It has been a really good week for me this week despite all the chaos and uncertainty going on in the world. Last week I had the opportunity to do some Equine Facilitated Learning at Great Strides. Equine Facilitated Learning is where you work with a facilitator (human) and a horse to work through "stuff" you may be dealing or struggling with.
Horses, in particular, are amazing to work with because they are so in tuned to their surroundings (including the humans) because they are prey animals. They like for things in their world to be congruent and can sense inauthentic behavior in an instant, for example: if on the inside someone is feeling really insecure but on the outside they are feigning a facade of confidence. The horses sense stuff like that, it confuses them and they don't like to be in that energy bubble.
For me last week was a BIG DEAL because I chose to work with a horse who is known to be pretty stand-offish and beats to her own drummer, her name is Pumpkin. She likes to keep a pretty big energy bubble around her despite being a mini-horse. I chose to work with Pumpkin because the topic I wanted to work on was kinda a biggie for me and I had a feeling that she would help me sort things out in a "no nonsense" way.
Pumpkin required one thing from me as we were working together...vulnerability. Yep...the dreaded VULNERABILITY. That thing that terrifies us and that we are scared of doing because we associate it with weakness...that's the one.
The moment that I let my guard down and became vulnerable and raw with my emotions was the moment that Pumpkin connected with me heart to heart to work on my stuff. I had a big soul lesson that I was working on and she was there to support me, to give me her full attention, to be a safe space and to help me discover what needed to be done for me to heal. (Of course the facilitator was there to help too in her awesome way)
Pumpkin allowed me to hug her and to scratch her belly to express my deep gratitude (I felt so special to be allowed into her energy bubble). Her message to me ran deep and I was able to receive it because I was open and vulnerable.
Are you vulnerable with any of the animals in your life? What lessons have they helped you with? Please, tell me about it in the comments.
