A Word from the Mindful Horse
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We are forever being admonished to demonstrate altruism for those around us, be it in charitable donation of time or money, the caring or consideration of others; or in management and performance dialectic, you know how it goes: “there is no ‘I’ in team”. Well there is.
How often do we end up exhausting ourselves, tied into an endless cycle of others’ expectations or needs? Losing sight of ourselves and our own basic needs. At the heart of emotional intelligence is the recognition that without awareness and consideration of yourself there can be no real sympathy and understanding for others. There can be no empathy.
Whilst we are thus engaged in losing ourselves in others, we then seek Gurus and experts to put us back on the straight and narrow – sometimes medics, sometimes clerics, sometimes our teachers…. you name it. And in engaging the Guru we further delegate any direct responsibility for ourselves.
So when we present ourselves to horses, who do we really present? What room is left in the noise of stress and the sticky plaster fixes on top for authenticity? So what if we were actually to step back for one moment and (re)approach our horses and our relationship with horses from a position of mindfulness?
We like to talk of the horses as being in the moment. Do we really respect that?
We nearly always make demands that align to our collective need for outcomes and objectives, worse still these are generally binary outcomes, and so not only do we start to deny the moment but superimpose the very human concepts of success versus failure, and still they altruistically deliver. But let us get it straight horses are not winners or losers. Horses are.
Let’s start there. What if each of us started with “I am”. The practice of mindfulness reconnects you with the actual moment and so with yourself as you actually are, wherever your personal journey has carried you. It invites you to break the often emotional ties with what is past or what might be.
The path of the mindful horse is one which can shine a light on the moment, and through that foster our own authenticity. It is a journey that demands we take responsibility for who we are, what we do and how we do it; not look too others to direct or apportion blame. Whether we set ourselves as therapist, leader, lover or friend (even an Equine Assisted coach, horse owner, groom or rider) we must seek to be the best person that we can be. The horse does not look for us to speak fabricated language or exercise some appropriate pseudo-herd communication, the horse will accept us if we simply present our best possible selves.
Without an appropriate degree of self-awareness or self-care a human is a house built on quick-sand. Mindfulness offers us the opportunity to acknowledge ourselves in the moment and accept what is there, and in so doing we find space to offer kindness to ourselves. And once we can love ourselves we stand a good chance of loving others.
First we must create space if the learning has a chance. When we share that meditative experience with horses they stand alongside us as both physical and spiritual guides, at the simplest level a reflection of our quiet and stillness, at a deeper level we are open to intuition and insight, and throughout the horse stands beside us as the inspiration and guide.
My mother had a lovely phrase “Charity begins at home”, I would paraphrase that and say “Wellbeing begins at home”. We must take time to recognise what we need and respect that without judgement. It is all about taking responsibility for ourselves, only when we do that can we expect the respect of our horses, and more importantly only then can we truly care for others – human or horse.
We have the choice. We can walk this path with horses and they can offer us a gentle insight and direction on that journey if we open ourselves and accept their honest observations.
How often do we end up exhausting ourselves, tied into an endless cycle of others’ expectations or needs? Losing sight of ourselves and our own basic needs. At the heart of emotional intelligence is the recognition that without awareness and consideration of yourself there can be no real sympathy and understanding for others. There can be no empathy.
Whilst we are thus engaged in losing ourselves in others, we then seek Gurus and experts to put us back on the straight and narrow – sometimes medics, sometimes clerics, sometimes our teachers…. you name it. And in engaging the Guru we further delegate any direct responsibility for ourselves.
So when we present ourselves to horses, who do we really present? What room is left in the noise of stress and the sticky plaster fixes on top for authenticity? So what if we were actually to step back for one moment and (re)approach our horses and our relationship with horses from a position of mindfulness?
We like to talk of the horses as being in the moment. Do we really respect that?
We nearly always make demands that align to our collective need for outcomes and objectives, worse still these are generally binary outcomes, and so not only do we start to deny the moment but superimpose the very human concepts of success versus failure, and still they altruistically deliver. But let us get it straight horses are not winners or losers. Horses are.
Let’s start there. What if each of us started with “I am”. The practice of mindfulness reconnects you with the actual moment and so with yourself as you actually are, wherever your personal journey has carried you. It invites you to break the often emotional ties with what is past or what might be.
The path of the mindful horse is one which can shine a light on the moment, and through that foster our own authenticity. It is a journey that demands we take responsibility for who we are, what we do and how we do it; not look too others to direct or apportion blame. Whether we set ourselves as therapist, leader, lover or friend (even an Equine Assisted coach, horse owner, groom or rider) we must seek to be the best person that we can be. The horse does not look for us to speak fabricated language or exercise some appropriate pseudo-herd communication, the horse will accept us if we simply present our best possible selves.
Without an appropriate degree of self-awareness or self-care a human is a house built on quick-sand. Mindfulness offers us the opportunity to acknowledge ourselves in the moment and accept what is there, and in so doing we find space to offer kindness to ourselves. And once we can love ourselves we stand a good chance of loving others.
First we must create space if the learning has a chance. When we share that meditative experience with horses they stand alongside us as both physical and spiritual guides, at the simplest level a reflection of our quiet and stillness, at a deeper level we are open to intuition and insight, and throughout the horse stands beside us as the inspiration and guide.
My mother had a lovely phrase “Charity begins at home”, I would paraphrase that and say “Wellbeing begins at home”. We must take time to recognise what we need and respect that without judgement. It is all about taking responsibility for ourselves, only when we do that can we expect the respect of our horses, and more importantly only then can we truly care for others – human or horse.
We have the choice. We can walk this path with horses and they can offer us a gentle insight and direction on that journey if we open ourselves and accept their honest observations.
Our lives are less a series of events, more a mass of emotional reactions to those events.
And let’s face it they are not always good ones.
Within the Buddhist foundations of Mindfulness lies the idea of “an end to suffering”; this represents release from the “suffering” which is created within our minds. It is the relationship that we choose to have with our own thoughts and bodies,
and to the events around us, which facilitates our vulnerability.
The horse is an incredible reader of emotional energy – they may not know the narrative around the “suffering”, but they will recognise the energy that it creates. Through gentle and compassionate interaction they will reflect what we carry – offering us an awareness, which in turn invites us to change.
From: www.themindfulhorse.wordpress.com
And let’s face it they are not always good ones.
Within the Buddhist foundations of Mindfulness lies the idea of “an end to suffering”; this represents release from the “suffering” which is created within our minds. It is the relationship that we choose to have with our own thoughts and bodies,
and to the events around us, which facilitates our vulnerability.
The horse is an incredible reader of emotional energy – they may not know the narrative around the “suffering”, but they will recognise the energy that it creates. Through gentle and compassionate interaction they will reflect what we carry – offering us an awareness, which in turn invites us to change.
From: www.themindfulhorse.wordpress.com
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Graeme Green Bio Graeme is firmly committed to the benefits that meditation brings to people, he runs mindfulness programmes for a UK based mental health charity, as well as supporting its development in the workplace and for those around animals. Graeme is very pleased to be part of the team at Athena Herd CIC – based in the South-East England – where he works with them to support the facilitation of their Equine Facilitated practitioner training. (www.athenaherd.co.uk) Graeme has a broad collection of skills, he is Reiki drum master, an animal/human reiki practitioner and a qualified equine energy healer. He also works as a Business coach and trainer and an NLP practitioner. He is a director of Equilibrium for Life CIC which supports therapeutic interventions for vulnerable groups in the North Kent area. To find out more about Graeme’s work visit his websites www.mindfulmindset.co.uk and www.the.mindfulhorse.org. |