Spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle says “There are two levels to your pain: the pain that you create now, and the pain from the past that still lives on in your mind and body.” 

Most of us would say we want to live without pain. However Eckhart suggests we have a ‘pain body’ that seeks pain. And just like the needy monsters in the series ‘Stranger Things’, this pain body wants feeding. The hunger of the ‘pain body’ is only satisfied when we experience strong negative emotional reactions.