135 Releasing, Tension, Negative Thoughts and Influences, Nothingness - Q&A

This is a recording of a Live Q & A which has been edited for clarity, length, and helpfulness.  We discussed how relaxation and tension apply to the process of Awakening and how to release blocks.  A participant asked for perspective on experiencing herself as "nothing".  Others asked about negative thoughts in meditation, can we be dealing with feelings we have absorbed from others rather than created ourselves, etc.

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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Hello everybody. This is William Cooper. I hope you're doing well today. This is our time to talk about anything on your spiritual path that comes to you to talk about. Hi Claire. Hi everybody. You know, we all are light. There's nothing we have to do. And just like a light bulb, it's not pushing to get the light out. The light just comes out. It flows. And we are a flow. There's nothing that we have to do. Yet, this beautiful light that you are, and you are quite beautiful. You're beautiful light and love and peace and calmness and happiness. These are all qualities of this light that you are. Any happiness that you feel in your life comes from this inner light. So, you've felt that before. You've felt your light. And some of you feel it all the time. That's called awakening. Others, it's a process. Most of us, it's a process. What blocks our light? Tension. If you have any tension in your body, that is to some degree, blocking your light. Emotions are made of tension. You don't feel relaxed when you feel angry. You don't feel relaxed when you feel hurt. You don't feel relaxed when you're discontent or anxious or fearful. Even if you work through the emotion, at the heart of that emotion is attention. There's only two things. There's light, which you are. And then there's tension, which is the foundation of blockages. And that you've created and perhaps just didn't know how to let go of. Or because it hurts so much, you repressed it and forgot about it. But it's been piling up inside with other tensions bothering you. Or you've simply absorbed attention, perhaps from somebody else. You've accepted their mindset or their culture or their influence. So, really, awakening is simply about letting go of your tension. You don't have to look for it because life will bring it up. You might be feeling great and then suddenly somebody says something that doesn't feel good because it bounces off of a repressed tension inside. And so you might feel anger, hurt, fear, anxiety. And if you sit with it long enough, you'll notice there's a tension at the heart of it. Perhaps you can feel it in your body, a tense stomach or a tense neck or forehead. Different people feel it in different ways. How do you release this tension? Because who wants to feel that? None of us. That's what we're doing on earth here is releasing this tension so that we can feel our beautiful selves and flow from our light rather than reacting from our tensions. So how do we let go of it? Well, the past 130 podcasts or so, we've looked at it in different ways on how to release this tension. So if you're new right now and you want to go back, they're all free. You can go back. You can Google awakening together, relaxing into happiness with William Cooper on any platform. You'll find it right here on insight timer. They're all here. So you could start with number one and work your way forward or just listen to any title that interests you. But let's do a quick review. The first thing I would say is when you're going through hard times and, you know, Buddha said all life is suffering. Life is suffering because he looked around both within himself and everybody around him and they were full of tension. And when you're full of tension, you're cut off from yourself. And when you're cut off from yourself because you're blocked, you feel separation, anxiety, that's fear. You feel hurt when you're cut off from the infinite, you do feel hurt. You feel abandoned. And also you feel frustrated and angry. So he looked around and everybody he looked at was feeling those things. So he said, life is suffering. The second noble truth, he said, there's a cause of your suffering. And because you know the cause, there's an end to your suffering. Just stop causing your suffering and it will end. And then he gave a path, the Eightfold Path. So what is your Eightfold Path? First of all, I'd say it's to get safe. Just get out of the pounding surf. You don't want to have a tumultuous life, if possible. Sometimes there's no possibility around it, but do what you can to kind of get yourself safe. That's really important. Have enough money coming in that you have a safe place to live. Maybe a safe relationship. If you're not in a safe relationship, consider getting out of it, perhaps if that's the appropriate thing for you. But the first thing is to be in a safe place. So you're not tossed around. And then after that, I'm going to say two things. One, I'll give you some advice from me. But more importantly, I'd say, do whatever works for you in the end, to let that tension go. Because we're multidimensional beings, have you noticed that when somebody gives spiritual advice, it can be contradictory. Two different people, you hear two different solutions. Because we're like a rainbow, we have lots of colors and lots of levels and different kinds of advice are appropriate for different places on the rainbow. So you have to look and match what you're doing to the place where you're holding the tension. And typically, once you release that tension on that level, you may drop down into another level, and then you will use a different practice for that. So what are some of the practices that people use? They're simple practices such as exercise, yoga, good nutrition, being in nature is very powerful. Another simple exercise, but very profound, as profound as nature, I suppose even more profound is meditation, just sitting still and letting the mud settle out of the silty water, which is what you're looking through. Everything appears to be a problem. Einstein said, you can't solve a problem with the mind that created the problem. You need a new mind. Really, you need something beyond your mind. So when you sit still in meditation, what happens? Your troubles can start to melt away. They reveal themselves. You watch them and the heat of your awareness, it doesn't feel like heat, but it's like the gentle sun rays on a block of ice begins to melt that ice, begins to melt your problems. And all of the confusion begins to settle out and melt away. And then things become clearer. And from that clear place, you're better able to know what to do. A lot of it's intuitive. So there's all kinds of meditations in various podcasts that are available to you that I've done. I go through many of them. There are mantra meditations. There's sound meditations. I like what I call the awakening meditation, where you just sit still and watch everything and let it settle out. But there are different kinds of meditations which are appropriate for different places. On your rainbow, different places in your life, there's walking meditation. Sometimes it's just too hard to sit still. So to put yourself into that becomes hurtful. So maybe it's better to walk. I don't know if you saw the recent study that Tai Chi, when compared to aerobic exercise, is maybe 70% more effective in lowering blood pressure. You would think aerobic exercise would lower blood pressure, and it does. You burn off a lot of tension and open up after you exercise. But Tai Chi combines meditation and movement. So when you do anything mindfully, you start to release, you start to release. And when you start to release that tension we just talked about, that's clamping us down and raising the blood pressure for many of us, that tension dissolves. And when there's no tension or less tension, blood pressure goes down. So that's a nice metaphor for every place in our life, just opening, just letting go. So you can practice this in many, many ways. It's just, if I was going to make it so simple, I would say, just let go of tension in any way that works for you. Let go of tension and practice letting go of tension. If somebody cuts you off in traffic and you feel yourself getting angry and frustrated, intense, let it go. Just let it flow through you. It will be very uncomfortable because it's old stuff that's coming up layered on top of the current event of somebody cutting you off in traffic. The whole thing comes up. And just even though the person was wrong who cut you off, just let the whole thing go. Just let it go. Practice letting go on daily activities. Somebody at home says something to you and you start to get tense. Let it go this time. Just practice letting go. When you're more relaxed, maybe that's a better time to talk about things. If there is something to actually talk about, just let it go. You won't be good at first. Some of us will be better than others because we've practiced more. But for most of us, just letting stuff go can be hard at first, but you get better and better. And then that also helps your meditation because everything, every spiritual practice is basically either how to let that tension go or how to rest in the light that you are without being distracted away from that light. For instance, as far as resting in the light that you are, that's when a mantra meditation might be helpful. And just as an example, I might use the mantra light. And as we've discussed before, we're always a mixture of the things that we're not. These tensions that once they release, we'll still be here. So we weren't the tensions. We are the light that remains after the tension is released. So we're a combination of both the tensions that we're not and the light that we are. So even if you are far from feeling awake, you might notice a little place in you that feels love or happiness or light, just a little sliver, perhaps maybe a big sliver, but whatever you feel, you tune into that. And from that place, you stay there. And any time you start to get distracted away from resting in the light that you are, you just say the word light. And that reminds you, just stay there. Don't jump into the distraction. Just let that distraction go. Let that tension go. The person that cut you off in traffic, let that go. The person at home that said something, let that go. The neighbor, let that go. Light, light. You know, depending on which chakra your being is shining through the strongest, you might feel something other than light. I often reference light, but maybe you feel more love or maybe you feel more peace depending on your chakra. Maybe you feel more intuition. Maybe you feel more expansiveness. Maybe you feel beyond light into pure emptiness. So, find that place that's undisturbed, whatever that might feel like for you. Love, if it's love, just maybe your mantra could be love. Love, regardless of the neighbor. Love, regardless of traffic. Love, regardless of scheduling. Maybe calmness is a good mantra. Calm. And when you feel the calmness in your being, even if other stuff is happening, you just say calm, calm. And you stay there instead of jumping into the turmoil, the drama. All drama is made of an underlying tension. All turmoil is made of an underlying tension. The mind that creates the problem cannot be the mind that solves it because the same mind is made of tension. It's made of drama. It's made of confusion. Okay. One other thing I referenced in another podcast, you know, everything is made of consciousness. You can feel it. You can see it. And as you get clearer and clearer, when you touch something, you feel the vibration of it. Right now, I'm touching the desk and I can feel the calmness of that consciousness that makes this desk. You can feel it in trees. You can feel it with the wall. You can feel it on everything is made of consciousness. Well, consciousness is like water is to ice. When we put willpower onto consciousness on free flowing, life-giving water, we can turn it into ice. We can freeze that consciousness into an object. And here's a cube of ice. I'm just holding up a cube of ice. You see a dripping because it's made of water, of course. So all willpower utilizes tension to create things because when you focus on something, you have to use some tension. If you create a problem, you need to use tension. If you create a house, that's not a problem. It's a good thing, but you still have to focus your willpower and you're using some sort of tension. You're holding a hammer. Your muscles become tense and flexed, and then they hit the nail. You're channeling free flowing consciousness and creating objects, whether it's a house or a problem. You're using willpower to change consciousness, to freeze it into an object. When you sit still, that object, this ice cube, which I'm holding up right now, and when you put your awareness on this ice cube, nothing you have to do, it just will melt. It will melt and it will turn back into consciousness or water. Why do I say that? Because sometimes we try to solve problems using our willpower, but remember willpower is that which freezes consciousness into ice cubes to start with. Just watching an ice cube or watching a problem is not using willpower. It's just being relaxed and watching it, letting it melt. This ice cube that I'm holding up now exudes its coldness. Problems, if I held up a problem and we watched it and it was melting, it would exude what it's made of hurt, fear, or anger, not coldness, but hurt, fear, and anger. Either one is uncomfortable. You just sit and watch it, whether it's an ice cube or a problem and it melts. If I put willpower to try to solve the problem, I refreeze it. So if I struggle with the problem, somewhere deep inside, I might have solved the problem, but that underlying tension is still there. Eventually you have to watch that tension and let it release, let go, relax. Now, am I saying never use willpower to solve a problem? No, I'm just saying willpower brings the freezing quality to a problem. When do you use willpower to solve a problem? Well, if I have something that's so snarled up that I need to think it through, that requires some willpower. So I think it through and that helps release that problem to a great degree. But after I release that problem, I will find that there's that discontent or that anxiety or that hurt or that anger is still in my life, even though this particular problem might have been solved. So that will eventually come up. And when that comes up, that tension, that's what you don't use the willpower on. The bottom line is you're a beautiful light. Stay there and let the rest melt away. Just let any tension melt away, let any concern melt away and do any practice that works for you. And those practices will shift as you shift. What's your practice been like? Are you meditating? Often when people meditate, they can find it very difficult because they're releasing so much pent up, repressed thoughts that the mind starts spinning and it's very uncomfortable and you feel a lot of hurt. Sandeep says, how to get rid of negative thoughts even while meditating. Perfect, Sandeep. Thank you so much for that question. Here's what I do. There's at least two levels of my answer, Sandeep. The first is if these negative thoughts are actually causing you some sort of damage or like they're being disruptive to your life right now, then I would give you a different answer. I would say something like you want to exercise or see a therapist or work on changing your thoughts or concentrate on a positive mantra and I would work it out with a therapist. I don't think you're asking that. I think you're asking yes. And Sandeep says, well, nothing on the outside but inside my mind is a battle always. Okay. That's what I thought you meant, Sandeep. But for everybody else, I'd say if they're causing you damage, get safe. That's not what Sandeep is asking. So we're looking at it from a different level. What I do for when I have negative feelings and we all do are negative thoughts. I let them run their course like that ice cube melting because this light that we all are has been frozen in some regard into negativity just through our karma or our upbringing. Karma is simply cause and effect. I go through some hard times. I repress them. What happens after that when it comes up, I could call that karma. It's based on a past thing. But I'm wanting this past to release. I'm wanting these negativities, these negative thoughts to release. And I can't do that if I try to control them because that refreezes them. I'm using willpower. So what I do is I just sit still and feel them. I watch them, but I don't jump into them and think them. They're thinking themselves. They're releasing their energy as they unwind like a tight rubber band that's twisted very tight. And when I let go of one end, it goes crazy. It releases a tremendous amount of energy. Well, when I meditate, I'm sitting still and it's hard to repress things. So all this old negativity, which is painful and hurtful and not good for me, it starts to release and it starts to spin like a rubber band releasing all of its energy. So knowing that, I do my best not to take it seriously. Like just because negative stuff is going through my head, I just take it to be that negative stuff, old energies. I don't take it seriously like it's true. This thing that somebody told me when I was in my formative years is true and I'll never be good enough. I'll never be this or, or, or my perception about not being able to get a job. That's true. And I'll never be able to get a job. See, all these are based on old tensions. So I let those old tensions have full rain and I let them unwind. I let them release their energy as much as possible. As long as I or whoever's doing this is safe. If you get to a point where you're, it's too much and you're overwhelmed, then you'd need to take a break or go to a different solution. Talk to a therapist or do exercise or something else. Mix it in with your meditation. But in my earlier podcasts, especially I go through this in meditation. I think it's around podcast number seven and it's titled something like why can't I meditate? And it's about this exactly Sandeep. Basically these tensions cause separation. They block us from ourselves. When we're cut off from ourselves, that cut off, that separation creates separation anxiety, which is the basis of fear or cut off. I feel abandonment, which is the basis of hurt or cut off. I feel frustrated and angry, uh, that life is not fulfilling based on those emotions. I create thoughts. I create a lot of thoughts that concern me because I feel afraid. I feel hurt or I feel angry. So I create lots of scenarios, lots of inner dramas, and though all of those release when I sit still in meditation and it goes crazy, a whole lifetime or lifetimes of pent up energy starts releasing and spinning and spinning like lots of rubber bands. So at first it's horrible. Meditating can feel horrible. That's all the poison coming out of your system. So it's a good thing, but it releases what it's made of. And when it's made a pain, it releases pain, just like an ice cube, which I'm holding up here releases cold as it melts. All of your negativity releases negativity and it feels terrible. The trick is to take as much as you can, as much as is reasonable and keeps you safe. And I don't have to melt this ice cube all in one day. I could let this ice cube, half of it melt today and half of it melt tomorrow. Put the unmelted part back in the freezer and reapproach it tomorrow. Cause my hands get too cold. Just holding this ice cube until it melts all the way. So maybe half of it is enough. That's all I can take. Same in meditation. Take care of yourself with that. One other thing with these ice cubes, I alluded to this and I talked about it in another podcast, but here's a clear, here's a clear, a clear bowl, a glass bowl. This light is you. I'm shining this light. It's bright. That's you with all the ice cubes melted. No tension. The bowl is your body. It's your body, your mind, your nervous system. And this light is shining through this clear glass bowl and you can see the light. But if I fill this bowl full of ice cubes, here they are. I filled this bowl now full of ice cubes and I try to shine the light through it. It bounces off the ice cubes and it doesn't come so successfully through the other side where you can feel the beauty of yourself. It's just bouncing off these ice cubes. You can feel yourself some in between the different ice cubes, but not as well as if you were totally clear. So when I take one of these ice cubes out, I meditate, I watch it. I watch it. It begins to melt. It exudes its energy. I don't get involved with it because that refreezes it. When I get involved, that's using willpower, which is the freezer of the mind. And now I'm refreezing the ice cube. So I just watch it. It's like watching a bottle is different than drinking what's inside of the bottle. Looking at a bottle of wine is different than drinking a bottle of wine. Looking at an ice cube is or looking at a problem is different than jumping into the middle of the problem and experiencing it. Oh my, I'm terrible. My thoughts are true and I really am no good. That's jumping into the drama. Just watching the drama, you see it as, oh, I feel I can see and feel a lot of tension. A lot of things that don't feel good. I see it and feel it. It feels horrible, but I'm not. I'm just watching it. It's exuding its coldness. It's exuding its hurt and pain. I'm just watching it. As these ice cubes melt, your load is lighter. Another one melts and your load is lighter. Another one melts and your load is lighter. So at some point here in this bowl, there's three ice cubes left and the light shines through much better. You don't have to have every ice cube come out and melt before you can start feeling the beauty of your being. You don't have to have everything melt, but you get encouraged. Hey, I just a lot melted. I, I feel so much better. Let me melt another one. Right? So you do that. I hope that makes some sense Sandeep. One other thing is, yes, you just observe the ice cube, but as you observe it at some point, it's going to release, it's going to relax and it's going to start to let go. And at that point, let it breathe in, let it look around and contact a nice flow of consciousness like nature, or if you're feeling clear and peaceful, let it breathe in your being and let it look around and update its files and notice, Hey, you're okay now. Because these ice cubes were formed in a time and a place when you weren't okay, when you didn't feel okay. And what happens is it hasn't updated its file. It's just frozen into place. And it's living in the past thinking that perpetually life is no good and you're, you're in danger and things aren't good, but that's not really true. So let it look around and let it actually breathe in and feel that it's okay. Even if maybe you can't feel it too well, maybe it can't feel it at all at first. That's okay. But maybe it could feel one drop and invite it, say, can you feel just one drop of benefit here? Can you feel one drop and let it soak it up and that will relax it. It's just like a massage. When you massage attention, it relaxes because it absorbs relaxation and the tension disappears. Just like your problems can disappear. Your negativity can disappear. Okay. Thank you so much, Sandy. I hope that makes sense. And if you want more clarification, just ask. Yes. Previously Pinar said, she asked the question, are you talking about negative self-talk as far as the negativity that Sandeep was referring to? He goes on and says, kind of Pinar, but also fear of unpresent danger. And that's what I just was talking about, Sandeep. This is an old feeling likely at one time you felt danger and that's now projecting onto something like the possibility of a danger that's not happening according to what you're saying, a fear of an unpresent danger. So notice that, let this part come to the surface and own it. Like I feel unsafe. I feel unsafe, not I'm okay, but I have this unsafe feeling. It's like, I feel unsafe. I mean that, so it's totally not repressed if you're able to do that. And if not, don't push yourself too far too fast. But if at some point, if you're able to do that, then let that unsafe part look around and you ask it, do you notice you're safe now? Right now, right in this moment, not 10 minutes from now, not 10 minutes in the past right now. And if so, is that better or worse than when you were actually unsafe? That's a simple yes, no question because these parts frozen in time often can only answer yes, no questions at first. Maybe they can't even answer that and then have it look around and it'll notice, oh yes, I am safe. Is that better or worse? Oh, that's better. Good. Then could you soak it up? If it's better, let's enjoy it. Just soak up a drop and let it soak it up. Just like attention soaks up relaxation when you get a massage, let that fear soak up wellness, goodness. I'm not saying one time solves everything. Keep at it a little every day, a little every week, something like that until finally it releases. And then Ruby says, I put myself down. Yeah, Ruby. I think I almost want to say most of us do that to ourselves. When we grew up or even in a past life, if you want to go that direction, somebody might have told us or maybe we just looked around and we felt powerless because we were small and we didn't feel so good. Maybe, maybe somebody had unreasonable expectations. Anyway, we often freeze this in place. Just like a Sandeep was talking about, uh, unpresent fears, something in the past, likely frozen in place. That's not happening now, but this putting ourselves down also isn't happening. All of this is like, we've taken in suggestions that were unsafe when we're not unsafe, or we've taken in a suggestion that we're not good enough when you are a beautiful light. If all those tensions dropped away, all there would be left is light. And that light is good enough. You are good enough. And all this stuff that says I'm not good enough. That's just a thought. Thoughts are just made up stuff. It's a suggestion. It's, uh, it's something that's influenced us. So again, meditation can help this stuff melt. We just want to let it go. Just let it go. Uh, there's many different methods and you, you, at first, depending on what level you're working on, you use what works for you. Because at first you could use, use a positive affirmation. I am okay. I am okay. I am okay. I am good enough and interrupt the old negative self-talk like Pinar was saying, but you want to eventually get under that because still without dissolving the original suggestion that feels like I'm no good, then I can say all the affirmations I want, but underneath it, I'll say, yeah, but really I'm no good. So affirmations are a good start, but then you go deeper. And, uh, if you haven't listened to the past podcast, just Google William Cooper awakening. They're all free. We talk about this sort of thing, dissolving stuff a lot in past podcasts. Um, but thank you. Leanne says, hi, William. I've just joined. So I hope I'm not taking the discussion way out. Welcome. No, it's good to ask whatever you want. Lately. I found myself feeling nothing, just emptiness. It's not good or bad. It's just nothing. Sometimes it feels like boredom. I don't know what I want or need. It's just nothing. At times I catch my mind digging in that past, looking for something to feel the nothingness. I know the solution is to sit. Just wanted to hear what you have to say about that. Thank you. Oh, no, that's a great observation. Leanne. I feel lots of things at the same time. I'll use myself as, as an example. And I often refer to my experience as almost like being a rainbow and a rainbow has so many different colors, but on one end at one side of the rainbow on far side is nothingness. It goes out of creation. It doesn't even exist because nothing out of creation exists. How do I know it's there? Because as I've melted ice cubes, my intuition has become clearer. And just like my five senses, my intuition, even stronger than one of the five senses can see clearly and know clearly what I am. And it knows everything comes from this nothingness. So nothing is a very accurate description of beingness. Ultimately, you know, Buddhists say everything's nothing. And so do Hindus eventually. However, there's the flip side of the coin. It's not one thing is true and the other isn't true at the same time as the truth of it's all nothing. Nothing is also everything. And we are here in creation. We are talking right now. We have the ability to live a life that's flowing and happy or the ability to live a drama filled unhappy life. We could create whatever we want or be held back by prior creations, or we could release those prior creations. So we're all of these things at the same time. We're nothing and we're everything. So when I feel nothing, it feels good. It's like, I almost want to say it's explosive of every potential possibility, but I can't say that because it really is nothing. Um, so what I'm wondering when you're feeling nothing, it could be really this part of the rainbow in your life that is nothing. But as it comes into creation at the same time, as it flows through like a rainbow and you start sensing the other colors, perhaps that's where clarity can come. And that's where your meditation would be. Because if you sit still and you notice anything that has tension or discomfort in it, because in your question, it seems like at least there's slight, a slight discomfort. I'm not sure, but I'm just guessing you can tell me. But if there's discomfort, that's what I would watch and let go because nothing, when it flows clearly and it's a process, but when it flows clearly into creation, into my creation, into your creation, into the creation, it comes down as pure light. Then sound, it slows down into sounds, low pitch and high pitch. And then it slows down into happiness and joy and wellbeing and peace and love and all the qualities of being that we're used to in the body. And then it slows down into mollic atoms and molecules and into other objects, dogs, cats, trees. So it can be turned into fear or boredom. Boredom is the fear of missing out. It is a fear. It's a fear that I'm going to miss out. I'm going to miss out on life. I'm going to miss out on something. So perhaps a little more clarity is called for. And just, I would sit still in meditation and let anything that's not clear melt out. But I wouldn't, I mean, I'm very happy about the nothingness. That's fine. As far as I know, unless it's a mental nothingness, but the way you're presenting it, I don't think so. Maybe you can just guide me if this isn't matching up exactly to what you need. Lori says, can you be influenced by an outside negative energy, one that doesn't come from inside of you? Yes, Lori. What a good question. Say somebody's real angry and they come into the room. You sure can feel it, can't you? Or somebody's very happy and they're laughing. You can feel that. You can be around certain people. You feel better than others. So yes, and you can absorb these things. Gandhi was in prison and suddenly he felt such rage and hostility. He wanted to kill somebody. This is Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi. And he didn't, he just was so distraught. He didn't know what was going on. Well, it turned out the man that was cooking his food or the chef in prison was a convicted murderer and his anger and hostility had gone into the food that Gandhi ate. And he was so sensitive. He absorbed it through the food. So he thought for a moment, perhaps that he was angry. He wasn't angry. He was just feeling the anger of another. That can happen. And sometimes we absorb this negativity and we mistakenly think it's our problem. And that can cause problems because then that stimulates us to think, think, think and solve stuff that's not even our problem. What to do? Sit still and let it burn off just like anything else. Let it flow. Let it melt. Just like, just like as if we had created it, but don't take ownership of it. Don't even take ownership of the stuff you have created. Just let it go. It's not you, whether it's somebody else's or you created it. None of these creations are you. They're just objects. I hope that helps Laurie. PNR says, I'm reading a great book about our emotions. It is called Language of Emotions. I highly recommend everybody reading it, talking about your analogy in a different way. Yes. Raising our awareness on these different parts of our own rainbow is very helpful. And that sounds like a wonderful book, Language of Emotions. PNR recommends it. Sandeep says, yes, thanks. What we talked about, about, uh, fear that's not actually happening and how to let it go. Uh, he says that was helpful. PNR says, uh, anxiety does weird things to our mind. Yes. PNR again, back to the mind that creates the problem. Can't solve the problem. The same mind that creates the problem. Can't solve the problem because it does do weird things to our mind and we can't see clearly. And when we can't see clearly, we react. We, we react rather than flow and reaction is just, it's just that a reaction. So be careful with anxiety. We all have it. And there are many approaches to working with anxiety. Many of them are in the past podcasts. And I keep referencing those because they are helpful. And if sometimes the suffering can be, you just want help and you want to know where to get the help while it's there, or we could talk about it. Now, if you have something more specific PNR, perhaps you've written it in, but, uh, you could ask, but you're right. It does weird things to our minds. It's a thing to let go of. Notice the part of you that's watching the anxiety that isn't anxious. You're not the anxiety. So let the anxiety melt and go. Claire, after doing a little releasing, I love the deep breath that comes. Yes. Claire, that's part of the flow, that deep breath. You know, when you get a massage and, and you've melted out the tension, don't you take a breath? That's the flow being restored. PNR, unfortunately, self-esteem living in the past. Yeah. You know, as I mentioned in all the podcasts, although I am a psychotherapist, none of them are psychotherapy. So we can't delve in sometimes working with a psychotherapist is helpful. And I'm not just, I'm not saying that specifically to you PNR. It can be helpful to bring stuff to awareness, but it's not the only way it's a helpful way. And in one of my podcasts around in the nineties, I talk about how to access free or low cost psychotherapy. It is a spiritual tool that can be used on one level. Other levels are meditation because this self-esteem is really a suggestion that we absorb somebody suggested through their behaviors over a long period of time. You're not good enough. You don't look good enough. You aren't good enough. You're not smart enough. You're not fast enough. You're not something. And when somebody repeats something a lot after a while, and when we're young and we don't know what we don't have defenses, we believe it. And then we think it's true, but it's just a thought. So the helpful part about meditation is we sit, we watch and we experience our thoughts, but because we're the one watching them, we know we're not them. So they don't affect us as much. And we start to let them go because we have now a space we're seeing and experiencing. We're not the suggestion that we're not good enough, that we're inferior. It's simply a thought. It's simply an unhelpful thought. And that thought is combined with an emotion. And so we let them melt like ice cubes. And again, in my past podcasts, we go on through it pretty deeply. I mean, the difference between PTSD, that almost acts like a muscle cramp and you have to go slowly. And so there's different levels. I would just go back if any of you that haven't listened to the earlier ones and see what's helpful to you. Use what works and let rest go. Pinar says that she has the same problem. Lots, everybody, almost. Leanne says, thank you, William. The nothing is just strange. So yes, probably some fear there. Thank you for your response. Makes complete sense. Sometimes I feel nothing and sometimes I feel everything. Good to know I'm understood. Yes, you are understood. She says, thanks again. It is fearful because it is quite different and you live in a culture that people would think you're a nut. I'm nothing. I feel nothing. And sometimes it's approached as an emotional problem. And maybe it doesn't need to be. Sometimes it is an emotional problem, but often on your spiritual path, you're simply getting in touch with the deepest part of you, the nothingness, the emptiness. And yet we are conditioned and as clear as we are, it's good to sit still and you're right. Let that fear go. Let that fear go until you're feeling everything without the fear or you're feeling the fear and you're good with it. Either one, but who likes fear? Eventually that melts out. Pinar says therapy, meditation, grounding. Yes, Pinar. Those three things are very powerful. And if I could add some kind of exercise like yoga, I mentioned earlier about Tai Chi being very powerful, but you could go to YouTube and look at a yoga Nanda's energization exercises. They'll have people demonstrating them. There's something like 30 exercises. Often we hold anxiety in our joints and muscles and his movements. I found to be very releasing, especially when you do it, say after your meditation. So you're combining meditation and releasing yoga is very powerful that way too. But there's a very, there are many different kinds of yoga. Some are more meditative and some are more aerobic for deep, deep awakening. I kind of side towards more meditative yoga. So I would add some kind of activity and I'm pointing out yoga, but sometimes just walking is wonderful. Do a walking meditation. Pinar says it all helps. She agrees. And meditation is the best thing that's ever happened to me. Me too, Pinar. It's so powerful. It's not so. Pinar says I am human. We are. Yes. That's a good place to rest. There's nothing wrong with us releasing all this stuff. I think that's why we're here. Look around. Everybody's got stuff and either they're releasing it or not. And if you don't release it, you suffer. Sadly, Pinar says, thanks. Thank you so much, everybody. We're out of time. I've really enjoyed this so much. You asked such good questions. You're all on your path. We're all on the same boat together. You're not alone. If you're feeling nothing, you're not alone. If you're feeling everything, you're not alone. If you're feeling stress in between, you're not alone. If all you're feeling is stress, you're not alone. These talks and other people's talks and good books are helpful because they bring awareness to the whole gamut of the rainbow. And then you start to see, oh, this part is very clear in my life. This part isn't, but this other part is. And we're all a little bit different. Some of us are very advanced in one area of our lives and not so much in another area. That's fine. We're all having our own experience. The point is, if something's troubling you, there are many ways to release it. So thank you so much. And Monica says, William, thank you. Needed to hear this today. Thank you, Monica. Claire says, thank you, Monica. Pinar, I agree with you. Meditation is the best thing that's ever happened to me in my life. Me too. And guess what? Isn't it a little uncomfortable at times, meditation? Because you are releasing all this poison. And Sandeep says, thanks a lot. And to Sandeep, you are releasing this unfounded fear that doesn't feel good. Fear that's inside of our body when it's released feels like fear. It feels terrible. And Monica says, it definitely can be painful meditation. And Pinar says, sending everybody big hug. We all need it. Yes, we all need it. We're a community. Thank you, Kai. Thank you, Sandeep. Yeah, it's tough. It is tough. And I'm sorry about that, Sandeep. I wish it wasn't. Take care of yourself. We're sending blessings and prayers. And but keep yourself safe and secure. The first thing, get out of the pounding surf, which you probably already are out of it. But if not, take care of that level to for everybody. I'm saying this, Laurie, thank you for putting these podcasts together. They are very helpful. Thank you, thanks, everybody. I look forward to talking to you all next time. Take care. Bye.