There is something magical about working with horses. They create deep emotional connections and promote a profound level of trust generating a healing energy that overcomes and transcends the problems and rough terrain of life. Their strength and majesty have been proven to improve chronic illness, create confidence and remove the strongholds that prevent us from living to our fullest potential.
If you aren’t living up to your dreams because of past regrets or present circumstances, come experience the acceptance, understanding, and change of perspective that our horses and facilitators can offer you.
I got the chance to share part of my ugly past with a young girl this evening. She is being pressured to get involveed in sexting. Men are very visual creatures and the rise of the internet gives way to new dangers such as sexting. In my opinion a young boy that would ask a girl for pics is using the girl then bragging and tossing her aside like yesterday’s paper. What are your thoughts? If you are a teen or parent of a teen, we’d love to hear from you.
Freedom in its purest sense is the presence of choices. Freedom is indigenous to who we are. We do not have to beg for it, nor do we have to prove ourselves first. Freedom is best balanced by a submission to right and wrong. (excerpt from The Anger Workbook) If you think about this statement, I think you’ll agree we all need choices. Our choices, however, should not hurt others or their freedoms. Under Communism, depression increases. That is a natural cause of our freedoms being squelched. We all need to have choices and even the freedom to make mistakes (and hopefully learn from them so that we don’t establish destructive patterns).
When a circumstance arises that brings out emotions, do we address the emotion or the performance?
Most of us have been on one end of a conversation like this: A 12 year old says, “My English assignment is too hard. I can’t do this.” The parent responds, “It wouldn’t be too hard if you’d start working on it and stop whining. I am sure the teacher showed you how to do it.”
The 12 year old’s feelings were set aside while the parent addressed the performance. The result was the child felt controlled, and not understood, which causes anger.
How many times do we do this to others? I know I am guilty.
No one was created to be controlled by another. By age 2, we already show our independence and desire to make choices. Sometimes we feel controlled by people, sometimes by our circumstances. Whatever the cause, feeling controlled causes anger. Anger can be a beneficial emotion or a destructive one. If you feel angry often, you may want to check out some classes in your area to learn how to address it. Many find they just suppress it. It’s what we do with our anger that allows it to benefit or destroy us and our relationships.
What causes loneliness and depression? Many times I think it is caused by not having a “best friend” relationship. When we have someone we can always call and talk to or call on for help, we don’t feel as lonely. Loneliness can then lead to depression because you carry the weight of all your problems alone. It has been said that a wagon with two horses can pull more than the weight of two horses individually. There’s also a story of a boy who asked his mom for a hug late one night. She replied, “Jesus is here with you”. The boy answered, “I know, Mom. Sometimes I just need Jesus with skin on.” Sometimes we just need a hug from someone real and personal. It can erase much of the loneliness. Would you agree? If so, find someone who needs a hug today.
As a board, we spoke the other day on social media. Social media has changed our world, our relationships, and the way we communicate. Here at Freedom Trails we want to harness the benefits of social media to communicate better with you. We want a more interactive, real time way to communicate with you. We look forward to enhance our relationship with you. And we hope in your personal life, you use social media to enhance your relationships and communication. Can it ever be as good as face-to-face time? Probably not; but, it does have other benefits, right?
I was speaking with someone recently about “best friends”. I would define a best friend as someone who is there to be supportive of you (which could include many people), someone you enjoy spending time with (again this could be many people), someone who listens to you without a critical ear (very few people probably fit in this category), and someone you feel open to sharing your heart with because you can trust them to go through ups and downs with you (probably only a couple of people in your life fit this description). How do you define a best friend? Do you have one?
There are basically 3 roles we play in our relationships: parent, child, adult. A parent has all the choice and all the responsibility for herself and the child. A child has no choice and no responsibility (this obviously changes to increase choice and responsibility as the child ages) for herself. An adult has full choice and full responsibility for only herself. So if you are in a husband/wife relationship and you are treating your spouse like your child, you may be in the wrong role. Or perhaps, you are a grown child (now in the adult role) and your parent is still trying to have all the choice in your life. Assess where you are at and see if you are in the right role. If not, you may be creating unnecessary conflict.
You know, this past week I have had a couple of friends call me just to see how I am doing. As you may know I am in Florida to launch a Freedom Trails affiliate. During any launch when you’ve left home and friends behind it can be lonely. But, these friends who have called are friends from the common bond of our love for horses. It’s funny how horses can bring people together that otherwise might never know one another because their paths would not cross any other way. Sometimes it seems we are so different; but, even with those differences you’ll find you have a lot in common if you take the time to talk.
This week I came across a great book. It shares numerous stories of horses providing healing and hope to humans. I hope you’ll pick up a copy of A Cup of Comfort for Horse Lovers to enjoy during the last months of winter. I always enjoy curling up with a good book during the cold months.
How about a place where I can run free, be understood, cry, laugh, be alone, tell my secrets to someone who won’t share them? How about being able to be real, to be me? That’s where I want to be.