The Key to Breaking Free From Negative Thoughts | Q&A Eckhart Tolle

Keith Baker asks. I have owned the audio version of the Power of now for over 10 years, but I feel that I still get stuck around my pain body. There must be something very seductive about it as I feel I liked like I spent a lot of time in negative thoughts, like what's the point? And you'll never get past this, so why even try? Which can lead to feelings of hopelessness and depression. I've read that emotions generate chemical compounds in the brain which can be addictive like drugs, so that it's possible to be addicted to negative thinking, in a sense, and I think I suffer from that addiction. Do you have any insights as to how to break free? And above the summary of the process for dealing with a pain body on page 33 of your book? Let me just visualize my book. It's not working. It is true that negative thinking can be very addictive. From my point of view, it is not caused by the chemical that's generated in the brain. Although I do not deny that the chemicals in the body very often reflect certain things that happen on the mental emotional level. But what comes first, the chicken or the egg? So if you become very angry, of course there are certain chemicals that are released in the body. And if you become peaceful, then they go. The addiction is not in the chemical. I don't deny that there is a chemical component to emotional states, but it is the addiction to negative thinking. And the addiction to negative thinking is usually connected to the pain body, which is the emotional field that feels fat fueled by the negative thinking. So addiction means it feels. On some level, it feels good. If you're addicted to something, on some level, it feels good. If you're addicted to alcohol, the drinking feels good while you drink, not afterwards, but while you drink. So if you're addicted, who feels to whom does it feel good? Not to you, not to the physical body, because the physical body suffers through it, but to the pain body. This emotion loves to get more of the same energy by generating further negative thinking in your mind. And it feeds on it because it doesn't get enough food. Through the drama in your relationship, either you don't have one or there's not enough, or your partner doesn't cooperate enough. So how this you are Keith. Keith. You are aware of these negative thoughts that you mentioned that are repetitive and happen frequently. You give two examples. One is you'll never get past this or why even try? And what's the point? It's another one, and there are probably others. So you are aware of these thoughts, but it Seems that you are not aware in the moment that these thoughts arise. You are aware retrospectively after the thoughts, you realize, oh, there was that thought again. The question is whether there is enough presence in you to. To be aware in the moment or immediately after a thought of that kind arises, to notice it. To notice also its futility, to notice its repetitiveness, to notice its pointlessness, its untruth. To notice that you don't want it because you don't want it. When you notice it, you are the awareness, and you as the awareness, don't want it. The pain body wants it. So the awareness has to come in so that you break the link between your pain body and your thought processes. That is the key is to sever the link between your thought processes and the pain body. In order to sever the link between those. There needs to be enough awareness, presence. Only the presence can sever the link. The presence comes in and so the emotion is no longer controlling your thought activity. That's the key. And that's the beginning of the end of that vicious circle that otherwise will take over your life. So what is needed is for you to be there in the moment these thoughts occur or immediately after. And then immediately look at the thought and say, there it's again. And do not believe it. You know, some of you, or many of you might know Byron Katie's work, and Byron Katie's work questions your thoughts. And that's a wonderful thing, so that you no longer believe every thought that comes into your head. What's the point if you believe it? So what's the point? It's not working anyway. Nothing works in my life. Never has anything worked in my life. I remember these thoughts I used to have in my 20s and even in my teenage years for long, for many years, one of my favorite thoughts was bad things always to happen to me. Of course, bound to happen to me. It's always to me. Always bad things happen to me. And the strange thing is they always did. There was one, my early awakening, an awakening. Not the real awakening, an episode. An awakening episode I had which actually to some extent already transformed my life. In my teenage years, when I was 17 and already in my 20s, I was unhappier even. Especially the second half, but. Well, first half too, but. But in my teenage years I was still. I had such thoughts like, of course bad things always happen to you. And there was a lot of anger and resentment about life. And the first awakening came when a woman we were living in. I was living in Spain with my dad and a Woman left some books with us. She was going back to her country, German books, and said, can I leave these with you? I'll pick them up again next year when I come back. She never came back. And so we had these books. We didn't have many books. I started reading them, and they were books by a spiritual teacher, a German, Swiss German or German spiritual teacher. And for the first time I read that your thoughts have something to do with what you create in your life. And that was almost my mouth opened in astonishment. And at the time, I was teaching myself to type on a typewriter. Of course, there were no computers, so I had this old typewriter and I used his texts. The most important parts I copied as part of my typing practice. How your thinking you manifest. Through your thinking you manifest outer reality. And how you can change outer reality through changing your thinking. And I practiced it and it worked. My greatest desire was to leave home. And a year later, an opportunity opened up for me to go to England. And it would never have happened if I had not. I know it was the result of practicing, changing my thoughts. So that was one wonderful opening. And then I was fine for a while. And then gradually I forgot about it. And for other reasons. More and more happiness, unhappiness, accumulated again. But that was a temporary breakthrough, amazing realization. So be there when the thoughts happen, Recognize they are pointless, they are futile, they are painful. I don't want them, I don't need them. They have no purpose whatsoever. So Byron Katie approaches thoughts by asking, is it true? So whatever people say, is that true? And in most cases say, well, do you know it to be true? There's no point. Is that true? Yeah, it's true. Do you really know it to be true? No. I don't know if there's no point or not. So it kind of diffuses the power of thought over you by asking the question. It kind of. It's like taking the valve out of an inflatable toy by asking, do I really know? The thought is, yeah. And you pull out the stopper and it goes, do I really know this to be? No, not really. So.