Reflections With the Herd - Back to Grazing, What is our Natural State of Being?

​I wanted to expand a little bit on a post that I did some time ago with my Reflections with the Herd series about getting back to grazing. Getting back to grazing is one of the most powerful lessons that I've learned from the Teachings of Equus.

Let me go back a step.  Horses are prey and herd animals.  They spend the vast majority of their time grazing.  Relaxed, being present with their community. As prey animals, they are biologically designed to have a heightened sensitivity. They are very aware of their surroundings, the energy that enters their space, what's happening around them. They are masters at "reading the space". And they can be triggered or alarmed if something comes into their space that poses a threat to their safety and well-being. It’s a matter of survival.

But the beauty of horses is they don't hang on to that energy. Horses feel, reflect, and respond. And then they go back to grazing, they return to their natural state of being. Horses are very efficient with their energy as a matter of survival. To stay in a heightened state of anxiety, on the verge of flight, would sap their energy and leave them at risk of not being able to respond if another threat arises. In the wild, a horse in a constant state of anxiety is a dead horse.  So horses feel the change in energy, they reflect on whether it’s a threat, and then respond accordingly.
 
And then they LET IT GO.
 
They return to grazing.

It's a lesson that I think that we all can learn.

For us, what does that look like?

Do we even know? Do we know what our natural state of being is?

I look around at the world right now, everybody is in a hyper-vigilant state of awareness because of the chaos. Because of the pandemic, because of the crises in economic environments around the world, because of political instability.

The level of anxiety that we are currently experiencing is unsustainable. I mentioned that horses feel, reflect and respond.  Humans typically observe, analyze (or over analyze), and problem solve. Our ego mind, which horses don’t have, keeps us reliving and analyzing, making it difficult for us to let things go.

But how can we get back to grazing? How can we let some of this anxiety and distress go and get back to grazing?

Remember back to grazing is getting back to our natural state of being. We need to know what that is for each of us individually and collectively in our communities. Do we know what that looks like for ourselves? That self awareness and self reflection is key.
 
For myself, I look to my horses to tell me when I’m operating authentically or not.  Horses demand authenticity. Their behavior and response to me tells me whether I’m grounded in my natural state of being or if I have let anxiety and fear run the show. My default state is one grounded in respect and compassion. I’m connected to my friends and family and community. When I let fear and the uncertainty around me settle in, and begin to feel panicky and anxious, I feel myself withdrawing and isolating myself.  I get cranky, and sometimes intolerant. I fly off the handle. My horses immediately respond in a different fashion.  Sometimes avoiding me, sometimes being very pushy and disrespectful.  Mirroring back to me the disconnect that I’m feeling. Sometimes the feelings of anxiety are subtle, and I don’t even recognize them myself at first.  But the horses read the shift in my energy, and their behavior changes. That’s always a sign for me to get curious about what they are responding to.
 
Similarly, our communities also have a natural state of being, and we all contribute to that. I live in a rural area near a small town. Friendly, helpful, engaging is how I would describe our town. In these challenging times, there has been an undercurrent of tension that has been introduced. The social distancing requirements have made our daily interaction, well, a bit weird. There is less eye contact, people take the long way around, there are short tempers. Differing opinions on wearing face masks, keeping distance, and in general the disruption to our daily routine, has heightened anxiety and in some cases divided where we should stand united. This has been building for months, now, and as I said before, this heightened state of anxiety is unsustainable. Don’t get me wrong, challenging times also bring out amazing acts of kindness and generosity.
 
We each have a role to play in bringing our communities back to their natural state of being.  Our new normal, as they say, doesn’t have to be hyper-vigilant and anxious. Just as the herd looks to each other for balance, so do we.  The leader in the herd can restore calm with their return to grazing, we each can influence the energy around us by knowing what our natural state of being is and finding a way to “get back to grazing”.
 
What is your natural state of being? How can we embrace our inner horse wisdom?
How can you “get back to grazing”?
 
If you would like to explore your natural state of being, or other Teachings of Equus, I am booking one on one sessions, both in person and virtual, with me and my horses in August and September. You can email me  at [email protected] for more information and to book a session.

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