144 Giving Yourself Grace, Your Awakening, Etc - Q & A

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

Topics discussed include: Giving yourself grace, how to let distress melt out of us, how not to freeze problems within us, Experiencing who we are - Awareness of Awareness, Unforgiveness, healing our core wounds, etc.

These podcasts are a compilation of what I have found to be the most helpful over the last 50 years on my path of awakening. They are most powerful when listened to in sequence from podcast one forward because each is built on the last. They, also, all stand on their own. If anything does not resonate, please disregard it.

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

Transcript

Hello, Everybody. Welcome. My name is William Cooper. Welcome to Awakening Together, Relaxing into Happiness. Good to see you all. How are you doing this week? This is a time when you can talk about your path of awakening, Whatever that might be. You can ask questions and your questions will guide our discussions. Hi, Alexandria. Hi, Jody, Jennifer. Hey, Everybody. This is a time of year, The holidays, And the holidays can be stressful. We can get triggered around family, Around all the different things we have to do, Around all the hustle bustle. Lots of ways that we can get triggered. We can feel pressured. And when we thought we were doing so well, And we were working so clearly and deeply on our path, Suddenly it can feel like we're going backwards, That we haven't really advanced at all because we've been triggered. Let's talk about grace. Well, I know this is a great time of year to offer ourselves grace, To just relax and be kind to ourselves. What's the rush? What's the hurry? We don't have to push ourselves. We don't have to be somebody that we're not. We're fine right where we are. We really are. And without doing anything, Your being, Our being is happiness, Joy, Kindness, Well-being, Patience, Peace. That's who we are. This series of podcasts, All through the series, We talk about how to let go of those things that we aren't, Old habits, Old thoughts, Things that take us away from who we are. And at this time of the year, Let's talk about who we are and just be kind to ourselves, Be who we are to ourselves. Even if we don't fully feel it because our path takes a while, Awakening can take a while. And part of us might feel peaceful at times and then other parts, Not so peaceful. We can feel kind. And then at other times, Not so kind. What I'm suggesting is to be kind, Be who you are to yourself. Now, Be kind. Grace means there's nothing you have to do. Nothing you have to achieve. You deserve grace. You are grace. You deserve kindness. You are kindness. Be kind to yourself. Be who you are to yourself. And before we talk more about awakening, At some point, It doesn't have to be fancy. It can just be, Hey, I'm talking to myself in a mean way. I'm pressuring myself. I'm hurting myself. I'm telling myself I can't relax until I get a certain job done. I'm doing all sorts of nasty things to myself. Pressuring. Not fancy. Just stop. No, I'm going to love myself. I'm going to treat myself nicely. I'm going to be kind to myself. Well, I didn't get the job done. Okay. Grace. I didn't act perfectly in that last situation. Okay. I am grace. Let me give myself grace. Just stop. Take a breath. Give yourself an internal or external hug. Grace. Be who you are to yourself. Just directly. You can even just notice what you're doing when you're maybe beating yourself up and just stop it. That simple. Just stop. Be better. Start with yourself. Love your neighbor as yourself. You got to start with yourself. I'll read what some of you write. Jade says, Hi all. It's my first time here. I've listened to all of your podcasts and gotten immeasurable help from them. Much appreciation. Wow. Well, Welcome Jade. And for anybody else that's new, New here, I know Jade, You've listened to all of these podcasts. That's wonderful. These podcasts are designed to be simple and clear and to step by step lay out what I've looked for in my awakening path and what I couldn't. I've been around a lot of great teachers and I've learned so much from them and I've asked so many questions. And sometimes what I didn't find available was how to do something. Like somebody might say, Don't be attached. Well, How? Okay. Yeah. I don't want to be attached. How? Or let go. Yeah, That's great. How? Or awaken. Well, What's awakening and how? Um, What about gurus? Do you need them? Do you not? If so, How these podcasts are based around the house that I've found helpful and I've left out all the stuff that I haven't found helpful. They're like a lot of colored tiles and they come together in a beautiful picture, A beautiful mosaic, Which is you, Your true self, Your awakening. They're designed to be able to listen to them step by step and each podcast is built on the last. So they're very powerful when you listen to them in order from one forward, They're all free, They're all available right here. So you can try them out if you haven't and see what you think. If there's anything in these podcasts that you don't resonate with, Then just disregard them. We're all different and we all have different makeups and we're in different places on our path. So disregard them, Whatever doesn't resonate, But they're designed to support your path, Whatever it is, Wherever you are. Oh, And by the way, Each one stands on its own as well. So you can listen to any title that jumps out at you. There's no rule about all these podcasts. They're just more powerful when you listen to them in order. So thanks, Jade. What we've talked about in past podcasts are the hows of awakening and what happens inside and why meditation can be helpful and different kinds of meditations and different things that happen in and on the awakening process. What I'm experiencing now, That some of you may be experiencing, Is it feels like, And bear with me on this, But it feels like I'm an ice cube in a way and I'm melting. And just like an ice cube exudes cold, Cold is what holds the water in ice form. Water is free-flowing, Life-giving, Nurturing, But it can be frozen into a shape that takes on different characteristics. It can have a hard edge. It could be frozen into the shape of a knife or a hammer or any shape that could be destructive. It could also be frozen into a shape that is constructive. But on our awakening path, We typically haven't embedded within us and repressed within us nice things. We typically don't find a pocket of repressed happiness or wellbeing or peace or something like that. Instead, We've often repressed a frozen shape inside of us that doesn't feel good. That's why we've pushed it away, Like a sharp edge, Like a knife. And what I'm experiencing is the melting of these hard edge, Sharp ice shapes inside of me. As I started to say, Ice, When it melts, It exudes cold. You hold an ice cube in your hand and it's cold. When the ice that we've created inside of us, The sharp edges inside of us melt, What holds that together is attitudes, Anger, Hurt, Fear, Quote unquote negative attitudes. Let's think about it. Consciousness is free flowing and we can manifest things using consciousness. Everything in the created world is made of consciousness or awareness, Just frozen into different shapes. You take this free flowing consciousness, Just like you might take free flowing water and you focus on the consciousness with willpower and attitude and you can turn it into an object. You can turn, You could do it right now. You could picture an elephant and create the thought of an elephant. If you had intense energy, You could focus a thought and create one inside of you and you could turn it into a grudge. I hate you. Or you could not forgive somebody and you could hold that inside of you, That hurt and that anger and that maybe feeling of retribution that you want to take. When you put intense energy, You manifest something inside of you. You turn it into ice or the ice version of consciousness. You turn it into a sharp object like a knife and that hurts us. It hurts inside. When these melt, Just like ice exudes its cold, These shapes exude what holds them together. Hurt, Fear and anger or any version of that. Frustration, Worry, Anxiety, Abandonment, Existential angst, Whatever. So, As you go through your awakening process, You might notice that in the beginning, One thing at a time might come up and melt, Expend its energy and release. But later, More and more all start melting at the same time because you've released so much already that you have greater free flowing energy within you. We're not just ice inside. We're also the sun. We're love, Peace and well-being. That is actually who we are. We never were the ice, But we do have ice inside of our body, Inside of our nervous system, Inside of our psychology. So, That sun is always melting that ice if we let it. How do we let it? Well, We just feel it. Don't get involved in it. When I get involved in it, Let's say somebody cuts me off in traffic and I feel natural fear or anger. If I get involved in it, Oh, That person, I hate that person. Those people that drive those kind of cars are always reckless driving or people don't know how to drive in the city. If I get involved in it, Even if repressed things are coming out, If I get involved in it, I'm putting my attention, My willpower on it with attitude. I'm refreezing it and perhaps I'm making it an even more solid object. But if on the other hand, Somebody cuts me off in traffic and I feel stuff coming up, Maybe old stuff is triggered. Maybe it's new stuff, But if whatever it is, As it comes up, If I just feel it, Just experience it, Let it flow through my body, It's uncomfortable. Oh, That's fear. That's anger. I let it flow through my body. It melts. It doesn't ever turn into ice. It doesn't even melt. It just stays as liquid as consciousness. It may be started to form. That's how it turned into hurt or fear, But it just flows out. It passes through me. And so I'm not creating another ice cube. And bonus, What got triggered, What was formerly repressed and came up along with this particular incident, That melts and flows and leaves. It's gone. Once something melts, It's gone. It's turned back into free flowing consciousness, Which is made of peace, Love and wellbeing. So I've been feeling a lot of that lately, Like one giant ice cube. And that gets us back to grace. Because as the ice cube exudes, It's cold. And as me as a one giant ice cube exudes hurt, Fear and anger, Anything that's left within me. And here's the paradox. It can be deeply relaxing because no longer are you holding things inside. The paradox is it also hurts quite a bit because anger and fear and anxiety is releasing. And who wants that? That never is that enjoyable. So you give yourself grace and kindness because when these things melt out, When anxiety, For instance, Melts out of your body, You will feel anxious. You will feel vulnerable. When hurt melts out, You feel hurt. It feels very real. Like something's happening now, Even if it's old hurt that's from 40 years ago, Melting out. It feels very real and current. So you'll feel vulnerable. You might feel weak and powerless, Overwhelmed. Give yourself grace. It's just a bad odor coming out. It's the ice melting. And again, Another odd thing that many of you already know is the next day you feel very powerful because what has melted out has now become fluid consciousness and it becomes part of your energy field. So the love that you already were exuding and experiencing is now even deeper and stronger. The peace that you already were exuding is deeper. So it's a good time for grace on many levels. And let's see what you've written. We can talk more about it or something else. I think I've written some good stuff here. Hi everybody. Nina says, The ice cube reminds me of a trick a midwife showed me as I prepared for birth. Hold the ice cube in your hand. Even though you feel like you can't take more, You find ways to move the energy. Yeah, It is like that. And as us as an ice cube in this analogy, It does feel like you can't take more at times, But it does melt and it's very powerful. Let's see. Somebody asked what the name of these podcasts are. And you can, On this platform, Search under the teacher section and just type in William Cooper Awakening, For instance, Or even just William Cooper. And as Nina said, Put whatever number that you want to listen to, Like type in William Cooper 1 and you'll get podcast 1 or put William Cooper 2 and you'll get podcast 2. They don't always show up in order if you don't do that. And Alexandria says, As I have listened, I have understand that it is important to lean into our pain and feel our feelings. I try to be with the feeling for a limited amount of time and pendulate into something more comforting. But I'm getting such intense pain. Yes, It doesn't even feel like mine. It's been really hard. Maybe I am getting involved. You know, Never underestimate how much pain we've repressed. This stuff is in us. And we might not feel it because we've repressed it. That's the definition of repressing, Right? We don't feel it. We're looking the other way. We're distracting ourselves. We're running as fast as we can to get away from ourselves. Watch a lot of TV, Have drinks, Go see friends, Talk, Talk, Talk, You know, Move quickly, Think quickly, Do a lot of stuff to keep from feeling our feelings. Our feelings. So when some of these things come out, That's why we got to give ourselves grace. And it is good to take breaks. It doesn't need to be a grim duty. It can be a nice process. Feel what we feel. I like to meditate and somewhere early in the series of podcasts, I'm going to just say around podcast six or seven, We talk about a meditation I call the awakening meditation, Which is basically you sit still and you experience whatever comes up. You notice the part of you that's aware of what's coming up and you also experience what is coming up. The value of that meditation is simple as it is. And I walk you through the steps of it in those podcasts is because you sit still, You can't get away from your pain. You can't run to the refrigerator and eat an ice cream sandwich or eat a pie or watch TV. You have to sit there and it's hard to repress stuff when you sit still and you do this meditation. People wonder in meditation, Why is their mind racing? And they don't feel very peaceful. Sometimes others feel very peaceful. So, But sometimes you just don't feel peaceful at all. It's because you're releasing this deep stuff and it's melting out of your system with each ice cube that melts. You do feel better and better and better, But it takes a while. While, And a lot of people do wonder, Am I getting too involved and refreezing this thing that's coming up? Let me tell you ways that you get involved in the shorthand version is, Are you putting willpower into it? And are you re imbuing it with more attitude? Are you putting your attention? Are you getting lost in it? That is keeping it alive. That is keeping it frozen. For instance, I could have a thought that comes up about going to the grocery store. I could just watch that thought come up. It's just a thought and maybe it has emotions attached to it somehow. I could just watch them and experience them. It could be about anything. It could be about a friend. I could have a thought about a friend and emotions about the friend or the grocery store or whatever it is that allows it to come up, Release its energy and discharge, Let go melt. It's like an ice cube melting, But I could, Instead of watching it and experiencing it, I could get involved in it. Like the grocery store thought I could think, Okay, And then I'm going to walk down aisle three and, Oh, Last time I forgot to do this. And then I forgot to do that. And I need to remember to buy this or that or about my friend. I could say, Oh, I really like my friend, But you know, My friend, This and that and the other. Now that's me getting involved in it. I'm, I'm putting that thought on and I'm getting lost in my thought. Well, Of course, Now I'm fortifying the thought and I'm getting involved in the thought. If I have somebody I haven't forgiven and I'm very angry with them, I could start thinking they could pop up in my meditation. And if I got involved in it, No, And then I need to do this. And they weren't very nice to me, But let me, Let me get over it. Let me do this and this and this. It's not melting it. It's reinforcing it. So instead you just want to watch it and experience it. And we go through this, As you know, Alexandria, And it's a very good question. Thank you. But for everybody else, We do go through this a lot in the early podcasts, All through these podcasts, As a matter of fact, I hope that answers your question. And something that Alexandria mentioned, Which is very important when she says she, She feels the feeling and then she pendulates into something more comforting. Uh, That's part of the process of allowing it to melt and pendulate means you kind of swing into something. You let your attention, You let the whole discomfort melt into something more comforting. For instance, You start with what's coming up. Oh, I hurt. I feel hurt or I feel insecure. For instance, I feel insecure. I feel anxiety. I feel overwhelmed with anxiety. You take a bit of that and then you let the anxiety connect to something that is comforting. Maybe you're in nature and you breathe in the beauty of the day, Or if you've been meditating for a while, Maybe you breathe in the comfort of your own beingness. You've gotten used to who you are as in this podcast or in this talk we, I started and I said, Well, I feel like ice, Like I'm an ice cube, But I said, We're also the sun. So as you sit still, You, You not only focus and experience all this cold stuff that's coming up, All the hurt, The pain, And you feel it, You experience, You not only do that. Sometimes instead you focus on the qualities of that, Which is watching all this stuff come up awareness. And when you put your attention on that, Which is aware of all the stuff coming up after a time, You notice it's just fine. The awareness has no problems. And when all this other stuff disappears, The only thing that's going to be left is the awareness. So by process of elimination, You are the awareness because you'll still be here too. That's it. And you'll notice the qualities of your awareness. As you put your attention on that for a continued period of time, As you get to know yourself, Your qualities are peace, Love, And wellbeing. And there are no problems within you yet. They're all these ice cubes strung all over the place. They are what are coming up and they are what are melting, But when they melt and disappear, You'll still be here. So the ice cubes, Aren't you? The problems aren't you? You are not your problems. You're watching your problems. You are not the unforgiveness. You are not the anger. When it goes, You'll still be here and you'll feel good. It's gone. So when Alexandria talks about pendulating, She sees what's coming up. She feels it. She experiences it. And then she lets it breathe in, Soak in wellness. And maybe we're not so used to the qualities of our being yet. So it's easier to connect to nature, Or maybe we want to feel calmness and we just put our hand on the wall or our desk and it's very quiet and calm. And we breathe in some of that calmness or we touch our pet or our loved one, Or we swing, We pendulate to something comforting. And yes, Alexandria, That's perfect. The race says, Alexandria, Same here. Keep trying forgiveness, But the pain of the betrayal keeps resurfacing. Yes, This is a big one. Forgiveness is hard. You know, That was one of Jesus' big paths to awakening was forgiveness. He sure got a lot of practice doing it. When you forgive, You've really got to let go. When we talked about creating things from consciousness, Consciousness is free-flowing, Love, Peace, And well-being. That's what the whole universe is made of. And then when we focus on it and turn it into unforgiveness, We have to put a lot of attitude into it. So that betrayal that I feel when I am not able to forgive, I put that in there. There's nobody else inside of me, Except for me. All of that bad feeling is I'm doing that. So that ice cube, When it releases its energy, Ooh, It hurts. That's a lot of energy in unforgiveness. And all of us, Like Jesus said, What did he say? He who is without sin cast the first stone. All of us, All of us do this in some form or fashion. And usually, Typically, In a lot of forms and fashions. And that's what the path of awakening is, Is letting that stuff go. Letting what go? Letting all that attitude go. Let go of the attitude, And then everything will turn back into love. All these sharp edges, This unforgiveness and anger and all this stuff is love that we put attitude into. It's love frozen because of our attitude. So as it melts, It releases this terrible attitude that I put into it. It didn't feel good at the time, And it doesn't feel good when it comes out. So take baby steps. Give yourself grace. Give yourself grace. You don't have to be perfect. A little at a time. You don't have to melt an iceberg all in the first half hour. Not that you're suggesting we do, But I'm just encouraging you to just take it easy. Melt some today, Then take a break. That's enough. Be nice to yourself. And part of being nice is don't push too hard on your path. It's intense. It can be. Now, Somebody did point up to me, And it is true. I'm talking all this time about this pain coming out and so on and so forth. Well, There is a path, Bhakti yoga, And some people focus more on love and well-being just naturally. They wake up happy. They are happy, And they put their attention there, And they let that grow. And perhaps after a while, As that light expands, It does bump up into something difficult, And they can then let it melt. But I'm not here to suggest that all meditation has to feel terrible or that you have to feel terrible and that we're all working so hard. We're a mix. We're a mix of things. Our true being is love, Peace, And well-being. That's always there. Nothing we have to do. So when I say we're a mix, That's not really true. We're not a mix. It's just some of us have created a lot of ice, And that can be difficult. And that's what we're letting melt out. So let's see what Alice says. Will that core wound eventually heal? Yes, But it's like a knot, And you never know. If you have a big tangled up, Knotted up bunch of string, You can't really pull real hard and kind of willpower yourself through that knot. You just have to wiggle it a little this way, And wiggle it a little, And let it. You have to follow the knot. You can't have the knot follow you for it to fall apart. And these core wounds, If we want to call them that, They're just things we're doing to ourselves. Now, When you lose somebody, And Alice, You've talked before, You've lost your husband, There is a biological disruption, And that's like a phantom limb, And that just takes some time. And there's no amount of meditating that away. It takes a while for the biology to breathe, To connect, To heal the energy system. So to the degree that you have biological loss and disruption, And that can even be, A lot of loss can be on multiple levels, As most things in awakening are on multiple levels, And there's no one answer. But there's the biological wound, And that, You know, Walking in nature, Having good friends, Just connecting, That can help. And also, It can help knowing you, You're not giving away the love of your husband. You can stay connected to your husband, Wherever he is, And whatever realm he's in. You're not sacrificing that connection, You can even deepen it, You can talk to him and commune with him. Just as people talk to so many different beings, People pray to Jesus, Or they talk to Buddha, Or they do, You know, You can talk to their people and all sorts of realms you can talk to. In prior podcasts, I've talked about, I used to, For maybe seven or 10 years, I lost track, But I would talk to my guru every day, Multiple times a day, And he would answer me for like 10 straight years. One time, When I was seeing him in person, And he had millions of followers, I was in India, But he looked at me puzzled, And he said, And he said, You know, I have millions of followers. And he said, But I've got you on my mind all the time. Why? Why is that? Well, I talk to him all the time. So yes, You can talk to your husband, You can stay connected, You can deepen. Sometimes the feeling that you're giving that up, And I'm not talking about you, Alice, But others, That would prevent them from relaxing and letting that biological wound heal. Because the biology can connect to him wherever he is, It doesn't need to be wounded. It can heal, It can connect to him, It can soak up that connection and relax. You can also have other friends here. And if there are psychological wounds that we've talked about, Anxiety, Things from separation, Emotional separation, Those things can melt out of you. And meditation is helpful as well as other methods that we talk about, And others that we don't even talk about, But you personally find helpful. So yes, The core wound can eventually heal. And in my experience, These things don't heal instantly. Typically, It's slowly. But you feel better and better and more and more relaxed. Good questions, Everybody. Thank you. And I know all of these things are hard, And your courage is to be commended. It's hard to do this work. Can be, But it's so rewarding. Claire, Yes, I've been doing the same, But more recently, It feels so deep. It's been hard, But feels an opportunity to start healing core wounds, I guess. Yes, Claire. Be gentle with yourself. It is very deep. It can be hard for me. Yes, Hard. But it feels good. It feels good every layer that melts off and heals. So you'll notice in my podcast, I often talk about taking baby steps. Just go easy. You're in good hands. You're in the infinite's hands. You could say God's hands. You could say the infinite's hands. In oneness, There is only oneness. Jesus said, The Father and I are one. That means there's no Jesus, Right? Somebody's got to give here, And it's going to be the infinite's going to stay. Well, Yogananda says, Well, Yeah, But it's not quite right to say I am God. Better to say God has become me. I've let go so much that I'm open, Like Jesus was open. Buddha, Open to the infinite. Whatever word you use is fine, But in oneness, You're in good hands. What I mean by that is there's no hurry. Healing is going to happen. It is happening. Awakening is happening. You might remember the Zen master. Somebody asked the Zen master, Said, Do you have to meditate in order to awaken? The Zen master says, No, But I've never known anybody to awaken that didn't meditate. That meditation is an outward sign of an inward grace. It's kind of a symbol of what's going on inside of you. You wouldn't meditate unless you were very interested in awakening. I'm not saying meditation is the only avenue, But in that story, That's what they talked about. All of you, Look at your interest here. You're on Insight Timer or whatever platform you're on, And you're interested in awakening. That's an outward sign of an inward grace, So I can say with confidence, It's happening. You're in good hands, So be kind. Be kind during the process because you are kindness. Kindness is you. So let's not wait till the end and go, Oh, Now I'm awakened. I'll start to be kind now. Be kind now. Eat your dessert first. Nina says, Lots of stuff coming through for me to Alexandria. It's the noticing the awareness, Love on it, And up level to your highest self when you acknowledge. Thank you, Nina. You know, That's so important. And yes, Notice the awareness. That's who we are. So we talk about the troubling stuff and how to let it go. We also talk about ourselves as awareness a lot, But maybe not enough because that is who we are, As Nina's saying. Notice yourself, Awareness, And put your attention there. Love on it. What's loving on it? It's the awareness itself, Loving itself. Awareness is self-loving. It's inherently loving, So of course it can love itself. But do it consciously because that is who you are, And the human experience is bringing that which is beyond creation into creation and fully manifest it if you would like. You don't have to, But anything short of that is by definition pain. If you're not experiencing yourself fully as love to the degree that you're not, You're truncating your love, And that's a form of pain. And sometimes we're so separated we feel a lot of pain, Most of us in this time and age feel a lot of pain. So yes, Let's put our attention on the awareness that we are. Let's love the love that we are. Let's be who we are. We can eat the dessert first. Just skip straight to the end. Be who you are. You are love, So be love. Start easy. Start with yourself. I'm going to pat myself on the back. I'm going to be nice. I'm going to take a breath. I'm not going to do anything today, But enjoy myself. I don't have enough time today to do that, So okay, I'm not going to do anything for the next two minutes except for enjoy myself. Make it work. Make it work for you. Thank you, Nina. Claire, I'm trying to get out of the pounding surf, William, But I feel like I got caught in a rip. Yes, Claire, I do understand. I think everybody here understands. We all get caught. You know, Even the strongest guru gets caught. They won't often tell you, But they do. I've been around them long enough, And with so many different ones, I can tell you that they do. Not as much as maybe the rest of us, Because they've worked through a lot of stuff. They have done hard work, But all of us get caught in the pounding surf. Claire adds, But I'm seeing how everything is so relevant, As hard as it is. Yes, Life loves all of us, As you know, Claire, And life gives us whatever experience we need to melt that ice. The ice can't melt unless it comes up and sits in front of the sun. It can't stay repressed in order to melt. It's got to come up. So life will rattle that ice out. That doesn't feel good. We wouldn't be repressing it if it felt good. So we don't like it, But that's how it works. So it is relevant, But the first step is to take care of ourself and to get out of the pounding surf the best we can. Sometimes we can't even get out. But let's start by giving ourself grace. Just feel how it feels to take a second and just think to yourself, I don't have to do anything. I can give myself a break. I can rest. I can just rest. I can stop. I'm in good hands. I can stop. It's going to work out. Doesn't that have some feeling to it that feels good. That's where you start with grace. Just do that. Sometimes we forget. And yes, Everything is relevant. And then you go to the second step and you show up and do your daily practice baby steps. If you're not up to it, If you're not up to it, Just do something. Do one minute today. And I know you do far more than that. I know that Claire and all the rest of you, But don't you have a day when you just don't feel like it? It's important to show up anyway and just do something. Maybe shake it up. Maybe do something different. Maybe go for a walk or if you're going to meditate, Maybe just meditate a minute. If that's all you've got in you, But show up. That's the second step. Do baby steps. And I'm going to right now give you, And I know Claire, You've heard these, But I'm going to give you some suggestions of some very short, Beautiful podcasts in this series that speak to this, Getting out of the pounding surf and giving ourselves a rest. The first podcast that I'm going to recommend is podcast number 40. And that is this too shall pass. That's the title of it. Then another good one that will speak to what you're talking about. Claire is one 23, Non-attachment the great way. Another one is one 24 heart shining through. The next would be one 25. Let your light shine. That's only about a minute. So I got time for that one. One 26 is leave it as it is. And that should do it. But I mean, We have, There's a lot more good ones, But here's another one. Be still and no, That's one 28. The reason I'm mentioning these podcasts is because they're only about five minutes on average. And sometimes that's all it takes to get out of the pounding surf. You don't get out of the pounding surf necessarily by effort, But sometimes to see is to be free. You just see, And then poof, It's like a soap bubble pops and you're out. Speaking of to see is to be free as another title, Title one 30. That's a good one. All of them are good ones, As you know, But I would do that when you feel caught in the pounding surf. And the last thing I would say, And you all have lots of your own things that you do, But some physical, Like a walk or I've mentioned yoga, Nanda's energization exercises, Search for those or slow yoga, Yen yoga, Some kind of restorative yoga, Maybe beginner level vinyasa flow. Because when I go slow, I have time to soak it up. And again, I hold a lot of this pounding surf in my body. So I find it very liberating to do a little yoga, Even just tense your body and release, Tense your body and release. Do it three times back. It's not everything, But it's something it starts to release. It starts to help. Great question and observation. Claire Alexandria says, Yes, Sounds like we are all going deep. I worry that my husband didn't sign up for this. Witnessing my mad, Sad, Scared, Not directed at him or anybody just so much grief. Yeah. Explain it. I'm sure you have Alexandria. Just explain your ice cube is melting. And when you get to the deeper levels of awakening, I know it's intense all up and down the ladder. But when you get enough, One at a time, Things released, Sometimes the whole thing starts to release. So take breaks, All the stuff we talked about, But please just share with him. Maybe just a thumbnail sketch of the process and ask for his help. Because it can be unsettling to somebody else. And another thing, Alexandria, As more and more melts, If you're on this earth, You got stuff that needs to melt no matter where you are in your process. So as more and more light exudes out of you and, And it will happen naturally more and more and more, That will help him. Now it can happen that it might deep inside of him, Start his stuff releasing, And that might feel difficult. So you can explain him to him, The process too, If he doesn't already know it, Or he will at least get a little thumbnail sketch as you tell him what's going on with you. But thank you, Alexandria. Nina says, Alexandria, He did sign up for this. You all of you be gentle. Oh, Good. Thank you, Nina. You're right. Thank you for saying that. He did sign up for this. He's with you. He did sign up. Nice. It's so true. We're all exactly where we are to be. Nina says, My baby had medical issues early in life. I can't tell you how many times I ran things in my head. He healed himself. And today I burned all records I had, Backyard bonfire and created ceremony out of awakening. And Nina, How wonderful about your baby healing himself. You know, We talk about miracles, But they can be everyday occurrences. It's just sometimes we get so separated, We forget our natural flow and abilities, Not even by willpower. As you flow, Miracles happen, What we would call miracles happen. And I say it that way because they're not really miracles. They're just natural flow that we're so not used to because of the times that we're in, The culture that we don't often experience ourselves. And now we are experiencing ourselves more fully. And all that comes with that, Our real selves, Our peace, Love, And light, And all the healing energy that flows from that. So congratulations. I love that you did a ceremony on a backyard bonfire. We all celebrate that with you, Nina. Thanks for sharing that. And yes, I love what you said. All of you be gentle. Thank you, Nina. Yes. Claire, Bless you, Alexandria. He will benefit from your healing. We have to let go of the guilt too, Don't we? Yep. And thank you for that, Claire, Because that's another thing. Any discomfort that I feel about my partner or anybody else, That's not peace. That's not love. That's not well-being. That's an attitude that I've embedded in me. And it's coming out to be seen, To be healed. My guilt, My discomfort, Whatever you want to call it, It's another thing that is releasing. It's more attitude coming out of the ice cube. Instead of cold, It's attitude. I know something's melting when I feel attitude coming out. Attitude is healing. As it comes out, I know I'm healing. And lots of people are responding. Alexandria sends love. Jennifer says, Wonderful. Nikki says, I'm going to cry. Nina says, That's so yummy. Claire, Thank you. Jodi says, My family says, Mom's outside feeling her feels. That's beautiful. Connect. Be yourself. And we feel. Own it. And when you own it, You can release it. You can let it go. You can breathe in and look. That part that often is hurting is stuck back in time. And it doesn't know that everything's okay now. So sometimes when it comes up, This hurting part of us, It needs to look around and notice, Oh, It's okay. And not simply notice that it's okay now, But take it in, Take in a drop or two or three, Whatever is comfortable. And it might be that you have to do this on a number of different days or weeks. But every time you take in healing, Relaxation and wellness, What is hurting dissolves to a degree. When tension takes in relaxation, What happens to the tension? It dissolves. It's gone. Same with hurt. When it takes in wellness, It dissolves. It's gone. So it might have to dissolve the first day and another quarter the next day. And then again, And again. It's a process, But it's a beautiful process. Therese, So much gratitude to you and the sweet community. Yes, You all are beautiful. Gratitude to you all. And thank you for saying that Therese and expressing that. I know that's how you all feel towards each other. And I also want to somehow honor your courage and take it easy. Grace, Like Nina says, Give yourself grace and love. Oh, And Nina says, Oh, William, Thank you. And I love you, Sweet teacher. I surely treasure you all. Thank you, Nina. I feel that way about you and everybody else here and everybody, Everywhere. We're all in this together. Alice is going on that mountain sunset hike now. Enjoy Alice and Namaste, Everybody. I enjoyed it. Thank you so much. Be kind to yourself. I look forward to talking to you next time. Take care. Bye.

Reviews

Thank you so much for this super podcast, so many beautiful people and beautiful questions. We are so lucky to have you as our teacher. Back when I was in my mid twenties, I had a relatively high powered, stressful job, which I loved, and was also involved in difficult emotional issues. I was well into the pounding surf. At the time I was practicing Yoga - Hatha Yoga, with a group. Often I would leave work and would be so exhausted that I really felt I could not be bothered to attend. But I would push myself and would spend 2 hours of Yoga, with a wonderful teacher. At the end of the session, I would leave feeling transformed and full of energy, feeling that I could face and cope with anything that the 'pounding surf' could throw at me. Your awakening podcasts are amazing, Thank you. 🙏❤️

So helpful having listened to this live and then the replay! Thank you

Oh that was fun to hear one of the first podcasts I participated in. I have been listening to the podcasts in order and have almost caught up with myself.
What was so rewarding was hearing how much pain I was in and how EVERYTHING I mentioned has melted and transformed. Just as Nina said, my husband DID sign up and everyone in my family is moving along with me as I radiate my peace, joy, love, calm, and generous spirit. I am relistening to ACIM as well and wow!!!!- I am finding out who I really am. I am so very very grateful! Thank you Eilliam and all who were so kind during this live podcast! ❤️❤️❤️❤️🙏🏼🥰🥰🥰🤩

truly a gift we can give ourselves- i’ll be listening to this again 🌞🌹🌙♥️🌞🌹🌙♥️🌞🌹🌙♥️

Thank you, William.
Very inspiring as usual.
Peace and Love,
~ Jennifer