trauma Affects Self-Regulation, Self-Image, and the Capacity for Relationship. North Atlantic Books; 1st edition. ISBN-10: 1583944893
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Prakash, S., & Golwala, P. (2011). Phantom headache: pain-memory-emotion hypothesis for chronic daily headache?. The Journal of Headache and Pain, 12(3), 281-286. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10194-011-0307-7
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​Rohr, R. (2015) Letting Go of the Pain Body. Center for Action and Contemplation. Published: 10-19-2015; Accessed: 7-10-2021. Website: https://cac.org/daily-meditations/letting-go-pain-body-2015-10-19/
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Tolle, Eckhart (2010). The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment. New World Library. ISBN-10: 1577314808
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Tolle, Eckhart (2010). Living in the Presence with Your Emotional Pain Body. Huff Post. Published: 10-6-2010; Accessed: 7-13-2021. Website: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/living-in-presence-with-y_b_753114
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Tolle, Eckhart (2019). Dissolving Your Pain Body through “The Power of Now.” Thrive Global. Published: 7-1-2019; Accessed: 7-12-2021. Website: https://thriveglobal.com/stories/dissolving-your-pain-body-through-the-power-of-now/%E2%80%8B
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Williams, Mark G.; Kabat-Zinn, Jon; Teasdale, John; Segal, Zindel, and Teasdale, John D. (2012). The Mindful Way through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness. The Guilford Press; Paperback. ISBN-10: 1593851286; APA Record: 2007-10791-000
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