The first step of maintaining balance is noticing when you’re not in it!
When people think of horses and balance, usually the first thing they think of is riding a horse and keeping your balance, but horses can make us aware of a much deeper connection to balance, the balance within ourselves.
Mike* was a writer who hadn’t written anything in a while. He wasn’t feeling inspired and he was just all around down and depressed. One day he decided to take a risk and see if we could help him get out of the slump he’d been in for over a year.
Mike found himself drawn to our golden horse whom he named “Goldie”. In one session, we set up an obstacle course and had Mike […]
Living a balanced lifestyle is a key component to a peaceful, happy and healthy life. When we’re out of balance, life can seem chaotic, exhausting or out of control. When we’ve found balance, we feel more grounded, calm, comfortable and are able to think with clarity, act with intention and achieve our goals with success.
What is mindfulness? You may have heard about it, you may know somewhere in the back of your mind that it’s supposed to be a good thing or maybe you are an experienced practitioner. Whatever your relationship with mindfulness, let’s take a moment to be mindful about mindfulness!
In one particular session, she was working with “Star”, a horse she wasn’t too familiar with. Star had a “horsenality” that required one to be more tuned into his subtle, non-verbal cues than the donkey she normally worked with. Knowing this about Star had already created some anxiety within Grace. In response, Star quickly reflected his awareness of her mental state by flattening back ears back as she approached. Grace apprehensively tried again, putting her hand out. Again, Star was said “nope!” and flattened his ears while glaring at her.
Change isn’t always easy. Even a change for the good can be difficult. One of the benefits of working with equines is being able to witness their behavior shift and change as the human working with them shifts and changes. It could be the littlest thing like a sigh or a big bolt of energy, or something as simple as a walk.