Harmony in Motion: Exploring the Body-Mind Connection

In this episode, we delve into the importance of the body-mind connection with equine interactions. Host Mary Debono shares insights on harnessing this powerful link to improve your relationship with your horse and enhance your overall riding experience.

Key topics include:

1. Understanding the bidirectional nature of the body-mind connection
2. Practical tips for managing anxiety and increasing confidence
3. The importance of presence and awareness in horsemanship
4. Simple exercises to improve body awareness and relaxation for both rider and horse
5. Leveraging positive memories to anchor beneficial emotional states
6. How horses perceive and respond to our internal states
7. Simple strategies for breaking habitual tension patterns

You'll hear actionable strategies to cultivate a stronger sense of presence, manage anxiety more effectively, and create a more harmonious partnership with your horse.  

Key Takeaways

1. The body-mind connection is bidirectional and inseparable.
2. Horses are highly attuned to our internal states and physical tension.
3. Cultivating curiosity about anxiety can help dissipate its effects.
4. Simple awareness exercises can dramatically improve your horsemanship.
5. Positive visualization can anchor beneficial emotional states.
6. Aim for a relaxed, yet responsive state for you and your horse.  
7. Presence and mindfulness enhance the horse-human bond.

Resources:

💥Learn how the Feldenkrais Method can help improve your seat, position, and balance on your horse! Free rider videos masterclass: https://www.marydebono.com/rider 💥

Email mary@marydebono.com

All information is for general educational purposes ONLY and doesn't constitute medical, veterinary, or professional training advice. Always use extreme caution when interacting with horses. 

About the Host:

Mary Debono is a pioneer in animal and human wellness, blending her expertise as an international clinician, best-selling author, and certified Feldenkrais Method® practitioner. With over three decades of experience, Mary developed Debono Moves, a groundbreaking approach that enhances the performance, well-being, and partnership of horses and their human companions.

Recognizing the profound connection between equine and human movement, Mary's innovative approach draws from the Feldenkrais Method®, tailored specifically for the equestrian world. Her methods have helped horses and humans:

• Improve athletic ability and performance
• Enhance confidence and reduce anxiety
• Reduce physical limitations and discomfort
• Deepen the horse-human bond

Mary's flagship online program, "Move with Your Horse," offers equestrians a unique opportunity to experience the benefits of Feldenkrais® while also learning her signature hands-on work for horses. This transformative approach has helped riders and their equine partners achieve harmony, both in and out of the saddle.

As a speaker and educator, Mary has touched the lives of equestrians across the globe, empowering them to unlock their full potential through mindful movement and enhanced body awareness.

Discover the power of Debono Moves and transform your equestrian journey. Visit https://www.marydebono.com/you-and-your-horse to learn more about Mary's unique work.

Because you and your horse deserve to feel great. Together. 

Transcript

Hi. Today I'd love to talk to you about the body mind connection, your body mind connection and how it impacts your horse as well as yourself. In a case we're meeting for the first time. My name is Mary Debono, and this is the easier movement, happier horses podcast. So, yeah, let's talk about the body mind connection. I think all of us are pretty familiar with the fact that, you know, what we feel physically affects how we feel mentally or emotionally, and it's true the other way around as well.

Right? So if you start to get worried about something, you get anxious. You can't help but get a physical scaffolding around that emotion, right? I mean, there really, you can't separate the two. And that's why it's often recommended to, for example, slow your breathing way down if you're feeling anxious and something. And let's talk about anxiety, because that's actually something that is mentioned a lot. When I ask people what is their number one thing or the top three things that they want improvement with, a lot of people will say they want more confidence or they don't want to be so anxious.

A really great question to ask yourself is, how do you know you're anxious? Now, that might seem strange. Like, what do you mean? Of course I know when I'm anxious. But seriously, how do you know you're anxious? What happens? What this does is this question gets you to feel yourself, to notice the physical manifestations of anxiety and what's really cool about this. And, and I can tell you from firsthand experience that it works.

And, and many of my students will tell you the same, is that when you do that, the anxiety goes away. It's like you loses its oomph, doesn't have any power anymore. It's like when you get curious about it, like, oh, how, how do I become anxious? Like, if I said to you right now, maybe you're not feeling anxious right now, at least I hope you're not. Well, make yourself anxious.

Like, what would you do? How would you create a sense of anxiety in yourself? And again, it's really nice when you are feeling anxiety to ask yourself, well, how do I know that? How do I know I'm anxious right now? And then you'll start, you, maybe you'll say, oh, there's something strange in my belly. Like, I feel butterflies in my stomach, or something doesn't feel right, or, you know, or my breathing is really shallow, or I feel really tense.

And then you can go about changing those things, right? Like, one by one, you change those things. A really effective technique. And I have another episode, actually, just about this is if you are feeling anxiety, right? And you're. And you start to get curious about it. Think of it this way. If you had to picture the anxiety as, like, energy moving in your belly area, let's just say, what direction would it be moving in?

And don't overthink this, okay? Don't overthink it. Don't get anxious about getting it right. Just take a guess, because you'll be right. You'll be right. And just say, oh, I feel like it's spinning like this, or I feel like it's spinning clockwise in front of me or counterclockwise in front of me, or whatever it is. And then what you do is you take that and you think of it outside yourself.

So think of that energy, that movement, that feeling of anxiety. Take it outside of yourself. Like, feel it outside of yourself. And again, get in touch with how it's spinning. Maybe it's spinning, you know, this way. And for those of you who are listening and not watching the video, it's. I'm just rolling my hands one in front of the other. Maybe you're feeling it like that, or maybe you're feeling it, you know, round again, like.

Like a clock or counterclockwise in a circle or some other way. And then what you do is you just reverse that. You, like, literally think of that energy out in front of you, and you reverse it with your hand, do it with your hands. So you're reversing it. So, again, for those of you listening and not watching, I'm just reversing the movements of my hands that I did earlier.

So you pick one. You just decide, oh, it's spinning this way. And then you reverse that and notice how the feeling changes inside you. So, again, when we start to get curious about things, when we start to ask ourselves, again, how do I know I'm anxious? What am I doing to create this feeling, to embody this feeling of anxiety? You know, a lot of people will tell me, and I've had this myself.

You'll wake up anxious. You don't know why. And maybe it's a hormonal thing, you know, different changes going on, whatever it is. But you might just wake up with a feeling of anxiety. And again, instead of being like, oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. And having this dread, because then that gets worse, right? Then that body mind connection just everything gets worse. You feel more tense in your body.

Your mind starts going more down the rabbit hole of dreadland. But instead you think, oh, okay, okay, this is interesting. Hmm. How, how am I doing this? How am I doing this? And again, you get curious. Maybe you notice, you know, I'm not really breathing, and I'm not really even, like, relaxing fully into the bed. And then you can play with that energy trick if you want, as well, and, and spin the energy the other way.

But again, getting curious about it is a, is a huge step that gives you then more control so your brain doesn't just automatically go into these states of anxiety. Okay? So, and we know, we know so much about the body mind connection as horse people because we know, for example, that our horses pick up when we're feeling anxious, worried. Maybe we're upset in some other way, does have to be anxiety, but our horses pick that up.

I mean, I often say how we move, how we breathe, and how we direct our attention are all felt by our horse. And all those things shape our interactions with our horses. So your horse will know that you're distracted about something, that you're concerned about something. You know, they'll, they'll pick up on it you. And it's not even, just when you're riding, you may not even have made it down to the pasture yet, and your horse has picked up that there's something not right with you today.

Right. They are so tuned into us and remember our mind. Again, body mind connection. There are physical changes that happen when we have different thoughts. If we have anxious thoughts, if we have optimistic thoughts, those are represented differently in ourselves. Okay? So it's really important to start to notice these things and to remember that, you know, how you feel physically affects your mind, and your mind affects your physical body.

And some ways to kind of get control of that is to have awareness of it so you can change. It is maybe when you get to the barn, you just take a moment and you breathe and you notice the smell. I mean, the smells in the barn are so delicious, aren't they? Right? The smell of the hay via fresh grass. You're smelling the smell of your horse. I mean, come on.

We know how much we love that smell. And you just start to be present. You notice that youre, your anxiety dissipates, because when you're thinking and feeling and attending to present moment sensations, you can't be thinking about other things. It's just not possible. So you become present. Your horse will appreciate that. Then you can even do things like just noticing how your feet are contacting the ground and maybe doing just little movements of shifting your weight, you know, from 1ft to the other, you know, kind of making a circular pattern over your feet.

Maybe you'll start to notice, oh, wow, I'm heavier on one leg than the other. That's going to help you when you're riding, right, to even that out. So you start to become more aware of things. You start to become more present. And then with your horse you can do something. I just call it a simple scan. It's you run your hands over your horse only in places where your horse is okay.

So if your horse has issues with you touching, you know, up near the pole or anything like that, you just avoid those areas. We can talk about that another time about how to help the horse get over that. But for now, you just avoid those areas that cause any anxiety to you or your horse. You stay safe. You're aware of your environment, you're aware of your horse's responses, and you're aware of letting go of unnecessary tension in yourself as you do this.

And just the fact of running your hands over your horse will bring more awareness to your horse's body. So you're improving your horse's body mind connection as well, and it will often help relax them. You get into a more relaxed state and so does your horse. And it's not just about relaxation for the sake of relaxation. We want relaxation that is preparing us for action, that is preparing us for movement.

So that means you're letting go of unnecessary tension, tension that will actually interfere with your ability to respond, okay? To have, you know, powerful, healthy movement. So the same is true with your horse. So it's not just about like, like a sedating effect on your horse. It's about being more present and letting go of what's interfering with well being and with movement, which is those, you know, places that are tense unnecessarily.

Many horses have them and many of us have places in our body as well, like that. You know, you might notice it around your shoulders, your neck, your lower back, but I mean, it could be anywhere. Your toes, a lot of people grab with their toes all the time or they're very tense in their hands or their forearms. So these are things as well with the horses. So just even doing a simple scan, I mean, in my programs, move with your horse, I go into more detail about how you can help your horse and yourself.

You know, let go of that unnecessary tension because those are habits you have. Right. But start with a scan. It could be very, very helpful. Okay. Another thing to do that can be really nice for you and your horse, I might add, is to think back. You can do this right there with your horse. Think back to a really wonderful interaction you had with your horse. Like, it could be a ride.

It could be, like, an amazing ride you had, or it could be something you just did on the ground with your horse. It could be something very active or just a time where you just felt this incredible connection with your horse, just hanging out in the pasture together. I mean, it could be anything. I like to use one with my horse, breeze, and unfortunately, he's since passed away.

But we used to do a lot of what I call Liberty play, where I use positive reinforcement, but there's no halter, there's no lead, there's no, certainly no whip or anything like that, just in large spaces, large arenas. And we would run around and do different things, kind of like agility, jumping over things, going around things, just lots of really fun stuff. And I got really. We both got really creative with it, so we had a lot of fun with it.

And that feeling of being so in sync physically and mentally as we were running around was just amazing. Right? So I will often kind of anchor to that feeling. I will think about that feeling. So, think about a time like that with your horse, where you had one of those moments, and maybe it happened many times, but think of a specific time and make it really real. Like, you know, imagine the different senses, like.

Like, what did you smell? What did you hear? How are you moving? You know, you know, all try to bring in as many senses as you can to make the experience live for you, to make it real in your mind. So it's not like you're just watching this movie. It's like you're ahead feeling it. You're living it again. That could be really powerful, and that will help change the body and the mind.

Okay, so these are just some. Some ideas you can play with, with your horse and yourself. This idea of recognizing the body mind connection and starting to get, you know, to, again, have more awareness of it, which then will allow you to have more control over it and get out of just those compulsive, habitual thoughts that we have over and over again, and also our habitual movement patterns and our numbing of our body where we can't even feel it.

So we want to get more in tune with ourselves, to be able to be more in tune and connected with our horses. So, hope you found this helpful. Let me know. Let me know how it works for you. Let me know if there's something else you'd like help with, and I'd be happy to do a podcast episode for you. So thank you so much for listening, subscribing, and reviewing the podcast.

I so appreciate you, and I look forward to talking to you very soon. Bye for now.