How many times does this question come up when training facilitators or delivering equine facilitated interactions? And how many different ways are there to answer it? Our understanding of horses has thankfully moved on from the view of them as mindless automaton, the Skinner’s boxes of traditional behaviouralist approaches. Similarly, […]
embodiment
26 posts
I first read of Plato’s “the allegory of the cave” in The Republic, when I was in my 20’s. To be frank it was a stretch to comprehend. Now increasingly close to 60 it is beginning to make a little more sense to me. Without trying to recreate the detail […]
“… without the making of theories I am convinced there would be no observation.” Charles Darwin (1860) in a letter to Sir Charles Lyell. The photo image that accompanies this blog is of a hand stencil from a cave in Borneo that is now recognised to be 40,000 years old. […]
So how do horses make us human? There is a question. Someone once asked me what my thinking was on there being empathy in the relationship between horses and humans. Empathy is generally described as the ability to put ourselves in the shoes of others. To understand their experience. "To feel […]
This blog is about curiosity. We will get to the great scientist a bit later. There is more to learning than being taught. Learning is not simply an exercise in logic or linguistics, even if societally we tend to elevate these ones above all others. Our capacity to learn did […]
In 1656 Christiaan Huygens invented the pendulum clock. In this electrical and digital age we easily forget how important this was. A means by which the clock's mechanism will keep itself working. And as such means by which we were able to mechanically measure the passing of time. I spent this […]
The literacy of feedback involves an understanding of the conscious and unconscious language within exchange. My work, whether in board rooms or stables, consistently returns to one topic, developing a meaningful level of self awareness! Even if it is not the core agenda, it so often rears its head. Author […]
As facilitators and coaches (and similarly for those in therapeutic practice) we are often charged with, or engaging in, working with the idea of supporting change or developing in individuals. Yet so often we encounter a degree of resistance, even if our clients wish for it. Kagan and Lahey, in […]
The ABC of Somatic Presence defines what I call the cycle of Somatic Presence. It is all about actively being. A being that is constantly shifting and redefining itself, and shaping our actions and behaviours. In the third decade of this century we live in an age of persistent distraction. […]
Outside-in or Inside-out is a reflection on how we see ourselves and our minds, and our relationship with what goes on there within. As someone for whom mindfulness serves as a consistent foundation I often express the idea that we are not our thoughts, any more than we are our […]