The First Step is Awareness
Can you tell by this picture that the young lady on the end of the leadrope is asking Mickey to move forward? Her “ask” isn’t getting the results she wanted, so she made another request, which was to ask her classmate (the young lady near Mick) to help. This is example of how partnering with horses helps humans better understand themselves. During this simple activity there are many choices and decisions being made. Some of the inner dialogue might sound like this:
*The Leader - How important is it that I move this horse? What does the horse represent in my life? If I ask for help, is that a sign of weakness and self-doubt?
*The Helper: I care and want to contribute, yet do I know how to help? If I help, am I under-mining the Leader’s ability to problem-solve?
* Mickey: Does the human know what she wants? I’m confused and getting mixed signals… I’d rather just eat this yummy grass.
Recognizing and listening to your inner dialogue is one of the pieces of increasing your self-awareness. Awareness as a continuous practice becomes a guiding light, a torch, which helps us to overcome the barrage of outside messaging and influences that undermine our confidence and willingness to try.
There’s a “right balance” between persistence (aka grit or stick-to-it-tiveness) and asking for help. Sometimes this sweet spot is not an easy problem to solve and the good news is we have the capacity and ability to get better and stronger through practice and paying attention.
Asking for help has a reputation as being weak, and to the contrary, researcher and author Brene’ Brown has discovered that asking for help, aka being vulnerable, is a sign of strength. Check out all of Brene’s amazing offerings by visiting https://brenebrown.com/