“Your Daily Dose” is a quick two minute read packed with bite-sized wisdom from all the great teachers. But you could also choose to turn it into something more… a powerful daily practice for personal growth. Give it a try!
A message from today’s meditation:
I think it’s helpful to share quite a long piece from Eckhart Tolle in today’s email. Well, I guess it’s not that long really, it’s still less than a 5 min read, and extremely helpful. But just before I post that in here, this is what I’d like you to take away from today’s meditation – our bodies hold on to so damn much past pain. In fact our bodies hold on to all of it.
You can practice softening your body through your breath. And that softening will create space, moving you from being identified with the pain and denseness of your body, toward the light and lightness of your soul. And when you look at yourself from this higher-self vantage point, you experience the space that Eckhart speaks about in this beautifully written piece:
“A woman in her thirties came to see me. As she greeted me, I could sense the pain behind her polite and superficial smile. She started telling me her story, and within one second her smile changed into a grimace of pain. Then, she began to sob uncontrollably. She said she felt lonely and unfulfilled.
There was much anger and sadness. As a child she had been abused by a physically violent father. I saw quickly that her pain was not caused by her present life circumstances but by an extraordinarily heavy pain-body. Her pain-body had become the filter through which she viewed her life situation.
She was not yet able to see the link between the emotional pain and her thoughts, being completely identified with both. She could not yet see that she was feeding the pain-body with her thoughts. In other words, she lived with the burden of a deeply unhappy self. At some level, however, she must have realized that her pain originated within herself, that she was a burden to herself. She was ready to awaken, and this is why she had come.
I directed the focus of her attention to what she was feeling inside her body and asked her to sense the emotion directly, instead of through the filter of her unhappy thoughts, her unhappy story. She said she had come expecting me to show her the way out of her unhappiness, not into it.
Reluctantly, however, she did what I asked her to do. Tears were rolling down her face, her whole body was shaking. “At this moment, this is what you feel.” I said. “There is nothing you can do about the fact that at this moment this is what you feel. Now, instead of wanting this moment to be different from the way it is, which adds more pain to the pain that is already there, is it possible for you to completely accept that this is what you feel right now?”
She was quiet for a moment. Suddenly she looked impatient, as if she was about to get up, and said angrily, “No, I don’t want to accept this.” “Who is speaking?” I asked her. “You or the unhappiness in you? Can you see that your unhappiness about being unhappy is just another layer of unhappiness?” She became quiet again. “I am not asking you to do anything. All I’m asking is that you find out whether it is possible for you to allow those feelings to be there. In other words, and this may sound strange, if you don’t mind being unhappy, what happens to the unhappiness? Don’t you want to find out?”
She looked puzzled briefly, and after a minute or so of sitting silently, I suddenly noticed a significant shift in her energy field. She said, “This is weird. I ‘m still unhappy, but now there is space around it. It seems to matter less.”
This was the first time I heard somebody put it like that: There is space around my unhappiness. That space, of course, comes when there is inner acceptance of whatever you are experiencing in the present moment.
I didn’t say much else, allowing her to be with the experience. Later she came to understand that the moment she stopped identifying with the feeling, the old painful emotion that lived in her, the moment she put her attention on it directly without trying to resist it, it could no longer control her thinking and so become mixed up with a mentally constructed story called “The Unhappy Me.” Another dimension had come into her life that transcended her personal past – the dimension of Presence. Since you cannot be unhappy without an unhappy story, this was the end of her unhappiness. It was also the beginning of the end of her pain-body. Emotion in itself is not unhappiness. Only emotion plus an unhappy story is unhappiness.
When our session came to an end, it was fulfilling to know that I had just witnessed the arising of Presence in another human being. The very reason for our existence in human form is to bring that dimension of consciousness into this world. I had also witnessed a diminishment of the pain-body, not through fighting it but through bringing the light of consciousness to it.”
— Eckhart Tolle (A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose)
There’s one more thought from Eckhart that I’d like to add:
“The most decisive event in your life is when you discover you are not your thoughts or emotions. Instead, you can be present as the awareness behind the thoughts and emotions.” – Eckhart Tolle
The way in which we come to the realization that we are not our thoughts and emotions is not by avoiding these feelings, but by witnessing these experiences as they are happening, and finding that the witnessing is done by the part of me that sees from a higher vantage point. A higher dimension of my consciousness.
By allowing what is present to be felt, I am practicing seeing through the eyes of my soul and with more practice, I am also more likely to take action from my higher self.
Here are some mantras to guide your journey:
- “I am not my pain. I am the awareness that observes it.”
- “With each breath, I release tension and create space for Presence.”
- “I can be with it. I can feel whatever needs to be felt.”
- “I choose to see through the eyes of my soul, filled with love and light.”
Today’s meditation is a very practical exercise in allowing the experience that we are having to be felt. Please join us.
– pierre –
Today’s LIVE meditation is: Come to your senses.
Today’s LIVE meditation
https://youtu.be/oIiiP7XuLUQ 2026
https://youtu.be/2VYOEJQphNU 2024
https://youtu.be/56F9wcl_ycY 2023
Practice the “Daily Dose”
Let’s put it into practice! Choose what works for you – daily, once a week or whenever inspiration strikes. Putting pen to paper wires the neural pathways that will create your new habits.
1 – Affirmation
Write down your favourite affirmation on a sticky note and place it somewhere that you’ll be able to see it the whole day.
- “I am not my pain. I am the awareness that observes it.”
- “With each breath, I release tension and create space for Presence.”
- “I can be with it. I can feel whatever needs to be felt.”
- “I choose to see through the eyes of my soul, filled with love and light.”
2 – A moment of reflection
Use today’s question as a journal prompt. If you don’t have the time to sit down and write, just take a moment to reflect on your response.
The Story vs. The Feeling: Recall a recent moment of emotional distress, and try to remember what the physical sensation in your body was like. Can you separate the raw feeling in your body from the story your mind was telling about it? Describe the physical sensation without using any narrative. Then write the story separately. What do you notice about the difference between these two?
3 – Quotes to share
Send a quote to someone who needs it, or share them all on social media to spread the good vibes!
4 – Q&A for deeper learning
Read through the questions and answers and write down at least one “aha moment” that clicked for you.
Q1. What exactly is the “pain-body”?
The pain-body is a concept from Eckhart Tolle describing the accumulation of old emotional pain that lives within us. It’s composed of past traumas, hurts, and unprocessed emotions that our bodies store. This accumulated pain becomes a lens through which we interpret our current experiences, often distorting our perception of reality and keeping us stuck in cycles of suffering.
Q2. Does accepting my pain mean I’m giving up on feeling better?
Not at all. Acceptance doesn’t mean resignation or approval—it means acknowledging what is true in this moment without adding resistance to it. Paradoxically, when you stop fighting your pain and simply allow it to be present, you create space around it. This space is where transformation happens. Fighting pain actually keeps you identified with it and gives it more power over your thoughts and actions.
Q3. How is being aware of my emotions different from being controlled by them?
When you’re controlled by emotions, you are completely identified with them—you believe “I am angry” or “I am sad.” When you’re aware of emotions, you recognize “anger is present” or “sadness is here.” This shift creates a separation between your true self (the awareness) and the temporary emotional state. From this perspective, emotions become something you observe rather than something you are, which dramatically reduces their power to dictate your behavior.
Q4. What does it mean to have “space around” unhappiness?
Having space around unhappiness means you can feel the emotion while simultaneously being aware that you’re feeling it. There’s a gap between the emotion and your identity. You’re no longer drowning in the feeling—you’re witnessing it from a slightly elevated perspective. This space creates emotional breathing room and allows the intensity of the feeling to naturally diminish without you having to force it away.
Q5. How do I practice softening my body through breath?
Start by bringing your attention to areas of tension in your body as you breathe. With each exhale, consciously release and relax those tight areas. Imagine your breath flowing into the dense, painful parts of your body, creating softness and openness. This isn’t about forcing relaxation but about gentle awareness and permission for your body to let go. Over time, this practice helps move you from identification with physical and emotional density toward a lighter state of being.
Q6. Why do my thoughts keep feeding my pain?
Our past experiences are recorded in the library of our mind and body. When painful emotions arise, they automatically trigger the memory of those past experiences, which trigger the stories our mind created about them: “I’m unhappy because of what happened to me” or “I’ll always be this way.” These narratives give the pain a sense of identity and permanence, transforming simple emotion into what Tolle calls “the unhappy me.” Your thoughts and pain-body form a feedback loop—thoughts trigger emotional pain, which then generates more negative thoughts. Breaking this cycle requires bringing awareness to both the emotion and the story separately.
Q7. Can I really end my unhappiness by changing how I relate to my emotions?
Yes, because unhappiness isn’t just emotion—it’s emotion plus story. Raw emotion, when felt directly without mental narrative, arises and passes like a wave. It’s temporary and manageable. Unhappiness is created when we weave emotions into ongoing stories about ourselves and our lives. When you can feel emotions without attaching them to identity stories (like “I’m a victim” or “Nothing ever works out for me”), the chronic state of unhappiness naturally dissolves. Individual feelings still come and go, but they no longer define you or your life experience.