About Gita Matlock

Gita Matlock Equine-Guided Life Coach http://www.herdspirit.com Gita is an equine-guided life coach and co-founder of Herd Spirit, an organization that offers equine-guided workshops and retreats for accelerated growth among leaders and communities around the world. Gita is a healer through her insights, empathy, and ability to facilitate change. She earned a bachelor's degree in international studies from Pepperdine University and a masters degree in nonprofit administration from the University of San Francisco. She is also a certified meditation and yoga teacher. Before opening her equine-guided coaching practice, Gita traveled extensively and held leadership positions with national and international nonprofit organizations. She was born, raised, and now resides with her husband, two children, and small herd of horses at Ananda Village, the first of eight cooperative Kriya Yoga communities founded by Swami Kriyananda, a direct disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda.

Choose Your Own Adventure: How Do We Make Life-Changing Decisions?

This morning I took our newly adopted dog Boon for a jog. We do this each morning before work as a way to mentally and physically prepare for the day. In the soft dawn glow, we happened upon Boon's best doggy pal Olive romping on school grounds. So, we paused for some playtime.   As Boon and Olive raced full speed in circles around us, Olive's dad and I had a nice chat. We've become doggy-parent friends, it's part of bringing animals into your life, your friend circle grows to include those who your fur baby loves too.   Olive's dad is faced with a huge life choice. One of those forks in the road that will impact the whole family and the course of the rest of their collective lives. As I listened to his process, I recalled my family's decision to move to Portland. A major life choice that we made just months ago, so it's very fresh.   Making tectonic, life-changing choices is one of those opportunities to test all of our life skills. These moments cause us to evaluate our lives deeply, project into different potential futures thoughtfully, and consider impacts not just on us but on those we care about. The more people depend on us, the heavier the decision can feel.   This is one of those topics where horses have a great deal to teach us. They move collectively through uncertainty all day long, especially those who enjoy the freedom of the wild. The direction-setter needs to take in all the information from the herd members. She needs to scan her environment for potential threats. She needs to use her best judgement and the herd's collective memory to help choose a direction.   All of this is true, but there is one more zinger to consider. It's what drove Olive's dad to talk with me this morning. And, it's a sign of a very good leader. This one more zinger is something my TeachingHorse colleagues taught me to see in my herd. The truth bomb is this: when facing uncertainty, horses gather rather than scatter. In other words, they convene to consider the options and make the decision from a place of connection and strength. We humans do the opposite all too often. We scatter, we retreat to our corner, we get lost in a sea of mental chatter.   I'm going to take this one a layer deeper, to the place Olive's dad and I went this morning. When we face uncertainty, we not only need to reach out and connect with our community in order to make the choice from a position of connection, clarity, and strength. We also need to connect inside of ourselves to that quiet place where we feel a part of something bigger. Call it God. Call it Source. Call it what you want, but know that it is the quiet whisper that guides us toward the highest best solution in all [...]

2023-09-19T10:53:49-07:00By |

Remember This Tool When Leading Through Uncertainty

Our understanding of leadership has changed dramatically in recent years. We used to collectively believe that leadership is about having the answers. More and more of us now know that leadership is not about having the answers, leadership is about service and allowing the best answers to be found. Leadership is about personal accountability, curiosity, deep listening, adapting, serving, finding mutual benefit, integrity, communication, kindness, respect, vision, and commitment. Leadership is a way of being.   When we're faced with uncertainty, it's easy to fall back into the old notion that leadership means having the right answers. Answers make us feel safe and when we're uncertain, safe is what we want most. Unfortunately, this is the exact wrong way to navigate an unknown situation. The results will nearly always be subpar, if not a total disaster.   When we seek safety, we seek the known. Very often though, what we know is not going to get us through uncertainty because, by it's nature, we are outside the bounds of what we know.   Today, I find myself facing another significant uncertainty. My beautiful mare Dancer is sick, very sick. I've done all that I know to help her and now it is time for the vet to step in.   The challenge now is to walk through this health crisis with my head on straight. To be a leader to my herd, I am responsible for their care. Isn't that true of any health crisis? The vet is an expert, an expert who I feel deeply grateful to have available just like any doctor. Whether the health crisis is happening to our animals or our own self, we all will face more than one in this lifetime.   It is tempting at times like this to turn over responsibility to the experts. It's times like this we can think, "I don't have the answer, so I must not be the right one to lead here!" Yet, at the end of the day, the accountability rests with me and abdicating that is not good leadership. Isn't that true when we're facing the oncologist too? The goal as leader is to keep your head clear and heart open, so that the expertise and information can be fully absorbed. From there, it can inform our best thinking.   I've recently been enjoying a book called More Time to Think by Nancy Kline. In it, Kline provides a well considered and researched framework for creating powerful thinking environments. One core belief that she holds (which I resonate with entirely) is that YOU are the best source of answers to the questions that YOU have. If given a safe and loving environment, information, and time, you will find the best possible solution.   Thus, there is good news here. I will have the answer regarding how to best care for Dancer. What I need are these three things: 1) an excellent thinking environment, 2) information (veterinary expertise, personal experience, experience [...]

2022-05-23T18:45:39-07:00By |

The Brainstorming Crutch: Why You’re Stuck in Mid-Level Management

Brainstorming with our colleagues can be a valuable tool for creating cohesion, buy-in, and for coming up with a solution that takes diverse perspectives into account. Even at home, brainstorming can be an effective way to work with our partners and families. Increasingly, we live in a society that values the contributions of each individual as a means of valuing respect, inclusion, equity, and diversity. HOORAY! You’ll get zero argument from me about the importance of this work. While brainstorming can be a powerful means for finding collective solutions, there is a catch; it can also be a leadership crutch. If brainstorming is your habitual solution-finding mechanism, this could be the answer to your question, "Why am I not advancing professionally?" Perhaps you don't aspire to reach upper management. Perhaps you like being an effective #2. I get it. That was the story I told myself for years. The truth is that there is a nuance to effective brainstorming that will allow inspired solutions to unfold without relinquishing your position as a leader, regardless of your title. That nuance is "ownership." Brainstorming becomes a crutch when we don't take ownership of the ideas that we "throw out" into the room. We want to elicit feedback from our peers and colleagues, especially if we're working in a partnership, but it's as important to stand behind the ideas we put forward as it is to remain open-minded to the perspectives of others. Only in striking that balance between owning our ideas and listening to the ideas of others will we truly benefit from the process of brainstorming. For many, brainstorming becomes a crutch because it is a way to never be wrong. By “tossing” ideas into a collective space, we can easily release attachment to them. Instead, we can pivot quickly when a counter-perspective appears better than ours. The brainstorm becomes a scapegoat for our own insecurities. Rather than finding the ideal solution from the diverse perspectives of the collective, we default to the strongest opinion in the room. Let me be clear, this is not about leadership as a title. This is a nuance about leadership from any organizational role. You need not be the CEO to respect and take ownership of your own contributions to the collective. What does any of this have to do with horses? Horses live in a hierarchical society. Their way of finding solutions exemplifies much of these concepts on the daily. The human eye may simply catch that the herd is arguing over who gets which flake of hay, but taken from the equine perspective, the collective conversation over resources is an excellent example of effective brainstorming. They are in an ongoing discussion about individual needs and collective health and safety. There is always a CEO leader in the herd, but every member of has a voice and participates in the daily discussions. So, how do you determine whether you're brainstorming like a leader or using it as a crutch? [...]

2022-04-01T16:48:10-07:00By |

How to Be Your Own Lead Mare

Wild horse herds are always led by a female, known as a mare. She earns her position by being brave, clear in her communication, consistent, and discerning. She seeks answers, approaches with appropriate caution, takes excellent care of herself, and holds everyone accountable. In our leadership training for corporate teams, we discuss the key roles of leadership in the herd and explore what aspects apply to our own professional and personal lives. The lead mare is in the first position of leadership. She is the visionary, she sets the pace, direction, and destination of the herd. She relies on others to remain connected with her vision, each member of the herd playing an essential role in the safety and success of the team. She fails in her role if she moves out too far ahead, losing all connection and thus leaving the herd vulnerable. Humans observe the behavior of mares in captivity through a lens that often twists into reflections of our own patriarchal society. Mares are seen as pushy, overly emotional, and downright bitchy. Sound familiar? Our mare, Dancer, is not the lead in our herd. In captivity, mares and geldings are equally capable of leading the herd and in ours the leader is Zip, a gelding. Geldings don’t happen in the wild. Of all the horses though, Dancer is most guileless, most willing to care for her own needs and the best about communicating them. She naps when she feels to, splaying flat out on the ground and expecting her friends to keep watch for predators. She stretches in down dog to stay limber, calls loudest to her friends when they pass by, and pushes her way in for extra scratches whenever the opportunity arises. Here during International Women’s Month, let's celebrate mares. Let’s remember that when we take care of ourselves, when we believe we are worth it, we become fully resourced and able to be the leaders in our lives. Tips to become your own lead mare: Take care of yourself first. Meditate, laugh, exercise, eat well, do whatever fills you with ease, joy, and a sense of wellbeing. Speak your truth with clarity. Know that by being honest and clear, we take full responsibility for ourselves and offer freedom to others to respond as they choose. Take ownership of your life. Whether you like it or not, you are setting the pace, direction and destination of your life. As Carl Jung says, “Until we make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” So, make it a conscious choice.

2022-03-10T18:05:50-08:00By |

Boundaries Are Our Points of Connection, Not Walls

When someone said the words, "You need better boundaries," I used to bristle. I used to believe that boundaries meant walls that we build to protect our egos. I despised walls, I didn't trust the ego, thus I hated boundaries too. As a lifelong yogi, I believed that unity was the goal and boundaries were in direct opposition. Then one day I was working with a powerful horse. He was pushing his giant body around and forcing me to either step up or get out of the way. My trainer said that I was leading with my forehead, trying to direct his movements from my spiritual eye. He coached me to drop into my body and move from my belly, the seat of power. I was taken aback. Was I really trying to push this big horse around with my forehead? Yup. And it was getting me nowhere. So, I dropped in. I breathed deep, grounded into the earth with my feet, and re-centered my attention on the belly. When I was ready, I began to move the horse again, but this time, I led from my core. He responded immediately by moving where I asked him to go. He moved gracefully around the arena with me in willing partnership because I had met his energy with an appropriate match. Let me be clear, it wasn't about pushing him around or being "the boss." Too high a vibration and he was shoving right into me, too much space between us and the connection would be lost. The change happened when I met him at the correct frequency, the boundary point where our energies could meet in healthy partnership. This was the first in a long journey of exploring the power of boundaries with horses and then with humans. In time, I learned that a boundary is not a wall, it is an appropriate point of connection. To hold healthy boundaries takes way more energy and awareness than to put up a wall or it's opposite, to let everyone unload their crap on you. The effort and discipline reaps worthwhile rewards. Relationships at work and home are transformed when we learn the art of boundaries because our points of connection become empowering, authentic, and full of love. This is the art of partnership and it will change everything. [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwkLCdza9jI[/embedyt]

2022-02-24T13:57:45-08:00By |

Want to Change the World? Learn to Receive.

I am friends with some of the best people on earth. They are kind, devoted, and disciplined. Many of them want to change the world. Some want to change it through activism or nonprofit work, others want to create powerful businesses that solve the world's problems, some are artists with incredible perspectives to share, and some want to change the world by becoming enlightened. If you're reading this, you're one of them. I am too. Full stop. So, if our intentions are good and our efforts focused, why are so many of us playing small? Our books are being self-published, our classes reach numbers in the tens or maybe hundreds, but not thousands. Our nonprofits struggle for funding or our B-corps lack investors. Even with our best efforts, our community of influence never breaks beyond a certain bubble. Here's what I felt deeply this morning that is changing me: I used to believe that to change the world, I needed to set aside my ego and be a channel for something bigger than me. Now I know that to change the world, I need to receive its love and gifts with such acceptance that it fuels ME to BE BIGGER. Every time someone used to say to me, "Great job Gita," or, "Thank you, you've helped me so much," I would shrink. I would reply with uncomfortable responses like, "It wasn't me, it was the Divine, but thank you," or, "it's been a team effort, but thanks." These responses came from fear that the praise would grow my ego and my ego was the enemy. Here is what happened this morning that changed me. I was standing inside the gate to my horse pasture, halter in hand. I observed three of my horses notice me. Slowly they stopped their grazing and turned to face me as if to say, "hello." There they stood, about fifty feet away, facing me. It felt like they were waiting for me to answer a question. I closed my eyes and scanned my body. I noticed my breath and took a big one. Then I decided to ask myself a question, "Who do I need to be to have them choose to come to me?" The answer came, "You need to be so full of love that they feel amazing in your presence and they can't wait to be near you." Then a visual came to me. I was walking out onto a stage, about to give a speech to an audience of thousands. I felt my big open heart, I breathed deeply from my belly. A wave of adoration and appreciation flooded me from the audience. Rather than ducking the wave and fearing it will make me an ego-maniac, I let it wash all over me. It felt like a huge tsunami of love and as I let it into my heart, I felt myself expand bigger and bigger until I could feel every single person in the audience! [...]

2022-02-09T13:23:59-08:00By |

Five Steps to Turn Failure into Growth

“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” - Robert F. Kennedy   We read motivational books, we see meme’s on social media, we hear what great leaders say about failure, they all tell us that failure is a step on the journey to success. They remind us that it is our willingness to fall down, brush off the dirt, look around for the lessons, and keep going that makes or breaks our success. But the cold hard truth is that this process hurts, it’s hard, and our path is littered with grief.   I woke this morning with a heavy heart. Failure was the topic of my personal coaching session yesterday and the feelings lingered. The doubts felt like a dark cloud over my head, causing me to question the choices that I’ve made and the sacrifices along the way. So, as I sat to meditate this morning, I decided to lean into the grief. What came out of the process was a deep sense of gratitude, so here is what I did to get there: Write a list of all your perceived failures. Write the jobs you’ve lost or left in disharmony, the trigger moments that sent you into a tailspin and caused you to react in ways you regret, the relationships that challenged you and you dislike how you handled them, the decisions you made that you regret. Whatever you see as failures, write them down. Now, review the list. Sit with the discomfort and the feelings that arise as you look at each moment. Breathe. Take a few minutes to practice a simple even-count breathing exercise that brings you into an emotionally congruent state. Inhale for four to six counts and exhale for an equal amount of counts. Give yourself at least 5 rounds of this even-count breathing exercise. Next, make a list of the personal quality that you needed, but didn't have enough of, in each failure. Words like integrity, honesty, focus, kindness, mindfulness, forgiveness, boundaries come to mind for me. What was that event trying to teach you? Focus not on the details of the event, but on the qualities within yourself that you wish you had more of to face the challenge and achieve a different outcome. This can be hard. We often want to justify our failures as someone else's fault. Resist that urge. Release the story of what happened and take responsibility for how you showed up in the event only. This is brave and humbling. Finally, take a look at what you’ve written. See how the qualities needed to overcome the challenges you have faced are the areas in yourself that you most need to address. Or, you may find that these are the areas you are making the most progress on. The one question left to ask yourself is this, “am I committed to growing in these areas?” If you have yet to make that commitment, this is your invitation. If [...]

2022-01-13T11:18:55-08:00By |

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Between a rock and a hard place, it's the best way to describe how we all feel at times. It happens when two voices, often inside our own selves, argue about the best course of action.   Clients arrive in this state often. It's a tortuous feeling, usually accompanied by fear of making the wrong choice. As if life is a choose your own adventure story and you're decision today is going to send you to the chapter where the dragon eats you up.   The truth is, these are often big choices. Whether to stay in a marriage, a job, a friendship. Whether to allow our in-laws to come to Thanksgiving or how to deal with a mistake we have made. These choices feel huge because they have real consequences.   When I begin coaching around this choice, the impulse of the client is to dive into the details. Tell the whole story and assume that in doing so, the correct course of action will be obvious. It never is.   You can't solve a problem from the frequency of it. You have to first shift gears. You have to enter a state of safety and Self awareness. Neuroscience has a new theory to explain this called Polyvagal theory.   In a nutshell, it goes like this: the vagus nerve that runs along the spine determines your state of being. When the lower nervous centers, the dorsal and sympathetic systems, are activated, your brain is in a state of either freeze, flight, or fright. From this state, your higher centers at the heart and brain are shut off. You are literally unable to use executive functions. So, telling the story will do you no good. Not without some more subtle things happening in the process.   The way out is through. The way to our executive function is through the heart center along the vagus nerve through a process called co-regulation. This is where Polyvagal gets fascinating. We mammals require an external connection, one that is in a higher functioning state, in order to create internal safety that soothes the lower vagus nervous system. Once our dorsal and sympathetic systems are deactivated, our higher functions of intuition and creative problem solving become available once more.   When we do it right, we reach out for help during a time of crisis choice like this. Maybe it's a trusted friend, a therapist, a coach. Maybe it's a beloved dog or, most powerful among animal co-regulators, a horse. Whoever it is, we are unconsciously seeking a source to co-regulate with us, to help us unlock our higher thinking and perception.   When clients arrive at the round pen in this state, I often have them groom the horse as they share their conflicting feelings, fears, and worries. Sometimes they take the horse for a walk as they talk. They think this is about catching me up to the decision point. It is, of course, helpful to [...]

2022-01-13T11:08:31-08:00By |

Joy, the Secret to Changing Your Life

When I begin working with clients, one of the first questions I invariably ask is, “what do you do for fun?” It sounds trite. It seems like one of those throw away questions that we ask to make lively small talk at a cocktail party. The truth is, the answer to this question has an incredible impact on your life. We’ll get into why, but before we do, take a moment to answer the question for yourself.   Okay, now that you’ve got an answer, let’s explore why our fun matters so much? Let me start with my own story. Once upon a time there was a young professional woman. She graduated from college and began her career in the humanitarian aid sector as a fundraiser. She loved her work. Her nights and weekends were spent with friends, her then husband, and her dogs. She loved adventures in nature, dancing, travel, and socializing. Throughout the next decade, she found lots of ways to have fun. She traveled to four continents, she spent her Sunday mornings in a jazz dance class with her cousin, she spent most Saturday nights out dancing. She studied hard, worked hard, and played hard. But, all was not right. Her husband was not a fit. Her whirl of social life was becoming too much. She was ready for change.   Fast forward. In her thirties, she moved to a spiritual community, developed a daily meditation practice, married a loving man, and had two babies. She didn’t dance anymore. Her career became secondary. She didn’t have dogs anymore. Her babies were amazing, but she was constantly exhausted and had no time to care for herself. She tried to workout, but it was so boring. Her only motivation to get on the treadmill was the chance to listen to her dance music in solitude. Life was rich with love, but progressively heavy. Finances were tight. The weight of duty began to drag her down.   As her thirties came to a close, her second marriage became strained. Her career hit a dead end. The pandemic hit. She was laid off. Her life, it seemed, was unraveling again. She surrendered her worries and embraced the pause. She embraced her motherhood. She took her kids outside and they began to spend time with animals again.   And then it happened. She sat on a horse and remembered JOY. She remembered freedom. She remembered courage. The joy of the horse brought her back to herself, her heart, her inner peace. The rest, my friends, is the history of recent years. The blossoming of new life, new career, new wisdom, new purpose.   And now you. What do you enJOY? What in your life brings you into that frequency? I’m not talking about the ways you disconnect, fill space, zone out. I’m talking about the things you do that bring excitement, enthusiasm, action? What do you do without hesitation? What do you do that moves your body [...]

2021-12-27T14:03:16-08:00By |

Money Matters, the Secret to Getting What You Want

Yesterday I cleared star thistle from the winter pasture for the horses. It’s a noxious weed that can harm horses if they decide it’s tasty, so this cloudy fall afternoon found me hacking at it with my handcrafted scythe. Yes, this tool makes me feel like an Amish woman, but it works wonders and is much more pleasant than the loud engine of a weed whacker. As I slashed away the poisonous plants, a loud voice cried out in my earbuds, “What is your financial blueprint?!” The voice was that of T. Harv Eker and the audiobook was Secrets of the Millionaire Mind. The truth is, I wasn’t there in that pasture only to care for my herd. I was there to clear the poison in my mind. Let me rewind. A few days before this, I logged into our bank accounts and credit cards. I could sense something was off and after some foot dragging, knew that I needed to take inventory of our finances. What I found shocked me. For the first time in ten years of partnership, our cash savings was drained. I took a breath. I reached out to my husband with the news. My heart leapt in panic. Being who I am today and knowing what I know about life, I knew the panic was unhelpful. I also knew that suppression was useless and avoidance futile. So, I sat with it. I let all the terrifying emotions arrive and be named. When the kids were asleep, my husband and I met. We talked about money, I named my feelings, we considered our options, and made some decisions. I decided to reach out to my coach and business partner, Ezra. He always has practical feedback and I knew that I could use an outside perspective on things. My current beliefs have brought me this far, it was time to try something new. My coach brought to light some key issues around valuing myself and working with my husband as a team. Then he offered the book recommendation by Eker. I promptly downloaded it from my Audible and headed to the pasture to listen, learn, and clear things up. What I found was an application of what I already know to be true, but offered with new words and wrapped in the language of making money. The truths rang clear, the new application brought new awareness's, and anything that didn’t align in my heart I set aside. So, here’s the secret to getting what you want: There are four steps to changing anything you want to change in your life. Your money, relationships, business, spiritual life, health, anything. The four steps are: Awareness -Unpack your suitcase of subconscious beliefs about X (in this case money) Choice - Decide what you want in your suitcase and what you are ready to leave behind. Action - Now, repack it with care and take it with you as you travel. Reflection - Notice what changes. [...]

2021-10-22T16:52:15-07:00By |

4 Keys to Healthy Conflict

You’re a sensitive person, walking through your day with invisible armor to protect yourself from the intensity, insensitivity, or abrasiveness of others. You’ve found a way to make it work, but at a cost. Your way is avoidance and the cost is your authenticity and joy. When your boss gives you that look, you step back and hunch your shoulders forward in preparation for the requisite admission of guilt that will deescalate him. When your partner uses that tone of voice, you know it’s time to change the subject and forget about trying to be understood. In an argument, the words never come out right. You’re prone to emotional outbursts or bouts of situational depression. Little by little, day by day, your defenses have left you disconnected from your true feelings and unable to find your own voice. If this is you, I get it, this was me too until I let the horse teach me a new way of addressing conflict. Today, I am an equine guided life coach. I facilitate experiential learning for humans with horses, letting the horse guide the human toward a more balanced, authentic, and joyful state of being. What the horse has taught me and my clients about addressing conflict has changed my life forever. Let’s start with a story. One day a client, we’ll call her Cynthia, arrived for a session. She was late, holding a hot coffee in one hand and wearing no protection against the harsh midday sun. She seemed hurried and scattered. As she approached the round pen, Chi, the bay gelding I had selected to work with her, hung his head over the gate and seemed anxious to leave us. Cynthia patted his nose and told him he was handsome. We entered the pen and Cynthia launched into her life situation. As she spoke, the gelding paced around the outside of the pen as if to say, “I feel anxious and tense, I have to move my body.” He was a perfect reflection of Cynthia’s inner state of being. Cynthia continued to share her feelings, thoughts, and beliefs, while another horse, Nasim, approached the round pen and stuck his nose over the fence to greet Chi. The two sniffed in their usual manner, but as Cynthia’s story began to veer toward the conflict she felt between her feelings of suffocation and sincere connection with her spiritual community, the two horses began to argue. Chi and Nasim relentlessly nipped at each other over the rail as Cynthia spoke. For a moment, it seemed to de-escalate as Nasim left Chi and approached the round pen gate in an obvious request to enter. I knew it was risky, Cynthia was caught in her inner conflict and the two geldings were already showing aggression. But, if there is one thing the horses have taught me, (which they certainly have taught more than one thing!) it is to trust them. I let Nasim into the pen and kept a [...]

2021-07-09T20:15:30-07:00By |

Live Your Gift: The Power of Equine-Guided Retreats

"Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculpture to reveal it." -Michelangelo My partner's nervous smile flashed at me from across Zip’s withers. The smell of horse and grass, the southern comfort of Ezra’s voice, the intensity of spring weather, these were the waves that filled my senses on that exquisite day in May. The day we launched our Live Your Gift series of retreats.   This was another moment along the equine-guided path where the Divine sculpture carved me into BEING, changing me in ways as permanent and artful as the chisel crafts in marble. Today it was my way of moving through the world that would be chipped away. What remains is my sculpted heart.   The exercise was simple. Focus attention at your heart chakra, become rooted there, and when ready reach out from your heart to touch the horse. If the horse moves out of the way, you’ve lost your center. Stop, breathe, try again. If the horse remains still, enjoying the feeling of connection heart to heart, advance the exercise by reaching across to your human partner on the opposite side of the horse. Three hearts, threaded together by love, yet absolutely centered in themselves. Sounds like an easy task for a lifelong yogi. I mean, c’mon, I’ve been at this since birth, right?   Nope. Zip refused to stand still. Each time we attempted the exercise, Zip rejected us flatly. I know this horse, he and I have been working together for many months now. We’ve worked with dozens of clients and co-facilitated enormous breakthroughs for people. Zip thrives standing stoically still in the name of love and healing for those in need. What was going on? Why wouldn’t he stand still long enough to receive love from my heart, let alone allow me to reach across to my partner?   My partner and I had to try more times than I can count. I felt frustrated, embarrassed, and impatient. Somehow though, just before the exercise was complete, we managed to keep Zip still by our own ability to center in our hearts. That feeling, the deep and profound sense of centeredness, was something that I had craved my whole life. I’m an empath who is easily affected by the feelings of others. The years had taught me to manage this somewhat, but the struggle to know which feelings are mine and which belong to another still plagued me. In five short minutes, a horse taught me how to live in my own heart space and how to move from there into an authentic connection with another being. Those five minutes have changed my life, again. Here’s a simple heart centering practice that I use as a reminder of what Zip taught me that day: [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Fl4H5gMu9I[/embedyt] Days working with horses, with trainers, and clients have steadily chiseled away at the woman I once was. The old me lived in [...]

2022-10-12T14:15:25-07:00By |

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