Eckhart TolleNYT Bestselling author of the Power of Now

Eckhart Tolle: Your Body Believes Every Thought

9 Aug 2026 · 1 min

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In this brief excerpt, Eckhart Tolle explains that the body’s energy field cannot differentiate between a thought and an actual event, so thoughts—especially fearful or jealous ones—trigger corresponding emotions as if the situation were real. He emphasizes that these emotional reactions are created by the thought itself. To prevent thoughts from taking control, Tolle advises cultivating presence through intense self‑observation, noticing thoughts as they arise, recognizing their egoic patterns (e.g., jealousy), and refusing to let them possess the mind.

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because the emotional reaction that comes through the energy field of the body cannot tell the difference between a thought and a reality. So when you think a fearful thought, you have a fearful emotion as if the fearful thing were an actual situation. So when you feel jealous, the emotion is it's actually already happening for you, even if it's not happening. That's what the you experience that emotion, and that's created by the thought. So you have to bring presence into intense self-observation so that you feel the thoughts as they arise, identify as this particular type of thought, so that the thought doesn't grab you, take possession of you, and controls other related thoughts that you think. You have to be able to recognize this type of thought that you call jealous thought for what it is. It's a certain pattern in your egoic mind.