Articles - Page 2 of 22 - Stand InBalance

Horse Wisdom – Resilience

Horses and donkeys are remarkably resilient. We have witnessed this first hand with our incredible herd of elder equines. They have all been through a lot of life both during and before their time with us. Most of them came from traumatic pasts of neglect or abuse and have a history of injury, illness or other challenges. And of course, as all living beings do, they face more and more health complications as they get older. We are incredibly grateful and astounded at the way that they manage to continue to adapt and thrive when faced with all of this, especially when given the right tools and support to do so.

Those of you who have kept up with our […]

Horse Wisdom – Let Go

Lisa* had felt drawn to working with horses for a long time. Now three years post divorce and with her youngest child starting high school she felt ready to “move on” with her life.

After a few sessions, Lisa chose to connect with the large dark horse. After spending some time with him, she was able to walk him to several different areas in the arena. Lisa had identified “courage to try new things” as something she wanted more of in life. After setting up some cones to weave through, Lisa named her end goal “joy”. Lisa and her horse started off fine, but just before making it through the cones he began pulling her to the other side of the arena, where the rest of […]

Gaining more by Letting Go – How to Unclog the Abundant Flow of Possibilities

“Abundance is a process of letting go; that which is empty can receive.” – Bryant H. McGill

Let it go, let it be, let it flow. Easier said than done, they say. But is it?

The hardest part about letting go of anything isn’t usually the act of letting go itself. Hanging onto something that’s trying to get away is much more difficult and takes a lot more effort than simply letting go of it. It is the resistance to the act of letting go that makes it hard to do – the fear, the uncertainty, the aversion to change. Resistance takes a lot of effort – it is the action of going against something. While it can be worth the effort to fight for something […]

Moving Forward One Step at a Time. Why and How to Take Action

Do you ever feel stuck? Have you noticed that some days things just feel harder than others? During “good times” you may feel inspired, motivated, energized, excited or even joyful and enthusiastic about the day ahead. But sometimes, for any number of reasons, life can feel overwhelming and just plain hard to manage. Whether it’s a sad personal experience, fear of an unknown future, current world events, health problems, anxiety, grief or unclear reasons, sometimes moving forward can just feel like a struggle.

When you find yourself in one of these times, taking action can help! Although, it can be challenging to motivate during […]

Horse Wisdom – Giving “Taking Action” a Try

In a recent teen group, Marcie*, was feeling stressed, anxious and irritated. In a particularly frustrated moment, she asked to separate herself from the group and took a seat outside of the arena.

After some time, one of the facilitators checked in on her. When asked how she was doing, Marcie shared that she didn’t really know what to do, she wanted to come join the group but she was afraid that her emotional state would be too hard for the equines. She was still feeling really frustrated and agitated and she didn’t want to upset them so she figured “I’d better just stay where I am and not try to do anything else”. We asked if she’d be willing to just […]

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