Monthly Archives: November 2012

Nov29

the hard and the soft of it

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Many of you have commented on my post about softness.  I want to give full credit to Mark Rashid here.  It began when I heard him at Equine Affaire, and has continued as I have been watching his DVD called Developing Softness.  It is available from his website and on Amazon, and is well worth the price.

For me, the idea of softness was new.  I love that!  Something new in the somatic world?  I have thought a lot about ease, flow, relaxation, releasing, opening, expanding – but not about softness in a specific way.  So I have been thinking & feeling deeper into that subject.

I am someone who has always enjoyed quickness.  I love a quick mind and moving quickly.  Alacrity, sparking, lightening, tap dancing – all feel good to me. Sometimes the quickness is nervous energy – un-centered and twitchy.   When things go slowly, or slower than is my habit – like that driver in front of me – I get a physical itch, a discomfort, because that person is not going at my speed.  Or at the speed that is my habit.

My question is, can we be habitual and centered?  I think so, if the habit is something like bringing ourselves back to the breath.  I find that many habits are reflexive or reactive and unconscious.  Going fast is a way to not be in the moment, especially if it is an uncomfortable one. Hurrying is a good avoidance technique.

So back so softness.  When I feel myself accelerating, or hardening – as is often the case with my sutbborn pony Amadeo – letting that feeling remind me to soften is proving to be very effective and brand new to this pretty educated body.  The sensation is more palpable than relaxing, and more specific than just breathing, although breathing is part of it.  It is a physical/mental/emotional letting go, opening and centering in that place just below the belt buckle that I talked about the other day.

How do you soften?  Do you soften?

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Nov29

a new year offering

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I am planning a January offering – Natural Horsemanship for You and Your Horse.  This one’s a teleseminar – four weeks of strategies for aligning, attuning and improvising with your horse.  Each week will combine instruction and suggestions with time for questions and answers.

You may be wondering how we can do that via phone or Skype, with no horses in the room.  Sometimes it is a good idea to take the physical horse out of the equation for a bit so that we can focus on out own bodies, our own breathing, our own emotional landscape.  Getting clearer about that through visualization and meditation can help us to be more mindful, more aware, softer when we get to the barn.  Our horses appreciate all of that.

Stay tuned for details.

Nov27

staying in the center

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I have been watching a video by horse guru and Aikido master Mark Rashid.  Today he demonstrated a centering concept from Aikido, and showed how by centering energy at a point just below the belt buckle (about a hand’s breadth below the navel), one could become unmoveable, steady, grounded.  The reason for doing this is to connect to and develop one’s softness, rather than relying on pure strength or muscle.

So today I rode from that place and the results were really surprising.  Both Sanne and Capprichio immediately reflected to me that I was doing something different, something that allowed them to relax and focus rather than brace.  I was amazed at the difference that it made to my sitting trot and my seat.  The image that I had was that my hips and pelvis were like the bulb of a big lotus, with roots traveling down my legs into the ground, and the leaves and stem rising up from the rich nourishment of the bulb.

Rashid also suggested looking at how much effort we expend for any given task, and see if there is a way to do less – use less muscle –  and instead harness our inner softness.  I realized that almost everything that I do has a higher, more muscled vibration than is necessary, and that when I drop my awareness and breathing into my center, I can do more with less effort.

Try it!

Nov26

wild sky

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I caught this sky last week – a canopy of peach and plum, those colors of summer, of lushness, bare skin, juice dripping down your hand.  The cold is closing in, and the landscapes feel so barren, so brown, so lifeless.

My wife, Pam, says, “But look at all the colors!!!”  Where? I think.  What are you seeing?  She sees the red tips of the branches,  waves of subtle yellows, golds, oranges, even after the leaves have fallen and all that remains are those empty fields.  To her, they are full of color of delight.  I am more inclined to lean south – I yearn for hibiscus, for bouganvilla, for palm trees, for the broad green platters of sea grape leaves and the deep turquoise and cobalt of a tropical sea.

And yet, look at that sky with its startle of naked branches!