Body Blog
Exploring mindfulness and healing through the body for both horses and humans.
My Bodywork Mantras
November 4, 2020
Early on in my studies of The Masterson Method® I learned from one of my fabulous mentors the importance of asking the key question, in my mind at least, of the horse I was working on, “Can you do this?” This would be in the range-of-motion techniques we do with horses, asking them to position their limbs in different places to both assess and help release restriction. If they say “No,” we might change the question or back off and ask more gently.
In the “in situ” or in stillness techniques, there’s a fair amount of blank space — we’re searching for a response and staying for a release. It’s easy for the mind to wander. So I got in the habit, somewhere along the line, of imagining myself asking the questions, “Can you feel this part of your body?” and then, if the answer from the horse was “Yes” (as with a blink or lip quiver, etc.), I’d ask, “Great, now can you to let it go?”
Lately, however, I’m trying out a new mantra: it’s simply, “I am here” which sort of replaces my 2nd question above. The focus of asking the horse to feel their body is no longer a question I need to ask, because my hands are doing the asking and my mind is automatically focused. Once I find that place where the horse is willing to feel their body, I don’t want to pressure him with a question. Rather, I want to calm the horse (and myself, frankly) with the mantra, I AM HERE. It helps especially when I’m starting to get impatient and wondering about the time.
It’s subtle, and shifted my practice nicely. It’s as if there’s a 3-way relationship now between the horse, myself, and time. I AM HERE means time does not dominate. We can work through this. And as with much of Masterson work, I use this mantra when I’m feeling anxious, whether it’s an external stimulus (like being late) or my own thought patterns (like something I’ve witnessed within myself that I don’t like). I just say to myself, “I am here,” and wait for the prickliness to dissolve.
We’ll see how long it lasts, since I find that useful mantras change as we grow. Thanks for listening, and I hope you find that perfect mental focus or mantra for your work with horses this week or month or year!