Picture the scene…
You walk into an outdoor arena, the sort you find in a riding school.
You’ve been confused, uncertain, exhausted around an issue or a problem you being facing for what seems like forever. Whether it’s a week or several months, you’re bored of perseverating about it (and your friends and family are beginning to avoid picking up the phone)...
You wish there was an easier way...
You’re not stupid – you know tools and read self help blogs and books, listen to podcasts and Instagram geniuses. You’ve tried vision boards, writing goals, self-coaching methods from the TGROW, the Martha's 3B’s or a values exercises, you’ve mantra’d yourself to death and written out ALL the pros and cons. Several times...
But you just can’t get clear. To move or not to move? To leave the relationship or work harder on it? Which book to write, or University to go to? How to create or get more clients, increase your prices, get a raise or stop working the school holidays (while keeping your income)? How to deal with a moody teen, guide your team at work, fulfill your need to give back? Maybe you’re scared to take the plunge? Or nothing’s worked since you left that job, left that relationship or faced that bereavement. You feel frustrated with yourself, maybe with life, and everyone else seems better at being sorted than you right now...
With our feet in the soft, rubber chips, with the air fresh on our cheeks, we start afresh with different sort of coaching work. There is a carefully selected horse chosen just for you there too, roaming free, looking at you from a distance, its ears pricked and one turned to you, the other to noises going on outdoors...
I listen and ask you questions. A tail swishes. You can interact with the horse any way you choose - I've given you some ideas, but it’s up to you. As you talk and feel, and feel and talk, this kind, compassionate ton of equine being notices every fibre of your being. And the horse responds. A non judgemental shift in weight, standing still, or taking a step towards you. The horse is completely and utterly present with you.
More questions, more noticing your own thoughts and feelings and you hit on the thing that is most true for you. Maybe you're looking at me, maybe the ground, but you become aware of a gentle presence at your shoulder. The horse has chosen this moment to be with you. He follows you closely as you walk around the arena. It's his choice. He's free not to. You feel validated, this warm, generous and open hearted presence is with you and you feel it with every cell of your being. Something in your thinking clicks fully into place...
Imagine the relief of knowing.
Not in your head (because you change that on a daily – sometimes hourly - basis) but in your bones. In every single cell of your body. Unburdened. Lighter. Imagine having clarity and certainty. FOMO gone because you know your next steps are the right ones. Cutting out that incessant mental looping. The pain from any change you didn’t want in your life lessened, a sense of calm, acceptance and inner peace in its place. Maybe sleeping better, eating more healthily, scrolling less.
You turn and stroke the horse.
Peace, stillness, calm and warmth flood your body. Your mind, for once, is quiet.
You KNOW your next step for sure.
This four legged, open hearted creature is my 'secret weapon'.
In fact, it's not just a secret weapon, it's more like a magic wand. And it works because horses are just not interested in the stories. The what-we-tell-ourselves-that-isn’t-really-true to us but in the muddle of life we've forgotten how to tell the difference between truth, and the beliefs we create to keep us safe. The horse is interested in who you really are. What you really want. It isn’t interested in the surface you.
It’s a four legged, soft breathing, smooth furred truth detector.
A modern day Oracle.
As prey animals horses have learned their survival depends on connection to their herd and being deeply aware of their environment. Their nervous systems are honed to sense those things we've mostly conditioned ourselves to ignore or suppress. Horses can sense what is going on within us, even when we can't. Because they're not humans, they don't JUDGE. And we feel this truth presented in its most peaceful way.
And when this horse is allowed to wander freely with a human being in a truly physically and emotionally safe space, with a sprinkling of master coach level guidance, my own unprejudiced observation (a compassionate skill honed with 20 years of healing and therapy work), mixed with the deepest of coaching tools including the Seasons of Change Life Navigation Tool (more on that another day!) and the most powerful of questions, you get to see for yourself, with a gentle but powerful equine nudge, what truly matters.
The horse not only shows you your best self, but by virtue of its calm and magnificent wordless presence gives you a visceral, felt experience of what is true and clear for you.
Something unforgettable.
And the bodily felt experience of you, of the horse with you, travels with you back to your day to day life – with a confirmation you feel in your body, your heart and your soul.
You NEVER forget Spike leaning into you, breathing at your elbow as you hit upon the novel you really want to write, and get to stand in oneness, awe and silence as you leant your face against his nose and rested while the world stopped.
You NEVER forget Lucky trying to escape the arena as you talk about parenting your difficult teen, and the peace wash through you as he came over and rest his brow against your heart and breathe calmly, patiently as you feel your love for your daughter expand in your heart and body.
You NEVER forget how your own horse that you’ve known for 2 decades suddenly took on all the unusual characteristics of your Mother in Law as you worked on an issue with her and created boundaries with real life feedback that worked starting that very evening. Unnerving and powerful.
You NEVER forget Solitaire responding to the slightest lift of your finger, changing direction to a canter around a roundpen in a heart and hoofbeat from a tiny wave of your hand as you’ve created your next programme for your clients. A septegenarian cowboy horse trainer came over and rested his hand on your shoulder, calmly, and told you ‘that’s natural leadership’ and you feel the resounding truth of it in your belly, chest and soul.
You NEVER forget Buddy showing you the importance of following your heart over your head by silently reading your mind as you consider your options, him glued to you as you think about every heart felt step in your life to come and anchor in the feeling to direct the months to come.
You NEVER forget Shadow walking 100 metres across a field to stand next to you the moment the wave of grief you are sharing arises and you allow it to pass in full. It takes just seconds and Shadow is there, silently watching. Silently being. With you. You feel Unicorn-in-horse-clothing who does this work. But I have many partners that love this work … and are just a powerful and unique)
I am fortunate to have many different horses willing to do this work. And they all bring their unique, equine magic. They're more connected to their true natures, their wildness, than we are. Once you're aligned these generous creatures want to create a little herd with you.
And the horses love it too.
I call this felt experience your gnowing. It’s almost gnostical, mystical, magical, wild.
This is where you know not just in your head, but in your heart, your connection with the Universe, with all things. And you know this WILDLY. We are connected to all things, in our hearts, our right brain, our being. The horses show us this, almost shamanically, animistically, as they work with us in worldessness, oneness and wisdom.
It's truly magical work.
And thanks to some amazing people, it's now available in several places in Wiltshire, UK, and if you have access to horse facilities elsewhere too.
Simply hop on over to my Contact Page and send me a quick message and we'll get you on your way or get any questions answered first.
Now is the time to stop the confusion and come and experience this gentle, wordless wisdom that comes through when we get to work with an Equine partner. Spaces are limited as the sessions take time to set up. So book early, whether you want a single equus session (great!) or several (amazing!) or a mix of zoom and equus (divine!).
It's my job to get you aligned. It's yours to just show up.
And if that’s not available to you through distance, or horses are not for you just now, that is fine too. Because the experience of being present with the horses in this way is my own personal practice, so I bring their ability to be purely present, creatively responding to each moment with you, into each and every zoom session I offer too.
And that is an option no matter where you live.
As I said, hop over to my Contact Page and send me a quick message an dill answer nay questions and get you set up.
It's your choice.
As Morpheus said "The red pill... or the blue pill"?
BOOK HERE VIA MESSAGE
Joanna x
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