The other day I was at the gym and a regular came and tied his big dog up outside the gym front door. It sat there watching the cars go by and every now and then would drink some water and basically just sit there waiting for his owner to be done working out.

It was so interesting because every so often in between sets I would be catching my breath looking out the big front window and I would notice that dog waiting patiently as it was chained up.

I began to think about how that dog has no idea if he’ll be tied up for days, or just minutes. It has no worry about how it’s going to get water and food if the owner were to never come back.

There’s no judgement and therefore no fear or anxiety. It was completely content sitting in the sun watching the people and cars go by.

What a difference from how we live right? We’re so caught up in our mind that we can’t go more than a few minutes without judging some one or some thing.

As soon as we start judging things we begin labeling them (and those labels come with lots of emotions and preconceived opinions) and once we label them we put them into nice little categories. Then we label the category. This makes us feel more secure because as humans we like to have everything figured out.

Then the real danger comes when we think that these labels, judgments and opinions are actually us. But in reality they are simply the ego. Think about it, before you had an opinion or judgement about a particular subject, your soul or spirit was who you were right? That is to say, it wasn’t as if who you are at the core suddenly came into existence the moment you formed an opinion about XYZ.

So our thoughts and opinions aren’t really “us”. We are soul and we are spirit.

So how does this go back to the story of the dog and how can we benefit from it?

Well the dog is a beautiful example of living without judgement and because of that they don’t live in fear, anxiety or stress. Recently we’ve had some people on the show talking about how stress, anxiety, fear and similar low level emotions actually cause disease, sickness and illness.

One of those guests is Dr. Alex Loyd and his book is called The Healing Code. The other shows on this subject can be found by clicking here.

It’s really quite remarkable the work these people are doing. In fact Dr. Leonard Coldwell says that stress is the cause of all cancers.

So what can we do if we feel like we’re identifying with our ego and we think that these opinions are actually us? The first thing that helps me is to realize that anytime I get upset or angry with a particular person or situation, I look at that emotion like it’s a wind that’s going right through me.

I don’t say “I am angry…” I think of it as an emotion that’s “out there” completely not identified with me. And if I sit quietly and take some deep breaths I don’t identify with it. I see it for what it is and because I’m just a 3rd party observer to this emotion, it comes and it goes almost as fast as it came.

This way the stress and everything that comes with it, increased heart rate, increase blood pressure and anger simply subsides like a wave right over the top of me. It’s really quite amazing.

I tell you what though it’s quite a practice and something I have a lot of work to do to get better at. But simply realizing that I don’t have to defend positions, I don’t have to be right and I don’t have to get angry if people don’t agree with me is one of the most liberating things ever.

Why don’t I have to get involved with all that? Because I (who I am at the very core, that is my soul or spirit) am not those thoughts or opinions. This is very liberating because I can stand back as a 3rd party observer in my life and stop defending positions and getting into petty arguments which ultimately causes stress and disease.

I’ve got a lot of work to do in this area.

How about you?