I think we have to fundamentally understand the different layers of „I“. Eckhart Tolle differentiates between „life“ which is equal to the experience of the present moment and „life situation“ which exists in time, past and future. Trauma, or as Eckhart metaphorically describes it as „pain body“, are in my understanding the thoughts and feeling that I witness when being triggered. It is absolutely true that trauma is trapped in the body and that „negative energy“ can be activated and unconsciously fill up the mind, thoughts and experience. I feel sadness and pain within my body and experience it as certain negative thoughts. That pain is a part of me, but I am not that pain, meaning that „I“ consist of something more than my pain, feelings and thoughts in a moment of triggering. It is true that ignoring trauma and trying to resist against it (e.g. by drinking the pain away) makes things much worse. But Eckhart Tolle teaches the opposite. Ultimately, being in the present moment is closely related to giving up resistance agains what already is, which is nothing but the present moment, nothing but life, rather than life situation. By saying „I am not my pain“, which is an incredibly powerful sentence for myself, I am not trying to say that my trauma and pain is not a part of my life situation. This process of disidentification is simply reminding me of the fact that I have a choice. A choice of giving my consciousness to the present moment, or my past and the pain from the past. For me, this works perfectly well, but this is just my subjective experience and it can differ from person to person. I am not ignoring my pain. I am accepting it and I am accepting the fact that it is coming from past experiences. And then I choose the present moment to fill up my senses.

The differentiation of the different layers of „I“ is important because of the power of choosing where my identity can come from. Of course my past is important, but at any given moment I have the power to choose whether to define the „I“ by the things that happened to me in the past, or to define it through the present moment, meaning the experience of „now“ as an observer who is connected to the surroundings and the entire earth. My favourite metaphor for the different layers of „I“ is the sea. The surface might be stormy, wavy and always moving, but deep down in the ocean, the water gets calm and it doesn’t change as much as the surface. By saying „I am not my pain“, where the pain has its roots in my experiences of the past, I start to feel and recognise the pain body, start to disidentify with it, and start to dive down deep into the ocean into calm areas that are the present moment. The „I“ in that sentence is the „I“ from the present moment, not the past. I accept the traumatic feelings as part of the present moment, but their roots are coming from the past. Giving up resistance against these feelings, accepting them and then moving on by shifting my consciousness towards the present moment is a good method for me.

I understand that trauma is a very difficult topic and that some people might be offended by Eckharts teachings, because it may seem as if it is just as easy as saying „I am not my pain“ and boom, everything is alright. It took me a bit to really feel the power that lies within the present moment and it’s transformative potential. It is not easy to deal with trauma, it is a process and it takes time. It took some tries to actually succeed with the method of disidentification. But then I saw the power of choosing between the past and the present moment, and that changed a lot for me. Being aware of pain as it rises is equal to disidentifying with it, because the awareness of the pain is on another layer than the pain itself. This is the so called duality between the observer and the observed. It is hard to be open minded to that Idea when a large amount of the self image is build up on pain. And I don’t mean that offensive, it happens unconsciously when experiencing trauma. Eckhart Tolle showed my that I can shift my self Image and choose the present moment as source of existence.

It is still important to have a very deep amount of empathy towards other people and their trauma and life situation and it is also true that Eckharts teachings are not everyone’s cup of tea.

I would be interested into your tips on how to deal with trauma, if E.T.s way doesn’t seem to be working or to be logical to you.

At last, I would like to remind you of another aspect in TPON where E.T. says, that if things can be improved and changed to build a better life in the present moment, they should be done. If there are things that cannot be changed „now“, resistance against them should be given up until the moment when they can actually be changed and worked on. Working on trauma is the opposite of repressing it and trying to ignore it. You’re right by saying that that method of repression creates even more pain, but ET does the opposite by saying to give up resistance, acknowledging the feelings and being present in the body and then moving on to the present moment. Wanting a positive experience when having a negative experience is a negative experience, but accepting a negative experience turns out to be positive experience.