Evolve or Die
- devabritow
- May 18
- 6 min read
Evolution: the gradual development of something.
I've used the above image in one of my other posts. In Neural Darwinism: Survival of the Fittest, I touched briefly on evolution, thanks mainly to Dr. Joe Dispenza's book, Evolve Your Brain. The work focuses a lot on neuroplasticity, or the malleability of the brain that allows for the forging of new neural pathways that can, in turn, lead to improved (i.e. more positive) thought processes and, by extension, a happier life. Inviting and enacting change in one's life can be evolutionary, a metamorphosis. I feel like I have been trying to evolve for a long time, from someone often plagued with feelings of anxiety and depression to someone who lives in a state of peace and harmony. Merriam-Webster defines the word "malleable" (in part) as being "capable of being extended or shaped by beating with a hammer or by the pressure of rollers" 😏. Thankfully, there have been no hammers or rollers during this self-help journey of mine. Instead, my life is being shaped and altered by so many excellent books and podcasts. As I typed the preceding sentence, Sam Cooke's A Change Is Gonna Come popped into my head, and it made me think about something a psychologist asked me a few weeks ago. She wanted me to contemplate my origin story, given that I was born during the apartheid era and lived in that environment for the better part of twenty years. It all felt very Avengers-like, and I didn't respond. I don't think I've been in the right headspace to delve into that yet, and I certainly won't in this post either, but it's interesting that my mind would conjure up a song about racial and social injustice. Perhaps the impact of apartheid is something I will need to address at some point. When psychologists talk about self-discovery and integration, they say that to heal all parts of ourselves, we need to acknowledge and understand all aspects of our personality, including those that bring about distress or conflict. But that's something for another day (or another year). This post is about the change/evolution/metamorphosis that will come about by reading about and embracing the wisdom in these incredible books.
I have to agree with Oprah Winfrey on both counts. A New Earth is "one of the most valuable books I've ever read", and yes, it is decidedly spiritual. Eckhart Tolle's book holds the distinction of being the only book to make Oprah's Book Club twice (in 2008 and 2025).
I mention the spiritual slant of Tolle's work because, by and large, the books I have covered over the last nine months have been self-help focused. A New Earth is undoubtedly a self-help book, but it is deeply rooted in spirituality, and I love it.
Subtitled 'Create a Better Life', the book is a spiritual guide that expands on Tolle's earlier book, The Power of Now. It highlights the importance of awakening one's consciousness to transform one's personal life, and ultimately, the world. Tolle emphasises that human dysfunction and suffering stem from the ego - a false sense of self rooted in continuous identification with social roles, personal life stories and thoughts.
The Ego and the Pain Body
Eckhart Tolle introduced the pain-body in A New Earth. It is made up of emotional pain from the past that hasn't been completely confronted, accepted, or released. This pain is held in the subconscious and can be triggered by specific stimuli, such as relationships, thoughts, or external events. The pain-body feeds on negative emotions, and it may be personal (shaped by your life experiences) or collective (shared trauma amongst cultural, racial or familial groups).
The ego represents your mental concept of identity, shaped by thoughts, beliefs, and past experiences. It flourishes on separation, drama, and conflict to strengthen its self-perception.
The pain-body, representing accumulated emotional pain, employs the ego’s narrative to rationalise its activation with stories such as “I've been treated badly” or “I'm always getting the short end of the stick.” These ego-driven narratives fuel the pain-body: the more you associate with these thoughts, the stronger the pain-body becomes. The pain-body relies on the ego, and the ego relies on the pain-body. The emotions forming the pain-body stem from the ego's connection to the past.
In my posts on Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself and The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, I refer to the 'observer effect', the phenomenon where observing a system can change its properties or behaviour. Tolle writes that we can essentially break the vicious cycle of ego and pain-body by observing it without identifying with it. The writer calls this conscious awareness. He encourages the reader to recognise egoic thoughts as they arise and (in keeping with his book, The Power of Now), reminds us to centre our attention in the present moment, reacting to the thought consciously.
"Whenever you notice that voice, you will also realize that you are not the voice, but the one who is aware of it. In fact, you are the awareness that is aware of the voice. In the background, there is awareness. In the foreground, there is the voice, the thinker. In this way you are becoming free of the ego, free of the unobserved mind. The moment you become aware of the ego in you, it is strictly speaking no longer the ego, but just an old, conditioned mind pattern. Ego implies unawareness. Awareness and ego cannot coexist. The old mind pattern or mental habit may still survive and reoccur for a while because it has the momentum of thousands of years of collective human unconsciousness behind it, but every time it is recognized, it is weakened."
Naturally, I was drawn to the mindfulness aspect of A New Earth. The book provides profound insights for those pursuing mental and emotional well-being. While not grounded in psychology, Tolle's work explores mental health through a spiritual and consciousness-focused approach, helping individuals find peace beyond the mind's habitual tendencies.
Anxiety stems from the egoic fear of the future, while depression is rooted in past-focused identity. In mental health terms, recognising and then observing the ego assists in detaching from negative thought spirals and the inevitable reactive emotions. This is mindfulness at its core. Being mindful of what one ruminates on or catastrophises can help centre oneself in the present moment, where there is nothing but the 'now' - where there is timelessness.
"What we are speaking of is the elimination of psychological time, which is the egoic mind's endless preoccupation with past and future and its unwillingness to be one with life by living in alignment with the inevitable isness of the present moment. ...whenever you allow this moment to be as it is, you dissolve time as well as ego. For the ego to survive, it must make time - past and future - more that the present moment."
From Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself to The Book of Overthinking, Beyond Anxiety to Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before?, the recurring message in these books has been silencing the inner voice with conscious awareness and presence. Our endless inner chatter is often riddled with fear, self-criticism, regret and guilt - all of which contribute to mental health issues. Taking control of the mind by observing it creates that awareness, which can reduce obsessive thought patterns, negative self-talk and overthinking.
None of the books I have written about is a substitute for medication or therapy, and A New Earth is no exception. However, the book provides a compelling spiritual framework that underpins mental wellness, and I would encourage anyone to read it.
"It's been a long
A long time coming, but I know
A change gon' come
Oh yes, it will"
(Sam Cooke, A Change Is Gonna Come)
Coming Up Next Week
In keeping with mindless chatter, next week's book is Ethan Kross's Chatter. I recently bought his book Shift, but wanted to read the two chronologically. Both come highly recommended, so I look forward to covering both books.
#anxiety #depression #mentalhealth #mentalhealthawareness #youarenotalone #thereisnostigma #selfhelp #selfcare #mindfulness #motivation
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