In the Flow with Healing Waters

A few months back, I shared with you some lessons I had recently learned from my daughter and her horse shopping experience. Once again, I find myself learning at the barn from a sweet, sassy and strong 13 year old girl. She has diligently put in time with her horse, training and bonding. 

This past Saturday, she had an opportunity to take Zipper (her horse) off the stable property to a show. She was very excited and a bit hesitant. Her girl Zipper is definitely an energy matcher. She is every bit as sweet, sassy and unpredictable as my daughter. This makes for some exciting adventures and can be borderline dangerous at times. 

There was a bit of trouble loading, but they were soon on the road. Once they arrived, my daughter worked at getting Zipper settled and comfortable. They ran a few events that went ok. Soon their favorite event, pole bending, came up. She ran her fastest time and she placed! She was so excited and feeling great. Speed dash came next. Speed dash is exactly what it sounds like, you go as fast as possible, turn around a barrel and run back. They are running to the barrel and everything is going great! They turn the corner, and my daughter loses her stirrup. She is hanging on and they are going as fast as possible towards the finish. Zipper is overly excited and starts doing little bucks and hops. It starts looking like a scene from a rodeo, and my daughter hits the ground hard. Everyone holds their breath and then she pops back up! The silver lining is they managed to get across the finish before she fell off. She ran her fastest time and placed again.  

This is where my lesson comes in. 

Resiliency.  The definition of resilience is: 1. the capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties  2. The ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; elasticity.  

The body has an amazing ability for resilience.  It heals itself with very little intervention for most things. Our spirits sometimes feel less resilient, but also have remarkable abilities to heal with the correct mindset. Positive thoughts and actions create healing inside and out. I have often said, “I just don’t bounce like I used to” when life knocks me down (figuratively and literally). We regularly have struggles and difficult times in this life. It is easy to get caught in the story and wallow. There is nothing wrong with feeling how you feel, the key is not to stay there. 

My daughter hopped back up and was focused on the positive.  She did well in the race and neither of them was seriously injured. I realize this is a mild example of some of the challenges life presents us, but the mindset is the same. How do you respond to challenges in life? Do you pop back up, dust off and move forward? It’s how we respond to those challenges that present us with opportunities for growth and empower us with choices. One of the best pieces of advice I ever received in regard to setbacks and hard times was from my father. He used to remind me to ask myself, “Will it matter six months from now?”  If the answer was no, then I knew I needed to stop giving any further worry or energy to it.  

When you manage your thoughts and reactions, replacing them with positive thoughts, you empower your body’s natural ability to be resilient. I challenge you to listen to your thinking patterns the next time you have a setback. What message are you sending your body?  

“ It’s your reaction to adversity, not the adversity itself that determines how your life’s story will develop.”  Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Working on my bounce in the flow,

Lisa