Wonders of the world

Since some of my friends don’t speak Swedish, but most of you understand English, I thought I would try to write this in English. I also believe that language is a very important part of our understanding of the world. This means that by writing in a language I don’t fully comprehend, I will develop my understanding of the world! I see language, art, music, theatre, movement, storytelling etc as examples of us trying to express our understanding of the world. So by expressing ourselves in different ways, we will ultimately broaden our understanding and make it more complex and full.
There is a saying that horses mirror their human. Not like the mirror we are used to, that mirrors our appearance. Horses mirror our most authentic emotions and being. They see straight through us, not judging what they see, they are simply just being with us. They don’t see us, our emotions or behaviours as good or bad, they just are.

I came across this article the other day: https://www.hippson.se/artikelarkivet/forskning/forskningskollen-hasten-kan-hjalpa-om-den.htm (the article is in Swedish, to broaden your perspective! 😉). In short it’s about a study that has investigated the role of the horse in treatment for young women with self destructive behaviour. The study shows that what’s crucial for a good result, is how the handler sees the horse, and handles the horse, or encourage the women to see and handle the horse. When focusing on emotions and being, the horse had a great impact during the treatment. When focusing on performance and achievement, the positive effect from the horse was non. This is because when there are insufficiency in the communication of emotions, it hinders the horse from reflecting the humans emotions, and above all it hinders the human to perceive the horse’s communication, which without question is our biggest challenge. 

To focus on performance and achievement also reminded and reenforced the women to think of their own value in terms of what they achieve and preform. The horses helped improve their self confidence and how they see themselves, reduce anxiety and recognise and handle their own emotions. All of this was annihilated if the focus was to achieve certain goals.

I know we can all learn from this. It doesn’t only apply to women who have problems with destructive behaviours. It applies to us all.

So, if you have the chance to spend some time with a horse, just capitulate. Not to make it easier for the horse to see who you are, but to make it possible for yourself to listen to the horse, to take in and understand the horse, and ultimately, to understand yourself.