131 Releasing Inner Blocks, Past Lives, Modifying Practices, Fear of Death - Q & A

This is a recording of a Live Q & A which has been edited for clarity, length, and helpfulness.  We discuss that so many are suffering these days, how to melt the obstacles that block our happiness, daily consistency in taking baby steps, the fear of death, past lives, and that it's ok to modify spiritual practices.

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

0:00

Welcome, everybody. This is William Cooper. Welcome to Awakening Together, Relaxing into Happiness. Good to see you all. I trust you've had a good couple of weeks. Hi, Sandeep. Hi, Hillary. Hey, Claire. Yes. Hey, everybody. While you're thinking about your questions, I'll talk about one or two things. A lot of people are suffering. A lot of people in the world are suffering. Have you noticed? I think everybody is suffering to some degree. And I think that's the point. I think that's what we're here to do in a way. And I don't mean that in a bad way, but what I mean is I think we're here to release the things that are holding us back. And when we release them, we feel what they're made of and they're made of suffering. Last time I talked about ice cubes, and I'm going to bring that up again because I think a lot of people like that analogy. And so anybody that's new, I'll revisit that. And Hillary, thank you for your question. We'll, we'll talk about that in just a bit. Thank you for typing it in. So without doing anything, your innate being is a bright light. It's made of bliss, wellbeing, happiness, love. There's no problems there. You don't have any problems. Here's a flashlight and you just look at this bright light. That's a metaphor of you. Very, very, very bright. Nothing to do. You're perfect. Well, how come I'm having problems? Because everything beyond creation, when it comes into creation, the one, when it comes into creation, it first is seen as a light. It's very fast moving, high vibration. And then it slows down into a low pitch sound and a high pitch sound. And then it slows down into bliss and joy and wellbeing and happiness. And all these are created things that we feel in our body. We feel happiness. We feel joy. All of that is your deepest being that's embodied. And you're feeling that. And then that same consciousness can be shaped by willpower into objects. It's like water can be frozen into an ice cube. And I have an ice cube here. Whoops. Here's two, two ice cubes. Water, life giving water is frozen into a shape of an ice cube. Well, you can freeze consciousness into a shape called manifestation. And you'll hear podcasts on how to manifest things. And I have a couple on that. So we're able to freeze consciousness into shapes. It can be a healthy, happy shape, or it can be the shape of a sharp object like a knife, frozen water into the shape of a knife can stab you. And often our emotions like resentment and anxiety and anger are turned inward towards ourselves. Anger turned inward towards ourselves is depression. After a while, we get depressed. Fear turned on in on us is anxiety. We jab ourselves with this knife that we made. It's made of consciousness and consciousness is love. So that's the funny, ironic part of it. We're stabbing ourselves with love, but it feels like anxiety because we've shaped it into that form. So really awakening, since you're already the light, there's only one thing to do in awakening. And that's to let go, dissolve all of these old objects that we formed, because once we create them, they still exist until we discreate them until we uncreate them. So here's another analogy. Here's, here's an empty container. This glass bowl is an empty container. That's our body or our nervous system. And you see the light shining through it. It can shine through quite easily through a clear container. So that would be our normal awakened state. But then as we create these ice cubes, oops, here's resentment. Here's a little anger. Here's a problem I had with so-and-so. Here's, here's a fear that I developed. Here's somebody that I never forgave. Here's, here's, Oh, I'm worried about the neighbor. Um, how about finances? Here's one. Anyway, this is me all now full of consciousness that I've frozen into various shapes. This is my formerly very clear self full of these objects. Now, when I try to shine the light through it, it doesn't come straight through. It bounces all off of all these objects I've formed. And I'm holding them inside of me because once I've created them, they're still there. Why are they still there? Because the way that I just create them, uncreate them is let them melt. But for them to melt, I have to feel what they're made of because they're made of hurt. And when they melt, they feel like hurt. And I don't want to feel hurt. So I don't let them melt. I then dissociate. So I don't even know they're there. Oops. I put them behind my back. I don't even see them or I repress them, put them down, put them out of my consciousness. I don't even see them, but this is my life. I'm burdened. And that's why I'm suffering. I'm burdened. Everybody on earth is full of these ice cubes. I haven't met anybody that isn't full of these ice cubes. Have you? Anybody? Oh, even Jesus got overwhelmed and he'd go off into the wilderness and he would pray and he would do his spiritual practices to let go of an ice cube that came up in him. I remember my friend and former guru Bhagavan used to say, he used to comment about other awakened beings and say, oh, so-and-so has anger issues or so-and-so is 90% awake or so-and-so is. And I find that interesting in that he also had issues. Sometimes we put people up on a pedestal and think, well, once you're awake, you have no more ice cubes. You have less ice cubes because when you have less ice cubes, then the light shines through and that's called being awake. But you still have stuff to work on your entire life. Poof, poof, poof. So how do you melt these ice cubes? Many of you old timers know, but I'll just go through quickly for, and it's in all of the past podcasts. There's about 129 past podcasts that are free and available on every platform for anybody that's a first timer here. If any of this stuff sounds either strange or interesting, I would say, go to podcast one and work your way forward. They each stand on their own, but they also build on each other. So in more detail in the prior podcast, but for now, how do you discreate all this stuff that's inside of us? Well, the first thing is I'm going to show you something. This is a pencil and see how small this pencil lead is. It's very small. I'll just put a little dot on this piece of paper. I don't know if you can even see it. It's just a little dot. It's on there. I don't know if you could see it. But when Jesus appeared to me, and I know that's strange, and I have a couple of podcasts on that. Just look for Jesus in the title. But it was strange to me too. But when he appeared, he showed me his nervous system and he put my nervous system, he overlaid it on top of his, and there were about four or five of these little tiny dots. And he said, you know, we're all the same except for you have these little dots, these four or five little dots. Now that's true of me, of you, of all of us. When we come to this earth, these dots, everything slows down because this dot is so small. You can't get your hands on it. But on this earth, things slow down and that little dot gets bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger. And then it just, it seems like it's an iceberg. It seems huge. So things slow down to that level. And those are our ice cubes. So how do we dissolve ice cubes? Well, life will find these ice cubes for you. These ice cubes are vibrating with pain. And so somebody will come to you and they will say something to you or do something that brings this ice cube up. Oh, I'm angry. You said this and I'm angry. Oops, I've got anger. Okay. Life found that ice cube. Okay. So now I know the thing to work on. I feel angry. That's the first ice cube to work on. So how do I work on that? Well, one way is I let the ice cube just sit in the sun and melt. What is the sun? That's my awareness. What is meditation? You sit still, you watch your thoughts and emotions. That's what problems are made of inside of me, right? Thoughts and emotions. Well, those start to melt just by shining the sun. You don't have to do anything. You just simply are aware and watch the ice cube as it melts. As it melts, it will discharge its energy, just like a wound up rubber band. There's nothing you have to do. Here's a rubber band. It's all wound up. You just don't get involved with it. You let go and the thing unwinds on its own. Now it's loose and limp and peaceful and relaxed. Well, your insides become loose and limp and peaceful and relaxed. So you just let go. As you let go and everything starts to release at some point, you'll notice that tension, that part of you that's tight, that has been hurting is ready to receive healing. So it's not simply watch the ice cube melt. It's when it loosens up some, let the ice cube breathe in what it wants. It wants peace. It wants love. It wants wellbeing. And it's not really an ice cube. It's you. So you own this part of you and you say, I'm hurting. I'm hurting. I'm hurting. I don't feel like I have love. I don't feel like I have peace. I don't feel like whatever it is. I don't have that thing. So you look around. This ice cube was frozen decades ago and put in an inside of you or even in past lives. It's inside of you now. So it has an old perception of life. That's no longer true. So when it melts down enough and it's ready to receive, look around and notice, wow, I'm no longer being abused. Everything's okay. Now say that you were abused as a kid or something, or I'm no longer being bullied or I'm no longer being attacked or somebody is no longer robbing me or whatever, whatever the thing is that created your ice cube. That's no longer happening. So it's very important to update your files, to step into that part. I am hurting. I'm hurting. I don't feel like I have love and then breathe in. And if you have a animal or a spouse or a friend or anything, hug them, touch them, and just for taking a drop. Wow. I am loved actually. Look around your life. Oh, I am loved. Review your life. No, that's an old thought. I'm fine. And that, it's like when you get a massage, that tight tension, that muscle that is tense, when it receives, when it breathes in that relaxation, when it breathes it in, it releases, the tension releases, it relaxes and it dissipates and it's gone, completely gone, right? It's nothing left to work on. It's gone. That's the same with these ice cubes. Now, as you melt more and more of these ice cubes, okay, this anger one just melted out. Okay. I'm walking down the street and I see somebody that did something that I never forgave them. And I hate them. Oh, I hate that person. I will never forgive them. Well, now this ice cube just came up. Okay. Let me work on that. Let go. Let go. Let it melt. Look around, find out that I'm okay. Maybe that person still is not a nice person, but life itself is giving to me. So I can let that person go and know that I can trust life. Therefore I can forgive. You don't forgive based on the other person doing the right thing. Finally, you forgive because you don't need to hold a grudge. You're fine. And so you let go. I also did a podcast on that. If you have some things about forgiveness that you'd like to look at, there's a prior podcast on that. There's also a podcast on a forgiveness meditation and also continuing about dissolving these ice cubes. It can be very helpful to make connections. You can connect with nature. You can connect with friends, animals, trees, walk barefooted, and that helps update your files. Oh, it's okay now. It's okay now. Okay. Now. And talking about the problem helps you release some of the pent up energy and then receive the feeling, the experience that it's okay. Sometimes it's better to talk to a therapist. If you have a therapist available, if you don't, or the price is out of the question, I did a podcast. Let's say it's 90. I'm not sure, but it's how to access relatively free or free psychotherapy, either online or in your area. So it's available to anybody that wants it. Uh, you have many, many options. And then the last thing I'll say about letting, melting these ice cubes is Bhagavan used to say to see is to be free. When you see clearly, it helps heal you. It helps melt things. And the example that I give, that's an old example. You've heard it. You could be full of anxiety and, uh, tension and all sorts of things because you misperceive something. For instance, if you're in a dark room in India and in the corner, you see a deadly Cobra, you're afraid to sleep all night. You're having panic attacks. You know, you're going to die. It's horrible. And then as the sun rises, you see that it was simply a rope. Well, once you know that it's a rope, all that anxiety, what happens? It, it disappears. You're not afraid of a rope. Now in life, things are a little bit more complicated, but when we don't see clearly that might propel us to go to a psychotherapist, take psychotropic drugs, maybe psychedelic drugs and to drink too much, do all sorts of things. And then finally, Oh, Oh, I was mistaken. So seeing clearly can be very helpful. It can solve a lot, maybe not everything, but it can be very helpful as more of these ice cubes dissolve. You see more clearly naturally. So that's melting ice cubes. One other thing I want to say about these ice cubes. Here's this bowl of ice cubes. Well, say there's two bowls like this side by side. Let's say there's five ice cubes in one bowl and 10 in the other bowl. Is one bowl inherently more moral than the other bowl? Is it a better bowl that it should be more prideful? No, maybe it's just been around longer. If you want to believe in past lives, maybe it's had more lives to melt these ice cubes. It's not a moral thing. It's just, if I have ice cubes, my light's blocked and I feel bad because I don't feel my joy and happiness. It gets blocked. So what do I want to do? I just start letting ice cubes melt simple. Simple, just do it. As more and more of these ice cubes melt, say this ice cube, it's gone. It's melted. Now this one's melted and now this one's melted. There's less ice cubes. Does that mean you don't have any problem? Maybe Jesus had two ice cubes left. I don't know. I'm making up stuff now, but let's say two. Wow, that's pretty clear. Maybe he only had one. Let's say one for Jesus. You know, at the end he was, father, why have you forsaken me? So he felt pretty separate in that one instance. He went through a lot. I don't know how anybody could do that, but he did. But he was on earth. He had stuff. And so when you get down to just a few ice cubes, that light really shines through. What I'm getting to is you don't have to dissolve every single ice cube. See, this only has one ice cube and that light can really shine through. You don't have to dissolve every ice cube. If you just dissolve one ice cube, the light gets through much better. Two ice cubes, way better. So don't wait to feel that you're awakening like, Oh, I have to dissolve all these ice cubes. No, you don't. You'll feel better and better with each ice cube that's gone. So that's the awakening process. Just relax, relaxing into happiness. Awakening together is the name of this podcast. Relaxing into happiness. What is happiness? That's your being. That's who you are. Happiness. Okay. So I hope that made sense. If you have any questions about that, please type them in, but I'm going to go back and answer the questions that you had typed in. Hillary says, my question is a bit nebulous, but where does fear of death fit into enlightenment? It really frightens me. Well, Hillary, that is the best question. That is not just you, by the way. If you read almost any book, they'll say all fear comes from the fear of death. So it's a universal fear. Now, a lot of people don't have that. So I don't want to, I don't seem to, at this point, have that. Now, maybe, maybe I'll find out. Oops. I surely I did. I didn't realize it, but it doesn't seem like I have that right now, but it is quite universal. And, you know, none of us quite know what death is, unless we're very intuitive. And if we're quite intuitive, it doesn't feel like there's any stopping in death. It doesn't feel any different than being alive. It feels very expansive and full of love and you pick up where you left off and it doesn't seem like there's any problem in death. When you develop your intuition very deeply. But before that happens, and that that is from my experience, but before that happens, we don't have any clue as to what death is. We don't know. And it just seems like blackness or the end of us or separation. Ultimately, all these things are separation there. Like we're separated from anything good. Like what good is in that death? We don't because it's an unknown. We don't even know what's happening there. It might be nothing. It might be, um, some people believe, oh, they might end up in hell or some hell realm. Or some people might feel that they're cut off from good things because they no longer exist and only good things exist. But all of those imaginations and that's what they all are because the human mind can't know. The human mind can only know what comes through the five senses and death is beyond the five senses. So short of intuition, we just don't know. So we project a lot of things on the, on death and all of them at their heart generally have separation cut off from everything good. And when we're cut off from things that are good, it's very frightening. It's like, uh, fear is being cut off from, from your being. That's everything good is your being. And sometimes death seems like you're going to be cut off from your being. That's not what happens. Of course you are wherever you go. So as your being, your being is you. So it will be wherever you are, uh, in any realm, anywhere, anytime. So you're never cut off, but from the mind, it might seem like you're cut off and we get afraid of our hallucinations and fantasies and thoughts. Thoughts are just hallucinations, right? We make them up so they can be helpful hallucinations, like how we visualize how to make an airplane or they can be unhelpful hallucinations. Like we visualize how much our neighbor is out to get us or how much, uh, what could happen after death. We visualize that. So that's where in my estimation, fear of death, it's death equals fear often. So enlightenment is letting go of fear because fear is yet another ice cube. The fear of death is an ice cube. One of these 10 ice cubes, one of them is fear of death. So I let that ice cube, I just feel that fear. In meditation, I see it. If it, if it's triggered and it comes up naturally, I watch it. I watch it. I let it expend its energy and I do all the things on that particular ice cube that I just referenced. You do those. And eventually the fear dissipates and all there is is a contemplation of death without the fear. When enough ice cubes melt and you become clear, your intuition naturally flows. And what you can't see when you're clouded with too many ice cubes, which is the human condition, it's not specific to you, Hillary, it's all of us. But when enough ice cubes melt in any of us, we see clearly and to see clearly, you have to have clear intuition because most of the things of value can only be known through intuition. Short of intuition, we're flying blind. We're making up stuff. We're kind of asking our neighbor, well, what do you think? What do you think? Reading a book? What does this book say? What does this person say? What is that? We don't know. We're just asking. We still don't know. We hope they're right. I don't know. We go with the best thing, but we don't really know. I hope that answered your question or pointed somewhat in the right direction. Think of it as fear. Sit still and let that's called meditation. And when that fear comes up, watch it, let it melt, let it dissipate, let it unwind, let it breathe in and find breathe in the trust that the universe is me. The universe isn't going anywhere and everything beyond from which the universe came is also me. That becomes a truth rather than a guess or a belief as you become clear enough in your intuition is flowing. You see it, you feel it. Then it's a direct experience and the fear of death disappears. That's, that's what I would say about that. It's a process. It'll, it'll work itself out. It's relationship to enlightenment is simply one of the many ice cubes that's blocking the truth of who you are. Lots of people, Blossom High, Jennifer High, Claire. Claire says, I'm going through your podcast and just as you said, baby steps, but everything you say makes sense. And although this could be a very scary time for myself and my family right now, I feel okay. That trust is there. Yes, it wanders off course, but inside I don't think I've ever felt so at peace. Oh, thank you, Claire. Thank you for saying that. That is the purpose of these podcasts and Claire, you and I are in the same boat. So is everybody else listening? We go through very difficult times. I've had a tough couple of days myself. You sounds like it's been more than a couple of days and mine has to everybody that's listening. I'm sure has to. Claire, you're doing really great. I also want to add that our hearts and best wishes go out to you and your family. I really appreciate your comments because they represent so many of us and so many families that are going through a tough time. And yet you continue your spiritual practices, which is so important and keeps you in a good spot where you can take care of your family. And baby steps. The reason I did these podcasts was to map out as clearly as I could, everything that I've experienced. And I'm standing on the shoulder of so many awakened beings who have guided me. And now this has become my direct experience. So I have my own way of saying things, my own way of doing things. I am a psychotherapist and I blend things together that are very practical because sometimes people say, well, just drop, just drop your problems, drop your anxiety, or just drop it. Let it go. It's blocking you. Let it go. Well, I want to know how. Okay. I would love to, but it's not going. How do I do it? So these podcasts are designed to be my best effort at showing you what I've found to be true on how to do it. One other thing about letting these ice cubes melt, practice, letting go, practice, not making ice cubes in the first place, letting go. So when somebody cuts you off in traffic, if you feel anger, welling up right then, that's good time to practice rather than pushing it inside or screaming, just let it go. You practice, you practice on the little things, get good at that. And then when a big thing on the inside comes up, it's easier to let it come up instead of repressing it again, because it's so threatening. You, you, you build muscles. One German awakened master told me I had a weak nervous system. I was like a 90 pound weakling and I needed to build my nervous system. And he was, he was right. But as you build your nervous system, as you feel more things, as you get better and better at letting go, you develop a strong nervous system. And those things that seem huge slowly start to seem a little smaller, a little smaller, a little smaller, just like lifting weights. What used to seem like a big weight, so heavy after you've lifted weights for a while, that's nothing, you know, you don't even bother with that weight. So practice, just letting go. And then you'll be able to let go things in meditation better and better. And then I'm more specific in my podcast on how to let go. And much of that is centered around what we just talked about at the beginning of this podcast, the steps to letting go, letting life bring up an ice cube, letting it sit in your awareness and melt, letting it expend its energy when it's ready, own it rather than dissociate from it like, oh, this is a hurt that I have in my stomach, or this is a hurt I have over here inside of me. No, I am creating that hurt. I am hurting myself. Okay. I've let enough go. So I'm loose enough. And now I'm ready to receive the truth of today. I'm okay. I'm not being abused. I'm okay. So let me soak that in like a dry sponge. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. And then that ice cube is totally melted, including I see clearly. So I see that I'm not being attacked anymore. That's not really happening. It's not a Cobra. It's just a rope in the corner. Thank you, Claire. And thank you for the good words about these podcasts. I'm glad they're helping you. And as I started to say, we're in the same boat. They're helping me too daily. And Claire, while I was explaining things was saying yes, and that she has plenty of ice. She laughs and yeah, me too. Feeding the fear, the hurt, fear or anger with love. Yes, as the ice, that's just what I was saying. As the ice cube comes up and it's melted, it's expended its energy in the first stages. It's so cold. It's so hard. And it's just not ready to take in anything. Likely. It just is not ready. You could ask it, do you want love? And it probably would say, no, no, I don't even like you just stay away. This is your inner little ice cube voice. But after it melts some and melt some and melt some, it feels like, well, things might be better. Then it's ready. Then you're ready to take in love and hurt wants something. It wants to be hugged. You're okay. I love you. Fear wants to know, okay, you're safe. So you hold on to a tree or you walk barefooted. Anger wants something. What does it want? Anger wants to know life is good. You'll be taken care of. You'll be fulfilled. You're going to get everything you need. You're going to be okay. So you, you give yourself nourishment that way. And you connect to the truth that the universe is you. And so all of the universe is at your disposal to provide you with fulfillment. It's there. And by the way, the interesting thing is since there is no such thing as time, every good solution that's coming to you already is in you. So there's no law that says you can't start feeling it now, even before it's manifested in your life. You can start feeling it now. And haven't you heard, you know, the instructions for prayer or manifesting things. They'll say, find your passion for the thing that you want, first of all. And then secondly, visualize having it. And they'll say, don't visualize having it in the future because that keeps visualizing that one day you'll have it, but you don't have it now. So you're always waiting, waiting, waiting. Instead, it says, visualize that you already have it. And that's what Jesus said as well. Visualize that you already have it and soak it up. Enjoy it. Now, the truth of that statement is there is no such thing as time. Really? It's a helpful construct to get through our world, but you do have everything now and then just soak it up and enjoy it. The process for manifesting things also says work hard for it too. It's not just sit and visualize and know that you have it and enjoy the thought, but it's also put it into motion, do some steps towards what it is that you want to do. And so it'll turn out you do 1% of the effort. It seems like you're doing a lot, but you do once percent, but that mobilizes the whole universe to do the other 99%. That's called grace. And it brings to you the thing that you were looking for in your life because it's coming from a pure heart. It's something you have passion for. Let's see, Yvonne, I've melted a lot of ice. Your live sessions are great reminders to keep going at baby steps. Yes, Yvonne. See, that's what I found too. The reason why I came up with baby steps is because in my life, that's what works. Don Miguel Ruiz, you remember his four agreements. He said, do your best. That's one of the four agreements. Do your best every day. But then as he explained, what is your best? It's just, what can you do today? That's your best today. That's all you can do. And I noticed because I am a psychotherapist, I went through a lot of classes in college and graduate school. And one of them was behavioral psychology. And what probably all of you know is when you pair an adverse of reinforcement to any kind of behavior, you will eventually extinguish that behavior. And what is an adverse of reinforcement? That's pain. When you put any pain with anything, eventually the person will quit doing that thing or the animal or whatever. That's why people sign up for gyms and you get a $10 membership and they sell a hundred thousand memberships and nobody shows up because they overdo it in January. Nobody ever shows up for the rest of the year. There's a small percentage that do, but most don't because when you exercise too much, it's painful and eventually you stop. That's an adverse of reinforcement. So a better way for me that I discovered, say with exercise, I decided, okay, I want to exercise X number of days a week, but I'm only going to hold myself to exercising 60 seconds a day. I can do more, but only have to do 60 seconds. The moment I don't like it, I'm going to stop. Say I do 10 minutes at 10 minutes. If I don't like it at minute number 11, I stop knowing that I don't have any adverse of reinforcement by definition. I stopped right when I get to anything that could be adverse. Well, the same in our spiritual practice. If you meditate too long, well, the teacher says I need to meditate three hours at one stretch and it's so painful. I'm doing it. I'm doing it. I'm doing it. And then after two months, I never want to meditate again. So instead it's better to start with a minute. And if that's painful because you're releasing too many ice cubes, then stop. The next day, try two minutes and three minutes. And then also your nervous system gets stronger. So that's what baby steps are for me. And I appreciate you saying that, Yvonne. It's something we all do. We all can do something every day on our spiritual walk. Some kind of something consistency is more important than bulk. If you do a little something every day that moves you in the direction of clarity, which means I'm letting these obstacles melt out of me. Maybe today it's enough simply to admit that I have an obstacle because I've repressed this thing for 20 years and I don't even want to believe that. I can't even believe that I would have this kind of feeling inside of me, but I do just admitting it. That's enough for today, maybe. Because doing more than that today might be too overwhelming where I don't want to admit anything ever again. I don't know. We're all different. So baby steps, just do anything today. Maybe it's a lot, maybe it's a little, I don't know, but your nervous system will naturally grow. And it's a sign of love towards each of us to honor ourselves. If a teacher gives you an instruction, they're doing their best. They're trying to show you how to do things. But if it doesn't fit you, then once you understand the instructions, modify it to fit you. If they say take a deep breath, but the part of you that's needing to relax, that one part of you, that one broken off little piece of you that needs to know that it's okay. Maybe that's the one breathing and it's only three years old inside of you because it got frozen when you were three. It can only take a tiny breath, but that's the one that needs to relax. Not the rest of you. The rest of you is doing fine. So just take a small breath, even though the teacher says, take a deep breath, do what works for you. Now in another day, a deep breath works. And it's good to know how deep breaths work. So I'm not saying disregard. I'm just saying modify. I'm saying, understand and modify. Baby steps. Listen to yourself. It's a very natural process awakening, right? Life shows me, triggers me, shows me my ice cubes. I melt what I can today. And when it gets to be too much, I flip on the TV or I walk around the block or I hug a tree. You know, there's no rules. There's no such thing as time. So you have forever. What motivates me though is these ice cubes, when you got too many of them and you can't see through the glass bowl, you can't feel yourself and all you feel is hurt. So what motivates me is I don't want to feel hurt. I don't want to feel pain. I want to feel good. So every ice cube that melts, I feel better. Wow. Such great questions. Any other thoughts or observations that any of you might have? By the way, while you're thinking of that, I do want to say that, as you know, I'm a psychotherapist, but lately I've been putting in my podcast, just that this of course is not psychotherapy and it's my best effort at giving you helpful tools that I feel like you can use yourself. But if you should get overwhelmed and want to talk to a psychotherapist, find one in your area or go to my podcast that tells you how to find a free one or a low cost one or join a Zoom group or something like that centered around psychotherapy. Many options. I lived in Austin for 30 years and I used to work a lot with hypnosis and I did a decent amount of past life regressions and things like that. But mostly in my private practice as a psychotherapist, I developed different hybrid therapies that integrated hypnosis with more traditional therapies and it sort of sped the process up a bit. But because I did this hypnosis and because I was interested in spiritual things, I would get all different kinds of clients. Mainly I had medical doctors referring people to me for anxiety or things like that, but really they would refer for all sorts of things. Well, independently of all that, I had a man drive up to Austin from San Antonio and he gave me a little book and he said, I'm a deacon in a big Baptist church in San Antonio and I don't know what to do with this book. I really can't give it to anybody except for you. He said, my father-in-law passed away, let's say a year ago and he said sometime in the middle of the night, his wife's mother, his mother-in-law, she would wake up and her hands would start shaking and she was just a nice Baptist lady. That was it. She just felt to get a pencil and put it on paper and it would just be all this swirls of, um, of, uh, pencil, you know, just would make no sense. It was just curlicues and things like that, like doodling. And then it started turning into words and then it started turning into sentences and paragraphs. So every day she was so scared, she'd be going to hell, uh, over all this. She didn't know what to make of it. She would date it. She would time it. This happened on February 5th at 1 a.m. In the morning and it ended at 1 21, uh, blah, blah, blah. And this whole book was made of these passages from her husband that was communicating with her and it was never published. They just gave me this book and I made copies and gave it to clients that were afraid of death. Or sometimes I would work with people that had brain tumors and had cancer or life threatening illnesses. I would work with them to help them heal using hypnosis if possible. And so I would give this to them to open their minds. And he was said, it's very hard to communicate with people in this world when you're in the other world, but this is what my life is. And I'm working real hard to let you know so that, um, you won't be afraid or, and you'll know what's going on. And it was very uplifting. I got this book. When was it? It was something like 19. I think it was like 1993 probably something like that. And it was before all these books came out, like, uh, awakened by the light and all these things where people got very famous books about what happened to them after, after they died. And so it wasn't influenced by any of this. It was very pure, but it was along those same lines. So if you're concerned about death, you know, as a first step, or I know you've had more than one step Hillary by now, but to add to your steps, you might read some of those books, including I found Edgar Cayce. Uh, there is a river, very compelling. Now what's happened since then, as I said, my intuition has opened up and I see past this life. I experienced past this life. I feel past time, even though I'm very much bound in my body and my issues. I also at the same time experience the fullness of it all. So now these things have become a moot point for me, but you got to start somewhere. And that's where I started. So maybe that would be helpful. There is a river is a very good, very good, and it's very documented. So I, if you haven't read anything else, I would read that. It's very interesting. It's good to read. It's, it's fun to read. I have around podcast 90. I have something, I have a podcast called books that awaken and in there, that's one of the books that I mentioned in that. If you, if any of you like to read books, you might listen to that podcast. Really. I've tried to put everything I know that could be helpful in these podcasts. So look back and you'll see them. If you're wondering, how do I find these podcasts? Just Google my name on any platform, William Cooper, and put awakening or awakening together or anything like that, or William Cooper awakening podcasts, definitely on insight time or where we are now. It's, it's there. If you follow me, you'll be notified of every live session I do and every new podcast that I post. And I post them all on insight timer. Okay. So Emily says I'm so intrigued by past life regressions. I'm reading three waves of volunteers by Dolores cannon regarding her experiences with past life regressions as a hypnotherapist. Yes. David Weiss also has good books. Me as a, uh, a licensed therapist and a hypnotherapist, I've, I've worked with thousands of people with hypnosis and a lot of them were past life. And I remember one lady came to me and she said, look, I don't, I know you've done past life regressions. Cause I'm being referred by a friend that did one. I don't want that. I don't want anything to do with that. Don't believe it has please nothing to do with past life. I said, nope, no past life. She said, I do have an issue. I want you to use hypnosis to regress me to the source of my problem so that I can understand it better and let it go. I said, yes, I will do that. So I regressed her back to her problem. As I always would do with these kinds of problems, I'd say, feel what you felt, where are you? And in this particular case, guess what? She ended up in a past life. I didn't want her to be in a past life. I was horrified because she told me specifically no past lives. I wasn't trying to, but she was the president of the humane society and a certain city. I won't say where. And she was definitely afraid of horses and she didn't know why. And when she regressed back to a past life, she was a champion equestrian and she had a, uh, she was killed, uh, going over a jump and drug by the horse. And once understanding that she could get her hands on it and work with it a little bit better. But yes, past lives can be very powerful. Now it can help you get your hands on things and work with things that perhaps you haven't been able to in the past understand. However, you don't have to go to past lives because every problem you have had in a past life, it comes up in this life. Maybe you don't understand why do I have this problem, but you do have that problem. So you can work with things in this life to let that problem go as well. Past life isn't the only Avenue for the rest of you. I'm saying this is not the only Avenue to get to letting these ice cubes go. Uh, in the last live session, I can't remember who it was, but at the end, maybe it was seeds or somebody said there are many ways into awakening and many ways out. There are many ways in and out of the infinite. And it's the same with our problems. Life will help you let it go, but past life can be very helpful. Why not? And one other comment in the end, even though Jesus has appeared to me and he's my friend and angels and all this stuff, I learned that to be enamored with this stuff is a good interim step in and helped me a lot, but even concepts like heaven and stuff, that's still a place where I'm separate from my, from being one. It's me. One person talking to Jesus over here, that's two, but in my awakened state, there's, I'm only one. There's no Jesus. There's no me. It's all one. The universe is me. I'm not, I don't aspire to go to heaven because now that's simply another realm where I, it's a great realm, but now I'm separate from my ultimate self. So everybody in heaven's got to work to be come awakened. Anyway, they're just clearer than we are here, probably. So I don't really worry about all these angels and Jesus and everybody anymore, or talking to people that have passed away. Although sometimes they still appear. Sometimes they still come and talk to me. That's fine. But I don't, I, it's beyond all that. And Jesus pointed to that. He said, the father and I are one. He wasn't saying, he said, follow me only to become like him, united in the father, become one and Hinduism awakened and Buddhism awakened and become enlightened. So these are very good things. We have to baby step our way forward. Past lives. Yes, that's a big, I did a lot of past life regression myself. It's helpful. That's a good baby step. And then from there you see more clearly, and then you do the next thing and the next thing and the next thing, but don't be shy about letting go of the things that were very helpful in the past, but they no longer are necessary now because they can become what once was helpful can become a burden eventually. But I'm open to everything these days. We can talk about anything. I love it all. Jennifer said excellent books about the ones in the awakening books podcast. Thank you, Jennifer. Monica says, hi, William, happy to be back with you. I'm very interested in past life regression. I've read every book Brian Weiss wrote. Yes. And Monica, it was Emily. And she said she read every book by Dolores cannon about past life regressions. Yeah. Everything they say is true. It's absolutely true. So yes, if you're, if your heart calls you to explore past lives, I definitely would benefit from it. And then let it go. Let it open you up, let it open you up and then go to the next thing. And the next thing you're like a flower opening a Lotus flower, opening, opening, opening to the, to the gentle sunshine and life is giving you the next thing. It's saying, if your heart says past lives are interesting to me, that's what life is telling you. That's your intuition. So do it, find out more. Okay, everybody. Thanks so much. I enjoyed it. Thank you for all of your great questions. Take care. Bye.