108 Light Dissolves Guilt, Suffering, Dissociation - Q&A

This recording of a live Q & A has been edited for clarity, length, and helpfulness.

We discussed Awakening, dissociation, why we suffer, being captured by our thoughts and emotions in meditation, dissolving quilt, changing our behaviors to be helpful to us, and others, and supporting our awakening.

These podcasts are meant to supplement your personal path of awakening whatever that might be. They are a compilation of what I have found to be the most helpful over the last 50 years on my path of awakening. I feel these podcasts 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. We are each different so if anything does not resonate, please disregard it and follow your heart. All of my podcasts are here and free.

Though I am a psychotherapist, these podcasts are offered to be spiritually helpful and are not psychotherapy. Please reach out to a psychotherapist if ever needed.

Transcript

Hi, I see a good number of my friends. Hey, Catherine. Hey, Jennifer. I can't tell from all the pictures, But I do see you. How is everybody doing today? I trust well. This is the podcast Awakening Together live session. And my name's William Cooper. This is an opportunity for us to discuss anything that's coming up in your practice. Perhaps you've listened to some of my other podcasts. They're on every platform under Awakening Together, William Cooper. Also on Insight Timer, Which is where we are now. So whether you've listened to those podcasts, Which are on Awakening, Or you have your own practice, Perhaps you have some thoughts that you'd like to bring up for us to chat about. Any thoughts that you have to guide our conversation to begin with? Something that you've been thinking about or wondering about? If you do, Just type it in the box and we'll figure it out. Or at least we'll go in the right direction. While you're thinking of thoughts or something that you'd like to discuss, Let's talk about awakening for a second. And what is awakening? Really, It's very simple. It's just being yourself. Let's say you were so relaxed and you didn't have those inner tensions, Any inner conflicts, So that you could just flow through your body, Through your life, As you would like. Things would come to you. That's called intuition. Occasionally you would use the tool of the mind, The emotions, And you would use that to accomplish some task. But relatively clutter-free. You would just flow. You remember seeing in some of those medieval paintings the light coming out of people's heads or halos. Catherine says, Has a question, And thank you for asking questions. It's good for all of us. It gives us something to do, Right? And if I say something that doesn't resonate, This is about you being relaxed in your body, So it's simply meant to be helpful, But if it doesn't resonate, Then move on. Don't listen to that particular answer. Just say, No, That doesn't work for me. Okay, Catherine says, I've been practicing mindfulness, But much of it is about being able to observe without attachment. Not easy, Though, Just to observe without being pulled into some drama or story. Well, Catherine, That is such a good observation, And it's true for me, It's true for you, It's true for really every single person. We're all pulled into our dramas. So, It's less about being perfect, And I like the meditation where you just observe without attachment, But part of it is, It's okay to observe and fully feel. The feeling is often what will pull me into a story or a drama that I'm watching in my meditation that just sort of springs forward. It's the feeling that pulls me in. So, Slowly, Slowly, What I've become more used to doing is just feeling the feeling. If I can feel the feeling fully, Then I don't get pulled into it. So, It's more about a full experience of that feeling, And usually the feeling, The deepest feeling underneath the drama, It might be pleasure, But the reason why the pleasure is there is even a deeper feeling will usually be pain or suffering, Some form of fear or hurt or anger, Frustration. And because that's the case, As you get to that place, It's not that pleasant. In fact, You don't go hunting for them, But as they rise up on their own to be discharged, To just unwind, They're just wanting, Your system no longer wants to carry that tension, That stress. So, It reveals it for you to just sit there and let it unwind, Eventually that stress itself wants to breathe in the goodness, The mindfulness, The awareness that's watching it. It wants to breathe it in and relax into it because your mindfulness is very, It doesn't have problems. It feels good. And there's something else about mindfulness or awareness. If we just sort of do it, Which I think is quite natural, And that is be aware, That connotates being aware. But what it doesn't always connotate is the love that comes with that awareness. Awareness is also love. It's, I don't even know if you can put, Use one word to describe it. It's awareness, But it's also this care and love. And sometimes that care and love gets blocked out in a sense because of our psychology. And so it doesn't seem obviously to be care and love. But if you do an experiment and that which you're watching, You just allow there to be care for it, For there to be love for it, As well as awareness, And then let that tension breathe it in, It will start to relax and dissolve. And once you're in the middle of all that, That drama really can't pull you in. It's very difficult because now it's not a drama. It's just a grouping of feelings that are asking for something. And what they're asking for is that love and the safety of your awareness because awareness is peace. They want, Everybody wants peace and love and well-being. So I don't know if that helps, But that would be an experiment. Continue your awareness. Sounds like you're doing fine. Even after decades, Emotions can still pull you in because there's a lot that's being deconstructed as they expend their energy every time you don't jump into them and they unwind, Unwind, Unwind, They let go and they expend their energy. They get weaker and weaker over time and they come out of your system. So as we started this podcast, This discussion saying, What is awakening? That's just the flow of your natural energy, Your beingness, Your light. When it's not being absorbed in all of these dramas. So meditation is a really good way to let these barriers go. Catherine says, Thank you. When feelings are strong, It's hard to feel the self-compassion, But it can also arise spontaneously. Yeah, Yeah. It is hard to feel the self-compassion and when feelings are very strong, You're doing well to just hang in there, You know, As you know, Because they're strong and they're very painful. So just you sitting there with them helps free them. So you're doing a big thing, Catherine, Just by doing what you're doing. Experiment a little bit with the compassion when it makes sense, But that's just something for our discussion. More important is that you're doing your practice at all because it'll get you to where you want to go. It's amazing. I mean, You can go for some time and feel like you're making no progress because as you go deeper and deeper, Releasing some of these troublesome, Very painful PTSD and emotional issues that maybe you don't even know where they're coming from. Maybe they were from when you were a child or if you want to bring in past lives, Maybe from there. But just you letting them breathe, Letting them come out, You're making a lot of headway. I hope that helps, Catherine, But I just want to say you're doing the right thing. Sue, Hello, William. So grateful to be here. I experience so much guilt, Even though rationally I know I have done all I could. I always feel like I should have done more, Should have known more. I never have done enough. Do you have advice on this? Yes. Again, This is maybe a worldwide condition. I think definitely it's a Western one. You know, We never do enough. You know, You study harder, You go to more school, Do better with your relationship, Do better with your meditation. It's also, It's a feature of probably a number of religions, But if you have any Christian background, That is in there. It's not really Jesus-oriented, But it is religion, Christian-oriented. It's in other religions too, I think. So what would my advice be about this guilt? I'm wondering, Is it on a specific thing, And I don't have to know what the thing is, Or is it on just almost everything you feel guilty? That might direct how I would answer you. And as you're, Okay, Almost everything, Yes. What you've got here, There's a good chance that it's just, You know, It's an old habit, It's an old way of looking at life. Maybe you were made to feel guilty as a kid, And as a child, When people put you in certain situations, Because you don't have defenses, It's like hypnosis, And you take it in and you believe it. Why? Because you love the person, That even maybe being mean to you, You love them. And one way to try to get close is to say, We're the same, We believe in the same things. You think I'm not doing well enough, I agree with you. See, We're the same. I love you, And you, I hope, Love me, Because I agree with you. Many different ways that we take in negative feelings towards ourself. That's an illustration of one of them. So what to do? Meditation, The awakening meditation, That's, I describe, In around podcast number, Maybe podcast number seven. I would start with number one, If you haven't, And move through. But number seven, The beginning ones are fairly short. Number seven, I believe, I go through that, And basically, And maybe number eight, Yes, Practicing it in number eight, And then later in the podcast. But what you're doing here is you're just watching your feelings as they come up. You're experiencing them just as Catherine was talking about. And because you've got a conglomeration of emotions that are configured as guilt, Or not doing enough, Or not good enough. They're just emotions, They're not real. Because frankly, Your life is more than all the tasks that you do. And we'll never do every possible task that we could do. And with the diligence that somebody else might say that we should have done it. Never. That will never happen. Look at Jesus. They were chasing him around. They were criticizing him. Buddha, Criticizing him. Ramana, Criticizing him. Well, After a while, We criticize ourselves. So you want to deconstruct that emotion, That emotion of guilt. It's not a real thing, But it feels real. It's just an emotion. Emotions are hallucinations. Thoughts are hallucinations. Emotions are slow moving and very powerful hallucinations that are rooted inside. So you want to watch it and just watch them in your meditation. Observe them. Be aware of them and let them unwind. Let them breathe in the goodness of everything around them and the goodness of you. Because they have to update their files. They believe that they're doing something wrong. They believe that. And that's why they're emoting the way they are. They haven't updated their files. They might only be two years old or four years old inside. They don't know any difference. They're in a time machine. So that's when you let them come to the surface. And in a sense, What can be helpful is you step into their shoes and rather than I have guilt, That's I have an object called guilt that's troubling me. Rather than taking that position, Since there's only one person inside of you, Which is you, Say I am guilt. I feel guilty. I am guilty. I am guilty. I am making guilt. Something like that. I am guilty. I'm guilty. I'm guilty. Now you're not really guilty, But you're embodying that guilt. You're way beyond the personality also. We understand that. But the problem is on the level of the personality. So we have to, We inhabit multiple realities all at the same time, One of which is our personality. So problems on the personality have to be worked with from that angle, From the personality. So you inhabit, I am guilty. What does that do? That reverses any dissociation that's happened, Any repression, Because a dissociation is I'm fine except for that guilt over there. I've dissociated from it. It's an object over there. It's not me. It's over there. Reassociation is I am guilt. I am guilt. What that allows to happen, Because now you've reassociated, The guilt can breathe in relief. Since I am guilt, I am also able to relax. I am also able to look around and update my files. I'm a human being. I'm okay. I can breathe that in and soak that in and let me feel good for a second because it is true. I am good. And when you soak in goodness, Any tension, Which guilt, Fear, Anger, Any of these personality traits, All of those are made of tension. Any tension will release, Relax, And let go. It's gone. Then you never have to deal with it because it's gone. It doesn't exist anymore. As far as a philosophical level, A much different reality, The only thing that exists is right now. So even if your personality is having trouble releasing, It's holding on to a memory that no longer, That action no longer exists. It doesn't exist. It's like a wave in the ocean that was there yesterday. The ocean could feel guilty about it for a long time, But that wave never, It's gone. Nobody even thinks about it. It's gone. The best you can do is come back in the world now with your relieved and open self, Your healed self, Your glowing self, Flowing, And you give love. That heals all. Anything, If there was a legitimate thing, Oh, I, You know, I didn't say hi to somebody or I didn't do this or even much deeper, I didn't do that. Re-approach it in kindness as you awaken. No need for guilt. Love now. Put love into the world. I hope that helps some. I'm going to scroll back and see what, I hope that helps Sue. If more needs to be said, Just type that in and we'll work on that. Catherine says, I listened to your awakening meditation today and it felt powerful and releasing. Yes, Catherine. That's what it does. And all it's doing, And it's what you're already good at. You're already doing a version of that. It is powerful and releasing and sometimes it's nice to listen to somebody else's voice so you can just relax into it. Ultimately, You do it on your own and ultimately, All of life is a meditation because in the awakening meditation, What's going on is you're aware of everything and you just let it occur. And somewhere in there is a deep trust because how do you let it occur? It's only if you trust that the universe is going to take care of you and as you let go more and more, It turns out the barriers and boundaries are gone and so all there is is oneness which means all that there is is the universe is you. There's only one, Not me plus the universe over here. It's the universe is me. So it takes care of me and I trust it. And even if I lose a dollar here or a pound of there, Okay, Formerly I might have been in fear. Oh, I lost some money. But as I become one with the universe I start to realize it's all connected, Interconnected. So I lose a dollar here but maybe $10, 000 floats in over there. Two different actions but to the universe it's all one thing. In my human mind I might separate them and say oh, I still wish I hadn't lost the dollar. That was bad. But no, It's all one thing. It's a flow and the universe is doing perfectly. Seed says, What's helped me over the past few years with difficult family members equanimity by always answering with positives, Yes. Very powerful Seeds. Thank you for saying that. Awakening really is again on so many levels but one very powerful level that's often overlooked is what Seeds is talking about and that's making a decision because you're always here, You're perfect. Sometimes we wait for everything to clear up before we act as we are. But we're perfect right now even when our personality is not. So flowing from our perfection, Even if we don't feel it, It's just nice to make a decision on some intuitive level. We know we are equanimity. We know we are positive. We know we are love. We know that. We know that as all this stuff clears out and that's why we're doing a spiritual practice that all there will be left is equanimity and love. We know that. Somehow, Even when we don't know it mentally, We know it. So because of that, Why wait? I don't mean push yourself beyond where you are completely, But make some simple decisions like while I'm going through my spiritual practice and while I'm clearing up my life and becoming more clear within, I'm gonna start acting like I know that I am. I know that I'm equanimity, Peace, So I'm gonna act peacefully. I know I'm positive, So I'm going to act positively. It can be very powerful just to make a decision and do it. I don't mean only that. That might be called positive thinking and people that have a lot of experience with positive thinking would say, No, Probably that's a shallow read and I admit, Yes. But for our purposes, I'll just say that. I'm talking about keep your practice going, Keep clearing, Keep deepening, But act as you know that you are. Even before you completely realize it. It's self-realization, But you already know what the self is. So, Act that way and it'll help open things up. Seed says, My regular yoga and meditation practices have helped me to not so much to eliminate the dark emotions, Anger, Irritations, Etc. With response to say no to so much dark emotions. Yes. Again, We're on a number of levels of reality and it's real important to notice within each of us, Wait a second, Things are happening all up and down the spectrum within me. I'm kind of like a rainbow. That's how I look at myself or how I experience myself and on some levels dark emotion, We know that dark emotions are simply separation and we say no to them and that's very powerful to get us out of the pounding surf and to make changes. Secondly, Doing your spiritual practice seeds as you're saying and I'm just supporting what you're telling us with the group is saying that yoga and meditation are so powerful to help continue to release and dissolve these dark emotions and that's another level, A related level, But it's another level. Saying positive things that comes from being, It's affirming the nature of our being and as you do more meditation and yoga, We experience our being directly, But until it's fully experienced, We experience it to a degree and always you can experience your being. It's not like I have to practice 20 years of spiritual practice before I'll experience my being. No, Right now even when I'm very agitated somewhere there's a little bit of peace shining through a little bit of love shining through somewhere because I'm not the agitation. I did say reassociate to it to help it breathe in like go and release and dissolve and then it will disappear. Why does it disappear? Because it's not you, But you almost have to feel like it's you so that it can reassociate and then take in the goodness that it doesn't know exists. Seed says, But not let the negatives of family to make you respond with negatives. I fight negatives with positives. Yes, Absolutely. You know, The Buddhists might call that right action and they have a nice system. You know, Buddha was from India and Buddha was a Hindu and the way I look at it. It's again my family's much of them are Buddhist and they would take sharp exception with this. But in my mind Buddhism is like organized Hinduism. Hinduism is like an explosion but where to begin very powerful. Buddhism seems to organize it step one, Step two, Step three. So each one is powerful depending on where you are in your practice. Jesus sees another thing. I don't want to leave him out. Very powerful listening to what his words are but he had some instructions. I didn't see not as thorough as Hinduism and Buddhism but forgiveness loving one another. These are crucial instructions. Community taking care of each other. Very powerful. Just doing those would be great. He also when he went to release a lot of stuff in the desert he talked about all these negatives and he called them Satan and he would just not participate in negative thoughts kind of like you're talking about seeds but that was his version. Satan get behind me or it says he spent 40 days and 40 nights in the desert and the Bible talk that's a very long time and I think it's years and years so he's very powerful I just think as far as practices are concerned maybe Buddhism or Hinduism a little bit more specific but yes seeds that's great about just saying no to the negatives and rather than succumb to the hallucination of your personality you let right action or positives come through and that's what I started to say Buddhism works a lot with developing right action so that by the time you do become more awake you've already changed your behaviors to match who you truly are inside so even before you're very awake they'll start working on right actions right livelihood right thoughts being with good groups of people your sangha your community learning about your inner nature your buddha nature and following good teachings so very good good advice so says it's just so difficult with loved ones I wish I could have done more and just don't know how to let go of that to accept that I could not have done more at the time yes makes you sad and cry I understand so I think a lot of us have that feeling in our own way to me the antidote the solution is one you can't jump to what I'm about to say right away but take baby steps but it's trust the unit things happen the way they happen right actions because they had to happen that way they had to to make the whole thing hold together right you seem to think you did that was unfeeling or not enough or whatever it was was the perfect thing to do both for your spiritual growth and perhaps for the person that you're thinking about or the people you're thinking about even if it was so bad and you would do it over differently now it was perfect Ramana has a quote and I'm going to say it but I won't get it right at all you can google Ramana Maharishi and type in a little of this kind of quote and you'll get something you'll get the real quote but it's something like whatever is going to happen will happen despite every effort to try to stop it whatever is not going to happen will not happen despite doing everything to try to make it happen he's getting at kind of the same thing but my point is you can't just get out of that loop of guilt just wishing that it were so it comes with trust that everything is indeed okay when I talk to my guru about an issue way back when he said you know ultimately everything's okay what you're talking about is not an issue but from where you are it's a huge issue and you have to be sincere and true to yourself you can't just wish it away you feel there's a problem so you have to work with that problem and deal with life from the perspective where you are that's where the learning is so right now you're you're fighting you're working with guilt and I would say a lot of meditation letting go breathing and it won't happen instantly by breathing I mean embodying that part of you that feels guilty let it look around let it breathe in goodness let it soak in goodness does this feel better or worse better well good then soak it in take it in feel how good that feels in my later podcast I talk a lot about that also a bit in my PTSD podcast this is all in the series of podcasts if you follow me you'll get notified every time I do a new podcast and I'm just speaking to everybody right now and on any platform I think especially on insight timer and you'll be notified of live sessions but also once you get to one all of them will come up and you can scroll through there's like a hundred and seven of them now this one might be a hundred and eight so you can scroll through and by the titles find things that are podcasts that are about releasing letting go ultimately I would if you haven't done it and you may I would start at podcast number one and work your way forward because I put a lot of things in these podcasts that are part cycle I'm a psychotherapist so I I'm combining east and west I've been to India 14 times averaging three months per time talk to hundreds of awakened people had powerful gurus and taken many paths and what I've tried to do is synthesize what I think is the most important and put it into these podcasts other people would differ with me I realize it's just my perspective but it's a start it's something so that maybe it can put you in the right direction they're all free what's motivating me is back when I was in theological school it was a very dark time for me back in 1978 is when I first started and I first started meditating in 1973 so been at it for a while but I remember sitting there being in such darkness and that's why I went to theological school it was my beginning way to start to figure out what the heck is going on and I just wished for so much help and I was so grateful when I got help because I was way beyond traditional like read a bible verse or something that wasn't going to work I needed the real thing and I found the real thing so I've tried to put that together in these podcasts and that's why I and I've tried to put them in an orderly way they're like a mosaic in the each one stands by its own so you can listen to any of them individually but if you listen to them in order they start to paint a picture that hopefully is helpful and the parts that you disagree with or don't help they're not helpful just disregard those and hold on to things that do do help you so let me get back to Alice says I say that around insecurity instead of saying I'm insecure I say I have pockets of insecurity and Alice is responding to seeds replacing negatives positives as he said in his statement before and yes that's a true statement Alice ultimately we're not negative at all I mean we're not insecure at all but in this world we do have pockets of separation and those have been turned into insecurity and it is a good powerful thing to do is to recognize it's not I have this pocket because that is what you're working on releasing is the pocket and you're working at it from a part of you that's not insecure that's the part that sees the pocket and the part that sees the pocket is just fine so it's a wonderful affirmation and way to look at things Alice let's see what else Laura says Hindus and Judaism both have big relationships with community right interesting never thought of that yes well Hindus do Judaism does Christianity one of their most powerful aspects is community in the church I personally am not so sure that the religion of Christianity is transmitting perfectly what Jesus was saying but they're trying so I would take that's the danger of you know I went to a church and I tried to figure this out all my life I've gone to church but in college I went and I ended up in a mainline church that somehow got into a campus ministry aspect that I got into and I simply wanted to study the Bible that next thing I knew it was really very cultish and damaging and it's what motivated me to go to theological school to sort all this stuff out so I'm not I did get a good education and so I feel very confident with my thoughts my perspective it was a four year program but I see the good but I see the maybe things that aren't as productive as they could be sometimes it's not as clear as I would like it to be it's not a remark about individual Christians or the community or certainly not Jesus he's my deepest friend Oh Roberta found the Ramana quote thank you whatever is destined not to happen will not happen try as you may whatever is destined to happen will happen do what you may to prevent it this is certain the best course therefore is to remain silent meditate because everything is perfect it doesn't seem like it's perfect when I talked to my guru it did not seem like it was perfect and it wasn't perfect for me but you know what he had us do? Meditate he said do you know why you suffer? And I'm a psychotherapist there was you know at the time I don't even know how many people were there let's say 50 could have been 500 I'm not sure he had millions of followers or has I should say and we said why? Why do we suffer? I was curious what was he going to say he said because you don't live life fully what? He said he was so clear and when you're clear you get very intuitive he says it's like sitting in a garbage pit it's painful being around you you have so much unresolved issues and so much pain and suffering why? What he meant by not living fully is that we don't connect to our suffering because we can't handle it and that's what we were talking about earlier start to handle it by re-associating reconnecting to our hurting parts, They're parts because they've been dissociated when they're re-associated they're not parts it's just I'm in the habit of hurting myself by feeling guilty I don't know how to stop but the first step is to admit it's me doing it after a while I'll find a way to stop but his way one of his ways was to have us still and to do what we hadn't done, Reconnect to our pain, To our suffering so that it could start to dissolve and release let go and because it lets go it's gone and that's really the awakening meditation boil down connect don't get engulfed in your feelings and drama yet connect to them, Be aware of them stay as who you are, Why? Because it's who you are, Why leave that? It's who you are no sense in jumping into a story or a drama if I don't answer any of your questions to your satisfaction or maybe I get off on a tangent bring me back around and just re-ask or the next time around Catherine says it's so important to be able to receive I'm so glad you brought that up Catherine, That someone else is taking care of me and that I don't always have to push and that I can receive from nature etc. Oh I am so happy you brought that up I was walking on the beach maybe yesterday and I actually wanted to talk to you about that Catherine it came up because I realize for all of us and Catherine you've talked about letting things go and dissolving and working with that and the only thing that dissolves things, The only thing that lets things go is receiving right? Fear, What is fear? It's a tension that doesn't believe it has something, It doesn't believe it's safe what is anger? It's a tension that doesn't believe that it has something it doesn't believe it has fulfillment what is hurt? It's a tension that doesn't believe it has something it doesn't believe it has love how do these tensions relax? They have to be able to receive what they don't think they have they really do have this that's when I said earlier they have to update their files they do have it, But they can't receive if they're dissociated because they're now an object they can't receive anything they have to be you, Only you can receive so we reassociate and let that hurt, Let that fear let that anger receive and how do we receive on every level and this is getting to what you're saying and simply covering lots of levels Catherine we have to get good at receiving, When somebody says hey you did a good job do you stop and just take it in and say wow, Ok thank you, That feels good, Or do you go well that was nothing if somebody says you really changed my life do you just very quickly say well you helped me too thank you, Thank you and you helped me too there's not a lot of receiving there, It's just kind of quid pro tit for tat kind of thing in a good way, I'm meaning the best thing, But it's what we do, I'm just saying that's what a lot of us do so it's time to stop and receive thank you's when people say thank you receive it, When somebody says you're a good person, Say yes, I am thank you I'm going to take that in, Because I really am, Whatever they say to you, That was generous, Yes it was my pleasure I felt good, It was and I felt good I'm feeling it right now any version that works for you I know it's a little awkward you don't want to seem all puffed up, But it's almost a disease that to say the truth would be considered not humble humility is being who you are the world needs you, Right how you are with your skills, With where you are in life, It needs you it doesn't need you to become a Buddha or a Jesus or a Ramana, It needs you to be you, To become you fully, So yes receiving is so powerful Catherine, Thank you for bringing that up, For all of us it's such a practice we can do all day long receive a good sunset oh that felt good take it in, Receive a thank you, Receive a dog wagging it's tail receive a bird singing for you receive nature, How good it feels, And that's what Catherine mentioned, Among other things receive it's a hard one, I'm learning to do that, But you can't be awake without receiving you can't be alive without breathing in, You breathe out, You breathe in in awakening, That radiant light, That's what's going out of you as you clear clear up, The breathing in, That's what comes into you and you're supported by nature, In full awakening you feel the vibration of nature coming into you, You feel the love of the universe supporting you, And the only way you can feel these, Is for you to receive, Well you have to receive fully it's a practice, We're trained not to do that, You know the Mayan calendar in 2012 ended and they said it was the end of the world well it was the end of the separated world it was the end of the dark ages the end of that world and we were moving into the world of light, Same in the Hindu calendar, Exact same time they work off the same stars, The star Sirius it's moving into light, And light, So we've been cut off and we haven't been receiving but now as we move into light, We receive I'm just saying it's important okay, Catherine says they are all excellent podcasts and I have learned so much big endorsement for William thank you Catherine, Oh by the way I don't do these any money that people donate to me and thank you for your generosity through the years, It goes straight to feed children in Bali orphans in Bali, So I only do this podcast to give back what I've been given, That's my only reason cause I was so desperate I know a time of my life where somebody doing something nice was so appreciated in my life, That's why I do these podcasts, The only reason so, The reason why the world in my estimation is so separated is we've lost our way to ourselves and these podcasts are designed to share what others have shown me and what I've discovered myself in different ways and try to describe those to be helpful so that we come back to ourselves and in full coming back to ourselves we flow with love peace and well being and that's what makes a better world short of that I don't see how the world is gonna pull out of this you can't be suffering and just put a fake smile on your face and make a good world, That doesn't happen, So if you find these podcasts helpful consider sending a link to somebody else, It doesn't mean that they have troubles but everybody can might enjoy some of the things in these podcasts, If you feel that that's true, Send it, That's a good way to send light out, If you find somebody else's podcast is doing that for you as well send links of their podcast to other people this is how we have world change world peace as we go closer to the star and more light comes into our world, We're part of that light be the change you want to see so that's one way thank you Catherine for saying that Sue says thank you so much William for your advice, I will definitely do that and listen to your podcast, Meditate and try to trust more, So grateful wonderful Sue I do want to stress something you'll see more of it in the podcasts around the late 20s, Podcast 30 let's say on PTSD when you're going deep and we do this step by step by step baby steps, You want to proceed slowly I mean what else are we doing in this life often we want to get it all done all at once but in the spiritual practice that doesn't always work so well it can traumatize us we can shut down and lock up inside and not go anywhere and then we start coming to our spiritual practice as a grim duty we must do this we have to do this and if we keep doing it will be okay but we're so locked up inside, We're not really receiving the benefits so yeah we could do it a hundred times and I'm not so sure that we would progress the way you know you're progressing is you feel your inner self releasing, Relaxing and letting go granted in the beginning and by that I mean it could be decades, There's so much pain that's been stored inside that we've dissociated with and stuck inside of our body that it hurt going in and it hurts going out so in the beginning of our spiritual practices it can not feel good so I'm not saying you're doing something wrong if it feels bad and I'm also not saying you're doing something wrong if it doesn't feel bad somebody asks well it doesn't feel bad, Am I missing something? No, Don't go hunting for it but if something needs to come up to release out of you, It will so it'll find you just do your spiritual practice and I try to put it in an orderly way in these podcasts so Catherine says I'm lucky to live on a beach yes I am being around nature any way that you can and ultimately you're the most powerful nature wherever you are, Your being is the most powerful nature it's your beach inside and at the same time it's so nice to connect to nature on the outside walking on the beach, You know they did a I'm guessing they spent millions of dollars up in Canada and they found that if you are in nature for I think an hour a week or two hours every two weeks or something like that is that it's good for you I think we listen to our heart and we can do our own study but you know people need to have empirical evidence so it's good they did the study, I'm glad but you're right being at the beach or going out and sitting next to a tree wherever you are finding a park is very powerful Laura says learning to receive is a big one for me and to ask what I really need yes those are two big ones baby steps go very slowly don't overwhelm yourself especially in the asking for what you need take little baby steps because it can be very scary depending on your background and you want to open up and build a foundation and a base so that you can let some of your insides relax as you ask for what you need so it's okay if the person says if they're not capable you might ask for a very legitimate and good thing but they may not be capable and when you're more relaxed inside why don't you bide your time and ask when they're able to hear because sometimes they're better than others but it is very important Laura and I think a lot of us are learning that Catherine says taking in the good by Rick Hansen a great little book I'm not sure if I'm familiar with that book, Say the title and we'll make sure people know about it Sue says she has to go, Yes our time is up but thanks again William you helped me so much and pointed me in the right direction, Yes Sue, Thank you love and light to you too Malena received my tracksuit pants this morning, Someone made them for me I received my socks, Someone else made them for me, I received my jumper, Yes somebody made them, It's so true, Thank you Malena, It's so true, Everything what we eat, Somebody grew, Somebody cooked somebody it's so true receive, Receive, Receive, We have so many opportunities it's such a true practice Monica William your podcasts are excellent I started from the beginning and I'm up to episode 13, I highly recommend them thank you Monica and you don't know how much it thrills me to hear that thank you, That's what I'm going for and if I don't say something in the right way, Somebody out there, I'm trying but you'll figure it out, Just give me some grace and they'll work together and it'll get you in a good place I think Cynthia, Amazing wisdom first time here, Glad to be here thank you Cynthia, Welcome come anytime, If you follow me on InsideTimer, You'll be notified every time we do one of these livecasts Jennifer, This is fantastic thank you Jennifer, Christine thank you and oh, Catherine says the title is called Handwriting Happiness and it's by Rick Hansen and Catherine likes it so y'all might want to google that book I like when people have read things and it meant a lot to them oh, He's a neurobiologist, Okay well, Even better yes, So thank you for sharing that okay everybody thank you so much for your great questions, Look how it guided our conversation and our interactions thank you your spiritual practice is so beautiful it's step at a time, It's baby steps, It's just showing up and you'll get there, Guaranteed alright, Look forward to talking to you all soon, Take care bye

Reviews

Oh, I found a little group of Q&A live sessions that I missed. As a clinician who does parts work, I am curios about the “I am … whatever feeling.” In my practice we pendulate between I am loving, compassionate and so on and then switching to “ I am the (pain)” and lean into it but it is a part that blocks access to self… in the method I use. Rather than throw it out - we listen, update, and invite the part to find joy in our inner landscape. Does this fit with what you are saying in the talk?
Thank you! 🙏🏼🕊️🥰

Having been friends with Jesus' for the best part of eighty years, the only instruction from Him, in the New Testament, of which I am aware is "Love one another as I have loved you". With regard to baby steps, it makes me think of the tale of 'The Hare and the Tortoise'. Thank you William for all the help and advice that you give.🙏♥️

I will listen to this again as I fell asleep the first time (not a reflection on the talk, just the time of day lol)

Thank you again for this wonderful live, William! Listening to your helpful insights again is very healing. Especially to trust that, what is destined to happen, will happen, however hard we try to prevent it. And what is not destined to happen, will not happen, however hard we try to make it so. Really gives me a sense of peace and trust and helps to keep the overwhelming guilt at bay! So very grateful for your help with this, William, you are great!! Will definitely listen to many more of your podcasts! Sending you love and light 🙏🤗💖🌟💫

Wow! Even better the second time around. Thank you 😊 William!
~ Jennifer Lea