A Warm Wish for the Year Ahead

By Angela Chiarenza , Executive Coach & Facilitator, TactileWorx, LLC

With the new year approaching, I have paused.??

I have paused to reflect and consider what’s most needed next.

In conversations with family, friends, friends who are family, colleagues and clients, I keep finding my way to deeper conversations about what matters right now and in the future; and how we want to spend our time. What keeps bubbling to the surface is the idea of moving toward what feels warm.

Over the past decade or so, I have spent time with horses in my coaching practice, learning from those who live with or spend a great deal of time with horses, as well as volunteer with therapeutic equestrian centers. I did not grow up with horses but I have long been drawn to them.?They are?powerful, steady, observant, and calming.? Part of my own continued personal and professional development has been to learn more about these stunning creatures - to learn with and from them.

I recently attended a course where I learned a practice and technique called “send and draw.”

Imagine you are in a round pen with a horse at liberty: no halter, no tether. The horse may move as it chooses.? The goal of being in this space is to practice increasing my energy to encourage the horse to move in one direction, then decreasing my energy to invite the horse back toward me.? As a being in this dynamic, I may also move as I choose. And in this exercise, I have the ability to request, with clarity, that the horse send around the border of the pen, or draw toward me in the center.?As I increase pressure or energy, the horse moves more quickly, in a direction away from me along the exterior of the pen. When I decrease pressure, the horse moves, or draws, toward me in the center.

The lesson? I can shift the connection with another being by simply adjusting my energy.? Another learning point for me is dropping into what feels like a heart space - connecting with the warmth in the center of my body.? As I do this, I notice the horse’s ease in joining me.

I will choose to spend as much time as I can inviting, moving toward and sending warmth. I want to be more intentional about what I send and what I draw.?

What, who, will I send?

What, who, will I draw??

Wishing you warmth.