A few days ago, my daughter Carmen shared something very interesting with me.
She was telling me about a session she had with her horse, Arty, with whom she practices natural horsemanship, also known as liberty.
Carmen has been trying to teach Arty to lie down for some time now, but in the natural way: without ropes or force, simply encouraging him and allowing him to make the choice himself.
For a prey animal like a horse, lying down in the presence of a human is an extraordinary expression of trust. It is a very vulnerable position to be in.
During this particular session, something happened for the first time that Carmen had never seen Arty do before.
He went down onto both knees.
He stayed there for a few seconds, and then got back up.
It was a significant moment in their training: a small movement, perhaps, but a meaningful one.
Then Carmen told me that she realized she hadn’t had her iPhone camera set up to film the session.
She had missed the opportunity to capture this important moment on video.
So she went over to the fence of the arena and set up her phone, intending to film her interactions with Arty.
When she returned, she tried to recreate the moment.
She wanted to see if Arty would do it again.
Ten minutes passed.
Then another ten minutes.
And gradually, Carmen could feel herself becoming impatient.
But she was telling herself, I’m not being impatient. I can wait.
And then she noticed something very subtle.
The mere fact that she was having that internal dialogue meant that, at some level, she was no longer completely in the moment with Arty.
She was waiting for something to happen.
She had an expectation.
And horses are incredibly sensitive to these subtle shifts.
They can feel something as small as a fly landing on their backs. They are constantly sensing their environment, and they are highly attuned to our energy, intention and state of being.
Then Carmen said something to me that really stayed with me:
“Horses are the perfect bullshit detectors.”
“They know when you aren’t fully present.”
“They know when you’re trying to make something happen.”
“And they respond accordingly.”
Nothing worked while Carmen was in that state.
It wasn’t until she let go of the expectation, until she stopped waiting for Arty to do what she wanted him to do, that something shifted.
And this got me thinking.
How often do we do exactly the same thing?
Carmen sharing this with me led me to realize that when I see patients, the space that I am in directly affects how they respond to me. People notice when I am in my head about anything.
It is all about authenticity.
In communication, sharing from a place of Being is what communicates and produces results.
Communicating from a place of Awareness Intelligence means there is no agenda running underneath the words — no expectation, no waiting for a particular response. The person in front of you can feel that, just as Arty felt Carmen’s expectation.
I am just sharing myself.
Let me know whether you can relate to this experience. Leave a comment.
If this interests you and you’d like to find out more about how the Awareness Method works for healthcare providers, read this article here.
With awareness, Louis Koster, Founder — Awareness Intelligence