#52 Learning to listen to your intuition with Kerri Lake
Kerri’s early awareness included a natural ability to communicate with animals and all of life in subtle realms of consciousness, through energy and presence. With wisdom, guidance and communication from many teachers (human and non-human), she assists to help you recognize your capacity to experience connection and communication through presence, through the heart.
Without dependence on a modality or system, Kerri has blazed a new trail on the road to freedom from limitations and conditioning. On this trail, all species are welcome and integrate through frequencies of communication. The greatest gift she can give to you is her own purity of expression, sharing her own journey, to help you see that if she can do it...so can you.
On this episode, we hear Kerri’s inspiring journey and discuss horse-human communication, becoming more aware of your own intuition and energy, and so much more.
Connect with Kerri:
Website: https://www.generateharmony.com/
Activating and Facilitating Feel - Live Q&A (May 27th): https://www.generateharmony.com/events/activating-and-facilitating-feel-live-qa
Podcast Transcript
This transcript was created by an AI and has not been proofread.
[SPEAKER 2]
[00:00:02-00:00:10]
On this episode, we're talking with Kerri Lake, a human and animal intuitive focused on inner species consciousness and human evolution.
[SPEAKER 1]
[00:00:11-00:00:24]
When I'm honest with myself, my horse can go, oh, there you are. What are we doing? And that honesty always leads to curiosity and the curiosity always leads to creating something new together.
[SPEAKER 2]
[00:00:25-00:01:36]
Welcome to the Equestrian Connection podcast from WeHorse. My name is Danielle Crowell and I'm your host. Kerri's early awareness included a natural ability to communicate with animals and of all life in subtle realms of consciousness through energy and presence. With wisdom, guidance, and communication from many teachers, both human and non-human, she assists to help you recognize your capacity to experience connection and communication through presence and through the heart. With ode dependence on a modality or system, Kerri has blazed a new trail on the road to freedom from limitations and conditioning. On this trail, all species are welcome and integrate through frequencies of communication. The greatest gift she can give to you is her own purity of expression, sharing her own journey, and to help you see that if she can do it, so can you. On this episode, we hear Kerri's inspiring journey and discuss horse-human communication, becoming more aware of your own tuition, and so much more. Ready to get started? Let's dive in. Kerri, welcome to the WeHorse podcast. I'm so excited for this conversation.
[SPEAKER 1]
[00:01:36-00:01:45]
Thank you so much, Danielle. Me too. I'm really looking forward to where our conversation takes us and the depths we get to play at.
[SPEAKER 2]
[00:01:45-00:01:59]
Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so... Your website says that your awareness began early in life. So that's where I want to start. I'd love to hear your story and this journey that you've been on.
[SPEAKER 1]
[00:01:60-00:06:28]
Oh, thank you. The truth is that my very earliest memory was from infancy. where I just became aware of different lights and depths and densities and no edges. Everything was either lighter or less light, fuzzy. And I remember noticing all of those textures in my vision and just getting really curious, like, huh, wow, well, that's kind of cool. And then all of a sudden... this thing floated into my field of vision and it was much more solid. It had shapes to it. And of course, you know, I didn't have these cognitions about it. I didn't have words for it, but at some point I realized that is familiar. Like, I feel like I should know what that is. And I, With that, that just sort of started distilling awareness and memory in my consciousness. And I realized, wait a minute, that's a hand. that looks like a hand. That looks like a person's hand. That's an infant's hand. Oh my God, that's my hand. And the moment there was this recognition that this was my infant hand in my field of vision, all of a sudden I was able to feel the hand come alive. It was like, like fluid rushing in, energy rushing in to the hand. And then it just passed through the whole body and like feeling my body be juiced with life and realizing, oh my God, I'm human again. This is amazing. I know exactly what to do. I know exactly what this is about. Let's go. And then, you know, infancy sort of just sort of closes in on you. The next memories I have after that were being with animals, being with nature, being with insects and grasses as a toddler and experiencing everything as music. My eyes would see insects and clover flowers and grasses and everything would be in motion and the breeze and the smells and but it all occurred like the way music feels in your body. So even as a toddler, I was already oriented at how the body provides information and relationship, how to relate through the way things feel in my body before words, concepts, and meanings. Age four, I was being told, you know, my parents had no context for my awareness, right? So I was being told, Carrie, the dog is not talking to you. No, the tree is not telling you jokes, Carrie. You do not remember things that happened before you were born. So it was kind of confusing because I didn't really know how to relate to my personal experience and the humans outside who didn't seem to see the same sorts of things. So, yeah. I think it's not uncommon. You know, those of us who are now recognizing our sensitivities and remembering our awarenesses from childhood, our empathic abilities, I think many of us probably had something like that experience where our inner world was so different from ours. what we were watching and experiencing, you know, around us environmentally. So I, you know, I don't know that my experience is really necessarily unique, but my awareness, I think is uncommon. You know, I was very, very aware of these things all through childhood, trying desperately not to be because nobody else was. So I, of course I, decided maybe I'm the weird one. Maybe I don't get it. But yeah, so I'll just pause there and see if you want to ask anything because I can go into... where the horses really started playing a key role. But I want to just pause for you here.
[SPEAKER 2]
[00:06:28-00:06:39]
Yeah, I, I, I would love to go in that direction and go into that. I just, I find this so fascinating because if you were to ask me, what's your earliest memory?
[SPEAKER 1]
[00:06:39-00:06:42]
I don't,
[SPEAKER 2]
[00:06:43-00:07:06]
I don't I can't even I'm like, I have no idea. I don't know. I don't know what my earliest memory is. I can watch old VHS tapes of, you know, of me as a toddler and as a kid. And I can look at them and be like, oh, look at that. But I don't necessarily I don't remember it. So I just I find it fascinating.
[SPEAKER 1]
[00:07:07-00:10:21]
The when this awareness presented. You know, it wasn't when I was an infant, right, because I didn't have cognition. You don't have a way to linearize these experiences when you're that young because the thinker hasn't developed in such a way to figure. conceptualize tie it to language put the language together and make it understandable to another human you're simply being the truth whatever your experience is which is you know where the animals live where the rest of life lives um so it was you know several decades later when uh i had um really recognized myself people will call it awakening or i would say it's really committing to my journey really committing to knowing my own heart um the the deep awarenesses start coming back forward and they come you know the word we have is a memory right What I came to see is that what we're calling memory is actually information that remains like coherent. in a different dimension, in a different realm of consciousness that I have access to. And we call it memory, right? I have access to it because my cells, my DNA, my physical beingness has a way to relate to it still through emotion, through touch, through our senses. As a human person, we do use our senses to be able to relate to not just the world around us, but also subtle energy and multidimensional energy, which is why we can recognize things like telepathy and even our empathic sense and just various frequencies of subtle energy. So later in my adult life, this awareness came with this feeling that we call memory. And when we develop our capacity to know our sense of truth, we'll call it intuitive clarity, right? Then when something shows up, then we can refine our awareness to get more clear whether this represents an actual happening or Whether it's a metaphor, like in dreams, whether, you know, it's metaphoric information that it's just me trying to get my own attention, whether it's a communication through consciousness as another being, what, you know, an animal or another person or, you know, a being that is left the physical realm. or never been in the physical realm, you know. It's the process of refining the clarity with my own senses and ability to relate to all these different subtle levels of consciousness. I hope that makes sense.
[SPEAKER 2]
[00:10:23-00:11:08]
Yeah, it's so... It's so complex, you know, and one of the things I really want to discuss with you today is the simplicity of it. That was a big thing that I had noticed is – It seems as though through your work, you're able to take these complex topics that, you know, you can easily look at and be overwhelmed with and think, you know, I'm not even going to go down that rabbit hole because it's just so overwhelming, you know. And so how can we simplify it so that it can become something that is more accessible to more people?
[SPEAKER 1]
[00:11:08-00:11:09]
Yeah, yeah.
[SPEAKER 2]
[00:11:10-00:11:16]
So let's talk about the horses and how the horses started to come into your life as well. I'd love to hear that.
[SPEAKER 1]
[00:11:17-00:18:59]
Yeah, thank you. Apparently, and this was from photos, I don't have a direct memory of this, but when I was like two, we had cousins who would bring ponies over for birthdays. And apparently, you know, most of the kids would scream if you tried to put them on the pony. And I was the one screaming when you tried to take me off. Right. So they found me really, really early. And after that, I just knew I needed to be next to them every chance I could. My family was not an animal family. They you know, we were suburban social success family. And me, I just wanted to be with the dogs. I want to be on the floor in the grass with the horses. And so I had my first riding lesson when I was eight because a friend of my parents had a horse and decided to fan my flame, much to my parents dismay at the time. And once I once I got to be with horses regularly, it was like somebody could finally see me. Horses to me are just people in horse bodies. You know, dogs are people in dog bodies and trees are people in tree bodies, you know. And so this was how I related to them. I, of course, like I was saying, had that inner world and that inner connection, inner communication with them that felt more true than the physical world outside of me. But I couldn't talk about it. So my parents bought me riding lessons and I kept going. And it was really difficult because nobody else seemed to be hearing the horses. Now, around age 11, my family had moved from the Midwest to California, and things were kind of difficult for my parents. They had a hard time in that new environment, that new culture. They didn't have a support system. And so things in our family house were difficult emotionally. like terrifyingly confusing to me. Nothing made sense. And there was one day in particular that I remember, you know, my dad was having a particularly hard day. He was yelling at me for lying when I knew I hadn't lied. I just was trying to be truthful about my perspective in the world. And it was interpreted as lying and, And my sanctuary in the house was National Geographic. I would turn on National Geographic and listen to David Attenborough and connect directly in consciousness with the animals and the people that were showing up on the screen. That was my sanctuary. And so on this particular day, it was so difficult. And I felt completely trapped and I didn't know what to do. So I went deep into myself, into the place where I know horses, where horses know me, where animals know me, where the whole world knows me. And it's a place that didn't seem to be recognized by the people immediately around me. So I went deep, deep, deep to that place and just asked, I don't care what's true. I just want to know how to know what's true. Just show me what's true. Not the truth, but how do I know what's true? And it was a very divine experience, like all of consciousness opened, all of the conflicts parted, and it was like being received by light and hearing, oh my goodness, thank you for asking. Welcome here. Pay attention to that feeling. That feeling is what you're talking about. That feeling will show you what is true always. And pay attention to how you learn these things so that one day you can teach people. So I just said, thank you. And things just started closing down, but I was forever changed. And that feeling... was the feeling that I had in my body when I got to just be with horses hanging out, listening to horses munch, listening to their tail switch, feeling their presence, just letting them feel mine, just standing and being honest. This is how it feels to be me. So going forward for the next couple of years, I felt similar to what I saw horses' lives to be like, because I felt like unseen and people didn't recognize the beauty of my perspective. I just wanted to share how beautiful life is meant to be. And that's the whole point of life is recognize the beauty and let it in and watch everything change. And it seemed that horses were living the same kind of life where people didn't see their beauty. People used them. People told the horses they're wrong and put straps on them and hurt them and hit them. And yet the horses keep giving. The horses keep trying. The horses keep showing up, being honest how it feels. whether or not they were understood. So I went back into that same place in my heart and connected with the horses and asked the horses, and this is all intuitive because I had nobody teaching me these things, you know, it's just what made sense because it felt closest to true. And I went to my heart and I just asked the horses, will you please show me how you do this? How do you keep giving? When people don't see you and they don't recognize your beauty and they don't listen when you're trying to help them, they don't even try to listen when you're trying to help them, you know, be safe. They don't even see it. Teach me. Teach me how to be that generous. And the same sort of feeling happened, like my heart grew bigger. And that heart growing bigger felt like the horses saying, okay, we've got you. We've got you. And it took, again, many, many years and lots of experiences of trying to integrate that level of consciousness with what's happening on the outside. But what it came, the wisdom finally distilled when I met different teachers and had different concepts to work with. That wisdom of how do the horses do it, it distilled into the phrase that is the absence of judgment. Horses are not judging who we are. They're not judging that we're good people or bad people for what we do. They're simply saying, all right, well, here's me when you show up that way. Like, okay, if it hurts, then I'm going to let you know. If it feels good, I'm going to let you know. But they're not judging. You know, Carrie, you are a bad person for getting caught up in that relationship. Carrie, oh, you should never have done that to me. No. You know, they are judging. constantly offering the generosity of the absence of judgment. And that was what I wanted to learn. I wanted to learn to be a human with humans the way horses are with humans.
[SPEAKER 2]
[00:19:01-00:21:33]
I'm having such an emotional response to this. And for those listening, I had told Carrie beforehand that I have some construction happening in my house. So I've been muting myself a lot in between while Carrie is speaking. And so she can, she can see me here, but, but for those listening, I'm just, I'm sitting here and I'm, and I'm nodding and I'm nodding and I'm nodding and I'm on mute, but I'm going, and I'm, I'm deeply resonating with everything that you're saying. I just, when you were saying about the horses being so giving and so forgiving and so non-judgmental and I just, it, it just, It broke my heart right open. And I also resonate a lot to what you were saying about when you were young and you had just such a deep relationship with nature. And I recognize that in myself as well. I've always been somebody that... You look at a little ant on the ground or a little bug, you know, or something like that. And to the average person, they think, oh, I should just squish it and, you know, get it out of the house. And for me, it's always like, no, like that has a little job that has a little life that has, you know, its own little thing. And like, just because to us, we feel that we are superior to it does not mean that we are, you know, and I felt that I've always felt that where it's like, oh, OK, I see that you're in my home. I'm just going to put you outside, you know, keep doing your thing. And I remember this winter I came into the barn and there's a little moose. And I've never I've had my horses home here for it'll be two years in July. And I've never seen a moose in my barn somehow. I have no idea how, but but I haven't. And so one day I went in and there was a little moose. And he looked at me and I looked at him and I said out loud, I said, I just want you to know that this isn't your space. I don't know if you have a family or not, but if you are coming back often, I will have to relocate you. And I don't want to separate you from your family. So it may be in your best interest to just find another home for the winter. And I've never seen him again.
[SPEAKER 1]
[00:21:33-00:21:39]
And it's just those little things.
[SPEAKER 2]
[00:21:39-00:21:48]
I've just I've always I've always had that. I've always been that kind of a person. I mean, I've asked my husband and I'm always like, ah, you know, carefully relocate this bug.
[SPEAKER 1]
[00:21:49-00:21:49]
Don't hurt it.
[SPEAKER 2]
[00:21:53-00:23:23]
And so I'm hearing this and I'm thinking when you're talking about, you know, national geographic being your safe space. And it brought up such a vivid memory for me where I had this tree. And so I grew up that you'd walk through a path in the woods and you'd get to my grandparents' house. And so in between our home and my grandparents' home, there was a path in the woods and there was a field. And in this field, there were these huge, big pine trees. And when I felt like being a human was a little difficult for me that day or at that moment, I would go through the path and I would climb up one of the pine trees. And one of them had this great big branch. And it was wide enough for me to sit on, but it wasn't so stiff that it didn't move. So it kind of flowed and would bounce and kind of move with the wind. And I would sit on this branch and I would imagine that I was riding a horse. And I would sit up in this tree and I would just like close my eyes and I would be riding like the wind would move or my body would move the branch. I'd be riding my horse. And it was just such a, you know, a good little experience for me as a child when, like I said, it felt like being a human was difficult. So I would go and do that. And so thank you for reminding me of that memory, you know, and bringing that up.
[SPEAKER 1]
[00:23:24-00:24:58]
Wow, thank you for sharing it so beautifully and for sharing their mouse story. The way you offered, I mean, you were just so honest with that mouse without making anybody good, bad, right, or wrong. And that's what nature asks for. That's the kind of communication that is, my word for it is unspeciated. Right. We meet each other in the place in between species where we all have access, where we all live, where we are all connected and conscious. And so, yeah, I walk around in a human body and you walk around in a mouse body. And, you know, it's just it's just honest and true that if you keep showing up here, I am going to relocate you. That to me, in my experience. When you can speak and communicate from that space with that feeling, there's no push, there's no pull, there's just a simple honesty. That is what all of life responds to. And it's part of the journey that horses help us find in ourselves. Healing is part of that. Just the entire journey to discover who and what I truly am. It takes us, in my experience, into that unspeciated place where there's no competition. There's just the way it is. Yeah.
[SPEAKER 2]
[00:24:59-00:25:50]
Yeah. Yeah, it's absolutely beautiful. And I look back on that younger version of me that kind of got sucked into the side of the horse industry that thinks differently. And, you know, started to be influenced by, you know, those around me and stopped looking at the horse as its own sentient being and started looking at it as, okay, well, what, what do you do for me? Um, you know, and, and I give her so much grace and, um, you know, and, and I, I just, it's, it's one of those things where, um, I just, um, yeah, I, I give her grace.
[SPEAKER 1]
[00:25:52-00:37:10]
Well, thank you for that. Thank you for being kind to that part of yourself. I think we all get to come to that place of recognizing, oh, goodness, I did get caught up in humanity's suggestions of the way things are supposed to be. And how beautiful is it that now I can see it and I can see it differently. And now I have the freedom to to behave and act and move in ways that actually express what's true for me. You know, it's not about, Oh, that was bad. And this is better. It's about recognizing, you know, well, this is how I would love to do it. This is what feels amazing to me, and I have the freedom to walk this way in the world, right? And there, too, like even as I said that, what popped into my awareness is not everybody has that freedom, Carrie. Like I don't know how often. Not everybody has that, Carrie. Yes, of course not everybody has the same awareness. It's part of the beauty, right? We're not here to make everybody have the same awareness. But for the people whose hearts are tapping them on the back of the forehead saying, hello, we'd love to have your attention back with our heart because you have an opportunity to walk differently in the world. For those people, yes. You do have the freedom to walk differently, to be coherent with your heart, and to be on that constant adventure for what that actually means and what that actually looks like. Here, too, the next thing I'm presenting is as people are honoring and discovering and exploring who they are, how their heart would walk them through the world, it's really common for people's thinkers or their head to say, well, if I do that, then I'll never get anything done. My horses would never do anything for me. We wouldn't ever ride. We wouldn't ever, you know, achieve something. And when people say that, you know, I just sort of relax and breathe and And honor, like, okay, that's where their beliefs are at the moment. It doesn't mean it's true. It means that that's what their lens can currently show them. But I love offering people, you know, just plant the seed. Like, I wonder if that's actually true. I wonder if I... show up differently with my horse if my horse would actually want to participate with me would my horse actually offer something I never would have known to ask for would my horse say oh no oh hell you stupid human you don't get on my back or would my horse say huh I wonder how this would feel if you did Or maybe my horse would say, whoa, I never thought of that either. But you know what? That's kind of fun. So much of it depends on our human creation, what we create within ourselves, in our thoughts, and how honest we're willing to be with ourselves when we show up with our horses. When I'm honest with myself, my horse can go, oh, there you are. What are we doing? And that honesty always leads to curiosity and the curiosity always leads to creating something new together, right? And yes, it sounds very simple. It actually is that simple. And the part that gets complicated is the familiar yeah, buts and what ifs and how about, and I can't because that's the complicated part. And if you start to notice the feelings that how they feel complicated and feels a certain way in the body. Simple, open, honest, curious, feels very different in the body. So earlier you asked, you know, how do we simplify universal limitless complexity? And it truly is recognizing that our system of recognizing feels, which is different than emotions, I could talk about that for four days, but recognizing how the body provides information about our environment, That is the built-in simplification of universal complexity. So when we start realizing we would like life to feel more simple, when we would like connection to be more simple, that's a perfect time to start inviting the mind to realize bring awareness to what's actually moving in the body before I even have words for it. I don't need words for it, right? And the proof is that I was aware of these things as a toddler. My whole life is proof of all of this. And I think this was just my response to emotional, mental, spiritual trauma, was to go to the place that was common between me and horses, which was how it feels before words. And that has been my anchor and my foundation. What that's brought me to is this is... How we can now as adult people to simplify is help guide the mind to the simplicity of what it feels like. And what it feels like is not trying to accomplish a feeling that, oh, if I were doing it right, it would feel like this. No, no, no, no, no. That's going back into the mental egoic approach. But to simply, right at this moment, give my mind the job of noticing that what the body is communicating, whether it seems related to anything or not, that will work itself out. The clarity will come. But to say, hey, buddy, thank you for all that you do to the mind. But for right now, let's go find the hands. And what are the hands communicating through pressure, texture, temperature, movement? What is it that I can notice? Maybe the moment I organize my mind and bring it right to my body and watching the senses, watching the body says, oh, here's a tense muscle. Oh, I'm breathing shallow. Oh, the shoulders are up in the ears. Oh, there's tension in the lower back. Oh, my legs feel relaxed. Oh, my toes feel squeezed in my boots, right? What that does is it starts to give the mind a job that serves the universal communication. Giving the mind the job of noticing subtle awareness in the body is like saying to the mind, This is the information that's going to take us where we want to go. This is the information that leads to pure, heartfelt communication. It happens in the fields before it ever becomes a word, idea, or concept. So mind, let's just notice what we can notice for now. Let's notice what is here and just start creating this friendship that with the way the body communicates both the five senses as well as the movement of subtle communication, subtle awareness. But we need to help the mind understand that that subtle awareness is actually awesome information that's worth time and attention, right? Because going back to childhood, many of us had these subtle awarenesses, but we didn't have somebody feeling them with us and helping our cognition, helping our mind say that's important information. Right. As children, we're often told, slow down, stop doing that. Take that away from me. Stop crying. Right. Don't be that. Or if we're not being told to stop feeling. we might be around adults who are just not aware in this way. And so they just don't have a frame of reference to validate, acknowledge, provide vocabulary and reinforcement for subtle awareness. Right. And so a lot of the people who are adults now and rediscovering sensitivity are There's nothing wrong with you. And people say, I don't feel. Well, that's not true. Everybody has feel built in. What matters is, can I take command of my mind and say, let's start noticing where it is working, right? Where I already have what I'm looking for, whether it's a gut feeling, a hunch, right? Whether the only... Feel you might be familiar with would be, you know, hitting your hand with a hammer. Oh, I felt that. Right. Great. Let's start there. There's just and that's where the simplification comes is helping the mind recognize what's already happening rather than telling the mind to go learn it, understand it, repeat it. Prove you can pass a test before you're even qualified to feel something, right? That's the complicated way. The simple way is, huh, you know what? I'm sitting here holding my left hip really tense. I wonder what would happen if I just let it relax and if I stop gripping. That's the beginning of feel and having a deep and profound universal limitless relationship with felt information, subtle communication, and truly walking in the world, not just with a concept that we are all connected, but with an actual experiential reality of connection. It starts with helping the mind. find where that information is already being provided. And that's through the body.
[SPEAKER 2]
[00:37:12-00:37:20]
So would you say that that's the difference between intuitive learning versus intellectual learning?
[SPEAKER 1]
[00:37:21-00:37:23]
Absolutely. Yes. Yes.
[SPEAKER 2]
[00:37:24-00:37:24]
Yes.
[SPEAKER 1]
[00:37:25-00:37:56]
And they go together, right? We need both. But sometimes it helps to have a little bit of clarity and distinction between them. So intellectual learning is something that's encountered from outside of my fields, something brought to me from the outside world to say, this color, we call that white. This texture, we call that rough.
[SPEAKER 2]
[00:37:57-00:37:60]
And just so people listening, Carrie's holding up a piece of paper.
[SPEAKER 1]
[00:38:01-00:38:44]
Yes. It's a paper towel. Hold it in half. Okay. Right? And that feeling when you rub your fingers over that, we call that texture. So we're giving names, definitions, words, concepts to the experience of it. So assigning the names, concepts, definitions, words, that is intellectual learning. When we sort of abstract a way to relate to the experience so that I can communicate it to others. Is that making sense?
[SPEAKER 2]
[00:38:44-00:39:22]
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that definitely does. I want to focus a little bit on... interspecies consciousness. Okay. So on your website, it says it's possible to, quote, organize your intuitive awareness as an invitation to connect with your animals and move towards a feeling of us. So I would assume that means like rather than me and them, it's like me and my mare or it's us. So moving towards that feeling of us. How would one go about getting started with that?
[SPEAKER 1]
[00:39:22-00:45:40]
Mm-hmm. The reality is, honestly, everybody is going to start at a different place because everybody has a unique relationship with their own awareness so far. But in general, where anybody can begin is start to recognize where you already do experience connection with your horse or your dog. Start to notice where... in those moments where we just look at each other and it's like, Oh yeah. And nobody can tell you, you didn't feel that. Start to notice what your body feels like when those moments happen. Notice where it's already happening. Okay. For some people, that they recognize that feeling when they're not with the animal. Like they might be at work, sitting at their desk, and then their thoughts go to their animal, and maybe their body goes, ah. Start noticing those moments in your cells. Notice how your physical cells communicate. Yep. That happened. That's real. That's the feeling. When we want to expand that capacity for connection, for us-ness, it doesn't matter how experienced or inexperienced you find yourself to be. When you start prioritizing where you are already aware of it, already aware of that feeling, and you put your awareness to that feeling, you begin expanding the space. You give it more space. You basically set the stage to experience that feeling more often, okay? So that feeling is happening in a multidimensional space. That feeling is happening between us. We are both part of that feeling. When I'm feeling that, ah, My animal is also able to feel. Now, we might not be able to analyze that through their behavior yet, but the more I give my mind the job of watching the feelings before I need words or definitions, like we were talking about the intellectual, right? Before I engage the intellectual, right? there is an entire universe of relationship in that feeling of connection. So the more often I simply notice where it's already happening, that's what helps my mind come on board and go, oh, that's a thing. Okay, I'll pay attention. That's a thing. Okay, I'll pay attention. Oh, that's a thing. I'll pay attention. And then all of a sudden, I'm more aware of the opposite. I'm more aware of The feeling that's not open, the feeling that is grinding and fast and controlling and anxious. OK, that's the part that tends to scare some people because they don't want to feel the anxious. They do want to feel the harmony and the usness. And I have to say, well, sorry, not sorry. You have to go and navigate all of it. As you continue to affirm, I'd like more of the connection. I'd like more connection. So as you play there and your awareness stays with your own body before even scanning to make sure my horse is okay, before reaching out and and noticing what they might need, asking what they might want, what do they prefer today. Before all of that, my awareness, when I have my awareness with my own physicality and what is moving within my universal instrument called the body, then my very presence, communicates to my horse, this is how I'm feeling. This is how I'm showing up. This is what's on my mind. This is what I'm thinking about doing together. And When I'm willing to be aware of how it feels in my body, then the animals and everybody can pick up on that through my energetic presence. This is the communication before words, concepts, and ideas. This is why dogs know when you're coming home 10 minutes before you even show up. This is why horses know. know exactly what you're you're intending what you're bringing to them each time you show up at the barn they are listening first to how it feels to be me showing up and they are always sharing here's how it feels to be them simply by not thinking about it they're just being it right so that usness comes when i include myself in the us that's already available. The way I include myself is if my job of noticing how it feels when I walk through my life, because us, that space of us acknowledges you're unique and individual. I'm unique and individual. And when we both show up unique and individual, that's when our presence is blend. We're not defended against each other in our heads. We're not dominating each other for what I think I need. We're showing up and saying, this is me, and this is what I would love to do, and I'd love to share it with you. And there's a feeling that comes with that. So that us-ness is always available. The question is, will I include myself in by helping my mind recognize where that, that space can actually be found. And that recognition happens through the fields in the body.
[SPEAKER 2]
[00:45:42-00:46:12]
You just explained this so perfectly, but please feel free. If there's anything else to add to it, there's a line on your website and I like highlighted, underlined like everything. It says nature listens first to presence and energy. I just I loved it. It's so perfectly encapsulates what you were just saying. And if you want to go into more detail with that, please feel free. And if you feel that you've explained it, then that's.
[SPEAKER 1]
[00:46:13-00:48:09]
Oh, thank you. No, I think there's actually another picture that can help people relate to that. And that is, you know, in the African savannah, antelope know when lions are hunting and when they're not. And the antelope are, I'm pretty sure, not sitting, you know, tabulating body language and repetitive behaviors the way humans measure animal behavior. The antelope know when the lions are hunting because their presence changes, that intent. The lion's intent is different. Intent affects the movement of thought, awareness, and energy. And when energy moves, it feels different in the body. So this is why when an animal is in the presence of a hunting predator, their body goes, bink, be on alert. Their nervous system responds to the predatory nervous system that's been switched on. And by contrast, when lions are just tootling around and they've got full bellies, the lion's nervous system is communicating, meaning creating frequencies in the movement of energy that we might define as presence. Their very presence says, well, here's how it feels. I got a full belly. I'm really not interested in running. I'm just looking for some shade, rest and digest, all the things. And antelope nervous systems are going to receive the reverb of the lion's presence. And their nervous system is just going to say, cool, munching, grazing, good.
[SPEAKER 2]
[00:48:10-00:49:21]
That so beautifully encapsulates the idea of... I think back to like going for riding lessons and you'd always like, I remember the instructor would always say, well, you're riding so-and-so today. And it was always like, oh, that's the horse that's hard to catch. So you'd be like going out there and you'd be, you know, breaking a sweat before you even got them in the berm. And it was always one of those things where you could walk up to that horse any time of the day, If you weren't riding it, if you were just going out in the field and the horse having to be there, you could walk up to it, give it a pat. It'd be fine. But even if you hid the halter. Even if you hit it behind your back and you walked up the same way as you did always, the horse was like, no, and would walk away. And it was because it knew, I know your energy is different. I know then you don't actually want anything from me. And I know now you do. It's a completely different energy. I love that. I hate to use the word predatory energy, but But it does kind of feel that way to the horse. When I'm going up to it and the horse knows you want something from me, it can feel kind of predatory.
[SPEAKER 1]
[00:49:22-00:54:06]
Yeah, absolutely. And so maybe if the word predatory flips a couple switches for people, another word we might use is extractive. I'm here to extract something. I'm here to get something from you. Right. And yes, they feel that. And what it starts is like a power struggle, an energy of who's going to get what from who. And for humans, most of us, that power struggle is like the water we swim in. We don't, because, you know, trend, a transactional society, a lot of us grew up with transactional love. Like I, I will love you if you do this for me, you know? And it's, um, a lot of us have built internal defenses against that feeling just to be okay, because love isn't supposed to be that. That's why we go to horses. Right. But, um, But if we change the word predatory to extractive, then it can change the way we think and relate to that interaction. And if I want to go get that horse instead of like I can start to become aware of my own thoughts and being becoming aware of my own thoughts will change the reality of my presence and the energy that I am offering to the world. And instead of thinking, OK, I got to go get this horse and I already know the horse is going to run away and I already know and I already know. Well, guess what? You're actually creating that. This is recreating our past with our thoughts. We are creators. We could talk a whole other time about the creative nature of humanity. But if instead I start playing with my own thoughts in terms of what would I like to offer? Yes, I'm going to go get this horse. Yes, I'm bringing a halter. What is the conversation I'd like my halter to offer? What is it I can offer with my presence to this horse? How much do I love ponies? I really love ponies. Well, I could actually offer that as I walk out into the pasture to get my horse. And it's not really a fake it till you make it if you actually do love ponies. Yeah. You know, you can actually take your mind to your body and say, body, remind me what it feels like, how much I love ponies. And yeah, there's other thoughts and there's, I got to go to the DMV. I've got to go to the post office. Yeah, yeah. But that's not happening right now. Right now, I love ponies. And I can actually, just like I can recall the scent of a rose or the picture of a red rose, I can recall the feeling of how much I love ponies. We have that ability. And when I bring that into my body and my cells, and then I pick up my halter and I go, you know what, this halter gets to help me like spend more time with ponies that I love. Now I'm starting to offer a conversation rather than show up as an extractive presence. And when I start offering in that way, I'm actually offering connection. rather than trying to get connection because I'm able to move a horse's feet, because I'm able to apply pressure and release it at the precisely right time. There's a whole other dimension of connection that starts with what I'm bringing to the conversation. And I can make it as simple as offering how much I love ponies. Let's start there. And now I have a halter. And here I'd like to offer this to you. Would you love to come with me? I would love that. Right. It's not about intellectualizing whether or not the horse understands English because I speak English. It's recognizing that my presence and energy is available far before I ever pick up a halter. Yeah, I have. This divine, beautiful capacity to have a say in what I am offering to the world. It can start with my heart open and my courage and willingness to get more clear on what what I would like to communicate out to the world, what I'd like to offer. And then, you know, do my best to have the skills and resources necessary to receive what comes back to me.
[SPEAKER 2]
[00:54:07-00:54:08]
I love that reframe.
[SPEAKER 1]
[00:54:09-00:54:14]
Yeah, it is a journey. Yeah, yeah.
[SPEAKER 2]
[00:54:15-00:54:41]
I have a question for you, for me, relating to my two horses. Yes. So I'd love, if I may, to give a little snippet of context. And also, if you're okay with it, if I could give my own assumption that I think is an intellectual assumption.
[SPEAKER 1]
[00:54:42-00:54:42]
Yeah, yeah. Okay.
[SPEAKER 2]
[00:54:42-00:55:53]
Okay. So I have I have two horses, a mare and a gelding. I've had my mare for twice the amount of time that I've had my gelding for. So we have a, you know, a longer history together. And her and I had a little bit of a tumultuous relationship. um where um she had an injury um and it took us a couple years to discover the actual origin of the injury and what was actually happening before we could heal it so there was a lot of misinformation a lot of misdiagnosing a lot of um uh difference and opinions between different professionals And so things were a little tumultuous between us. And that's been three years since all that. And it's been three years that I've had her just simply as my friend. So we stopped riding three years ago. I pulled her from all of that. I moved her home here with me. And we've just been best friends. And so we have built from that tumultuous relationship together.
[SPEAKER 1]
[00:55:55-00:56:14]
One of the strongest bonds that I think, I get emotional talking about her, that I think I may experience with an animal. She's just, we are twin flames. And so I know what she's thinking.
[SPEAKER 2]
[00:56:14-00:59:33]
I know what she's asking. And she is so willing to communicate it with me because she knows I'm listening. Um, and it's so funny. We'll be out in the yard and Soda will do something and I'll be like, Oh, I, she wants me to go do this. And my husband's like, what do you mean? And I'm like, yeah, but like, I, I know that she's asking, so I'm just going to go do this for her because I know she's asking for it. And, uh, and so my gelding, we have a very different relationship where I would love for us to, to get there as well. Um, but it's almost as though, um, he's a little closed off to it. Um, and so he was a very shut down horse, um, a very quote, good boy where he, he never stepped a foot out of place, almost like a little robot. Um, and, um, I have, so, so that's my context. And here's my assumption. I have, um, he, he didn't have the best posture, um, And he didn't have the best feet. So for the past two years, I've been, quote, fixing him. And so we've been in very much this mode of, well, we've got to fix your posture. We've got to fix your body. We've got to fix your movement. We've got to fix your feet. We've got to fix all of these different things. And so part of me is saying, let's have a good relationship. Let's have a deep connection. And I have to fix you because you're not quite good enough as you are. Right. So that's my assumption that he's like, I don't have that same relationship with him because he's thinking. You don't accept me as I am. So that's where we're at. And I and I have this interesting thing where as I was talking about the horses and the halter and going out in the field with them. where he loves going in the ring we have a great time we play in the ring we go in there we walk around we have our hand walks and everything like that and he gets to roll and so we always have a good time in the ring when he sees me coming with a halter and my intention is to go to the ring he's like oh yeah here we go and he leaves whatever he's doing and he walks down I don't even have to you know put the halter on him he just walks with me and we get to the ring um But if I come with the halter and my plan is to bring him in because he's got a farrier appointment or I want to do something, you know, because we've been fixing his feet, we had a really bad little while of a bad farrier experience. So, you know, that's in the past, but I don't think it's quite in the past far enough away that he's forgotten about it yet. And so when we go in the barn, it can be he feels a little bit more stressed because So he knows when I'm walking with the halter to go in the barn. And so all that to say, as I'm saying this, this is very long winded. As I'm saying this, what do you hear from that? From my assumption.
[SPEAKER 1]
[00:59:35-01:00:23]
First, I think it's absolutely beautiful that, your courage to be super clear and recognizing the fixing paradigm. Because people, it's a human thing. We want things to be better. We want to help. And I will give anything if you are out of pain. And it is so born in our hearts to do that. And then often that beautiful benevolence of our heart passes through the egoic filter and That what ends up happening is we think, and it's often unconscious, most often unconscious. Humans have a filter that might suggest that if I can't fix you, there's something wrong with me. Right.
[SPEAKER 2]
[01:00:24-01:00:24]
Yeah.
[SPEAKER 1]
[01:00:24-01:01:37]
Right. And I have felt that. Yeah, me too. Oh, man. It's a sticky one in a big way. So this is why I just want to honor your courage for being conscious. willing and able to look at that and not judge yourself right to transcend judging myself that that is you know the dynamic because it's pretty ubiquitous in humanity um to to go through that to have that dynamic to um neutralize within ourselves and transcend so well done this my from my heart thank you yeah so in that same light i heard you say that you know you're talking about what he's thinking he's thinking I'm going to come in and we're going to the barn and I'm thinking that this is going to be bad and my suggestion is like what if we just set aside the notion that he's been thinking about these things and look instead at how it feels hmm So you're already pointing at presence. My presence is different when I go out to say, let's go play versus, all right, we got to work on your feet. I mean, look at the tone.
[SPEAKER 2]
[01:01:37-01:01:41]
I go into it. Yeah. I go into it thinking, ah, he's not going to want to come in.
[SPEAKER 1]
[01:01:42-01:04:18]
So we've just created that. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So for you, one of the first ways you can play with that is just be aware of how it feels when you know that your thinker is already creating he's going to walk away. Let's not try to change it. This is key. Don't try to change your thoughts. First, notice what your body feels like while those thoughts are happening. Is it the same? What is different and what is the same from how it feels when I'm going to bring him into the ring? Before you try to change your thought patterns, Give your mind the job of noticing the nature of my cells, the actual reality of my cellular body while those thoughts are happening. When you start becoming aware of the feeling before it becomes words and thoughts, you are actually on the fast track to creating something totally different. It's all of communication begins in the feels. So The way to start with this is just start noticing when you can. Like, okay, ooh, that was different. Wait, what's going on in my diaphragm? What's going on in my low back? What's going on in my mid back? Or it doesn't even have to be that specific. What do I notice that I'm aware of? And then you don't have to fix it. You don't have to change it. Just becoming aware of it, it starts changing on its own, and it will always move toward harmony. Awareness always moves toward harmony. OK, that's the first part. Then the next part, we were talking about him thinking, you know, oh, it's going to be this again. Oh, it's good. So here, too. I want to point your awareness to the notion of make it better. So even while you and I are here, let yourself bring that phrase to your mind. And then take your awareness to your own body. And just let yourself start to see, how does my body respond to this phrase? Make it better. And maybe you'll notice, maybe it's too subtle. But let's just get curious about it. Okay? Because you also said... That you think he's aware, you know, like he's saying, why don't you just let me be what I am?
[SPEAKER 2]
[01:04:21-01:04:28]
When I say the words make it better in my head, I feel like a grasping. It almost feels like hands come out of me and they grasp.
[SPEAKER 1]
[01:04:29-01:07:22]
Awesome. Okay. I love it. So let's not try to change that. Let's just honor that and go, wow, thank you for that awareness. Like give myself a pat on the back for becoming aware because grabby is, we would not necessarily describe that as comfortable. Mm-hmm. How often do humans try to avoid discomfort, right? But your courage to recognize the reality of the feel, even if it's not comfortable, that's taking you closer to that place of us, that place of connection, that place of fluidity. Okay. So now... I wouldn't say that he's like worried that you're not going to just let him be what he is. What I would say is he is showing you how it feels when you're trying to make him better. Yeah. And what if I just, whenever I feel that feeling, make it better, I just say, ah, right. Thank you for the awareness. Let's go see if he's requesting any assistance today. And yet it takes cultivation and it takes awareness and it takes work and it takes healing work within myself to have that kind of clarity. But again, just that simple noticing in those moments opens the door to that clarity. You don't have to go, you know, take a pickaxe to your psyche to show up willing, you know, to be aware of how it feels. And then you go do what you do. And the moment you're willing to be aware of how it feels, you're on your way toward harmony because awareness will always take us to harmony. It's the nature of life in the universe is harmony. Harmony wants to find itself. And that's how I can include myself is become aware of how it feels. So, you know, for you and your boy, what I might offer for you to work with in yourself is a question that you can use like a little tool. And when I go and pick up the halter to go get him, I'm going to explore myself. Why am I doing what I'm doing? And then I might have thoughts about it. Well, because we love playing in the arena. And then you watch what that feels like in your body. Yeah, we do. Yeah, that feeling. Okay. Or if I pick up the halter, why am I doing what I'm doing? And I feel that, oh, that feeling is going to let me know this is the presence I'm offering him. And he's going to feel it before I ever get close to the gate.
[SPEAKER 2]
[01:07:24-01:07:37]
I'm smiling, smiling and like laughing inwardly because I I'm picturing both of these scenarios. And I know when I know that we're going to go down to the ring and I'm like, oh.
[SPEAKER 1]
[01:07:38-01:07:39]
We love this.
[SPEAKER 2]
[01:07:39-01:08:34]
Let's go. Come on. This is fun. I'll meet you down there. You know, and both of my horses, they're both like, oh, she's going. Let's go. And they both come down together. And, you know, we're and so we take turns and and and all that. And but when I go out to like to get them to bring them in to do like, you know, just just regular maintenance stuff. I'm almost just like, oh, I know he's not going to really like this. So let's just get this over with. And it's like, what a different energy, what a different feeling. And if somebody came to me the same sort of way, even if somebody came to me also in that way of like, just that, like, like you said, like the make it better energy, but the make it better word, but with the energy that I'm putting on it. So rather than like make it better as in like, oh, my gosh, this is going to be so great. It's like make it better.
[SPEAKER 1]
[01:08:34-01:08:36]
Like I have to I have to fix you.
[SPEAKER 2]
[01:08:36-01:08:47]
And like I'm grasping like almost like a sense of like. Like, I don't know, like, let me just let me just do this.
[SPEAKER 1]
[01:08:49-01:08:53]
Yeah. And your hands are making these claws.
[SPEAKER 2]
[01:08:53-01:09:13]
Yeah. I'm making like a claw for those listening. I'm making almost looks like a little rib cage. Like I'm just like holding something like I need to like, let me just let me just fix you. Let me just it'll be it'll be better once it's done. I promise. Let me just fix it. But I wouldn't really want somebody to come to me with that energy.
[SPEAKER 1]
[01:09:14-01:16:45]
Right. And what you just described, we would call living in our head. Yeah. I just removed myself from the us. And, you know, there's times when it has to happen. Sometimes things just got to get done. Yeah. And we just got to do it. So that's just the reality. Okay. What we're talking about is the clarity of our communication. And sometimes things just have to get done. I want to tell you a story and I'll make it as quick as I can that will illustrate this really well. A bunch of years ago, I met a borough named Miles, who's 21 years old, living at this small little sanctuary with mostly kids running the show. And he hadn't had his feet touched in well over a year. Because the last time somebody tried to take care of his feet, they roped him, hogtied him, threw him on the ground, gave him cocktails, shots, sedatives, and he just kept fighting. And so you could not get near him with a halter or a rope. And so nobody... knew how to help him with his feet. He was in enough distress that he would actually use his teeth and scrape the skin on his front leg. So he had big wounds on his legs as well. And nobody knew how to help him, you know, because you could not catch him. And he stayed away from the barn because people could trap him. So I took a job managing this place with like 18 other horses, three quarters of an acre. It was intense. But I knew exactly what to do. So with Miles... I knew I wasn't going to pin him. I wasn't going to be the same kind of human he had encountered. I was just going to let him know my plan, but not force him into it. So from day one, and you just pay attention to the energy of this too. On day one, I just went and talked to him and I rubbed his ears and I rubbed his butt, which he loved. And I said, Miles. And I looked at his feet and his legs. And I said, you know what? We're going to totally take care of that. You let me know when you're ready. And then I just walk away. And with that energy, using my mind, my pictures, you know, every ounce of communication that I have, I would look at his feet and I would bring up the feeling of relief. Anytime I thought about his feet or looked at them, I would bring up the feeling of relief. So when he connected with me telepathically, empathically, energetically, anytime he would see whether I was telling the truth, he would get the consistent message of, oh, my God, I am so excited to touch your feet. I can't wait because it's going to feel like this. You let me know when you're ready. And I just kept creating space, space, space. Every time. And it took, I would like to say that it took discipline, but it kind of didn't because this was genuine. This is what I wanted for him. This is what I was offering him. This is the presence I was bringing into him. the connection. I was offering the connection rather than trying to get it from him. So the days went by and my communication would change a little bit and say, so my connection would change a little bit and the energy was the same. Oh, we're going to take care of those feet. It's going to feel awesome. You let me know when you're ready. But I started weaving into it the feeling of me holding tools, trimming tools, the feeling of us standing closely together, really still with the feeling of relief. And I told him at some point it would really help if we did this in the barn with the feeling of relief. Because then we could just focus and concentrate. So after a couple of weeks, he let me start touching his feet. So I was able to clean his legs and put aloe. And the skin started to feel better. So that was a way that I got to prove to him that this is what I mean. And sometimes people, once they get close, would think, well, I'll just snatch him with a rope because he let me close. Well, that would just destroy everything, wouldn't it? So I just it did take patience because his feet were, you know, snowshoey and uncomfortable. And but I remained consistent and just always the same. You let me know when you're ready. So the day came when I'm standing talking to a human and Miles walks up on my right here and he just turns and he looks at me very clearly and he gives me his big old beautiful ear and he goes, I'm ready. And I could feel it through every cell in my body. The time was now to move toward that action. And it was like a current, you know, how to know if like a current taking me into the pictures I had been offering him. It's a feeling that can be translated into words and pictures and all that. But before it's words, it's always a feeling. So I said to the human, okay, I will talk to you later. I have a date with this borough right now. And as I said that to the person, Miles walked out ahead of me toward the barn. On the way, I just followed him. And he walks in the barn. On the way, I picked up my trimming tools and I picked up a rope. And he walked into the barn and turned himself to the right into a stall, which he hated. And he turned around and he looked at me. So I stood in the stall doorway and I held up a rope and I said, do you see this, buddy? We're not using it. And I chucked it out the door, slid the door closed behind me, and he stood stock still and he held each foot up all on his own and trimmed all four feet. I opened the stall door. wide because he had big fat belly and he cantered his awesome self out of the barn into the arena, threw himself down in the sand and rolled and rolled. And it'd been more than a year since he had been able to move like that. So, you know, it wasn't, it was my clarity within myself that leads to that. I'm clear within myself. Why am I doing what I'm doing? Is it to make him better? Is it to fix him? Well, if I do those, why would I be doing those? Why do I do what I do for the feeling of relief? then that's why I'm doing it's for the feeling of relief. Put the pictures in my mind. When I let my mind examine, why do I do what I do? It can then be translated into a feeling that I can offer. That is communication through presence. And that's where nature is listening before we ever cognitize a word or a concept.
[SPEAKER 2]
[01:16:46-01:18:05]
I love that. I love that story so much. And I also just want to say thank you as well for helping me just be a little bit more aware of my energy. Because like I said, when I really started to think of it, I'm like, I bring two different versions of myself to each of those activities. And so now it's like, okay, Danielle, so... when you are going and doing that, you know, bringing him into the barn and doing the things that like, you know, that he, you know, maybe be a little hesitant about like what kind of energy you're bringing to that. Um, so that's so helpful to me. So thank you. And, um, and then also I just want to say as well, um, I, I absolutely love how much my horses keep me accountable to those sorts of things. Like it's one of those things where it's like, In the older version, like past versions of me would have been like, oh, my gosh, I'm you know, he's he's Jekyll and Hyde. He's fine to do this and he's not good to do that and whatever. And instead, I'm like, no, thank you, because you are helping me become a better horse person. and a better human, you know, to, to help me listen and be more aware and more conscious and all, and all of those things. So shout out to my horses.
[SPEAKER 1]
[01:18:05-01:18:43]
So thank you. Thank you. Really quick. Just, The future of all training is in our own self-awareness. It doesn't matter your discipline. It doesn't matter if you're competing or just sitting on the ground. Right. It is about personal evolution and self-awareness because the animals will always meet us. At the highest level of consciousness, we are willing to engage. They will always meet us at our clarity. And it's up to us to get clear whether I'm trying to extract something from them or contribute something to us.
[SPEAKER 2]
[01:18:45-01:18:59]
Yeah, yeah. So you have a new program, and I'd love to hear about it and for all of our listeners to hear about it as well in the ways that it could be helpful for them. So please tell us about it.
[SPEAKER 1]
[01:19:00-01:23:23]
Thank you, thank you, thank you. So the title of the program is Activating and Facilitating FEEL, and it's designed as a toolkit for teachers, trainers, instructors, and mentors to The reason why it's designed that way is, for one thing, it's not a modality or a system. I have found that the most effective way to help people expand their presence and their awareness is, like we were saying, by helping them see where it's already functioning. And if we can offer that kind of skill set to teachers and instructors, then we get to make a ripple effect. Out into not just the equestrian world, but also the human world that equestrian skills speak to so directly. Yeah. Right. So this is designed as a year long program with four phases. The four phases are designed in this way because they get perpetually easier as you go, like less work the further you go. But the first phase of it is activating and facilitating yourself. The second is activating and facilitating your students. The third is for the horses. And the fourth is all about integrating true two-way communication. So the foundation of it is profoundly simple. It's a lot of what you and I have been playing with here today. But the program weaves in peer to peer learning. There's an online gathering each month and then twice a month are like office hours, just drop in Q&A discussion for the group. And throughout the year, there will be at least two, hopefully more, in-person teaching weekends, inviting everybody to travel and do some learning and teaching each other in person. It's 100% experiential. It's going to be a very, very healing, regenerative, integrative journey. And it's hopefully going to speak. I hope it speaks to people that are in more of a mainstream equestrian world because everybody has feel. Feel is everything. You know, I think it's just my perception. People are changing and they're wanting to learn differently. They're wanting to be taught differently. People are wanting to learn to be among horses in a way that they don't feel at odds with themselves. They don't feel at war with the horse. I don't know about you, but I grew up being told, just hit the pony. Just hit him. Just hit him. Make him go. Hit him. Make him go. And I still see so many riders wearing spurs just habitually. not even realizing what their spurs are communicating and they just use them. And it's, you know, I, there's just a unconsciousness that we can bring light to not to blame or, or make anybody wrong, but because awareness will always lead to harmony. Okay. We have an informational gathering on May 27th online that people can go to the website and click the buttons to RSVP for that, and we'll share more about that. But I'm excited about it. I just really want to help people, you know, teachers and students not only have an easier time within that relationship, in the teacher-student relationship, but to also help people really realize how talented they are, how much feel they already have Everybody has feel. This is why you can't teach it. You can't teach somebody something they already have. But you can help them organize their awareness to see how their feel functions, how they relate to it, and from there use the tools to expand it. And then, you know, we do it in the context of horses because I love ponies.
[SPEAKER 2]
[01:23:24-01:23:46]
Yeah. Who would this be for? Like if somebody is listening and they're thinking, I don't know if this is for me, who would you say that this is designed for? Like, is it for I know it said one of the modules was students. So is this specifically for like trainers and coaches? And then second question to that, when does it kick off?
[SPEAKER 1]
[01:23:48-01:25:26]
Great questions. Thank you. Truly, it's for anybody who's super curious, who's inspired and says, oh, my God, like if you're listening and your body is like lighting up and going, oh, my God, it's for those people. If those people happen to also be teachers and trainers, then fantastic, because we get to make a bigger ripple. We get to help you help others. Right. And that to me is just a beautiful thing in the world. Truly, even if you're not professionally a teacher or trainer, everybody has an influence in the world. Right. And all of this awareness and clarity is going to benefit everyone. The way you show up in your everyday life, whether it's with the horses or, you know, with your family members. I mean, I've had people in Germany write to me after reading Listen Like a Horse, my first book, and say, oh, my God, chapter 10 just helped me with my daughter. Yeah. It helped me understand my daughter better. So it's not just equestrian. Like I said, the future of all of this is our own self-awareness and personal evolution. And ultimately, that's what this is speaking to. So it kicks off in October of 2024. The end of October is when we start meeting and launch the first phase, which is activating and facilitating yourself.
[SPEAKER 2]
[01:25:27-01:25:45]
Awesome. And the information session you said on the 27th of May, which is 12 days away. Yeah, it's coming up. Yeah. Is that that's a live event? And then is it going to be recorded that if anybody misses it, they can, you know, listen to the recording to find more information?
[SPEAKER 1]
[01:25:45-01:26:10]
Yes. Yes. Yes. It's live because I want to hear people's questions. Yeah. I mean, all this stuff. makes sense to me and that's great but you know until people show up and say Carrie you're talking kooky dukes I need you to explain it differently you know that's my opportunity to explain it a Awesome. And yes, it'll be recorded and we'll share that. We'll probably offer more than one informational session live as well.
[SPEAKER 2]
[01:26:11-01:26:58]
Awesome. That's super exciting. So we'll make sure that we include everything in the show notes for anybody interested. And so a lot of what we've been discussing is, you know, and a different way of being with horses because I could say it's a new way and I really don't feel that it's new. I just feel like it's something that we're, we're remembering. And so it's a different way from what has been perceived as the quote norm to be with our horses. And I truly feel as though more and more people are being drawn to it. And so with that in mind, it's, with the horse industry as it is, what is your hope? What is your hope for the future of the horse industry?
[SPEAKER 1]
[01:27:00-01:27:21]
That people find the courage to be kinder with themselves. That the paradigm of deep personal competitiveness can relax. That we can meet each other in the place where we all love ponies and get curious about
[SPEAKER 2]
[01:27:22-01:27:49]
about how each of us expresses love to get clear what's love and what is us dominating ourselves and um yeah yeah i love that answer i love that answer so much because most times it's all about the horse and within your answer it's human which in turn helps the horse
[SPEAKER 1]
[01:27:50-01:29:21]
Well, I'll tell you, it's the horses that taught me that. I kept asking them, how do I help you? How do I help you be seen? How do I help people treat you differently? And it really came around to, if you want to help us, go help the people. And that's a lot of why my life has gone the way that it has. Because remember the question that I asked, you know, how do I be a human with humans the way horses are with humans? And My entire life has been geared and directed by that question. Everything I've gone through personally and my orientation around everything is how can I be an instrument that assists humanity to ease their journey? Because that's what horses are as well. We could go to big, broad spiritual concepts here. But what I watch in all of life is that all of life contributes itself in any way possible, any way that humans are available to let our journey be more easeful, less conflicted. How many ways can we help humanity to return home to their heart? And horses are my partner. The whole species is my partner. And I'm grateful. I'm just grateful to have these things to share. And if it assists, all the better.
[SPEAKER 2]
[01:29:23-01:30:04]
I am so glad I've been connected with you, Carrie. Um, it's when I was going through, um, so much of the, the, the heartache, um, with, with my mayor. And, and as we were beginning to, you know, see the, the light on the other side, she so very clearly said to me, if you want to help me, you have to first help yourself. Um, and I, so everything that you're saying, I'm like, ah, like, uh, I'm so pleased to have been connected with you because I feel so much resonance and so much reverence for everything that you're saying.
[SPEAKER 1]
[01:30:05-01:30:42]
Well, thank you. Thank you for the conversation and for sharing it. I think you're not alone and I'm not alone. I think a lot of times it just helps people to offer the words, offer the concepts, offer the conversation. Hopefully it gives people permission to go easy on themselves and get curious about their heart rather than living constantly in defense. There's another way. There is another way. And the moment you get curious about it, you're on, you're in that other way and you're not alone. Nobody's alone.
[SPEAKER 2]
[01:30:45-01:30:58]
We have four rapid fire questions. We ask every podcast guest. They're just a, it's a, it's the first thing that comes to mind. The first question, do you have a motto or a favorite saying?
[SPEAKER 1]
[01:30:59-01:31:04]
Slow and easy. Slow and easy. Best advice I've ever been given.
[SPEAKER 2]
[01:31:04-01:31:10]
Yeah, I love that. Who has been the most influential person in your equestrian journey?
[SPEAKER 1]
[01:31:12-01:31:14]
Specifically, equestrian journey is Mark Rashid.
[SPEAKER 2]
[01:31:18-01:31:21]
If you could give equestrians one piece of advice, what would it be?
[SPEAKER 1]
[01:31:22-01:31:24]
Slow and easy. Very good.
[SPEAKER 2]
[01:31:28-01:31:32]
And the fourth one, please complete the sentence. For me, horses are...
[SPEAKER 1]
[01:31:39-01:31:40]
Can you feel the feeling?
[SPEAKER 2]
[01:31:45-01:31:48]
Yeah.
[SPEAKER 1]
[01:31:49-01:32:06]
It's something beyond permission. Horses are a presence and a consciousness that buoy
[SPEAKER 2]
[01:32:08-01:32:39]
the human heart to help us remember who and what we truly are oh gosh what a way to end this oh my goodness that was oh that was beautiful thank you thank you so much for that you're welcome Carrie, we're going to link about your course and your program in the show notes, but where can people find you and how can they connect with you?
[SPEAKER 1]
[01:32:40-01:33:07]
Thank you so much. My website is GenerateHarmony.com. And there's a tab at the top, ways to engage. There's the podcast appearances there. That's really the hub for all the resources. It leads to the courses page. So you can always find the online courses there. And then, of course, Facebook, Instagram or whatever. But it's all accessible through GenerateHarmony.com.
[SPEAKER 2]
[01:33:08-01:33:34]
Awesome. We'll put that in the show notes as well. I want to say a very big heartfelt thank you. Thank you for your presence and for your wisdom and everything that you've shared. Thank you for speaking with me personally and with my questions. Thank you. Thank you on behalf of everybody listening, I'm sure, as well as going to extend their gratitude. So thank you.
[SPEAKER 1]
[01:33:35-01:34:29]
Thank you so much, Danielle. Like I said, it's always such an honor and it blows my mind where humanity is now that people are asking these questions, that we can have these conversations. so openly and so many people are, are there, like they get it, they get it. And we just get to help each other clarify. Yeah. It's a far cry from, you know, being fired for too much kindness when I was young. And yeah, you know, being fired because I didn't have enough problems to solve. So I am grateful. I am grateful for absolutely everybody who is in this conversation, who's headed toward this conversation and who has the courage to actually let themselves evolve toward their heart. So thank you for being part of that and sending the big ripples out into the world.
[SPEAKER 2]
[01:34:31-01:35:05]
Thank you for listening to this episode of the Equestrian Connection podcast by WeHorse. If you enjoyed this episode, it would mean the world to us if you could leave us a rating and review as well as share us on social media. You can find us on Instagram at WeHorse underscore USA and check out our free seven-day trial on WeHorse.com where you can access over 175 courses with top trainers from around the world in a variety of topics and disciplines. Until next time, be kind to yourself, your horses, and others.