“Horses should be trained in such a way that they not only love their riders, but look forward to the time they are with them.” Xenophon, 400 BC
I know I feel similarly about my horses. I visited with Lily and Vinnie this evening. Now that I am home, I miss them already. I feel so incredibly fortunate to have two such wondrous beings to share my journey this time around. I can only hope that they look forward to our time together as much as I do.
Gratitude creates it’s own attitude. It can give you a new perspective, a new focus. I am going to use this day as my opportunity to see those things.
Take a few minutes today to create your own Thankful Thursday.
How:
Sit back and consider what you have to be thankful for. Listing three to five things is nice, but one will do.
Post about gratitude on your blog. If you don’t have your own blog, go ahead and write about what you are thankful for in the comments here instead.
If you blog, please link back here or leave a comment.
Feel free to tag other bloggers, if you like to do that, but it’s not necessary. This is not a meme that obligates you to do anything, but look for gratitude. Oh, and link back, and comment, that’s all I ask.
Visit these other blogs that often participate in Thankful Thursday:
Tired Dog Ranch
Enlightened Horsemanship Through Touch
Earth Dancer Spanish Mustangs
The Pony Expression
From the Horse’s Back
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Posted in Thankful Thursday.
Tagged with Choctaw Lily, Thankful Thursday.
And I mean true heartfelt positivity, not just acting it.
I love this blog post.
You horse (or dog or child or husband, friend, co-worker, etc.) can tell on some level whether you are authentic or not. Animals, especially horses, I find, pick up on this much more easily than us humans. They have less layers of societal stuff to get in the way. And they pay far more attention to our real intentions that we sometimes do ourselves. That’s what I find so wonderful about working with them.
Posted in Sprit, Training.
Tagged with Positivity, Spirit.
The Summer Day
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
-Mary Oliver
I plan to spend less time on blogging, facebook, twitter, message boards, etc. and more time on real life. I may post here occasionally, but likely even less than I have been. And I won’t be feeling obligated to do so. Just letting everyone know that the tangible world is calling me more than the bits that fly over wires and through the air.
Posted in Sprit.
Clarity
Simplicity
When considered the coming year, these two words came to me. Then I thought about what they mean to me and how I may shift to accommodate them. I’m not much for New Year’s resolutions. What really set me to look at this was my recent back injury, not the just the change in calendars.
Clarity – It’s about knowing what is important. Injuring my back has really made me look at my health and lifestyle. I had settled into patterns that, while not horrible, were not the most healthy for me. Things like staying up late surfing the net. Watching too much TV on hulu.com, eating late in the day, not exercising; that sort of stuff. I am much more clear now about where I need to make changes and am starting to do that. Now that I am nearing fifty, staying fit has to be more of priority.
Simplicity – This is about getting back to my core beliefs. What are my motivations for the doing the things I do? What is important to me, not just day to day, but for my lifetime?
Every few years, I make The List. I put it in Excel with columns for what, why, benefits to me, my family and others, do I do it out of obligation, duty, or pleasure, and how much time it takes. I put down everything I spend time doing, from the basics like eating and sleeping to things like work, volunteer activities, etc. Then I can look at where things are out of balance. Does something need to be culled? Or do I need to do more of this or that? It helps me see clearly why I am involved with what I do. I can explore my motivations, both good, bad and in between. I can better explain to my family and friends, when that needs to be done. And I can make intelligent choices based on sound reasoning.
Going through this exercise doesn’t mean that I don’t keep some things just because they are fun! That reason goes in the Why column and is vitally important!
What came up to change now…
Nutritional supplements – This would be mostly for helping to heal my back, in addition to a few for general health, aging, etc. My shelves are filled with herbs and vitamins that would be good for me, but that I don’t take. It’s a matter of picking a few and figuring out how to work them into my daily routine.
Exercise – Yes, outside of riding, since I can’t do that now. Riding alone wasn’t enough anyway. I don’t like gyms much, so this is a challenging one. And I am not yet supposed to twist or bend over, so a lot of yoga is out right now.
Sleep – Some nights I get seven hours, sometimes three. Some days I take long naps. There’s quite a lack of consistency here.
Eat better – This one isn’t really about what I eat, but mostly when and somewhat how much. I have gotten into a pattern of not eating breakfast until 10 or 11 am, a bowl of cereal at work. Then I eat later into the night.
Doesn’t that list look awfully familiar? Isn’t most people’s list around the New Year very much the same? I guess it just shows that most of us humans have similar challenges.
A few solutions I’m trying…
Today, I tried something new. I had breakfast, instead of catching up on emails. I mixed up some juice with my supplements. I don’t like taking a lot of pills, so powdered herbs in juice works much better for me. As long as the taste isn’t horrible, I much prefer it this way. Today’s mix was a bit of Acai juice, grape juice, blueberry and pomegranate juices, with triphala and shatavari powders, plus a dash of MSM. I enjoyed it all morning at my desk, instead of that strong cup of coffee that I usually have.
I am taking Arianna Huffington’s Sleep Challenge to get eight hours sleep a night. That means I need to shift my sleep pattern earlier. Last night, my head was on the pillow by 10:30 pm! Tonight, I’m shooting for the same.
My husband talked me into joining his gym for three months. I might not enjoy it, but it will be good for me. I’ve done weight training in the past. I know what needs strengthening. And I could use some cardio. And they have pilates classes. Those are great for riding. I’ll have to ease into it, as my back allows.
Now the real trick will be to keep up with these efforts to shift these patterns into something that sticks. It takes forty days to create a habit, so stay tuned. And if you want to make your own version of The List, I would love to hear about it.
Gratitude creates it’s own attitude. It can give you a new perspective, a new focus. I am going to use this day as my opportunity to see those things.
Take a few minutes today to create your own Thankful Thursday.
How:
Sit back and consider what you have to be thankful for. Listing three to five things is nice, but one will do.
Post about gratitude on your blog. If you don’t have your own blog, go ahead and write about what you are thankful for in the comments here instead.
If you blog, please link back here or leave a comment.
Feel free to tag other bloggers, if you like to do that, but it’s not necessary. This is not a meme that obligates you to do anything, but look for gratitude. Oh, and link back, and comment, that’s all I ask.
Visit these other blogs that often participate in Thankful Thursday:
Tired Dog Ranch
Enlightened Horsemanship Through Touch
Earth Dancer Spanish Mustangs
The Pony Expression
From the Horse’s Back
Posted in Thankful Thursday.
Tagged with back health, Thankful Thursday.
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