Awakening Together, Relaxing into Happiness with William Cooper, Master of Theology, Licensed Professional Counselor
Experience Awakening....Relaxing into your Being and, therefore, Happiness. William earned a 4 year on campus Master of Theology from Harding Theological Seminary. He was a Unity board president and, later, a Oneness trainer. In 1994 he went into private practice as a Licensed Psychotherapist. He has been to India 14 times averaging 3 months per visit to explore awakening with gurus and awakened beings. Also Bhutan, Brazil, etc. This series explores the hows of awakening and experiencing the flow of your Being, (love, peace, happiness, fulfillment and joy). A practical blending of East and West. Meditation, yoga and Energy meet psychotherapy and awakened Beings...and beyond All. For more info and writings on the subject, www.williamecooper.wordpress.com
Awakening Together, Relaxing into Happiness with William Cooper, Master of Theology, Licensed Professional Counselor
148 Practices When Busy, Relationship vs Single, Achieving vs Stillness, Chaos to Clarity, Q & A
This is a recording of a Live Q & A which has been edited for clarity, length, and helpfulness.
Great discussion in this Q & A. Topics included 3 doable practices when days are busy, an 84 yr old remarked how for the first time she has felt helped significantly and attributed it to these podcasts, non-attachment, letting go, relationship vs single, achievement vs stillness, value of chaos in the world, our problems are our radiance, 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.
Welcome everybody. My name is William Cooper and I'd like to welcome you to Awakening Together, relaxing into Happiness. I trust you've had a good week. I hope so. Hi, miffy, hey Kate.
William:If you have something that has either been troubling you or you've been curious about, or just a question about your practice or things that you've observed, type it in and we'll talk about it. We'll see where we end up. While you're thinking about your questions or typing them in, somebody asked me this week. They said well, could you talk about what to do if somebody's just so busy they don't really have time to devote to a deep spiritual practice, and yet they want to move forward, they want to deepen in their lives. What can they do? What are some things that they could do? And yet they want to move forward, they want to deepen in their lives. What can they do? What are some things that they could do? Maybe they have children, a family, a job. Just it never seems to be enough time, perhaps. Well, I came up with three things that I think are pretty easy. Miffy says wow, that sounds like me. I think it sounds like maybe a lot of us.
William:Life is stressful, have you noticed? There's so much going on. So let's talk about the three things. The first one and we'll go into it deeper, but just to give you what the three are and then we'll circle back around. The first one is don't hold on to trouble, don't trouble yourself. I'll explain that in a bit. The second one is to be kind. You are kindness itself. So even if you are so stressed out, it can put you in touch with yourself. To be kind to yourself and to others. Look how you hold your body. Are you beating yourself up? Are you twisting your stomach? Are you short with other people? Be kind. And the third thing is three times a day, just tighten your body, every muscle, and let go. Just tighten your body, every muscle, tight, tight, tight, and then let go, let go. So much is stored in our body and our muscles that that can be the source of a lot of our troubles, because our troubles are stored there. So it's one way to loosen things up and when our body is loose, then our mind can start to flow, our emotions can start to flow. So these three things sound very simple and we will talk about them a little bit. But remember we have the other 147 podcasts that precede this one. So the very best thing that I could say to do, in my opinion, would be to start with podcast number one and work your way forward, because each podcast is built on the podcast that has come before it, although, as you've discovered, you can listen to any of these podcasts independently, because each one stands on their own.
William:But the reason I recommend these podcasts is I've taken 50 years of hard work, talking with lots of awakened teachers and gurus. I've been meditating for over 50 years. I'm a psychotherapist, I've been to theological school. Anyway, I'm like you. But I had some time. I had some time to research this stuff, read thousands of books, try each thing on for size what works, what doesn't work, each thing on for size what works, what doesn't work.
William:Because I remember when I was in theological school, sitting on my dorm room bed and things were so dark and I just wanted somebody to tell me what is going on, how. Not just don't be attached, but how not to be attached. Don't just tell me to let go, how to let go Sure, I want to let go, but how? Don't just tell me to awaken yes, I want to, but how? So these podcasts have a lot of hows in them, step by step by step. They're generally very simple. I've boiled things down, so I would add that to the three things that I just suggested.
William:You're probably driving around in the car or doing something that you could listen to one of these podcasts, and I would do that. The first one, for instance, is nine minutes I just listened to the introduction and the second one is, I think, 13 minutes. Listen to those two, see what you think. If you like it, keep going. I say all that because they add up over time. They're cumulative and they will help you to relax and let things go, because what is awakening, awakening is you, the best, you, without any problems. You are already light. You are already light. You're already peace. You're already joy. You're already happiness. You're already all the things that we get so stressed out trying to achieve. You're already that. The problem is, oftentimes I don't know about you, but I know about me. I didn't feel it. I didn't feel it. I thought I had to achieve something so that one day I could get there. The funny thing is we're already there. So that's what these podcasts are. They're my best effort to be clear and give you ways to do that.
William:And back to the first thing, what if you're just so busy you don't have time for much? I started out with saying don't trouble yourself. You won't be troubled if you don't trouble yourself. You're the only one inside of you. Okay, well, that might sound like. What does he mean by that? That sounds like that's going to take some time to do that and I don't have time.
William:No, what I'm saying is go through your day just as you do and when you notice any kind of tension come up, or any anger or any, but eventually you can be. When you notice tension coming up in your body. And the reason I say it? Because this is a litmus test that I use. If I feel tension, I know that's not me, because I am peace. Now, fortunately, because I've been at this for a while, I do also feel myself as peace. So I feel the dichotomy, the divergence Wow, I'm peace, but I'm feeling tension. How can that be? That makes no sense. Things were tough. I became tense. I had people pushing me, I pushed myself, I pushed myself to achieve so that I could eventually be happy. You know, if you achieve, you can be happy. That's what we're told. You know, if you achieve, you can be happy. That's what we're told. I didn't know that. I was already happy because I didn't feel happy.
William:So when you go through life, what's going to happen is life is going to poke you. Life is so loving and it's going to trigger you. It's going to show you anything that you've been holding inside that you haven't wanted to look at or feel. Somebody will cut you off in traffic and you will feel anger come up and it will be more anger than is necessary for that moment Because, look, you're safe. They cut you off, you put on the brakes, you're safe. It wasn't good what they did.
William:But you may have lots of anger or lots of fear or lots of anxiety. Most of that typically comes from old anger, old fear, old anxiety that we've held in for so long anxiety that we've held in for so long. Often what we do is, when it comes up, we jump on board and we start exaggerating it. For instance, we might start yelling at the person or make up a story in my mind I could have been killed, I'm so unsafe, but look, I wasn't killed, I'm fine, but I'm fretting about it. That is me getting involved with my old repressed anger and fear and anxiety, and because I get involved. I keep it inside of me.
William:What I'm asking you to do as you go through your day is, when it comes up, just let it run through your body, because as it runs through your body, it will melt, it will release, it will let go, and it will let go of everything that it's made of, which is typically hurt, fear and or anger. So it will not feel good at all, and that's why we often try to repress it again. Because we didn't like feeling it the first time, we repressed it. We don't like feeling it the second time or the third time. So we repress it again or we jump into it and there's some temporary relief by yelling at people. It feels more powerful and good, but it fortifies and keeps it frozen inside of our body. So life will do us a favor and trigger us. It will find what we're hiding inside and it will trigger us. So imagine it like this I'm going to show you a rubber band tied around a pencil and as I twist this pencil around and around, you see, this rubber band gets knotted up inside.
William:It gets knotted and twisted. Well, all consciousness is love, peace and well-being. It's happiness. That's what it's made of the way we make a problem is we twist it. We twist love, because that's all there is in the universe is love. And how do I know that? Because I sit still and I feel it, I see it. When I touch something, it vibrates with love.
William:Everything's like you can freeze water into a shape. You could freeze it into the shape of a knife and you could stab somebody, but it's water. It'll melt back into water. Well, everything in creation is like that water, except it's consciousness, and it's consciousness that's frozen into a shape. It's the shape of a dog, a cat, a problem whatever.
William:In this instance it's tension or anger. So I'm the one doing that, I'm freezing. There's nobody else inside of me but me. So, by process of elimination, it's got to be me. Now, yes, you can absorb troubles that other people have created and they're standing next to you and you're open and you receive that energy. You could absorb it. You could agree to bring it into your body, but again, that's you agreeing.
William:Keeps it very simple to just know who the culprit is, because then I can do something about it. I can either not let other people's energy come into me and let's say I'm the one twisting it into a knot. Here's how easy it is. Somebody cuts me off in traffic or somebody at the bank says something nasty to me or whatever. I feel this.
William:Come up, this old twisted energy, because it's not relaxation, it's tension, anger, hurt or fear. That's not the qualities of my being being is made of peace, relaxation. My being being is made of peace, relaxation, love, well being, happiness. It's none of those. So that tells me something's twisted. So if I don't get involved in it and I just let it run through my body, you feel it. You feel it running through your body. It's kind of pandemonium. You feel it running through your body. It's kind of pandemonium. Here's what happens. It just automatically releases lots of energy hurt, anger. Ah, that doesn't feel good. It doesn't feel good. I don't get involved in it. And look what happens to the rubber band. It loosens. Well, what happens to consciousness? That runs its course? That's been twisted. It loosens back into what? To your aura of love, peace and well-being, and you feel good. It adds to your light. You never want to repress or get rid of your problems, because it's you that's just twisted into a knot and when it untwists it's still you, but now it's light and it's love and it's well-being and your aura gets very strong.
William:Have you been around an awakened person? I mean a very strongly awakened person. They emanate so much light and so much power that you might have to sit on the floor. It takes your breath away. I mean, really, there's no exaggeration if you haven't experienced that. It is like that with some of them and they do nothing. They're not sitting around visualizing light coming out of them or things like that. No, they've just let all these knots untwist and now it's flowing light. But you know what? It always was light. It was just light that was twisted and if and we would call that a problem it feels like a problem, but it's really light that's twisted. Your light is flowing very strongly always, even when you feel twisted. It's just that it's twisted. You're accurate and you're feeling wow, I don't feel good. Yes, you're accurate, your light has been twisted. You twisted it.
William:So the simple thing you're busy. You don't have much time to do things. When life pokes you and brings it to the surface, don't stop it from unwinding. Let it unwind. Just let it flow inside of you. Let it flow. That doesn't take any time, Just you do it while you're doing other stuff. It's going to come up anyway. So this time, just let it flow. I want to say, though, that you have to be.
William:The second thing is be kind. Well, one of the ways to be kind is you don't want to overwhelm yourself. I don't know about you, but I repressed a lot of stuff, and if I felt it all untwisting at the same time, I think I would have exploded. So you have to take a break. I'm not saying do this all on the first day. That's what life is about. We have a lifetime, but every time something untwist, you'll feel better, and then a little bit better, and a little bit better. Now. I didn't feel better for a long time because I had a lot that was twisted up. I couldn't tell when one thing was untwisted and fine, because I had 10,000 other ones. I had a big load, but now I feel I can feel each and every single one of them, and I feel better, and I feel light everywhere, even at the same time as I feel what's left of the things untwisting, untwisting. I feel so much light because now there's room, because so much has released.
William:So the first thing you're busy. What can I do? Life will poke you, it will trigger you. Let the stuff come up. Whatever comes up, don't jump onto it, just let it untwist.
William:When you get involved with it, it freezes it and it doesn't untwist. And by getting involved, what do I mean by that? Let's say, a thought or emotion comes up. If it just untwists, it's kind of like handling a bottle of wine. I have the bottle of wine, I'm holding it and I set it down and just let it be. I let the emotion and thoughts do their thing. I don't get involved, I just watch them. I feel them, I experienced them, but I don't add to them, I don't jump into the story. Oh, yes, I was right and they were wrong. And how can this happen? And what's wrong with people these days, and I don't know. I just let it untwist and tell its story, just let it release, because there is a difference between handling a bottle of wine and drinking the bottle of wine. I may be hired to work at a store and put the wine bottles over in the corner. I'm not hired to drink the wine.
William:Two different things. In this case. I'm saying let the thoughts do their thing, don't drink them, don't jump into them, let them think themselves. Okay, that's the first thing that will start releasing things, and I've done a lot of podcasts on this releasing and melting of things that are on going on inside of you. But as far as podcasts on life bringing these things out of you, if that's of interest, I've done at least two. One is number 42, life is your Guru, and number 56, trusting my Problems, and I go through this a bit in those two podcasts. If you ever look for my podcasts and they're not in order, just type my name, william Cooper, and the podcast that you're looking for, like the number 26. Or in this case it would be the number 42 and the number 56. And those will pop up.
William:Second thing is being kind. Be kind to myself. My beingness, my nature, your nature, all of our nature is kindness, it's gentleness, it's well-being. This is a simple little thing but it's not so easy sometimes. But if you notice that you're disparaging yourself or maybe you're pushing yourself, oh, I need to work, I need to be tense until I get this job done, because I really want to get a promotion or I want to accomplish this task. So I'm going to beat myself up and push myself until I get it accomplished and then I'll relax later. I'm going to stress myself out. I'm going to push myself. That doesn't feel good, that's not kind, that's not who we are and there's no end to it. We're abusing ourselves. There's no end to it until we stop. Nobody's going to stop until we stop. So again, a little at a time. You want to be kind to yourself? Baby steps, just stop it a little, catch yourself. Wow, I'm talking to myself in a bad way. I'm putting myself down. I'm going to stop. I'm just going to stop. I'm going to apologize to myself. How about that? And everybody out there is stressed, everybody. Do you know? Somebody that's not? Maybe so, but not many.
William:It feels good to people to have a kind word. If you said something nice to them, you are kindness. So be kind, smile, say hello or just wave. Somebody walks by you, just wave, just smile. It doesn't cost anything. But what it does is it puts you in touch with who you are. You are kindness Because in the beginning there's so many of these knotted up, twisted problems that we often don't even feel fully who we are. By being kind just a little bit, say one time a day more if you'd like, but minimum one time a day be kind to somebody You'll start to feel who you are. And I'm making this very simple right now, because the question was how can somebody who's overwhelmed, what can they do to move forward in their life? So I'm making this exceedingly simple. Be kind once. That's simple. Be kind to yourself more. That's simple.
William:The third thing is to just tense and relax all of your muscles three times during the day, three times, and what I mean by this is just right now. You could try it out if you're in a good place for this to work for you. It's just tense every muscle in your body real tight, tight, tight, tight, tight and let it go. Just like that. Do it, let's do it again Tight, tight, tight, tight and let it go. Just like that. Let's do it again Tight, tight, tight and let it go, and then receive that relaxation that starts to flow into your body.
William:Receive, receive it. That's what awakening is about. You're already fine, so what's the problem? You're not receiving it. That's the only problem. By letting go of your troubles, that allows space, that allows you to receive yourself, by being kind, that allows you to be in touch with yourself and flow with yourself, by tensing and releasing and feeling the relaxation coming in that allows you to receive yourself. That relaxation is you. It's always there. What's going is the tension. It's not that relaxation is coming in, it's always there. It's that the tension is releasing and revealing the relaxation that's always there.
William:So these three things, you can do those, anybody can do them. Okay, so you have questions and comments, let's talk about those and if you have more about what I just said, you can ask about that if you want to deepen on that. But remember there are those 147 other podcasts. They're free, they're there to listen to anytime you want. All right, let's see what we got here. Jennifer says hi everyone and Therese, hi. William. Hi everyone. Miffy agreed that there's a lot going on and we need some simple things to do. Jody hey everyone. Francis hi everyone. Blossom, good morning. Everybody's saying hi. Francis says I've been listening to the podcast on my cycle to work. Perfect Francis, perfect Francis. That's perfect.
William:What happens is they're cumulative and it's like different colors of a mosaic and each little colored tile is meaningful all in of itself, but you put them together over time and something really happens. The true you is revealed, they build up on you and even if they're things you already know, some of them, I don't know about you. But what I found is, when I focus, somebody else is saying what I already know and I focus on it, I go deeper and I notice any impediments to me going deeper as I go deeper, like why aren't I going deeper right now? What's holding me back? Oh, I see that thing. Oh, something's coming to the surface. Let me just let it run its course. Let me not get involved in it. Let that rubber band unwind. It will do it on its own accord and let it release. So they are very helpful that way. Thank you, francis.
William:Patricia, hello William, thank you so much for your podcast. I started at number one and am now up to 106. Good for you, patricia. I am 84 years old and I have learned so much from you. After suffering anxiety for most of my life, I am now beginning to gain confidence in myself. God bless you for the work that you do. Oh, patricia, look how sweet you are. You know I know just what you're saying. It sounds like a lot of these comments I make sound so egotistical or something, but I do know what you mean, because that is me.
William:I like to listen to my own podcasts because they're good. That's why I've made them and they are healing. They heal me. That's what has healed me. Now, did I come up with all this stuff? No, I've worked with maybe hundreds of holy men in India and awakened people. I had a guru for nine years most powerful person I've ever met. I was with other powerful gurus. There had a guru for nine years most powerful person I've ever met. I was with other powerful gurus. There's a lot. This is all coming from a deep place. So, Patricia, just that you are doing it does my heart good, because that's my heart, that's what I am doing and my viewpoint is that that's what life is about.
William:In one of my podcasts, somebody asked me it was a live session. It was maybe you already have gotten to it, patricia, but they asked me to talk about when Jesus appeared to me and this was a crazy thing, just like it would be crazy if that happened to you, and maybe it has. But we had quite a conversation and a talk and he said you and I are the same except for these four or five little tiny pencil lead size black dots. And he put an overlay of his nervous system on my nervous system and his was clear and mine had four or five little tiny black dots. He didn't say what to do about it, but he said that's the only difference.
William:He knew that I'd figured out and what I've noticed and what I feel, my experience, is that here on earth, everything slows down, is magnified. These little tiny black dots on this Earth look like they're giant, huge, bigger than boulders, skyscrapers, how about that? Icebergs Because they're so magnified and that allows us to work on them. And that's where the anxiety that we suffer with and the hurt and the abandonment and the fear and the anger and the frustration all comes from those big icebergs that are separating us from ourself, and so we feel these emotions because we're separate from ourselves. So all that to say that it doesn't matter what age we are.
William:My intuition says that we take with us who we are wherever we go. We are the ones going there. So we take us with us this life. We take with us wherever you want to think we're going. It doesn't really matter where we think we're going, but wherever we end up, we're going to be who we are and our experience. So any work that we can do and you've done a lot, patricia, and I know what you're saying it's such a relief when you see, what you're doing is working.
William:When I was sitting on that bed in seminary I just wanted to know what do I do? How do I go forward? Kathy says that is so inspiring. Patricia, jody says, says she's really happy for you, patricia. Nina says, patricia, we are one Isn't awakening divine? And yes, nina has been deepening so much and already was deep, but now is even deeper.
William:Alice, patricia, I'm thrilled to be on this journey with you, nina. Now life has led me to the brightest light after depths of darkness. I'm letting it all be an invitation to let go. Oh, see, that's everything you let go and guess what's left, the true you, because all we can let go is what's not us. If we can let it go and we're still here, then it wasn't us, that what we let go. So we let go of tension. Guess what? We're still here, we feel even better. So we weren't the tension, no reason to hold on to it. We weren't the anger. We weren't the anger, we weren't the frustration, we weren't the guilt, we weren't the fear, we weren't the unforgiveness, we weren't any of that stuff. So let it boil off, let it leave. Nina continues. I feel the most heart led now. Yes, because what's left is your heart, still curious about what's next on the path, how to unravel that attachment.
William:Well, nina, I don't know if you've gotten to the podcast yet, but it's very good. It's 123, non-attachment the great way. That's what I found out about attachment. I'll give you a quick summary for everybody. Right now I'd listen to the podcast, the five minutes or whatever it is, but the summary is you won't be able to let go of something good in your life unless you exchange it for something better. You just can't do it. I explain it more deeply in the podcast. You can try, you can have all sorts of practices, but it doesn't leave.
William:The only way to completely become unattached is to become you, to be in touch with you. When you're in touch with the deep happiness that you are, the deep peace that you are, nothing else matters so much, because that is why we hold on to other things. We want to be happy, but if we are in deep touch with that, we are happiness itself. I don't need to hold on to something to be happy. If I'm in touch with that, I am peace itself. I don't need to achieve things in order to be peaceful, or to protect myself in order to be peaceful, or I don't have to be fulfilled if I am happiness itself. Now. So what does that leave us in life?
William:Jesus said and we talked about this in the last podcast, 147,. Jesus said be in the world but not of it. And somebody asked me what on earth does that mean Be in the world but not of it? And somebody asked me what on earth does that mean be in the world but not of it? And I rephrased it. I said it means enjoy everything, but don't be troubled by anything. That's the heart of non-attachment. Enjoy, enjoy everything, but because you're everything you're looking for, you don't have to be troubled by anything, anything leaving or not working out, because you've already got what you're looking for. Everything else is dessert, it's extra. So enjoy everything, but don't be attached, don't be troubled by anything. Okay, thank you, nina, and thank you for all your hard work, leanne. Hi William, how are you? I've listened to most of your podcasts.
William:One thing I don't think you've touched on is relationship and sexuality. What is your opinion on this? Is celibacy and singledom necessary to awaken? Oh, no, no, no, no, no. It's not necessary at all to awaken. Actually, relationships can be very helpful to awaken.
William:The reason why Ramana got into a cave or people are celibate. One of the reasons is because they can just be silent, they can focus and they can let things come up, not get involved with them. Let them untwist, unwind, release and go. And the idea is, if you let that stack of icebergs melt, that eventually you'll be in touch with yourself, and that is true. So there's something to that. However, what often happens you read about it almost every month what happens with some of these teachers is they had a lot of hidden stuff and a lot of repressed stuff. So when they get out into the world, somebody does something and they don't know how to handle it. And suddenly you hear about sexual scandals at ashrams or stealing money or cults or all sorts of things, violence.
William:You hear about astounding things from sometimes very high beings. I remember going to Brazil and I was with John of God for a while. He's in prison now. No, he's on house arrest. He was in prison, but because he's so old now, they let him be on house arrest. But a lot of, I think. He did all sorts of things, but he was a very high being also. He channeled high beings. Anyway, let's say that he was a healer. People came from all over the world. Oprah went down there, I went down there. He was very powerful. But relationships can bring these things up. Being with other people can bring things up.
William:That's where that podcast that I referred to, life is your Guru, or Trusting my Problems those two podcasts can be very helpful because relationships can help you awaken. They are a vehicle of awakening. You also just want to have time to yourself to process as well. So come up with a balance. Balance is very important, but you don't have to swing to one side or the other unless you yourself find it helpful, because you're the captain of your own ship.
William:Sexuality is good, relationship is good. It's a good place to practice being kind. It's a good place to learn to take refuge in your being. You know Buddha, the three jewels. One is good teachings, which I hope we're touching on in these podcasts, and there's a lot of other good podcasts out there, a lot of other good teachers. Use whatever works for you. The second is taking refuge in your Buddha nature. And the third is Sangha being with like-minded people. So relationship can be one part of your Sangha, because they can encourage you, they can support you and there's more energy to accomplish your inner goals, if you are being supported by somebody, if you are being supported by somebody, if you are being welcomed by somebody. Sometimes this process of releasing deep, old stuff is hard, maybe all the time it's hard. So it's good if you can talk to somebody. Sometimes you will go through weeks, months or years of difficult stuff coming up and it's nice to have a friend, a good relationship. I'm not sure if that fully answers your question, leanne, but if you want to talk more, just type in a little bit more and we'll touch on it more.
William:Alice says William, as I do deep trauma work, I notice my body is tired and craves rest and quiet. Is that related to my body healing from childhood trauma? Yes, alice, absolutely. Yes, alice, absolutely. It's interesting. When I've gone to India and worked with gurus or with other people at ashrams, the common thing people notice is they are worn out because this emotional work, all this stuff coming up your body, rewiring your body.
William:Healing is hard. It's healing to your body because we've been holding all this poison inside, but as it comes up it's traumatic, it's hard. Releasing trauma is difficult. I don't want to call it traumatic because and I just did, but sorry, but it's hard. Let's say that Because it's releasing trauma and trauma doesn't feel good.
William:That's why it's repressed. We don't repress happiness. You don't find big pockets of buried happiness repressed inside. So this hard work you're doing is hard work and you need to rest and take it easy and take breaks. And, alice, I know you like to walk by the beach and walk in the mountains. These walks are so healing and I'm so glad you're them among all the other good healing things that you do. And you want to take breaks. Stop, you know. Take a break. Watch TV, you know. Is TV the healthiest thing? No, but sometimes it is. You need to rest your nervous system. So, yes, deep trauma work is tiring. Thank you, alice, thanks everybody, linda, hello William, when we are in the middle of a lot of tough times going on in one hand and on the other hand, we are looking forward to achieve our beloved vision and goals, how can we make a balance between solving our problems and concentrating on our goals?
William:Like the problems are so energy draining? Well, Linda, that is such a good observation and that's why Ramana sat in a cave, because problems are so energy draining. So my solution about being in the culture and the world that we live in is do something on each front each day. For instance, on your spiritual side. I meditate every day, even if that's five minutes, whatever. For you it needs to be, maybe it's 10, maybe it's 15, maybe it's 20. For you it needs to be maybe it's 10, maybe it's 15, maybe it's 20. 20 is great, 30 or 40 is great.
William:And by meditation it doesn't mean you have to sit cross legged. You could be in a recliner. You just stop so you can observe things and let them come up and you're not trying to jump into another distraction to get away from that rubber band. Untwisting and unwinding, that's what meditation is good for. So you don't find another distraction and you have a set amount of time every day to melt that iceberg. The whole iceberg doesn't need to melt, but if a few drops can melt today and then then a few more tomorrow and then a few more the next day, one day you'll notice a river flowing through the middle of that iceberg, through that glacier, and that river will pick up steam and melt. More ice and more ice and more ice. So some basic practice every day, I find is helpful. As you go through the day, let your troubles go, as we talked about. Don't hold on to them. Let them release. That is also melting those icebergs. Be kind, do the things we talked about tighten and release at least three times a day. Do more if you'd like, and then work towards your goals.
William:Now, in the big picture, I'll tell you an experience I had maybe 40 years ago, I don't know. I was trying to figure out if I believed in psychics. I came from a conservative. When I was in seminary you weren't supposed to believe in that sort of thing. Yet I was open. So I was talking to a number of them, trying to see if they said anything that made sense to me, that resonated. And I talked to one and at that time I was a partner in a financial planning firm. I had graduated seminary. I was board president of a unity church. I was counseling people. I was successful financially because I was a partner in that firm. I was successful financially because I was a partner in that firm and I was doing a number of things.
William:And she was giving me a reading and she says, oh, you've got good willpower. And I thought, oh, that's good. But the way she said it sounded kind of a little funny. So I asked her later. I said you said I had good willpower. Oh yes, but you said it in a kind of funny way Is willpower, is it good that I have good willpower? Oh yes, but you said it in a kind of funny way Is willpower, is it good that I have good willpower? She said, yes, you get a lot accomplished, and I had, and I felt good about that. She said you get a lot accomplished, but it won't amount to anything. But you're getting a lot accomplished and that just devastated me. But it was true, it didn't amount to anything.
William:I did all those things and they were good things, but the reason I was asking her and I felt uncomfortable by the way she said it was inside. I was insecure Inside. I felt vulnerable Inside. I felt all those things we all feel and I wasn't touching those. I was soothing those. I was protecting myself by accomplishing my goals, and goals are good and I achieved a lot and I still have.
William:I went on to do other stuff. Here we are today, but it's a hard truth To me now, the only thing that will amount to much is this inner work. It's the only thing we'll take with us. We don't take money, we don't take anything but who we are, and I know we're beyond our troubles. But if we are troubled, I suspect we take our troubles with us too until we decide to let them go Anyway.
William:So, but what I did is I split the difference, I balanced my life, I continued with my goals. Because you have to live in a house goals because you have to live in a house, you want to have a good life, you want to enjoy life, enjoy everything, but don't be troubled by anything. Well, to enjoy everything, you want to have some money to go out to dinner, you want to have a house, you want to have heat, you want to get out of the pounding surf. So the goals are good. Don't get I'm not saying they're not, they are good. It's hard to have a spiritual practice if you're living in desperation. So I balance things. That's what I always did. I would balance things, I would work hard at my work and I would carve out time, at least something, every day, to go deeper on my spiritual path. So that's what I would do.
William:Linda, that's a great question and I think everybody experiences that. If I didn't answer that enough, ask me more. Just. Type in more the next time around, or today more. Just type in more the next time around, or today. Nina says, alice, rest and quiet are always good, reintegrating. I agree, nina and Alice. Nina said that what I said to her resonated. Thank you for your kind words. I love you. I love you too, nina, and everybody. Your kind words. I love you. I love you too, nina, and everybody. We're being kind already. Thank you. I'll tell you, I take these walks every day is another thing I do, and we live in a very great place where the end of the street that we live on are a lot of nice houses and trees and it's like living in a park or a forest.
William:As I walk down the street it turns into a dirt road and there are all these farms and animals, horses and goats and sheep and I talk to them and I notice some things. I'm talking about being kind, I didn't know. But these sheep, every day I'd walk by them and I would look at them and I'd say hi and they'd look at me and that was that. But one day I just noticed how pretty one of these sheep's faces are, or really all of them their mouths and their noses and I told him. I said you have such a pretty face, your nose is so pretty. Look at your mouth, I am not kidding. Within probably two seconds, those sheep were coming up to the fence. They had never done that before I started talking to this horse. It's a white horse, so I call this horse Whitey and I said you're such a beautiful horse. That horse will come blocks away on a big pasture when I wave and will come up to the fence to say hi, because I'm starting to learn about being kind. Anyway, kind is important. Animals can pick it up, people can pick it up.
William:Kate asks William, do you believe that consciousness is expanding? Yes, yes, kate. I know that these times can seem to be very dark times, because they are dark times. We're just coming out of the Kali Yuga, which is the darkest of all periods, of a 50,000 year orbit around the star Sirius. I did a podcast on that and I'm not a big into this sort of thing, but I just look around me and it does seem to be true. It's what they believe in India and it's what the Mayan calendar was based on, and we're just coming out of the darkest, darkest, darkest part of that.
William:My guru Bhagavan said when he was my guru. He said that in the short, in the near future, things are going to become very chaotic and dark. It's going to look horrible and the reason for that is a little bit of light is going to start coming into the world and you're going to see how bad it's always been. But it's been hidden both inside of us and inside of society and culture and it's going to be horrifying, but you're going to be able to see it and that's the difference. That's the first step to see is to be free. That's the first step.
William:He said chaos is good, because when you have chaos, you have a breakdown, and when there's a breakdown, there's a release of energy. You have a breakdown and when there's a breakdown, there's a release of energy, and when there's a release of energy, everything can reform and reorient around your being. It can reorient, clearly, instead of being frozen into a shape that is destructive. And isn't that what's happening inside of us? Didn't we just talk about that, about we freeze stuff inside of us and it unwinds and it releases and we just let it. But it's very painful, it feels chaotic. That's why we don't like to let it release.
William:Well, that's what's going on in the world, and as things unfreeze, we will feel the beauty. Things will come back into more free-flowing consciousness rather than frozen consciousness. Frozen consciousness feels like objects and hurt, fear, anger. It has rough edges. It's like water frozen into the shape of an ice knife. Free-flowing consciousness exudes love, peace, well-being. So, yes, I believe it's expanding. That's the whole reason why it looks so bad. If it wasn't expanding, it would be frozen years ago, the good old days. But they weren't the good old days. We just couldn't see how bad it was. A lot of good things did happen, but there was a lot there. Nina says there it is inner work, it's all it takes. Yes, yes, absolutely true, nina.
William:Kate, we don't repress happiness. That made me laugh. It's so true, but not always realized. For me, yeah, the only stuff coming out is repressed anger, hurt, fear. Well, it's anger, hurt or fear or some derivative of that.
William:And I wondered at one point when I'm around a guru, I feel all this light coming out and I wondered I could? I felt myself. I've been now in touch with light and love and well-being and I wondered why doesn't that power come out of me? And I remember Bhagavan said it didn't come out of him. He couldn't do miracles until he was 30 or so. And I don't care, I'm not looking for miracles, I'm not looking for. I've already experienced a lot of stuff. But I just was wondering where's the flow? That's all. And I realized the aura is there, the flow is there. I just froze it. Everything you're feeling now is the flow. It just is frozen, some in some parts, like a glacier. It's just frozen. Let it unfreeze, let it release. You'll know that it's a frozen thing. If it's not happiness or peace that's coming out, if it's tension or hurt or pain or discomfort, you know it's repressed stuff. Okay, nina says it's all energy. So true, nina, everything bubbling to the surface, coming into light. Yes, it bubbles to the surface. That untwist, it turns back into light.
William:Patricia, william, I to walk through a sheep field on my daily walk. Oh, we have beautiful conversations. I am even learning to speak sheep. Don't you just love mother nature? Hey, patricia, yeah, I do, and that's funny. Speak sheep, yeah, I'm learning to speak cat, a little horse, and I think I'll try speaking some sheep. I've tried a little. I'm not very good at it. I love that, patricia. You know what I mean.
William:Leanne, I feel like I do repress my happiness at times it can be overwhelming. Sometimes I feel so happy it feels like it must be the end. I know what you mean, leanne. Yeah, I think. For me it's just that my nervous systems are like muscles the more you use them, the stronger they get, and I did that in an earlier podcast. I talked about that a bit. But often when we're closed down, we don't exercise our nervous system as much.
William:But now, leanne, that you've been doing all the work that you're doing, your nervous system is expanding, expanding, expanding and able to handle more and more happiness. But at times it can be overwhelmed. It's like a wire that's only so big and it can only carry so much current. So, yeah, you, actually, from a nervous system standpoint, leanne, it's like a muscle. You have to put those barbells down and take a break. Every so often. It's a little crazy sounding, but I do know what you mean.
William:Oh, leanne says have you felt this? Yes, yes. Kate says thank you, william, you are so helpful. Please speak sheep for us. I will. I'm going to speak sheep the next time I see them. I saw them today. They're doing all very well. You all are doing such good work. I want to thank you for your courage, even the courage to feel happiness, like Leanne's talking about. And Leanne, I'll say one thing about that.
William:I noticed another thing that works out the nervous system is feeling a lot of pain as you're releasing this stuff comes up and it's untwisting, this repressed stuff, it's intense.
William:And that intensity, if you can sit with it just like learning to lift weights you sit with it, you don't exhaust yourself, but you, you just be with it, you don't quit too early, but you don't stay too long. But you'll build up strength and that same intensity. If you can carry that same intensity of the repressed stuff coming out, then your nervous system can carry that same level of intensity of happiness. Because actually what's going to happen is that pain, that repressed pain, that intense oh, it hurts so badly that's going to untwist and turn into an equally intense amount of happiness, immense amount of happiness. The thing is, as more and more pain melts, that pool of happiness gets bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. So it gets stronger and stronger and stronger and you become like a radiant guru. They're like you, they're no different than you or me or any of us. They just have worked with us a little longer. And you're getting there.
William:So good job and thank you for your courage. Everybody, alice says thank you for your continued guidance and encouragement. Thank you so much, alice. I know you all are working so hard. Francis, thank you. Leanne, thank you. I do want to say thank you to all of you. I look forward to talking to you next time. Bye.