- Content Type: Book Chapter
The First Lesson
Why first?
Because for most, this is where they start.
The lesson to be taught is one of hyperawareness, of time dilation and of protection.
Three lessons waiting to be shared
The First Lesson
Awareness.
Fear influences us in many ways. But what it does first, it drops adrenaline into our system. Preparing us for fight or flight, and when you can't give either of those answers, fear escalates. Because we don't know what to do with that level of activation in our system. Many think the answer is to calm down, and yes, that is one answer. But sometimes hard to do. And we miss an opportunity here, the lesson as facilitators we should be teaching.
There is an opportunity here.
Awareness doesnt' have to be a negative thing. As teachers, we can present an alternative.
Imagine for a moment as a facilitator you suggest
The Third Lesson.
A rider on a horse that spooks, a handler grips the lead line firmer, their horse quick to jump around in surprise.
Every spook raising our fear level, anticipating the next time our horse jumps and we aren't ready for it.
There is a question waiting in these experiences.
A question wondering why the horse feels he needs to be in hyperawareness. And it might be that in this herd of two, he has no trust in your awareness. You missed what you should have noticed. You're so focused on the horse, you miss what is around you everywhere. You haven't taken the position of protector, so what is a horse to do?
A protector, the stallion doesn't focus on the herd; he watches. He watches the horizon. Taking his position as guardian seriously. The herd eats, sleeps, feeling safe knowing that someone watches.
What would change in the relationship of your students with their horses if the first lesson that you taught was your responsibilities as protector.
What instructor teaches this lesson? Teaches the lesson of protector. All of our attention is put on the horse. Every lesson is about the horse. Everything is about the horses and there is nothing left to pay attention to anything else. The one thing that helps sometimes is that often the horses understand that the instructor is the herd leader by the responses of the students. Giving them a sense of a herd leader. But the horses are not stupid and they are quick to notice if what is shared from the center of the arena, helps or hurts.
We need to be able to distinguish between the biology and the emotion. These are two different things. Our emotions ramps up the biology. Our biology ramps up our emotionally response. They, in effect, feed each other. We may not have a direct pathway to control our biology but we do over our emotions. Please note this is not a statement that the answer is just to be calm. No, instead, we want you to close your eyes, feel the surge of adrenline, feel what it feels like, the tremor in our fingertips, how it effects our breath and use that power, that energy to look, really look at the horse you are with, use that energy to raise your awareness, to become aware of everything the leaves talking in the breeze, the breeze touching your cheek, the buzz of the bees, search look for every life form and really look at it. Experience more because that is what adrenaline does, it gives you the power to see, experience more. Close your eyes and listen for what is there but your mind ignores. Close your eyes and find a different emotion to associate with this state, where we usually default to it meaning fear. Learn how to create this awareness but how to disassociate the emotion of fear. Bring in a different emotion deliberately.
