We recently offered a list of suggestions on how to connect with your horse by becoming aware of the present moment. You were invited to: 1. Set the Intention to connect, 2. Internally Notice your thoughts, feelings and body sensations and, 3. Watch Your Horse or observe them as accurately as you can. The last step we offer today, in keeping with the first week of 2020, and the tendency to create goals or resolutions for the turn of the year, is to 4. Stay Heartful.
What does Staying Heartful mean in this context? This is how we’d like to describe noticing the quality of the bond between you and your horse from one moment to the next, while remaining gentle with yourself and your horse. Noticing the depth of connection or quality of the relationship can be scary, especially since there is the possibility that your vision of the connection does not match reality. It requires courage and self-acceptance. Every bond naturally ebbs and flows so there are moments of heightened intimacy and others of relative remoteness. The same applies of the relationship with your horse. A reflection by Instagram contributor on self-acceptance as a way to create positive change seems apt.
As you read her words, give yourself permission to make missteps with your horse and to grow and learn from these. Remember that animals can be our greatest teachers, and part of noticing or deepening connection is acknowledging that things don’t feel great sometimes. There can be moments of strain and they can be just as healing once you get through them, and let change occur as their result. Your horse will thank you for it! Happy 2020!!
Citation: Heather [@heyheatherobscura]. (2020, January 1). “New Year’s goals” [Instagram post]. Retrieved from https://www.instagram.com/p/B6x96V-B_fH/
Many people focus on improving themselves for their New Year’s goals.
While we’re often taught that this is a powerful tool for personal transformation, many find that the pressure to become different merely creates more pain.
It’s common that we don’t meet our high expectations, we fail to meet our strict goals, and ultimately end up judging ourselves harshly for all the ways we just don’t add up.
What if we made New Year’s resolutions that focused on SELF-ACCEPTANCE rather than SELF-IMPROVEMENT?
What if instead of prioritizing becoming better, we prioritize actually loving ourselves just as we are?
What if we could give ourselves a break from self-loathing and learn to give ourselves thanks for how far we’ve already come?
We live in a fast paced world, recognition for our capacity to be compassionate towards ourselves is not typically seen as a marker of success – and yet this is by far one of the more challenging habits to implement.
In fact, it’s in the act of self-acceptance that we create more opportunities for natural evolution and expansion.
When we feel safe, loved and accepted for who we are – right now – we blossom.
We start to see our inherent gifts and acknowledge the ways we’ve worked hard to grow – and this is what silences the noise of the inner critic.
It’s in this compassionate balance we can find ease for profound creativity, deep connection, and divine love.
This is the kind of New Year’s resolution that I wish for all of you.