I still struggle with 'how to be present'. Then yesterday while working with Grace I had an important lesson in some of the basic ingredients.
Here are some tips and 'take aways' from our attempts to lunge amidst an overdose of chaos breaking out around us...
Being present means...
It's not easy to change old habits over night but it can be easy to learn new ones! If we begin by doing more of the everyday acts of life, like picking up things off the floor, getting dressed, or eating our food, with more deliberate thought AND without hurry, we'll have 2 core ingredients in the bag!
"Essys wishes" has at the core, the need for us 'horsey' humans to raise our levels of awareness and be more alert in order that we can be more in tune with our horses and their needs.
Or put another way (in ways that I can relate to) his message is about encouraging us to "have our wits about us" which might be an easier concept to identify with. It's an especially useful habit to have in times of stress. I'm not saying that riding and working with horses is stressful, but when it is our minds tend to stop operating so well. Suddenly there's 6 degrees of separation between us and our horse and if this happens when we are in the saddle - we can quickly find ourselves on the floor wondering what happened!
As I'm planning on being back in the saddle soon, its on my mind to practice the art of being present before getting on. That means, on days like yesterday, being able to quickly change my 'plan' and NOT take 20 minutes of being disconnected from my horse before waking up and THEN making a change to what I'm actually doing!
Twenty minutes can be a long time waiting for our brain to catch up with life - precious time where we risk losing our horses' trust and willingness in the wait for us to wake up and play another tune!
So, it makes sense to be present and if we aren't - then where are we? With such beautiful creatures in front of us why would we chose to be anywhere except right here alongside them, savoring every moment?
Here are some tips and 'take aways' from our attempts to lunge amidst an overdose of chaos breaking out around us...
Being present means...
1. Having command of my mind
2. Courage to think
3. Not rushing or hurrying
4. Being deliberate in my thinking
5. Doing simple acts with deliberation
6. Taking one step at a time
7. Paying attention to the little details
8. Following the movement of my body (mindfulness)
9. Taking the time to choose what to do versus reacting automatically
It's not easy to change old habits over night but it can be easy to learn new ones! If we begin by doing more of the everyday acts of life, like picking up things off the floor, getting dressed, or eating our food, with more deliberate thought AND without hurry, we'll have 2 core ingredients in the bag!
"Essys wishes" has at the core, the need for us 'horsey' humans to raise our levels of awareness and be more alert in order that we can be more in tune with our horses and their needs.
Or put another way (in ways that I can relate to) his message is about encouraging us to "have our wits about us" which might be an easier concept to identify with. It's an especially useful habit to have in times of stress. I'm not saying that riding and working with horses is stressful, but when it is our minds tend to stop operating so well. Suddenly there's 6 degrees of separation between us and our horse and if this happens when we are in the saddle - we can quickly find ourselves on the floor wondering what happened!
As I'm planning on being back in the saddle soon, its on my mind to practice the art of being present before getting on. That means, on days like yesterday, being able to quickly change my 'plan' and NOT take 20 minutes of being disconnected from my horse before waking up and THEN making a change to what I'm actually doing!
(I am reminding myself of the definition of insanity:
'continuing to do the things I've always done expecting a different result!)
Twenty minutes can be a long time waiting for our brain to catch up with life - precious time where we risk losing our horses' trust and willingness in the wait for us to wake up and play another tune!
So, it makes sense to be present and if we aren't - then where are we? With such beautiful creatures in front of us why would we chose to be anywhere except right here alongside them, savoring every moment?
No comments:
Post a Comment