Horses are masters at focus, as prey animals, their lives depend on it. Their instincts are very keen about where they are directing their focus and intention. Sometimes it’s about finding water or food. Sometimes it’s about sensing danger or fleeing from it. Whatever their focus may be, you can bet that once they’ve chosen it, their actions and intentions are aligned. They don’t waste energy thinking or over-analyzing a situation. They are present. They aren’t attempting to do too many things at once, just the most important: “What is my goal?” and “What is happening right now around me.” There’s no room for excess thought or action.
When intensely focused on something, horses also remain aware of their environment, for safety reasons. In contrast, once we become focused on a thing, it’s possible to take it too far and develop tunnel vision. Although it may feel great to have intense focus like this, it’s important to maintain a balance between focus on a specific task or object and staying aware of what’s going on around you in the moment, also usually for safety reasons! This doesn’t mean allowing yourself to be pulled from your main focus by every little thing that is happening. It is maintaining primary attention on the focus you’ve chosen while softly noticing what else there is. The main focus is never shifted unless for some reason that becomes necessary and a choice is made to shift.
Observing the way that horses are able to have clear focus, while still maintaining a general present awareness, reminds us humans to pay more attention to how and what we focus on ourselves. So often, when a person finds themselves with an issue or problem, such as “feeling stuck” they tend to focus on just that, the problem of “being stuck”.
If a horse is hungry and needs to go search for food, she sets the intention to move towards that goal of greener pastures. If she starts focusing on the hunger itself and how uncomfortable it feels, or the last time she ate, or worse yet what if she doesn’t eat or can’t find food ever again, what would happen?! With that mindset that horse wouldn’t get very far and would still be very hungry. Instead, she is able to prioritize and shift her focus to what is going to best help her in that moment – finding food.
When you get stuck, remember our equine friends — shift your focus away from the problem and connect with your true intentions, the solution. Once you become aligned with your intended focus you’ll find that suddenly you’re no longer stuck!
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