When clients greet the horses they sometimes comment that the horses seemed to ignore them.  When I ask them what do they observe that leads to that conclusion, they usually say the horses look distant, or they feel invisible to the horses.  One client said, “the horses seem vacant:  the lights-are-on-but-no-one-is-home.”The horses aren’t ignoring the clients.  They are mirroring or matching the clients’ energy-awareness.  So if the horses are ‘vacant’ what might this mean for clients?  Where has their energy-awareness gone?

After checking with clients, it seems that sometimes part of their energy-awareness is elsewhere – such as with a work challenge or relationship conflict, and sometimes it is on unresolved issues that get put on the ‘back burner,’ or in the ‘too hard pile.’  And sometimes we deliberately choose to present only part of ourselves while keeping other parts hidden.

So the energy-awareness we have left is what we bring to our personal and professional relationships.  The amount of this energy-awareness we have determines how present we are, and consequently how effective we are in all our relationships.

When our energy-awareness is scattered, we are not actually present.  This is surprising for most people.  Many believe that if we physically show up, and we are focused on what we are doing, we are present.

When the horses respond to us by acting like ‘cardboard cut-outs,’ it’s a good indication that we have allowed too much of our energy-awareness to be scattered, trapped or held back.  The horses won’t engage with us, because we are ‘not there.’  We are literally giving little or no energy to the relationship, so we are getting the same back.  This also translates to our relationships with humans!

Ways to recover your energy-awareness

• You can ground yourself – it can be as simple as paying full attention to your breath for 1 full minute.
• Practice non-judgment – this is very liberating, and frees up heaps of energy.
• Make a mental ‘to-do list’ of what your current challenges are – and make a commitment to consciously work on them.   The commitment is a promise to yourself that you will work to resolve your challenges – which has the effect of freeing up energy, much like a written to-do list seems to free up space in the mind.
• Practice self-awareness –notice your thoughts and feelings without judgment.
• Meditate to cultivate a still mind.