This is another story that emphasizes the same point - that our emotions are messages from our soul and how we can listen to them in order to have an easier life.

In the midst of this bunch of insights, I had a lovely old lady bring me in her giant German Shepherd for a healing session about some behavioral stuff that she was anxious about. Betty had rescued Cody from unsatisfactory circumstances as a full grown dog and loved him to bits in a very short time.

Cody paced around the room as I started the session. As I'm working away, I felt a little uneasiness to start off with and then fear started to build in me. So here I am, watching him like a hawk, trying to figure out why I was getting more and more afraid.

Then I wondered "whose fear was this?" ... (At the time I didn't have the understanding about The Questions that I have now.)

And the answer was that it was Cody's.

The story unfolded with me getting some impressions and Betty filling in the gaps. We, particularly Betty, needed to know that Cody was petrified of biting someone; that he had lost his last home/pack/family over some kind of fright. I got the impression that he may have even bitten them.

Betty had a frequent visitor that made her very uneasy about Cody. She would put him away when this lady arrived and then the lady would ignore Betty's wishes, open the door to let the dog back in and then torment Cody in what Betty described as silly, stupid ways.

Cody adored Betty, loved his new life and was petrified that he would lose it again if he behaved badly and that was why he was so frightened. By going through the motions of "what do I need to know or do about it" (even though we didn't clearly understand it as that at the time) we understood that Betty needed to take a firm stand with this lady and forbid her to go anywhere near her dog. It was such a big issue, that Betty decided that this visitor would have to be told she was unwelcome to come back if she ignored her wishes again.

As we worked this out, all my fear dropped away and so did Cody's.

As I've practiced over the last month or so, the process of asking these questions has become easier and better understood. Now I would simply ask The Questions when I felt the first tiny uneasiness, which I call "the early warning signal".

1. Whose fear is it?

2. What do I need to know or do about it?

3. Has it all gone? And I would simply keep asking the first two questions until every little shred of fear had gone.

Do you get the parallel between these last two stories? I was experiencing Cody's fear as if it was my own. I was experiencing his fear AS IF IT WERE MY OWN REALITY, as if it was MY fear.

If I had not "gotten" the message from my soul, then I would never have understood that Cody was so afraid nor would I have understood what to do about it AND THE UPSET WOULD HAVE ESCALATED!

It was only by asking The Questions that I realized it was not my fear, but Cody's. And by asking The Questions, I understood what to know or do about it - that was the message from my soul. Then the fear simply vanished -- no more message necessary, so no more fear.

At some point in all this, I started to think, how often had I experienced other people's or animal's fear and anger, rage and frustration, sadness and grief as my own?

The more I experienced over the next few weeks, the more I realized that vast amounts of the anger I had been working on for so long WAS NOT MINE. I had considered anger and rage my bête noir (my black beast) because I had to do so much work on it, constantly trying to get to the bottom of it. It was other peoples' anger and rage that that I was experiencing as my own reality and because of the work I do with animals, it was the animals' anger and rage too.

A much loved friend said to me when I explained this to them, "Be careful Jen, it would be real easy to fall into the trap of dismissing everything as belonging to someone else!"

But that's the beauty of The Questions, if you get the answer wrong, the feeling doesn't go away! So if you are angry and you ask "whose is it?" and think “oh that's yours" and you are wrong, then the anger simply doesn't go away. Your soul won't allow you to kid yourself like that -- and these feelings are messages from your soul.