107 Happiness, Releasing, Work, Beginning Meditation, Vulnerability - Q & A

In this live Q&A we discuss any issue related to our Awakening Path.  How to be Happy, how to get unstuck, how to approach a new job when anxious, where to turn for good instruction in beginning meditation, the difficulty of healing our shadow side and bringing it back into our active life, living from vulnerability.

These podcasts are here to support your personal path of awakening whatever that might be. I feel they are most powerful when listened to in sequence from podcast one forward because each is built on the last. Though they, also, all stand on their own. If anything does not resonate, please disregard it and follow your heart. All my podcasts and website are free. Enjoy!

Though I am a psychotherapist, and these podcasts are offered to be spiritually helpful, they are not psychotherapy. If psychotherapy is ever needed, please reach out to a psychotherapist.

www.williamecooper.wordpress.com for more support. You may, especially, enjoy the short contemplations and the resource page which gives you some supportive material.

Transcript

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Welcome everybody. This is William Cooper. Welcome to Awakening Together. Oh, I see some of my friends. Hello, Jennifer. Hello, everybody. Hello, Blossom. Good morning. Blossom's in Australia, so it's early for her. I trust you're all doing well this week. This is a good time in our live sessions to supplement the other podcasts that I've done by asking any questions that you might have about your practice, whether you've listened to any of my other podcasts or not. You probably have a practice and you have some questions about it or things that have come up. And if you do feel free to ask, maybe you just want to listen in for a while is okay. Hey, Gary, good to see you. While you're thinking of any questions that might come up or just settling in and getting comfortable, I'll talk for a few minutes anyway, about happiness. I remember when I was in theological school, I had a professor who said, what do you think all people and all cultures and all times, what do they have in common? And we wondered about that. And he said, they all want to be happy. Whatever religion or spiritual practice, relationship or job, they just want to be happy. Isn't that true about all of us? We want to be happy. So let's talk about happiness for a few moments. We all want to live a complete and full life so that we can flow with happiness, our full self. But we can only do that if we live from our full self. And as we've talked about in past podcasts, to make it real simple, there's two basic parts of us, really only one, but we could break it into two parts, our beingness and the personality that we flow through. The personality being a collection of thoughts and emotions that we use as a tool to walk through life. So we could be quite awake, but have a stopped up personality and it would be painful. It's kind of like driving a car that has a bad tire. We're not the car we drive no more than we're the personality that we use, but it would be a rough ride through life to have a banged up personality. So one of the fundamental things, and we've explored much of this in past podcasts, but one of the fundamental things that's necessary is for us to flow from our entirety, our entire personality. Often what happens without even thinking about it, it's what everybody does. If we have something painful, we push it aside. And even in society, people will say, oh, you're upset. Take your mind off of that. Go do something else. Go for a jog, talk to a friend, so on and so forth. And what that's called is dissociation. It's a big word. It's kind of a, an intense word in a way, but it's what we all do a lot. When we take our mind off of the part of us that's hurting, we live through the rest of us that's not hurting. And the part that is hurting, we push to the side, we push under. And yet that's part of us. We've twisted off part of us, the part that's hurting. And we've got the hopes that we can live life happily and just ignore this part. Just, you know, maybe it doesn't exist anymore. Time heals all. We let time pass and it's gone. Poof, it's gone. But in reality, we find out pretty quickly that it still exists when somebody looks at us funny or says a sharp word or life doesn't work the way that we'd expect it to work or we lose our job. All these old parts of us, these, the parts of us where we stored our pain, where we twisted off and hid, what happens? Those come up. And suddenly we feel one minute we thought we were fine. And then the next minute we really don't feel very good. So how do we heal that? How do we, instead of dissociating, how do we associate? How do we reintegrate? In other words, how do we become whole again with our personality? How do we do that? Well, the first step is not to hide, not to dissociate. It's okay to feel bad for a while because this part that was twisted off, the reason it was twisted off is because it felt bad. Life felt bad living through that part of us. So when it comes back up, it feels like what it did when it got pushed under because no healing has happened. It's just been pushed to the side in the same condition it was when it was hurting. So it's hurting now. That's why we often don't want to feel anymore that part of us that was uncomfortable way back then. But it's really time, we're bigger now, we're stronger. It's really time to invite all of us back into our lives because it is us. It's not a foreign part. It's not a tension in my stomach. It's not a tension in my throat. It's me who's tensing up my stomach and who's tensing up my throat. There's only one person inside of me and it's me. All that tension's coming from me. So one part of my personality is what's tensing up my throat or my stomach or my shoulders or whatever it is, perhaps creating illness, bad feelings, emotional discord, perhaps trouble in relationships, perhaps anger, fear, anxiety. This is me that's twisted off part of me. Maybe I've twisted off a number of times. So when I feel this weak, vulnerable part, this hurting part of me, life brings it up, let's say. Somebody says something and suddenly I feel ashamed or afraid or anxious. Maybe I feel, don't feel that I'm good enough. When this happens, rather than repeat what I did when I was small, I mean literally small, I might be five years old or seven years old. I was overwhelmed. Rather than repeat what I did and push this part under and to the side, let's not do that. Let's let that part, and I use the word part just for linguistics. It's not really a part. It's me. It's me that I don't want to pay attention to. It's not a part of me. It is me. It's me that's hurting. So let me own it. Let me take responsibility. Let me have some courage. Let me feel myself. Because on the path to happiness, all of me has to be there for me to be totally happy. For me to live a complete life, I have to be complete. So let's complete ourselves. Let's let this hurt. Let's own it. Let's not push it away. Let's not ignore it. Now, how does that work? So somebody says something and I feel bad. This time, instead of pushing it under, I just feel it. Now, rather than lash out at them, I just feel it myself. That's a start. Let me just feel it. Now, one of the reasons why I don't want to feel, I don't want to reintegrate with these vulnerable, quote-unquote weak parts, is because living life from there, I don't know what to do sometimes. I don't know how to handle life when I feel weak. Like, what do I do? Here's this powerful person yelling at me right now, and I'm feeling weak and vulnerable. What do I do? Sure, if it's a safety issue or something that you really do have to attend to right now, you can let the strong part of your personality talk to that person. You can protect this weak part of you, but don't lash out at the other person unless it's to protect yourself and it's something you have to do to draw a strong boundary. Rather, feel your weakness, but use your strength. Later, when you have time and you have space and you have safety, start to, little at a time, live life from your weak place. Why would you do that? Why would you live life from your weak place? Because it doesn't know what to do always because it's weak, it's vulnerable, and it hasn't learned that many skills often because it was buried when you were small and you didn't have so many skills. Or it was buried because it felt weak, because you didn't have skills to deal with that situation that was going on when you were hurting, regardless of your age. You just didn't have the skills regardless. So, when it comes up, it doesn't magically have skills. So, living life from this part is scary. The first thing to do when living life from this part, as you're beginning to help it, beginning to re-embody it. Why? So that you can include all of yourself in your life. One of the first things you do is just know you don't have to have the answers. You don't have to know anything. All you have to do is connect to this part of you that's hurting and no longer bury it. Just connect. Feel yourself. Don't ignore yourself. Feel yourself. And you don't have to do anything. Well, I need to repeat and this time I need to do the right thing or I need to handle this situation in a good way that I saw in a movie. The hero handled it this way and I want to be like them. No, no, no, no, no. It's enough just to re-embody yourself for now. The second step, first step is you re-embody yourself and understand that there's nothing you have to do. Re-embodying yourself, not ignoring yourself is enough. The second step is to take little steps. Live life from the part of you that's weak, but take little steps. Maybe just go for a walk in the backyard. Maybe talk from that place to somebody who's friendly and nice, a good friend of yours. Maybe journal. Do little things and you don't have to do them continuously. You don't have to live from this weak spot all day long. Maybe baby steps, maybe for one minute or two minutes. Maybe simply feel the weak spot as long as you can. As long as makes sense because you don't want to traumatize yourself while at the same time living from the strong part of you because you have to handle life. You have to go to the grocery store or you have to work at your job or something. Slowly you transition where that quote-unquote weak part of you is more and more able to deal with life circumstances. Not because you tell it it can, but because slowly it feels that it can. Living from that place you feel more confident. Living from that weak place, from that vulnerable place, I will say you will also be more human. You can connect to people better. You can connect to nature better. Your spiritual practice will go better. Ultimately, what heals the weakness in the quote-unquote weak spot is connection and support. The first step is you're supporting yourself. You're loving yourself. You're being kind to yourself. But another step that you can experience is connect to anything. Connect to nature and just feel the goodness. Let the weak spot breathe in the nature. Let it soak it in because when something that's hurting soaks in something that's good, it relaxes. When it relaxes enough, it disappears. Why? Because it melts back into your wholeness. Then there's no separate weak quote-unquote weak self. There's only one self, which is you. All of that melts into your being, which is infinite. You just sort of go back and forth from the infinite flowing down through your personality. This ties together your spiritual practice, which connects you to your being so that you know what your being is and you're connected to it. And it also allows you to accept and flow through fully your personality. And when your personality is connected to being, your being, it opens, it relaxes. And those things that were blocking, which is just your old hurt, which is you, you're blocking, you quit blocking because you're connected. I hope that makes some sense. Perhaps you have some questions of your own on this or anything else. And I see Yvonne. Hi. And Laura and Jazz and Gary and Kira. Hi all. Welcome. I would like to say while you're thinking about your questions, I want to thank so many of you who have generously donated to me. And what I think you might know, but you might not, is first of all, that makes me feel good and I like it. Thank you. Secondly, 100% of that goes to feed and clothe orphans in Bali. So you kind of get a double blessing, I guess. Maybe triple because it opens your heart. I feel good. And orphans in Bali have a good life because of you. So thank you for your generosity. And this is not the kind of podcast, obviously I'm not taking the money, so I'm not asking for it. But if you just, at some point you're listening to the other 100 podcasts or this podcast, any podcast of mine, and you want to donate, feel free. It'll go straight to the orphans in Bali. I don't even see the money. Oh, thank you. Thank you for your donation, Kira. Okay. I don't want to, and sincerely thank you, but I'm not wanting to harp on that. I'm not trying to, just thanking you. Blossom says, and thank you all for your questions. Please ask them when you feel like it. Blossom says, procrastination. I keep going back and forth between pure consciousness and this illusion, but when am I going to get what I like to do done? And let me ask you, Blossom, what do you mean by when am I going to get what I like to do done? What is it that you like to do? Give me an example of that. And such a good question, but I want to make sure I give you a good answer. Oh, learning technology for your music. Yes. Blossom has beautiful music. You can find it on Insight Timer under Blossom. Yes. Life is complex, Blossom. And it takes a while because Blossom has had awakening experiences and understands awakening and says that in this illusion, it's capturing her. She goes back and forth. This is very common. So, what I have to ask myself, and I've contemplated this quite a bit, when I'm caught in my life, even the quote unquote good parts, and it's fine to be in this world fully, it's just that we're not of it. But it's very good to be in the world fully, fully connected, fully enjoying. But it's that sticky part where sometimes we get captured longer by something that is good for us. Why is that? And what do we do about it? First, knowing yourself as you do Blossom, knowing pure consciousness, but then you ask yourself, why am I getting captured by these things in this world that are diverting me from what I want to do? You ask yourself that and you'll find your own answer. What I found for myself is when I become captured by something, there's an emotion underneath. Every pleasure and all the things that are are pulling at me in this world, I should say, are pleasurable. Things in this world are pleasurable. Things of being are joyful. There's a difference. Underneath pleasures is an emotion. And usually there's an emotion that's uncomfortable or a tension further down underneath that pleasure. For instance, I'm eating because I feel depressed. The depression is an emotion underneath there. I'm fidgeting because I feel anxious. The anxiety is an emotion underneath my moving around a lot. So, these things, I'm drinking because I'm anxious. I'm watching too much TV because I'm depressed or anxious. Maybe I'm angry. So, if you quit the behavior, the pleasure for a while, or you just simply look deeply, you're going to find what's motivating this distraction. And it becomes hard to flow through life from being if you continue to get trapped by your life. Again, I'm not saying don't enjoy life. I'm saying enjoy life. Just don't be captured by it. Enjoy it. It's your life. You flow. You enjoy. But don't let it take you over. Underneath the uncomfortable emotion usually is a tension. And this tension is a point of separation where you've separated in those instances from your pure consciousness. And because you're separated, because of that tension, you feel depressed or anxious or angry. And because you feel depressed or anxious or angry, the next layer up is you look for pleasure. And that pleasure is distracting. So, we're back to just solving. And I've talked about these a lot in prior podcasts, which you're all welcome to listen to anytime. They're free on every platform under Awakening Together. But you want to disassemble. You've constructed these mindsets and these emotions that are just ticking away under the surface always. You want to deconstruct them. So, use the tools that we've talked about. A lot happens, for instance, in meditation. And I talk about it in many different ways. But one of the most powerful ways, perhaps the most powerful way, is meditation, where you can watch your thoughts, watch your emotions. You're not your thoughts, you're not your emotions, and you don't get involved with them. And then they begin to unravel, burn off their energy, and slowly they can begin to breathe in the beingness that's watching them, the beingness that you are, the joy that you are. So, I'll let you go into that more deeply on some past podcasts, but let me just say that's a start. Now, let me go back and see what other people have said. Um, Kiera said, started another job. Everybody is really nice, but I'm struggling so bad with anxiety and fear of not being good enough, not feeling quite useless, but trying to make it through the week and not get too overwhelmed. How would you overcome this after being out of work for a year? Well, like my friend Bob says, the first thing you want to do is get out of the pounding surf. It's hard to solve everything when you've, when you're in the middle of a lot. That's the pounding surf. You're bouncing around. So, if I was starting another job, what I would do is, because it's simple, I might journal every day for 30 minutes, maybe before I go to work, or for me, I'd like to do it before. That's just what I would do. You might have something else you would do. This is not a deep thing. It's just I write, I feel bad, I feel bad, I feel bad. Just stream of consciousness. I'm just to relieve a little pressure to give myself a spiritual practice that does that. And then to get out of the pounding surf, the next step is I would go to work and do the best I can. Just be as competent as you can be. Smile at people, be kind. That's the thing they're going to remember most. Be kind, just smile. Even if you're having a hard time, laugh and smile with people. Say, I'm sorry. If you need to be a nice person to be around, they'll like you and they'll want to keep you because you're the nice person. Build as many skills as you can as quickly as you can. Now, this is not a deep answer, but it's a effective answer. It's a first step. It's getting you out of the pounding surf. That's what I would do first. Secondly, when I got home at night, again, maybe first thing in the morning, up to you, I would do your meditation. And if you haven't listened to all of my podcasts, I go back to say number podcast, one of the early ones around four or five, I would listen from podcast one forward to the first, say nine. And I'm just guessing a number. There's nothing sacred about that because I talk about a kind of meditation that I find very powerful and why people don't feel that they can meditate. And I try to get cover some basics. What, what is behind thinking? What is behind emotions? Who are we? Some of these things you may have already listened to them, but if you haven't, I would do that. And I would do that meditation just to start over a long period of time, burning off the deep troubles, the anxiety and the troubles that are haunting you. First, I would get out of the pounding surf. Secondly, I would start healing deeply. And as you go through all of my podcasts, I have various approaches and approach it on various layers. Don't feel like you have to get good at anything that I say in my podcast. Just start somewhere. Start with what resonates with you. Okay. I hope that's at least a start. And Kara, everybody feels this way, by the way, you're not alone. It might feel that you are. And if you have another question, you want to fine tune it. Ask me tonight. I'm glad to talk more about it or the next time I meet or the time after whenever you want. Hi, Laura. Also. And Laura says she wants Kara to be happy to see you have friends. Let me say something else. Buddha, the three jewels of Buddhism are knowing your inner self. He calls that Buddha nature. Take refuge in your Buddha nature. The second one is good teachings, like hopefully we're having tonight and all through my podcast and all of the other wonderful teachers. Find ones that you resonate with and listen to them. You don't have to follow them if they don't speak to you, if they don't resonate. But if they do, listen to them. And then that's the third, the second jewel, take refuge in good teachings, right teachings. And the third is take refuge in your Sangha, your spiritual group. And it could be a group that meets here online. Even better if you find a group in your area, because human connection is so important. So that will help to get you out of the pounding surf. Okay. Teti says, thank you so much for your powerful insights. I would like to know more about close and intimate relationships and friendships and awakening. Ah, Sangha. Spiritual life is very important to me, but it is not reflected in my relationships. I see it as lessons I still have to learn. However, I feel some kind of emptiness there and sometimes it upsets me. Well, yes, this is the universal experience. What a good question you all are sharing with us all. And this is a good one, Teti. Again, you're not alone either. The first relationship you have to have, and it will make all the others right when you have it. And that's with yourself. And it's reflected in your, your question. You said, um, I see it as lessons I still have to learn and what is a lesson, but it's something that we're learning. Why? So that we can open up into what the infinite, our deep self from which all that we need to know flows, all joy flows, all happiness flows, peace flows. When you're in a completely peaceful, joyful, happy state, who cares about your relationship now? Easy for me to say, but we do care about relationships. I'm just talking. Often I'll talk about things from many different realities on one level. Who cares when you're in deep meditation, who cares when you're flowing from your being as Buddha says, you take refuge there because it protects you and it nourishes you, even when you're getting it from nowhere else, but nice to have a good relationship. So as you meditate, as you journal, hopefully you've also listened to my podcast. If you haven't, I invite you because this is what we're talking about getting clear. But from that place, then when you feel strong enough, remember you don't have to do anything until you're ready, but when you're ready, baby steps, you ask your partner, baby steps, the smallest thing. Can we go for a walk? What is it that you want? That's not there. Maybe just can your partner take it in? I would like to talk and have you listen for instance. Well, what happens if they aren't able to listen? As you've done your spiritual practice, you find you're okay. And if you're not, you go back to your spiritual practice and you let some things go and you melt into the infinite and then you are okay. But still you would like to be in a relationship where you can be supported. That's still valid. So then you re-approach it. And as you change on the inside, often your partner will change because they're in your energy field. And in the past, I've done a series, a small series of podcasts on manifesting things, the power of your intention, the power of you. And I just did a podcast on guided meditation on manifesting what you want. One thing to get used to is putting out there, visualizing what it is you want. What is it that you want your partner to be doing? Are you picturing that or are you picturing what they're not doing? It's very easy to picture what they're not doing. We all do that. But in a sense, you're putting, you're focusing your vibration on having them do what you don't want, because that's what you're picturing. Instead, as you heal deeply, start picturing what you do want in life. Let them, let that vibration bring them around. You know, the reason why you ultimately can relax deeply is because you trust the infinite, which is ultimately you and oneness. You trust yourself. And why do you trust yourself? Because you know, and you're one with everything. And when you want something done, it will happen because you are the thing you want to have happen. Also, there's only oneness. Now, in our conscious world, that seems far-fetched. I know, but I would say baby steps, just take a bite-sized chunk. You don't even have to believe it fully. Maybe not at all, but why not start to picture what you want, rather than what you have experienced in the past? How do you let it go? Forgiveness. That's what Jesus went running around saying all the time. Forgiveness. Just let it go. Hard. I know. Do your spiritual practices, journal. And I'm speaking for all of us, including myself. Sometimes psychotherapy is helpful, just to have somebody to listen. Sangha, a spiritual group is helpful. I hope that's a start. Again, let's just chip away at this if you want and meet other times, my next live session or whatever one you want. And we can talk further, even in this podcast. Shannon says, How can you observe the emotions without letting them consume you? You can't at first. We are addicted to our emotions. They will pull us in. You cannot. You cannot. So, just start. It's like building a muscle. Now, what are we shooting for? Sometime after we start our spiritual practice and we're going deeply, we're resting in our being. As Buddha says, we're taking refuge in our Buddha nature. Our Buddha nature is complete and it doesn't need whatever that emotion is offering us. It doesn't need it. So, it doesn't have to jump into an emotion. Emotions are like an alcoholic drinking a bottle of wine or multiple bottles of wine. We're like alcoholics to our thoughts and emotions. And the first step is don't take that first drink. Don't take the first sip of that emotion. Just watch it. You will sip. In the Tibetan book of the dead, they keep saying, help is here. Don't go into the illusion. And then the next sentence is, oops, you just did. Okay, more help is over here. Don't be deceived by the next illusion. Oops, you just were deceived. It's because we are. But you have to start somewhere. Again, if you haven't listened to my podcast, please do. We talk about this a lot, but we've got to start somewhere and we're starting tonight. So Shannon, the first step is you observe them. The second step is the emotion remains there because it doesn't have something. It's looking for something. What doesn't it have? Ask it, what do you need? It needs love. It needs peace. It needs fulfillment. It needs something. Now, simply looking at it, it will expend its energy. It will unwind. But to completely release, it has to soak up what it's looking for. If it's looking for peace, it has to find peace and soak it up or it needs to find love and soak it up. That's what your being offers. Or as a half step, going, walking out in the backyard, hug a tree, take your shoes off and feel the grass. But you don't do it. Let the emotion do it because it's the one that's hurting. Let the emotion feel the grass. Stay with it. Say, Hey, I'm here with you. Do you feel this grass? Does it feel better or worse? Whatever it's asking for. Do you feel my love? I'm hugging. I'm hugging myself. Do you feel that? Does it feel better or worse? Good or bad? Just ask a simple yes or no question. Oh, it feels good. Okay. Can you soak up a drop of that then since it does feel good and it is what you're asking for? Yes. You'll notice as it soaks in a little something, it loosens up a bit. Continue with it in baby steps, not everything in one try. It'll overwhelm it. It'll clutch up and seize up. And we talk about that in PTSD and those podcasts, that group of podcasts. So listen to those two. Anyway, it's that same process. All of my podcasts are like little tiles to a giant mosaic. And that mosaic is a full picture. Each podcast is good all by itself, but listen to all of them. If you can soak it up, but it's the soaking up that will let the emotion relax completely. Also, Buddha said, second jewel, take refuge and write teachings. You're doing your part. You're asking good questions. All of you are. I'm doing my part and I'm letting you know what I know to let you know that would be helpful. Now other teachers approach them too. If you find something that works better, do that or do a number of things, but do what works. If it's not working, you'll feel it. It's not working. Move on and find what does work, but try that. And then ask me some more. Let's see where you get. Laura says, I'm struggling on how to make a change to in my life while being present and accepting what is finding it hard to do this, the things I need to do going for a healthy life for me. She says, remember makes changes, do baby steps. The first change is to not hide. Like we started off this podcast, feel all of you. The problem is, is it doesn't seem like you're making a change because you're just sitting there kind of lethargic and out of it because all of you doesn't feel good, but start with that. Perhaps don't feel like you have to do anything. Don't feel like you have to know how to do anything. And then from that place, take a baby step so that you're not overwhelmed moving into a healthy life. What could that be? Walk around the block, eat a good meal today, walk barefooted. Maybe if you're in some doing something unhealthy, stop it for five minutes. That's a baby step. Don't stop the whole thing at once. Just maybe five minutes of it. Stop for five minutes before you, you know, if inevitably you keep doing it, just stop for a moment, five minutes. See if you can replace it with something else, but don't beat yourself up because it's a process. It'll take you a little bit. Just take baby steps. Shannon, you have to feel them for them to pass through you. Yes, yes, yes, you're right on Shannon. You have to feel them. And the second thing I would just say, and it's probably in what you're saying, but you feel them and then you let them feel what it is they want. You feel them, but then you let them feel what it is they want. If they want love, give them love and let them feel it because that's until they get what they want, they're going to hang around because they're just asking one question over and over. Love me, love me, love me. Could you love me? Or can you find me peace? Or can I be safe? Or can I be fulfilled? Or can you protect me? Just baby steps. You can't heal it all at once, maybe, but just give it something. You can even talk to them. Yes. And Joe says, quick question. I'm new to meditation. Do I have to stay quiet or do I have to recite something, a prayer or mantra? Joe, what a great question. And thank you for that. There's probably a bunch of people that are listening now or that will listen, that have that same question. The confusion is there's a thousand different kinds of meditation and ways to meditate. I try to sort all this out. It's not a quick answer. If you listen to my podcast, I would listen to the first nine and that's going to orient you quickly to basic meditation and what's going on with you, with your emotions, with your thoughts, why is it difficult, so on and so forth. If you skip forward a ways, I'm guessing podcast number, let's say in the eighties or nineties, I talk about mantras and those are something you can do. And I talk about different kinds of meditations. I explain them and practice different kinds with you just so you understand all these different kinds and they'll answer your questions. But to answer your question in a short answer, I find the most powerful one is the meditation I call the awakening meditation. And in that you are quiet. However, you don't have to be quiet because sometimes just saying something helps focus your mind and keep you from wandering. Sometimes people recite a prayer when they begin, and there's a whole kind of meditation called centering prayer that people feel more comfortable with. Uh, it's a version of transcendental meditation where right when you get to the point of thinking about something or getting caught in your emotions or thoughts, like we just discussed earlier, you say a mantra and regular TM. It's a random nonsensical mantra like long or I am or Zang or something. I've just made that one up. It's just, but it's, they're all made up basically so that you don't think too much about it. And centering prayer, you recite a word that's meaningful to you based on your spiritual background. If it's a, if you have a Christian background, it might be Jesus or faith or trust or something that's meaningful to you. Laura says, forgiveness is key. I'm working on that. Yes, that was Jesus as perhaps his number one thing, forgiveness. And another word for forgiveness is letting go. And another word for letting go is letting your emotions and troubles go. And how do you do that? You watch them, you let them soak up what they're asking for, so on and so forth. Because, and again, listen to the other podcasts when you have time, we talk about it a lot. Often the content is reflected in the title, so you could go straight to something that you're looking for. But I do talk about forgiveness. There's a series of topics on forgiveness, but often in podcasts or just in what we read, it says, just simply forgive or let go. Okay. How? Drop it. Let it go. Okay. I'm willing to do that. It hurts. I want to, I'm convinced. How? That's why we go into it a little more deeply because you have to watch the emotions so that they can expend their energy. And then you have to talk to them, like Laura said, and ask them what they want so they can soak it up, so they can dissolve. Because short of any of that, they're not going anywhere, as much as I might try to will them away. So it's easy for me to say, just forgive. But really? Good luck with that. I hope you can. Kathleen says, admire your sincerity. Thank you. Laura, we are human. We're here for a reason. And when Jesus appeared to me, again, in one of the podcasts, he showed that I had a lot of little dots, like four or five. And he said, that's the only difference between you and me. Life is for me to let go of those little black dots. They seem so small when he showed them to me, but in real life, they feel so big. If he was looking at what's troubling you right now, he would, it would look so small, but to us, because we're in slow motion in this reality, it looks very big. Why is that? Because it's like taking a microscope to those small little dots. It's slowing everything down. And we've elected to be here so that we can dissolve them, to let them go. That's, in my estimation, one of the main purposes of life. Sarah says, they've helped me so much. Thank you. Also, your voice is very comforting. Well, thank you, Sarah. I'm glad my podcasts are helping. Looking forward to the last live being posted as well. When you have a chance, you can find the last one on any other platform. Just Google Awakening Together podcast, William Cooper. It's on every other platform and it's posted now. Blossom says yes to baby steps. I need to remember this. Thank you, William. Yes. Baby steps will get you there every time. Big steps generally will not. Why? We hit a wall. We can't do it. Things can't get done in big steps. Usually there's always exceptions. Joe, I just followed you. Now I will have the opportunity to listen to them. Thank you so much. Oh, yes, everybody. If you follow me on Insight Timer, they will let you know every time I do a live session and every time I publish a podcast. So if you're interested in these podcasts, it's a good way to do it. And they have them all. You just click on my picture and it'll pull up all of them all the way back. And if it's your first time, I would start with number one and move forward if you'd like. Nothing wrong with skipping around, but they kind of do build on each other mildly. So. Blossom asks, do I have a group? Oh, well, I do have a kind of informal group on Insight Timer. Go under me and you'll see it. I think it's just called Awakening Together. If you type something there to me, I think I get it. And then I'll answer you. Yes, thank you. OK, good. We're caught up. Good job, everybody. And thank you, Jennifer. Jennifer says, yes, William has a group on Insight Timer. Yes, I do. Also, I have a website. It's listed on Insight Timer and every other platform. It's www.williamecooper.wordpress.com. You might look at the contemplations. They're very short and they're pretty good. Contemplations are under the contemplation tab. All this is free as usual. The resources are under the resource tab and they're helpful. Longer writings that I did a long time ago that are really pretty good. Let's see. Anyway, you might enjoy that, too. That's another thing. Back to starting meditation. I've been at this for 50 years and I try to eliminate side streets. So if you're new to meditation, yes, listen to every possible teacher, but also listen to consider listening to my podcasts one through nine, because I think they'll cover some things that hopefully other teachers cover, but sometimes maybe not. So great questions, everybody. Thank you. And thank you, Jennifer. Thank you, everybody. Great questions. OK, thanks so much. Take care. Oh, if you've enjoyed this podcast, consider sending a link to somebody. Let them know about it. Oh, I can't quit with Sarah asking me one question. Let me just say it's taken me nearly two years of baby steps and I have created enough space within myself to really move forward with my teaching yoga. I have made sure I have said yes to the opportunity that's been that has presented themselves to me, even when scary and imposter syndrome is on full blast. I gave my notice at at my part time job and it's given me a say the job has given me a safe place to heal some. And now I'm ready to take a small leap and put more energy into my own career. It has left me ridiculously slow at times. And I've really had to remind myself to be kind and gentle, even when the world and my partner suggested I move faster. That is so good, Sarah, completely. You're embodying your whole self. You're allowing the scared parts to be up. You're talking to them. You're working with them. And, you know, conventional wisdom, and it's good sometimes, is the definition of courage is doing something when you're afraid and can't do it. Do it anyway. That is good. And in a way you're doing that. But I would add to it and saying sometimes what that is, is too quick of a push jumps us over our scared part and it doesn't get to breathe. It has to submerge because there's no room for it because it's too slow. It's just learning and it's slow and people criticize it. You're doing the best thing in the long term. You're not jumping over yourself. Yes, you're moving forward, but you're doing it at the pace of your slowest part. And sometimes, okay, there are exceptions. And sometimes you just have to tell it, Hey, I've got to take over right now. But who are you talking to? It's really yourself. It's the hurting part of yourself, but generally better if you let it run the show. Such a good question. You're doing perfect. And I'm saying all that just to support what you're doing and everybody's saying, yes, they can resonate. They're behind you. Congratulations, everything. So you've got a lot of friends. Okay. Thank you all. Take care. And I look forward to seeing you next time. Bye.