Columnist: Wit & Wisdom

That was until I read about it in Eckhart Tolle’s bestselling book; ‘A New Earth – create a better life’.

He explains it well, so well that I found myself having an ‘Aha’ moment.

You do know what I mean; ‘Aha, so that’s why...’

We all know what hurts, disappointments and regrets are, things we should have said but didn’t, or things we should not have said but did.

I’m thinking right now of my late wife’s death.

She had suffered much and for a long time and I had cared for her every day for the last three years of her short life.

All the, ‘I’m sorry’s had been said.

And so, while painful, it was a clean and peaceful parting.

Not quite the same with my old mum.

She was an angel and I loved her dearly, but there are things I would say to her now if I had the chance.

But, I can’t, and there’s the pain.

As Tolle says, pain builds upon pain over a lifetime, and we lock it away in some dark corner of our lives, but it’s there.

And, as an old friend of mine with a lifetime’s experience in counselling says: ‘When you bury it, you bury it alive and some day it will jump up and bite you’.

The problem with the Pain Body is the fact that there is nothing we can do to undo the wrongs of the past.

They tend to lurk in the ragged corners of our lives, mocking our attempts to pretend they don’t exist.

And, according to Tolle, it can cause all sorts of mental health issues, such as depression, low mood, anger and despair.

However, the good news is that while the past cannot be undone, we need not be condemned to lives blighted by guilt and regret.

What Tolle says, I have found to be true: ‘By observing the Pain Body you will break its power’.

It remains there, but its power has gone if we simply observe it, acknowledge that it’s there, say to it - ‘I can see you, but there is nothing you can do to me.’

Today is the first day of the rest of your life.

You don’t have to allow the shadow of a dark past to destroy a bright future.

adamharbinsonbooks.com