Life Lessons learned from Horses!

By Celie Weston

What's my Purpose?

Do you ever wake up in the morning, have a look around and think: Why am I here?

Are you following your heart?

From a young age I always wanted to work with horses or animals. I couldn't wait to get to the stables and to my parents frustration (they weren't horse people), I would often stay there all day. I would lose time - some times 10 to 12 hours would go by like a blink of an eye, and I would just be watching the horses in the field, cleaning their stalls, brushing them, washing them, riding, polishing their saddles etc. To some people this might not sound very interesting, but to me it was a little piece of heaven.

It would be around 10 or 11 o'clock at night before I finally gave in and had my parents pick me up. As a kid I was afraid of the dark. I couldn't even enter a dark room without frantically fumbling for the light switch and giving a sigh of relief when the lights finally came on - it felt like an eternity. But when I was with the horses, all alone on a big ranch late at night, I didn't even notice the darkness, all I could hear was the soothing sound of the horses chewing on their evening hay. If you've ever heard this sound, you would know what I'm talking about.

Horses are my passion. They symbolize everything good in life to me - Peace, Tranquility, Fun and Freedom. Of course my mother would say: "what about all the times that you got kicked, stepped on, thrown, bucked off etc?"…Well, equine/horse activities can be dangerous, but when you love something, you are willing to take the risks that follow. The downsides become insignificant in comparison to the upsides.

It often occurs to me how lucky I've been to be able to follow my heart and work with something that I love to do. But I made a conscious choice early on never to work with anything that didn't excite me. If there's no passion - then what's the point? - who are you doing it for?

It seems to me that quite a few people have jobs that don't inspire them. Perhaps they chose a career path, that never really appealed to them, but at the time it seemed like the sensible thing to do. Now, hats off for being sensible and responsible - but when your life one day comes to an end - what would you like to be remembered for? Is there something that makes your heart skip a beat that you haven't yet created in your life?

It's never too late. Any obstacles that get in your way are also created by you. All it takes to change it is a decision that obstacles are false, and then get on your way! I understand that there are always risks, but I urge you to be willing to take those risks, I'm sure it will be well worth it in the end. You don't have to change everything in one go. There is such a thing as baby steps…

If you are not sure what you want, then sit down and write up the plusses and minuses of your current situation - be it personally or professionally. Let's take the job for instance: Write down everything you feel gives you joy in your work. Then write down everything that you're not so happy about as well. Maybe the plusses are so big that they out weigh or out number the minuses. If so, then this is great. You are obviously working with something that you truly enjoy. Now you can look at whether there are some areas that you wish to improve.

However, if the minuses out number the plusses, then it might be time to re-evaluate your choices and make some changes to regain the joy and start having fun doing what you want. Remember, following your heart doesn't have anything to do with being irresponsible or careless - in fact it is quite the opposite.

If you've strayed so far from your passion that you don't even remember what it is - don't worry - it's very easy to find. Just start brain storming about what makes you happy. When were you last happy? What were you doing at that time? What talents do you have where you don't have to work at it - what comes easy to you? What do you think is fun? What do other people always compliment you on?

If the answer doesn't come to you right away, don't worry. Let it linger in your sub conscious and it will eventually present itself. When it does, all you have to do is think about how you want to apply it in your life - let your imagination run free on this one - don't allow any negative thoughts to get in your way - really let it all flow - what's the biggest vision you have?

A droplet hits the water surface and the splash creates ripples that keep spreading. If you do what you love in one way or the other - you will inspire the people around you to do the same - and they will in turn inspire others and so on and so forth. You can make a huge difference. It doesn't take much effort to do what you're great at!

What's your Purpose in life?

Ask yourself these questions every day:

Who am I? What do I want? and How can I use my specific talents to help others?

Have Fun!

Celie

Life Lessons learned from Horses!

Life Lessons learned from Horses!

By Celie Weston

The False Comfort Zone - Be willing to fail in order to win!

Whenever I work with a horse, I'm always trying to figure out how much pressure he can handle, before we reach the breaking point. In other words, what is his comfort zone? What is he comfortable with and what is he uncomfortable with? It's like an invisible circle around the horse and once you go beyond that, you might find yourself in a potentially dangerous situation. Once I find this barrier, I try to break through it. Step by step I work through his fear, his unwillingness to accept and trust that everything will be okay.

His fear is based on the unknown. In his opinion, the unknown is a dangerous place. But through careful guidance, I convince him of the opposite, baby steps, expanding his comfort zone and thereby expanding his ability to deal with many different situations in life. Without fear we can do anything, anything at all. There really is "Nothing to fear except fear itself" ~ Theodore Roosevelt.

Living in fear is often much worse than working through the fear and arriving victorious on the other side.

The comfort zone is really not comfortable at all, that's why it is referred to as the "false comfort zone". It is actually the place where you are the most afraid. Some people's comfort zone is literally so small, that they live in a constant state of fear to such a degree that it renders them paralyzed. Time stands still as they try to avoid anything ever rocking their world. It's a desperate attempt to control the entire universe and of course completely impossible.

To avoid feeling what you feel is avoiding life. You're not living, you're surviving, and only barely at that. Sometimes addictions set in as an escape from reality. But as the saying goes: "You can run, but you cannot hide". At some point, preferably sooner than later, you won't be able to run any more - and then what happens? You surrender to the resistance. When you surrender, everything becomes possible, you gain knowledge from your fear as you gradually realize that this is not as hard as you thought. In fact, this is nothing, you can easily handle this, bring it on, try me - and so your confidence grows and your consciousness and ability to handle life expands. You are no longer afraid. You are now awakening from unconscious living.

Some scientists believe that our physical brain consists of so called neurons. These neurons are all connected and together they form the Neural Network. The neurons communicate with each other, and when a thought creates a spark between two neurons, they become closer connected to one another. The path between them gets stronger, more pronounced - like water carving through rock, eventually turning into a river where the current can flow freely. Theoretically this means, that if you pursue positive thoughts and actions that bring you joy, the neurons that produce "happiness chemicals" in your brain become closer connected. The same thing goes for if you pursue negative thoughts. The catch is that a river can be vey difficult to redirect if it is deep and the current is strong.

So, thoughts have immense power - be careful, they effect you even on a physical level. Make sure you choose the good ones…

Your attention is your most valuable asset. Is your attention on the positive or the negative? Is it on what you want in life - or what you don't want?

Whatever your attention is on, becomes reinforced time and time again. It grows stronger, more important to you, and if your attention is directed towards something negative (worries, concerns etc) you will be wasting crucial life energy. Energy that could be used on much more constructive things - such as your life's purpose.

If you are willing to accept that everything in your life is a consequence (good or bad) of a previous action you made, then you become the cause of your life, not the effect and definitely not the victim. At this point you can take responsibility for your choices and actions and the direction of your life. You can decide that from now on you will make conscious choices that bring you closer to your purpose, your goal and in harmony with who you are.

Live your purpose consciously every day in every single thing you do - thus making a difference in the world. When you surrender, the world is no longer a hard place to live, your perception of life has changed. It was your choice, if you haven't made it yet, then make it now. The universe wants to give you everything you ever wanted - just stop fighting the natural flow of things.

There is such a thing called the "Law of Attraction". Things come easy if you believe that it's easy. Think the positive thoughts, send out positive intentions that state what you want. Forget about what happens after that, forget about obstacles etc - they really don't exist if you simply detach or in other words stop caring about the outcome - let the universe do the work for you.

So just let go. Be willing to experience anything, even failure in order to win and I promise you - you will always win!

If you have questions for Celie's Q&A please send them to celiewestonhorsemanship@gmail.com