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…
We would like to reflect today on the Mindful Attitudes of Trust and Letting Go. Like the other Mindful Attitudes, including Compassion, Non-judgment and Beginner’s Mind, these attitudes are more than just ways in which to pay attention to the present moment. They are signposts for how to experience life. When you allow yourself to wholly absorb the events of “right now”, and embrace all life has to offer (i.e. the good and the bad),…
We first met Giselle Denis during the year of our wedding, when we asked her whether she might consider painting live at our wedding reception in late 2016. Giselle is an artist of many talents, and paints live at the Fairmont Hotel Macdonald among her various art engagements. She graciously agreed to do so and transformed the night into a magical experience. We have kept in touch since then and are continually struck by her…
This post is intended to facilitate a conceptual starting point for everyone reading this blog. All of us have experienced what it means to be mindfully aware and, as you read through these descriptions, reflect on when you might have had such experiences. It may have been when you had a particularly joyous moment with someone you care about, you were listening to a piece of music or saw a piece of art that resonated…
Did you know that horses, and animals in general, can be role models for what it means to live mindfully? Mindful awareness is a term that describes the state of living in the present moment, where we pay attention to what is happening right now just as it is. This sounds simple, but can be incredibly hard to do depending on what is being noticed. Depending on the particular instant in time, paying close attention…
This is the start of an ongoing series, in which we describe simple exercises to incorporate moments of mindful awareness into your everyday activities. Some of the series’ exercises will offer opportunities to incorporate mindful moments at the barn, and they will be differentiated by the subheading, A Mindfulness Moment at the Barn. The exercises may feel similar to guided exercises you’ve encountered in other sources of mindfulness teachings. When applicable, we will identify excerpts…
Thank you for joining us as we share our impressions and experiences of being in the mindful moment with our horses. We are Shreyasi and Frank Brodhecker. We started this blog as a forum for horse lovers seeking ways to be in the present moment and practice everyday mindfulness at their favourite place- in the barn or out in the pasture. Mindfulness has evolved into its own movement and, although there are several definitions, we…