UNPRECEDENTED SUPPORT
ANY time in this program that you find yourself experiencing a problem, ask for help. You can ask for help in one of our Live Seminars (I almost always do a bit of one on one work with more than one person on a monthly seminar) OR you can ask on the forum where all kinds of wonderful people will come in to help (including me sometimes).
About the live seminars:
There is ALWAYS a recording and those recordings form the basis for a wealth of fabulous lessons and information in the forum’s Live Seminar archives. If you are looking for help on a particular subject, it’s well worth browsing those archives AND the Extra Lessons from Jenny section in the forum too.
Today’s lesson
What makes the Fast Track program FAST, is the way that we systematically work with your subconscious mind to re-program the way that your body responds to your horse in your ridden work. Learning to quieten your mind is the first step towards the inner awareness that plays such a large part to the speed of the RELEASE, RE-LEARN and REPROGRAM formula.
A Quiet Mind is also essential for problem solving with your horse, whether it’s figuring out how to help that horse have better manners at feed time or how to get more energy in that canter pirouette.
As we talked about in our foundation principles, figuring out how to make yourself and your horse BE and FEEL safe when either of you feels nervous or afraid is an essential part of tension free, brilliant riding and superb horse handling generally.
Your first response to any kind of nerves from you OR your horse is easy – take the pressure off. Back off. Stop doing what you are doing and go back to doing something that is in you and your horse’s Comfort Zone, to feeling safe. All the way to doing nothing at all if that’s what it takes. All the way to leaving the paddock or field or barn if that’s what it takes.
But what do you do then? Well you could stay out there in the paddock or the barn forever… Just kidding! Of course not!
You have to figure out whether this is your horse’s nerves or your own and what to know or do about it. Your Fast Track program will provide many of the answers.
If the answer doesn’t come to us instantly, then we quieten our mind to create space for the answer from our own Inner Guidance system to float up.
A Quiet Mind.
A simple way to start cultivating those answers is to increase our conscious awareness of our Inner Guidance system with a Quiet Mind.
A Quiet Mind doesn’t mean an empty mind though – it means allowing any thoughts and ideas to flow, smiling a little and observing them, all the way to the gold of the ahhaaa insight at the bottom of them. It means noticing and observing any emotions, noticing and observing any energy, noticing and observing any physical feelings, noticing and observing what your heart feels like. Don’t worry if that doesn’t make sense yet, it will.
Creating a HABIT of being able to find that “space in your mind” for an answer to float up easily, will be worth its weight in gold and a simple breathing technique like this nice little breathing exercise is one of them.
There are many other ways to find and cultivate a Quiet Mind that we will talk about over the duration of this course too.
This is a quick and easy exercise, so have a go right now while you are sitting at the computer.
Click here for an alternate recording (To download, right click and save.)
A Quiet Mind is a brilliant resource if you ever have trouble understanding anything about your horse, anything that you want to know or understand, because our Inner Guidance system is a lot smarter than our thoughts. And if you are feeling sad or upset in any way, take this exercise out and do it within sight of your horse and allow the beautiful energy of your horse to help you.
Written Version of the Audio
For those who are doing this lesson from the written version, follow the instructions as you read and pause wherever you see the three dots … .
For this early practise at breathing for a quiet mind, we are not going to expect any answers about fear or nerves or anxiety, we’re just going to practise getting a quiet mind first.
Notice whether you are breathing through your nose or mouth…
Breathe just a little bit harder so as to make a bit of a noise as you breathe in and out…
And while you do that again, notice where you can first feel the air as it comes in…
Then notice where you can last feel the air as your breath goes out…
How far down your throat can you feel the air coming in? …
Notice what parts of your body move as you are breathing…
Can you feel your chest moving?…
Can you feel your arms moving as you breathe in and out?…
Can you feel your shoulders lifting as you breathe in …
and sinking down as you breathe out? …
Does your stomach come in and out with your breath? …
What about in your back, can you feel the movement of the breath in your back? …
Now see if you can feel your heart beat behind your breath…
And if you can’t feel that yet, then just imagine that you can…
Did you notice how your mind slowed down as you focused on noticing your breathing? For those who found this a little hard to do, practice this as much as you can around your horse BEFORE you even get them. Just sit somewhere safe outside of where they are, where you can see them.
Next lesson, we’ll cover how to actually USE this quiet mind to figure out what to know or do about any fear, nerves or anxiety that has come up for you or your horse.
But right now, your mission should you choose to accept it – is to practice this quiet mind as often as you can – with and without your horse.
With enough practice, eventually you will be able to get a quiet mind even under stressful situations and that will be right up there amongst the best things you have ever learned.
Have fun with it! Or have relaxation with it! And see you soon!