Presence is where your power lies

It’s cooling off a bit here in Arkansas which set the perfect tone for the Mindfulness with Horses workshop I facilitated on Saturday. The morning began with hot tea and moved on to some guided meditation, great conversation, and of course, the sound of hooves in the background and a nuzzle or three from the Happytown Horse Park herd.

We spent some time expanding on my Advice from a Horse post, and as a result, landed on the perfect mantra of sorts:

Presence is where your power lies.

There are so many ways our energy can seep out, sporadically, back into the past or forward into the future…

Sometimes it feels like I leave little bits of myself in interactions I had at work last week or even all the way back in the middle of an argument I had with my husband three year ago.

Or I project my energy out into the future, worried about how I’ll process my son heading off to college or whether or not I’ll be able to get up and down off the floor with my grandkids considering this bum knee. (Does your brain work like this, too? Please say yes. 😂)

It can be so helpful to call all of myself back to the present moment. To leave my worries and cares for a bit. To reclaim the pieces of myself that I’ve left stranded in old dreams or relationships. To call home the parts that are out scouting for danger around the next corner.

Allowing the whole of me to arrive, right here, right now, can bring a startling amount of peace. And it can also feel like a startling amount of power.

As busy, modern humans, we don’t often pause long enough to feel the fullness of our presence. It’s a courageous thing to do - to bear witness to our own power.

The power to choose. The power of our gratitude for each and every breath. The power of connection - to ourselves, to others (both two-legged and four), and to Nature herself. I feel so honored to get to facilitate these practices - they’re pretty simple from the outside looking in, but they’re also pretty profound.

There were some beautiful ah-ha moments at the workshop - who knows how far-reaching their effects will be?

It was a great morning, to say the least. And it ended, as usual, with me wishing I could remember to take photos at these events. 🤦🏻‍♀️🤪 Here’s the one I got, the arena quiet and peaceful, expectant of what was to come.

Just imagine a couple of horses roaming around and a multi-generational group of women who dropped some serious wisdom into the middle of that circle. It was 😚🤌🏼. Join me for the next one? 👇🏼

Happenings

Workshop: Mindfulness with Horses

Date: Saturday, October 14
When: 9:00-10:30am
Where: Happytown Horse Park (👈🏼 their Insta is great, btw)

The cost is $45. Local to NWA? Just get in touch to reserve a spot!

Journey On Podcast Summit

Date: November 2-6
Where: San Antonio, TX

Warwick Schiller’s Journey On Podcast Summit will be a gathering of horse people, but it's not actually about horses. It's about the practice of being human and learning to connect with our horses and everything else in our lives in a more authentic, attuned, resilient way. I'm really excited about it!

I’ll be presenting with an amazing group of teachers, scientists, coaches, wisdom keepers, and horse people. Last time I checked, there were a few in-person tickets left. But if you can’t join us in person, the whole event will be live-streamed (recordings included if you can’t watch in real time)! Cost: $99.

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