This time of year is always filled with so much energy and intention around making changes, committing to resolutions, and setting goals. To be honest with you for me the “best ever” madness has become deafening. Most of you know that I love growing, I’m all about experiencing new things, and its pretty rare for me to decide something is “just not in my wheelhouse”. So I have no issue with wanting more for ourselves in the year to come. What I do have a concern with is finding a balance between striving for more and picking apart the shortcomings? Trying to cut out every dark messy corner of our lives not only seems unrealistic but extremely haphazard.

Those shadows are vitally important.

The horses (and humans for that matter) that give us the opportunity to appreciate their strengths and weaknesses equally are the greatest teachers. Not just in horsemanship but about life. They show us how being whole, not perfect is what’s most important. At the moment that we are faced with difficulty it takes a ton of courage to let ourselves feel the discomfort, embrace the struggle, and find appreciation for it. Appreciate the fact that there is something to be learned. Appreciate that the discomfort has the ability to amplify it’s opposing feeling. Appreciate that to have a shadow it means there must be light on the other side. When we recognize the strength found in the shadow of darkness we are able to fully experience the grace of the light.

As I create my vision for 2019 I plan to keep in mind the words of the amazing Jane Fonda- “We are not meant to be perfect. We are meant to be whole” and I invite you to do the same.

Insightfully,

Becky

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“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched – they must be felt with the heart.” Helen Keller

We can all agree that horses are stunning but there is something that is much more powerful than their looks. And that is our connection to them. The reason we love being with them is more than just their breathtaking beauty, their sleek coats, the sound of their hooves, or their big gorgeous eyes.

It’s what is behind those eyes. The harmony your soul feels when riding in sync with such an energetically powerful animal. It’s the part of ourselves that becomes awakened by them. The part of them that is felt with our hearts. The energy of the horses is perceived by the heart even when they are not present to be seen or touched. And that is what makes them worthy of being considered among the best and most beautiful beings in the world.

Insightfully,

Becky

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When I was creating this mandala there where WAY too many attempts that hit the cutting room floor. Finding a balance between honing in on details and panning out to see the flow of the entire piece proved to be more difficult than I anticipated. It was so easy to get caught up in a frenzy of nitpicking perfectionism. And even easier to see a vision so vast it lacked appreciation and awareness. Many of the versions that got dumped had beautiful details that didn’t flow well together at all or they had a nice overall feel but lacked depth. I was missing the synergy of the details coming together to create the whole vision.

My tendency in just about everything I do is to perfect the details only to zoom out and realize they don’t work toward my overall goal. The barn is spotless but the latest blog post isn’t finished. Dinner looks like it came out of a Martha Stewart magazine but I didn’t get caught up on the accounting (sigh). The hold up isn’t about being too busy or too lazy. It’s about being too close.

I guess this project is showing me that I need to lighten up on the details and put more attention on the bigger vision. Zoom in. Zoom out. Breathe. While working on my upcoming projects I keep picking things apart just like I did with the mandala. I have days of getting stuck on minor details. Stifled because I can’t get something exactly right or I put things off because they’re not “ready” to share. Having something perfect today can’t hold more importance than having the pieces come together on time. It doesn’t need to be perfect it just needs to be shared.

Today I hung up a quote in my office to remind myself to zoom out.
“There is only one thing and we are all it.” -Emily Fletcher

Pan out feel the gravity and grace of the entire vision. Take the opportunity to see the beautiful genius of the universe and all its intricacies flowing together.

Insightfully,
Becky

The post Details Create The Whole appeared first on Insightful Equine.

I love how the picture captures this little guy’s inquisitiveness. It reminds me of being a kid and asking “why” followed up by a dozen or so “but why”s. As I am faced with new challenges in business and new experiences with horses it seems that letting my curious inner child take over could be the best path to making progress.

I need to remind myself that it’s good to nurture the curiosity within. Instead of judging something as good or bad looking at as interesting. Let the unknown trigger excitement instead of anxiousness. Use wonder to discover an outlook that serves me and the horses.

Insightfully,

Becky

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The post You will Know your Path appeared first on Insightful Equine.

This week has started with what seems to be the perfect storm. My laptop died (as a blogger and a business owner you can imagine how heavily I rely on it). Then I stopped to get gas I found out my credit card got flagged for fraudulent activity (my car was able to get me home running on the fumes of good karma). To top it all off the files and pics that I should be able to access on my icloud storage somehow got stuck in the clouds.

The real frustrating part is I keep getting stuck being annoyed by technology and impatient with my lack of progress. I’m not directing the negativity at others, so its okay to give myself a free pass to keep rehashing what’s not working, right? Wrong. Being surrounded with negative energy IS harming someone! Myself!

So how do I get over feeling annoyed and impatient? First, realize these feelings are informative messages I’m grateful for them. What are they telling me? I’ve let my happiness and progress depend too much on things that are relatively unstable. There are always going to be quirks (especially with technology). Instead of a computer crash triggering a negative spiral I need to take a note from Rudy (the mare in the picture) and reflect the energy I need most at a stressful time. Time to become creative, resilient, and resourceful.
Can you hear my comeback song playing in the background? Miranda Lamber’s got it covered for me.
This shift has given me a steady flow of incredible new ideas for Insightful Equine (jotting them down with a good old pen and paper). I managed to get the credit card quirk fixed chatting with an incredible customer service rep without even having to wait for them to mail me a new card (coincidence, I think not). The parts for my MacBook come on Saturday until then I’m decluttering, networking, and feeling grateful for automation.
At the risk of sounding cheesy, I’m going to turn this setback into a comeback.

Insightfully,

Becky

The post As Above Is So Below appeared first on Insightful Equine.

Just Keep Going

This past week and a half I’ve been looking at the business and life goals that I set at the beginning of the year and I can’t help but feel like I’ve missed the mark is so many areas. I’ve poured a ton of work into things that haven’t quite panned out the way I expected them to. When I list it all out it looks like I’ve done a lot but when I actually look at the results from all that “doing” its hard to see any real progress. As I look at setting my goals for 2019 it’s honestly really hard to try to project where things will go and hard to feel prepared to take on the challenges of the year ahead.

There is one thing that always comes to me whenever I get to the point of feeling like I can’t stick it out through one more hiccup. That one thing is a little message from my very first horse. She always pops into my head and says “just keep going”. She was a special little grey Arab with a ton of heart. Always up for trecking along even if she had no idea where we were going or how many obstacles we might encounter. She had so much faith in everything working out.

Her life was far from easy but her resilient optimism never faded. She would just keep going.
Most days I’m far from being a “successful” business owner by many standards but I’m reassured that in the areas that are important I can find my own resilient optimism. And with her coaching me on I can just keep going.

Insightfully,

Becky

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Root Chakra

Focusing on the root chakra this week has been fan-freakin-tastic. Tapping into stability, survival, and connection to nature busted loose some of my indecisiveness. Shifting me into “get things done mode”. Tuning in to the “I have” root chakra statement has also shown me a clear picture of what I want in my life.

Another big aha root chakra moment came while I was on the mat. As some of you know I’ve been doing the new 30 day Dedicate series on Yoga with Adrian. The practice on day 20 had this spot of standing upright lifting up through the front body and grounding down through the back body.

As I was doing this pose I could picture how horse’s bodies work the same way. With grounded energy across their backside (think of how a horse looks when they are weathering a storm-head down backside to the wind) and elevated powerful energy through the front of their body (like when they canter through an open field with their heads high, tails in the air). Imagining this allowed me to feel the loop of elevated and grounded energy flowing through me.

I’ve had horses show me this stable energy other times by turning their back. Not in a threatening way but in a way that shares good grounded energy from the root chakra. They’re pretty cool about doing this for one another too. When a herd mate has unstable energy the other more balanced horses will turn their backs to giving grounded energy to the situation.

It makes me aware of just how often we instinctively do the opposite. For example when someone puts a charged up post on social media 20 people jump in with their own charged up reply. Instead of one unbalanced person finding an anchor through their supportive friends, there’re now 21 people that have lost their marbles.

This predatory nonsense is a good reminder to pay attention to what we’re projecting. We have the ability to help horses or humans when they’re overwhelmed by unstable energy (whether it’s their own, ours, or stray voltage). Stop Doing so much Fixing and drop your anchor.

My go-to root chakra statements…
I have an anchor
I have grounded energy
I have stability
I have a connection to nature

Well, I’m off to go sit on a horse with my freshly rediscovered roots.

Insightfully,
Becky

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