Join Pam as she shares her personal journey with horses and Reiki. Discover how these powerful healers have helped her overcome challenges and find inner peace.
Pam's ICRT Classes:
Book a Reiki, Animal Reiki, or Animal Communication session:
Order The Reiki Business Book here:
Pam Allen-LeBlanc is a scientist, a businesswoman, and a Licensed Reiki Master Teacher with the International Center for Reiki Training. She is the author of "The Reiki Business Book" and a co-author of ICRT Animal Reiki training. Pam teaches Reiki, Animal Reiki, and Animal Communication online and in person in Canada, the US, and Australia.
thank you to Music from Pixabay for the intro music and to Nate Miller for the meditation music
Register for our newsletter!
Join Pam as she shares her personal journey with horses and Reiki. Discover how these powerful healers have helped her overcome challenges and find inner peace.
Pam's ICRT Classes:
Book a Reiki, Animal Reiki, or Animal Communication session:
Order The Reiki Business Book here:
Pam Allen-LeBlanc is a scientist, a businesswoman, and a Licensed Reiki Master Teacher with the International Center for Reiki Training. She is the author of "The Reiki Business Book" and a co-author of ICRT Animal Reiki training. Pam teaches Reiki, Animal Reiki, and Animal Communication online and in person in Canada, the US, and Australia.
thank you to Music from Pixabay for the intro music and to Nate Miller for the meditation music
Register for our newsletter!
Hi, and welcome to the Reiki from the Farm Podcast, brought to you by me, Pam Allen-LeBlanc from Hidden Brook Farm. I am a scientist, a businesswoman, and a licensed Reiki master teacher with the International Center for Reiki. each week in this podcast, you'll be entertained as you learn about a wide variety of relevant Reiki topics helping you become a more knowledgeable and effective Reiki practitioner. We caution you though this podcast may also dramatically improve your life. And we are so happy that you're here. on this week's podcast and in this month's Reiki share, we're actually gonna be talking about some of the things that the horses have taught me in my Reiki journey. Before we begin, I just want to let anybody listening know that in early March, I'm going to be in Australia. So if you're in Australia, I'll be teaching level one and two and Master Reiki there. Licensed classes in person. and online. So please feel free to join us in the Australian time zone. Some folks may wish to join us from Asia. You're welcome to, I'd love to have you. There, I'll also be teaching animal Reiki level one and two when I'm there. And I am considering teaching animal communication. If you're really interested in animal communication, if you wanna reach out and let me know, I will either offer it when I'm there. Or I will offer a class in the Australian time zone. Once I get home in April, I have a full lineup of Level one and two Masters Animal one and two Masters, Karina Animal Communication. And in May I'm gonna be in Glens Falls, New York at the Reiki Retreat teaching Animal Reiki, level one and two in person at the Northeast Reiki Retreat. I'll put a link in the podcast if you're interested in attending the link in, or the retreat in New York. It's going to be fantastic. William Rand, Carolyn Musel and Tracy Sullivan are other licensed teachers from the I C R T that are going to also be teaching courses there. And I'd love to see you in New York if that's close to where you live or if that's possible for you. Before we begin, and before we get too far, I'm just gonna invite everybody to bring your hands in Gassho with your thumbs at your heart, and just go ahead and allow your Reiki energy to become activated within your body. Just thinking about each of your symbols, inviting them to be present with you. When we connect with other species or even with others within our own species, it expands our perception and with that expanded perception. We get access to other perspectives and new understandings about divinity, and there's a wealth of knowledge present for us, and sometimes our animals, or I've noticed that our animals are only too happy to share their perceptions and perspectives with us, and that helps us to grow. So we just invite the Reiki energy to be present as we share these stories today, and to be present with us afterward as we move into a meditation to allow some of these lessons and learnings integrate within our bodies, our souls, our minds, and our spirits within every part of our being. We are so blessed to be of a lineage of light bringers who are creating wellness on the earth today. Part of the animal kingdom here on Earth, Aho and. So guys some of and some of you don't know, but horses brought me to Reiki and I'm not alone. I know I hear students and clients all the time whose animals deliver them to Reiki. My mentor, Colleen Benelli, her horse showed her placing hands on him and she knew that he was asking her to do Reiki, but at that time she struggled with it. She didn't believe in it. I am not sure how I felt about Reiki originally in 2009 when I was first exposed to it. But I had health issues that the doctors couldn't help me with. Just severe allergies and rashes and runny eyes and sinus issues, and just didn't feel very well at all. And was one of my horseback riding students who offered me my first Reiki session in order to help with that. And I'm so grateful to her. I'm so grateful to her. I named a horse after her. Little Lizzy, Liz, and That Reiki session changed my life. That first session, as it so often does, and I invite those of you listening to think back to your first Reiki session. I expect it was just as life changing as mine was, and I wasn't miraculously cured. I didn't hear Angels sing, but. I felt a deep sense of inner peace that had alluded me to that point. I was in my early forties, and I did not remember any time in the previous 40 years feeling that deep sense of peace. And even though I did feel a bit better after the session, what kept me going back was I was chasing that deep sense of peace. I really wanted more of that. And so it was my horseback riding students. My horses also delivered me not only to my first Reiki session, but they delivered my first Reiki teacher to me when I had a horse, her name is Honey. And for those of you watching on YouTube, her eye is right behind me and she joins me in every class. And Honey had a really difficult past and I couldn't get through to her. And I tried everything I could think of. And finally my same friend, my same student, Liz said, what about an animal communicator? And she introduced me to an animal communicator who turned out to also be a Reiki master teacher. She became my first instructor when I was getting a nudge to go on to Masters. Personally, I didn't really want to become. A Reiki master. I still actually had a few issues with people because I was an empath and I would pick up baggage from people and I didn't want to do that. And I just wanted to hang out with my animals and run my animal business and my business consulting company. But I had a bunch of horses that I had trained and I sent them Reiki on a daily basis in my Reiki grid. And on the days that I was just too occupied to send Reiki, I would get three to six messages from people and horse. Owners who said, is there any chance you didn't send Reiki on Wednesday? Because my horse went back to struggling and she hasn't struggled since you started sending every day. And or my horse was acting the same way they used to act, but then Thursday they were fine. And so I couldn't actually ever skip a day and I thought this is a big responsibility. There's going to be some days when I can't send Reiki may. And so I asked my teacher because my teacher had offered after my Reiki class to attune. My animals to Reiki. And at first I had 11 horses, then I have 12 now, but I had 11 then, and at first, only four of the 11 wanted Reiki. You never you never do an attunement for an animal unless they really want it and unless their caregiver is open to it. But when she offered Reiki to my horses, I said yes just as quickly and emphatically as I could because I was starting to notice that my horses were on paths too. And some of the stress that their students would leave behind, some of the baggage that their students would bring to riding lessons was getting left behind and it was starting to build up in my horse's body language. So she attuned all my horses to level one and it. Amazing. The the, my riding lessons changed. The dynamics in the herd changed. My horses became calmer. I became calmer. It I got the exact right mix of students for me. I just loved everybody I was working with. It was amazing. You could, it was visible too, like one of my little one of my babies, one of my fos, my baby horse. She was very shy. Nobody had ever seen her because she was always hiding behind her mother. And the week after she had an attunement, she was standing at the fence saying, and actually her name was Lizzie. It was Liz. And Lizzie was standing there saying, hi, I am Lizzie. And even people who. Who weren't open to Reiki, couldn't ignore the the beautiful change in her personality and demeanor in that it had happened overnight like that. So when my teacher came back, all 11 horses wanted Reiki. All of my 11 horses had level one Reiki, and it was amazing. A few weeks later, at first they weren't sure. They didn't know what it was, but once they did, they, they wanted Reiki. From that point forward, I started working with Reiki and horses, but I asked my teacher, Hey, there is these other horses that I train, that I helped to train and that I send Reiki to regularly. Would you go and attune them as well? Even though I knew some of it, some of the horses had come from far away, so it was gonna involve some travel, but she actually said no, that she thought it was for me to do. So I actually didn't have any intention of becoming a Reiki master. I didn't actually think I would be a good teacher. I didn't really want to teach, and I thought if you were a Reiki master, you had to teach. But I really wanted to help these horses She said no, but that, that it was for me to do. So I understood that I was to become a master myself so that I could attune these horses and they wouldn't have to suffer any time that I couldn't send Reiki. So I actually wound up taking my next level of Reiki from Pam Nado. I really wanted to go to England and study Reiki with William Rand, but I didn't have any money and I didn't realize that I that not having money and so on was a really deep seated belief in me that I needed to overcome. And so I just, I was at a point when the money had stopped flowing in and lots was flowing out and I was really struggling financially. My, our, we were, our family was, and I went to Pam Naau, but I really wanted to take a class in England with William Rand. I just couldn't afford it. And, Pam said and I just wondered if I did level three, but I only wanted to attune animals and not people if I might be able to learn how to attune these horses that needed an attunement. And Pam said why don't you come to class and we'll fi we'll ask and we'll see. But during class I was really clear that I wasn't supposed to, and she was grateful because she was trying to figure out how to tell me. And she said, you're supposed to go to England and study with William Rand. Her process would've taken an additional year and I was willing to do that. But she led me in an experience to release the blocks and barriers that I had placed financially to going to England and doing this study. And I didn't really believe that it would work cuz I thought money and Reiki were very different things. And she showed me that. When you form an intention, the money shows up. The universe responds because that was on a Wednesday and on Friday I received a check that was$10 more than the price of the Reiki class. And I knew that, and I remember thinking, wow, I've got enough money to buy a cup of coffee in the airport. Coffee in the airport was expensive and I took that as a sign and with my husband's blessings, went to England. And after the class I talked to my teacher, William Rand, and we discussed how you would attune an animal. I wrote an article about it called Horses that Heal that You Can Access on my website if you'd like. I'll put a link in the podcast notes to it and. Anyway, and the check came from a woman whose horses I had trained as a favor, and when she sold one of the horses, she sent me half the money and she said, you earned that. You deserve that. You go do something good with that. So I did my Reiki masters. So really for me, the horses have been present every step of the way. My first article that I wrote for the Reiki News Magazine was about what we discovered when we attuned animals. The second article took that a little further, and the third and the fourth article was about what it felt like when Reiki Attuned Animals decided. To give Reiki to you because of course it's up to them when they have an attunement. It's up to them to do what they will with the energy. But a lot of my animals have decided to turn that Reiki energy right back on me and me Reiki sessions on a pretty regular basis. I really appreciate all their support and, they started using their Reiki energy with their students. I didn't ask them to, I don't feel that I have a right to do that. It was a choice that they made. Their sentient beings, they can make up their own mind about what they want to do, including coming into lessons. Or not. And my horses generally choose to come into riding lessons. They really it's unusual. They really love spending time with us. And the only time my horses typically break a fence is if I haven't included them in a lesson and they really want to be in it. They'll sometimes break a fence and come into the lesson, especially if their person didn't show up that week. And they're normally in the lesson, they come in looking for their person. And it's very unusual behavior, but it's beautiful to me because I know how much they love working with people. And I've watched them choose to work with their Reiki. So really for me, the horses have supported me every step of the way. But in addition to doing all of those things that some of you have maybe already heard about when you've heard aspects of my story and my story with animals, the horses being doing Reiki alongside my horses, oh, and I'm happy to report, I was able to visit every one of those horses in my Reiki grid with their caretaker's blessings, their owner's blessings, and I was able to attune them to Reiki so they no longer had to rely on me for their Reiki energy. They had an opportunity to channel it themselves whenever they wished, and I still kept them in my Reiki grid and sent them Reiki, but I didn't feel it was an obligation. I knew that even on days when I couldn't do that, that they were going to be okay. In addition to just being, part of pretty much every aspect of my Reiki journey, every aspect that stretched me, that caused me to learn and grow, I signed up for the masterclass, but I was, then, I was very nervous. Who did I think I was to become a Reiki master? I didn't, I was, I'm just a normal person and Ma Reiki masters, in my opinion, were amazing people and I really didn't think I had anything special to offer. And you know what? It turns out I did just each of you do and are offering but so often we all struggle with these insecurities and becoming a Reiki master actually. Was a side effect of coming home and deciding I did love people and I did want to teach people people are animals and I love animals. Therefore I must love people. Was this huge revelation that I had after my masterclass and I knew that I really did wanna share the gift of Reiki with people. And teaching Reiki has become my favorites thing in the world to do. I just, I just get a tingle and a buzz when I know I'm gonna be teaching a class on any given day that I'm teaching. I love it. Then doing that and working through that. I also worked through my abundance issues inadvertently and with assistance from the horses. And as I taught classes, our financial issues worked out and the horses were a big part of that. And I wanna share with you, that was one of the first lessons that I needed to learn. And I'd like to share with you how that happened. I was actually working with the same horse who, when he sold half of his money paid for my Reiki class. And he was a beautiful registered Appalooza, but he was eight years old when he came here. He had no training. And he taught me a lot. I learned a lot from him and one of his relatives, gem. Taylor and Gem and I learned a lot. He helped me hone my training methods. He the two of the horses broke everything I had. They were here for eight months and I learned so much from them, but I had a really profound experience, a really profound animal communication experience with him that began the healing of my financial issues. And what was happening at that time is I would go and work like crazy in my business consulting job. Which paid the bills so that I could then come home and give away horse riding lessons. And I did charge for them, but if ever anybody was struggling, I'd just say, no, that's okay. You don't need to pay me. And I was giving away Reiki. I felt very uncomfortable receiving payment for doing Reiki sessions. I never even some of the training people would insist on paying me for the training. But if ever anybody didn't have money and needed help, I would help them. So I was working really hard so that I could then come home and give away all my energy work for free. And Taylor said, you have to stop doing that. He. He told me that the work that I was embarking on and that I was doing with the Reiki and with the animal communication was really important, groundbreaking work. And if I would simply charge people for it, allow them to pay me for doing that work for them, that I wouldn't have, I would have more time to do it. And more time to teach people and more time to spend with them, more time to spend in that work. I wouldn't have to be doing all the business consulting that didn't really feed my soul. And that was, yeah, it was helping people, but not to the same degree that this work was. So he really started me on realizing that I was doing a disservice to the work. By not allowing people to contribute it. So that was an important lesson that I didn't even have written down here. I wasn't, didn't expect that I was gonna be talking about that one tonight. And so that started that whole process. So once I did have my masters, my finances actually worked out. And whenever I form an intention now to do something, the finances, the universe responds, and the finances, the financial support just shows up miraculously the same way that check showed up when it was time for me to do my Reiki masters. Another really important lesson that the horses taught me with Reiki was through Honey, the horse that I mentioned. I took honey to a trainer, and I had never, I've always been able to train my own horses, and it was a little bit embarrassing for me to have to take honey to a horse trainer because I was helping other people train their horses no problem. But I could not get through to honey whatsoever, and I really wanted to help her. All of the things that she was doing that were in, she injured me. She broke my ribs and broke my nose, and it wasn't anything she was doing out of malice, it was out of fear. And I felt committed because I was aware she had a very difficult four years before she came here. I really was committed to trying to try to help her. And so I went to a horse trainer and, she only returned marginally better, but she was a bit better. But still somewhat dangerous. And yet I learned one of my most important life lessons from that horse trainer. This was in 2009, I believe, just when I had first started my business and I invested in honey thinking that I could help her overcome the difficulties she had experienced. But I didn't, I wasn't able to. And so I had to go quite far away to Maine in order to find a trainer who was more experienced than I was. And. And there was a new form of horsemanship that existed at the time. And at first it was called natural horsemanship. And there's animal people often we were, we can be a little bit opinionated. We can have our own ideas about things. And so there were a lot of different names and a lot of different people saying no, you should call it something different. And some people were saying, do this. Other people were saying no, do that. Other people were saying, don't listen to those guys. Do this other thing. And I was just, I was trying to learn. All that I could so that I could be the best horse woman I could be. And I really believe if you want to learn, teach. So I was teaching riding lessons with the knowing that teaching was going to drive me to learn more. That when you're teaching, you're constantly looking for more information. You're constantly challenged. You have people asking you questions that maybe you never thought of. And so I was teaching these new methods, but there was still a lot about them that I didn't understand. And then all the controversy was very confusing for me. And maybe you've been involved with something in your lives where there's controversy. I remember there being controversy at church when I was growing up and controversy in, I don't know, a lot of different modalities and a lot of different things that I learned and. I asked him like, I don't understand obviously you are a better horse person than I am. It was obvious and you've figured this out, so please, can you tell me what's, which of these guys is right? And he said in, in different language, but none of them and all of them. And this has been he gave me a way to manage my life honestly. He said, Pam, how long have you been working with horses? And today I've been working with horses for 44 years, but at that point it was 32 years or 30 years, something like that. And I said 30 years. And he said, you know what you're doing. And he knew I was an agricultural scientist. He was an agricultural scientist as well. And he said, What you do is you take the part of that guy's stuff that works for you and you throw away the rest, and then you take that guy's stuff that resonates with you and throw away the rest and just keep doing that. And pretty soon you're gonna have something that really works for you. I honestly think that's one of the best pieces of advice I've ever received from a horsemanship standpoint. I was able to take that and develop methods that are beyond what most of those wonderful, experienced, generous trainers shared through clinics and books and videos and so on. I studied everything I could get my hands on, and these are horse people that had a, had more experience than I had that were passionate, that were really good. And yet there were sometimes aspects of what they did that I thought, no, I don't like that. I'm not gonna do that. And then there were aspects of what they did that really integr. With me and made a lot of sense and what I was able to put together. I was able to be extremely successful working with horses. But this advice, I think, pertains to anything in our lives because even the spiritual path many of us who are on a spiritual path have studied a lot of different modalities. Think about all the things that you've learned as you've come up through and the different modalities, and I think no one person. Is going to have all of the answers for you and you're gonna continue to learn and grow. It's one of the reasons I encourage people to review classes because when you, sometimes when you go back, even if you say, take the same class from the same teacher, your teachers in a different place than when you took the class, they've probably learned a few things and grown a little bit and you're in a different place, you get a completely different experience. But I think it's up to us to figure out our own truth and what works for us. And so even sometimes there's gonna be things that I talked to you about or share with you that helped me in the hope that will help you. And but if it doesn't, even if. Think I'm great and respect me that that doesn't matter. You take the parts that work for you and forget about the rest. There was a wonderful book that I read by Bill Dorrance, actually. He wrote it with Leslie Desmond. He's an old horse train. He was 90 years old when she helped him put together his book on his horseman. And he said something in it that I loved. He said I've learned a few things in 90 years, and if I can share some of them with you to give you some shortcuts so that you can take things further than I did, then that's what this book is for. And I realized, wow, that's what I wanna do. When I teach, I if I can share things that help people so that, I love all the time. I'll be in class and I'll say, it took me nine years to learn this, but I think I can teach it to you if you've got 15 minutes. And I love. The fact that all of that experience can be distilled down. And then sometimes your students and your clients, you want them to do really well in their lives and in their practices and in whatever they choose to do with Reiki. I think it can be beautiful when I'm learning all the time from my students. They'll come back and say, I took this and I took it a little further. And I think I never thought of doing that. That's brilliant. So that has also informed me. Another thing the horses taught me early on is that I needed to be present. And that was very obvious when I was training horses. I could not allow my attention to wander for an instant. I could not be thinking about my next move or the next thing that I was gonna do, or I would lose that young and frightened horse. It was really important for me to be a leader and to be the type of leader that my horses wanted to follow. And my horse storm is the leader of my herd, and I was able to watch, just observe him. I have never seen a horse's style of leadership quite like his, he the other horses, just just by being in his presence. They settle down, they're calm, they know that he has got things. He has this gentle it's odd to say these words together, but he has this gentle, commanding way of being, and he doesn't, he has never had to kick, I have never once seen him resort to violence, not once. In order to maintain his status as the leader of the herd or to discipline another horse, he is able to let them know what he's thinking with a look like. You shouldn't have done that. And they just, oh, no, he gave me a look. He is the most fair, kind, confident leader. That I've ever worked with. And he taught me how to be the same. And what's funny is that there's times when he needs to borrow my confidence and there's times when I need to borrow his. And we have this beautiful symbiotic relationship where the leadership just passes back and forth between us. And it's a style of leadership that neither one of us has ever needed to be forceful or violent with the other. We have been able to support each other and we seem to really respect each other. And I, I just can't say enough about this horse, but also about the style of leadership. He taught me that you don't have to be It's violent. You don't, you can be gentle and commanding and respected and heard and listened to all at the same time. And so it, it was a very beautiful style of leadership. And I may I have in my third book, it's still a little ways out, but I am gonna write a book called Horses Done Differently. And I will definitely explore just trying to get the right words for what I learned from Storm, because I just I can't say enough about what I've learned the most significant thing he has ever had to do to a horse that was really pushing the boundaries and being disrespectful with some of the other horses is back up toward him, toward the other horses and they just go, oh, no. And whoops, I've upset him. I don't want to upset him. And so it's a style of leadership that the horse, the other horses want to follow. Mark Rashid talks about it in one of his books and and that's the style of leadership that, that he's been helping me to develop, which I really like. But within that style, I knew that when I'm training a horse and they don't understand, and they're a bit frightened, if. My attention waivers for even a moment, it can be catastrophic. And that has happened for me a time or two when I trained horses. And I felt that, I realized that horses are very present, animals are very present. They're here, they're now just I'm with you right now. I don't need to be planning my next words. I don't need to be thinking about later. And they showed me how to do that and then also, and how to do that within the Reiki energy so that when I do Reiki sessions, I can be here now. But they showed me so much about the importance of presence. That and the importance of presence, especially if you are in a leadership role as you are when you're training horses. That I developed an essential oil called presence, and I used it to assist me because I just knew how important it is to be present and they really I used to go for a horseback ride and just think about all the other things. And between Reiki and the horses they showed me how to release all those other things and just be here now with the animal that's in front of me. Another really important lesson that the animals taught me was about the word don't and about worrying. And they showed me that animals and horses don't hear the word, don't, and neither does the universe, by the way, you guys incidentally, even if you're not working with animals, When you're thinking and I use the example of a horse, when you're riding a horse thinking, don't buck, please don't buck. The horses have showed me they hear buck and they think, no. They thought that can't be what they're asking for. Buck. Really? You really want me to buck? Buck? Okay, she's asked for it three times. Alright, I'll go ahead and buck. So whenever we spend time focusing on what we don't want, the universe and animals and horses here, don't hear the don't. If that's where, what our attention is on, then they believe that's what we want. And They buck. If you think, I don't wanna get in a car accident. I don't wanna get in a car accident. Or if you worry William Rand says, worrying is like praying for what you don't want. So any time spent thinking about something that you don't want is time that it actually. Sending energy toward what you don't want. And so that I used to be a real worrier, and I knew that the Reiki our Reiki ideals are just for today. I will not worry, I will not be angry. I will be filled with gratitude. I will be devoted to my work, and I will be kind to all living beings. But I didn't really know how not to worry. I was raised in a family of warriors. I was really well trained in worrying, and yet when the horses showed me that worrying called in what I didn't want, I was able to look at things from their perspective. And I was finally able to shift and let go of that habit and create a new habit that didn't involve worrying. The animals also the horses also taught me a lot about ego. Sometimes I would feel pretty smart or feel pretty special because I had done something amazing with Reiki or with my intuition or something like that. Or I had helped somebody immensely with an animal communication session or something, and I'd be, I'd go out and, be patting myself on the back or something like that, whenever I would get a little too big for my britches. Somebody would hip check me into a manure pile or into a mud puddle or just, make me realize you know what, you're just the same as everybody else. We're all special. You're no more special than the rest of us. And so the horses really assisted me as I learned this to keep things in perspective. I guess. They also explained to me, or showed me the importance of listening. And I know that I sometimes confuse people when I talk about listening because one of the things that you'll notice about all animals is they don't just listen with their ears. They listen with their skin. They listen they feel vibrations that are around them. They listen with their paws. They feel what they feel from the earth. They listen with every part of themselves. And they listen with their intuition. They listen with their instincts. They listen with their mind just as much as they listen with their soul and their heart and their body and their being. And so I've discovered that animals don't just listen with their ears. They listen with every part of their being. And in fact, there's something really telling about horses. Their ear will point to what their eye is looking at. And so they really do link all of their senses and they listen with that. And I've had people ask, can you use the word perception or awareness? And I ha I can't in that instance because perception and awareness are passive. And what the animals do is not passive. It's active. They. Listen. And so listening is active and I haven't been able to find another word besides listening that really describes the action. The I've got all of the parts of my being working together, and even I've got, I'm even listening with all of my chakras. I'm listening with every part of who I am. And listen is the only word that I've been able to come up with that is as active. But learning to listen the way animals listen has really helped me become an animal communicator. It helped me learn to listen to Reiki, to listen to my guides, to listen to God, to listen to my own instincts, my own intuition. And it provided me that listening as it developed, gained a discernment. Of how to really interpret things with a clear filter rather than a filter that maybe was caught in judgment or trauma or projection. And so I have to thank the animals for just observing them, just spending time with them. And a lot of you who are here are animal lovers too. And so just, as you're spending time with your animals, listen, pay attention. Notice them. Notice how they do things, and connect with them with Reiki and ask them to show you. Because when you can connect with another species or your own, it opens up a world of possibilities and information for you and wisdom that you may not have had. And so the animals have working with the horses has given me a lot of understanding of their perspective on things. And to be honest, I think I've spent so much time with horses and with animals that their perspectives sometimes make a little bit more sense to me than the human perspective. Sometimes they'll point out some of the things that we do and they'll be puzzled about it. And I look at it through their eyes and I think, oh, now that I'm thinking about it the way you are, I guess I'm puzzled by how, why we act that way too. And and it's really interesting. And the final thing I want to talk to you about today and maybe really focus on even in our healing session that that follows is bracing. One of the things that and this is a concept that I have to thank Mark Rashid for mark Talks talked to us. I got to attend several of his seminars. And one of the seminars he talked to us about the importance of not bracing. And the theory is that when you are, 150 to 250 pound person working with a 1200 to 1500 pound, or sometimes in the case of draft animals, 2000 pound animal if you get into a war with your muscles, guess who's going to win? And so he talked about how. If you, mark does a lot of work around nonviolence and consensual leadership, which is, I think that was the word I was looking for, this consensual leadership that storm. And I have figured out. But Mark talks about how if you try to force an animal that outweighs you by a factor of five, or even more, maybe even a factor of 10, if it's a larger animal you can't muscle them into doing what you want them to do. So in order to be a really effective trainer, and this has become probably the thing that kind of the s resistance, the final piece of my horse training, that really did allow me to be effective with horses in order to. Convince them to do what you want to do. You have to learn to drop all of the brace out of your body. Now, some of you are going to be sensitive enough to feel this. If I just do this within my own body right now, some of you may need some assistance from the Reiki energy, but for those of you who are watching on YouTube, if I'm bracing one hand against the other, you know there's gonna be some back and forth, but they're pretty equal and we're not going to get anywhere. But if I drop the brace out of one hand at first, the hand that's being forceful will get its way. But pretty soon, the hand that has dropped its brace. I usually show this with people and I say, push against me all that you want, and I'll push against them and we show that demonstration and then I'll drop the brace out of my body and I say, now, push against me, and they can't. And just with the lightest touch of my hand, I am able to gently move them where I want them to go. And so I think about this often. Because as people don't, we brace against each other a lot. In fact, I just had a student in the class that I'm teaching today who had this wonderful explanation, and I didn't ask her permission, but I think I'm just gonna share the explanation with you. I know I hope she would agree because it was brilliant. And she said, we are meant to stretch and grow and be moving in these directions, but what war is that we start bracing against each other and suddenly nobody moves anywhere. And of course, for those of you who are familiar with the world Peace Energy, the world peace energy is really all about releasing all of the brace that exists within us. It's not always comfortable. We sometimes get used to that brace, being in our bodies, being in our minds, being in our personalities, in our spirit maybe, or our soul. Maybe it, it shows up in our emotions. We got used to having opinions about things, bracing about things, but the animals showed me early on that not only wouldn't I be a successful horse trainer if I didn't stop bracing, but it would also be very difficult for me to communicate with animals effectively if I was still using the bracing behaviors of judgment opinion. I'm no different than anybody else. I had a lot of judgment. That's a lesson that Reiki has helped me with and the horses and that I had to learn. I had a lot of opinions. I had a lot of lenses through which I viewed things that there was a right way to do things and this sort of thing. And I had to, I had projections of my own, beliefs and I had some rigid beliefs. And the animals let me know that they don't operate with rigid beliefs and with bracing. And if we don't brace against them, then there's nothing for them to brace against and we can just get along and be consensual and move together and learn together. And so bracing has maybe been one of the important, most important lessons. Now, if you wonder if there's any brace in your body Family can bring it out. I always talk about how I can be so proud of how zen I am and how I can be calm in so many situations, but my teenage kids could bring brace out in me that I didn't even know that was there. And yet, when I learned about bracing with the horses, I very quickly wondered where else I was bracing in my. Where was I holding myself back from growth and opportunity because I was really stuck in an opinion or because I was bracing against a change or against a new way of doing things. I used to brace against technology. I didn't like technology. And today I thank technology every day that we can be here together like this, in this environment with a low Environmental footprint, learning and growing together and sharing ideas. So I really, you know what I discovered, I had a lot of areas in my life that I braced against. I really braced against change. I was really resistant to change, which is probably also a reason I was resistant to technology because of course, technology is always growing and changing, and I don't know about you, but I just get used to a system and then they change it and I think, oh, no, I finally figured this out. Now I have to start all over again. But I don't actually brace against that anymore. I realize that if they changed my phone or they changed my system, I'm gonna have a day or two of frustration, as because it doesn't work the way that it used to. But there must have been a reason that people changed it. And there were probably, there are probably some positive things that are coming from it. I braced in relationships. I wonder if you give a little bit of thought to that. If you can think like, where do I brace in my life? Are there any bra relationships you brace with? Do you have any strong opinions or do you find yourself in a place of judgment? Sometimes maybe, maybe you don't very often, but maybe there's one situation or two that you find yourself in a space of opinion or judgment. These are areas of our lives that we brace, and the animals have shown me that if you can drop the brace out of your body, you can really live peacefully in the here and now. The world peace energy, when it came in last spring showed us that the whole. That, that the reason there is conflict in the world is that while there is inner conflict, there's always gonna be outer conflict. And I think the bracing is the sign of this conflict. It's a resistance of sort. If you're wondering what it is, it's a resistance. And you might feel it as a tightness in your physical body. You might feel it as a discomfort or a not wanting to move ahead or change or grow in your mind your personality. If there are any relationships or any places in your life where conflict exists, you can be sure that there is brace around that as well. Okay. And and actually Jane just mentioned that bracing sounds a lot like opposition reflex that we can learn about and I've never heard it called that, but Jane, that does sound like a very similar thing. So thank you. So guys, I'm gonna lead us in a meditation now that just helps bring some of this as this learning, some of these lessons just helps integrate them for us. And during this lesson, if you'd like to release the brace because as the world peace energy showed us as. Have internal conflict. It will always show up in our external world. So if there is any area of conflict in your external world, I invite you to think about that now and maybe form an intention to let it go, and we'll go into our meditation. With that intention in mind, I'd just like to invite you to close your eyes and take a deep breath and just bring your hands into Gassho Once more, just reconnecting with the Reiki energy. And you may still be connected, or you may have been listening and just drifted a bit, thinking about your symbols. And then just place your hands comfortably on your body, wherever you feel guided. Today we are going to be addressing different areas of our lives where conflict exists, and sometimes we experience conflict around learning. So I'd like you to think about all of the, that you've learned on your spiritual path and just notice, was there any time or any of that learning that any time that I felt in conflict with some of that learning, and if there was, you can go ahead and ask the Reiki energy to assist you in holding on to the pieces that were important to you and that resonated with you and just letting the rest. We're just gonna spend a few moments here. There may have been other areas in your journey, in your learning where there were parts that you learned that worked for you, in parts that didn't, but you tried to make them fit. Just let them go now and just allow all of that learning to integrate in your body, your mind, your soul, and your spirit, your personality, your emotions in a way that's right and resonant with you. We each have our own truth and our own inner authority, and so we have the ability to determine this for our. And if you have or ever do struggle with an ability to be present, sometimes getting caught in drama loops a habit of looking to the future or looking to the past. We release that with love because the present moment is truly all there is. And true joy in living life occurs only in the present and only when we can be in the present. When you can be present in your relationships with animals, with other people, with yourself. There's an appreciation, an acknowledgement in the other person, even if it's yourself feels heard. And sometimes we forget to listen to those inner voices that come from the soul, and we're just going to invite the energy to remind us not to worry. Just for today, I will not worry, will not be angry. I'll be grateful. I'll be devoted to my work and I'll be kind. Can we just release that attachment to thinking about the things. That we don't want to bring into our lives, and we ask the energy to assist us in making a shift so that we can focus on the positive that exists, just as present around you as the negative, and we can focus on what we do want and we can then attract that into our lives. Just for today, I release the habit of worry, and if our ego is stepping forward for healing now we invite the Reiki energy to go ahead and heal our ego, to bring it into the same degree of enlightenment that the rest of us exists in For. It is the unhealed. It causes problems. The healed ego is a vehicle for the expression of spiritual energies here on Earth. And if sometimes we have difficulty listening truly, clearly with every part of our being, and without listening through the lens of our own experience or our own prejudice or trauma or beliefs, we release that as well. We invite the Reiki energy to help us listen with the totality of our being, and from a place of pure consciousness with no filter. We invite the energy to expose us to the perspective of others, and through empathy and compassion, we can learn from other people's and other animals' perspectives. And we are open to that today day. And if there is any area of your life where bracing exists or where conflict exists, we just release the bracing now from our physical body, our mind, our soul, and spirit, our emotions, and from our thoughts and beliefs. Just allowing the brace to drop into the earth and allowing the world peace energy to escort it from us today so that we can release the inner conflict that invites outer conflict or that shows up as outer conflict. We understand that this may be a process, so we invite the energy to just help us with an awareness of when and where bracing shows up for us. And finally, in at least one area of your life, Maybe not every area, but at least one, and maybe in several areas you probably have an opportunity for leadership. Sometimes it's with our animals or our children. Sometimes it's with students or clients. Sometimes it's in our work, sometimes it's in our personal lives. And if you would be interested in welcoming a beautiful, respectful, consensual style of leadership, I believe Storm is here with us today, and he is open and willing to share that perspective and that ability with you as am I. It's not saying that it's a perfect style of leadership, but if it's a style that resonates with you, go ahead and open your heart to receive it. I'm hearing that sometimes we need to move into that beautiful, respectful, consensual style of leadership with ourselves, and sometimes the person we treat with the least consideration and respect is us. And if that's the case, go ahead and open your heart in that aspect as well. Invite you to stay in this space as long as you feel guided. And I thank you for being here together. With us today, Namaste.