Brief Mindful Moment at The Barn: Animals at the Barn
Pet the barn cat or dog. Notice the feeling of the fur against your hands and the expression in the animal’s eyes; listen to the sound of the purring or breathing.
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Brief Mindful Moment at the Barn: Aromatherapy and Your Horse
This particular mindfulness exercise may not be what you think. While there are various ways to incorporate essential oils into the care and upkeep of your horses for physical and emotional well being, they are not the focus of this brief mindful moment. Rather, this moment is about resting in the special scent that makes your horse uniquely them. Horse lovers have all done this at one time or the other. This exercise is a…
Riverbanks and the Mindful Attitude of Letting Go
Today we offer a visual illustration to describe the process of observing things happening as they happen. This is a common metaphor from different psychotherapies, called the Riverbank Metaphor. The next time you’d like to notice, or are already noticing, intense thoughts or emotions coursing through you, try this practice to reinforce the process of observing your thoughts without getting caught up or overwhelmed in them. We also include a related excerpt from our book…
Brief Mindful Moment at the Barn: Notice Your Horse
Here is a new weekly series of Brief Mindful Moments at the Barn. This is the first of the series. Feel free to contact us with your comments or reflections as you participate in these exercises. Watch your horse at a distance as they eat their feed or hay. Notice the visual appearance of things, sounds in the environment, and your horse’s movements. What is their pace like? Note the chewing rhythms. Notice your horse’s…
A Mindfulness practice on Half-Smile from the Mindful Guides Series
We introduce a new series here today called the Mindful Guides. We count several people and animals as teachers or guides on this path towards living a life with more moments of mindful awareness. We cite some of these influences in our upcoming book project, Sharing The Now: Mindfulness Exercises to Enhance the Connection with Your Horse. Thich Nhat Hanh, a Buddhist monk and teacher, is one such Mindful Guide. Here is an excerpt of…
Mindfulness Exercise: Grooming your horse
Stella and Sushmitha; Hawkstone Stables, 2018 Here is a simple way to incorporate being mindfully aware while practising the usual routines at the barn. Mindful practice doesn’t have to be about adding things to your day; rather, it can be shifting your focus in small ways to add more presence to your life just the way it is. This exercise is one of others included in our upcoming book project, Sharing the Now: Mindfulness Exercises…
Guest Author: Meghan Vornholt on the power of observation
We have the pleasure of sharing a guest author’s reflections on observing today. Meghan Vornholt has expertise in yoga, meditation and coaching, and is a certified equine wellness practitioner in Canada. You can learn more about her work at her website and on Facebook and Instagram. We are excited to meet her in September at a personal development workshop at her studio o in Cochrane, Alberta. We are so honoured that she took the time…
Mindful Connection With Your Horse
We can set the intention to be fully present in any moment of the day, and intentionally choose to notice any aspect of this present moment. We invite you to tune in to the connection with your horse. The next time you are with your horse, pause for a moment to notice how you feel towards him or her. Are you feeling connected? Are you bonded to your horse or do you feel disconnected? Tune…
Forgiveness and Being Mindful
Last week Shreyasi attended the Edmonton date for the Oprah Winfrey Presents: Your Path Made Clear (Discovering Your Life’s Direction and Purpose) tour. There were several moments of recognition and truth in the evening. Through honest revelation of her experience, Oprah shared how she discovered her life purpose at various junctures in her life journey. So many of us have felt lost or at a crossroads at various times in life, and the wisdom of…