There is a funny video that has been going around the internet by Pastor/Marriage Therapist Mark Gungor about men’s and women’s brains. Men’s brains, he maintains, are a series of boxes, while women’s brains are a zigzagging tangle of interconnections. According to Mark, a man’s favorite box is the empty one, the box where he goes to do absolutely nothing. Insert here a funny visual of a man fishing.
How I long for that box! I have diligently sought respite from the ping pong ball of fears, concerns, and anxieties that ricochet around my brain as I try to do yoga. I have downloaded a meditation app purported to help clear my mind. My mind has resisted – way too much to do, to think about, to resolve.
Horses sense that lack of focus and, even more important, the lack of calmness. That lack of calm churns up the anxiety that holds me back as a rider.
I am blessed with the calmest Arabian in the universe, a horse whose attitude is “Relax, I’ve got this.” His gentle demeanor has helped to disarm the whirling in my brain. His confidence has created confidence in me.
Because of him, I have made headway in creating my own empty box. I have learned to breathe deeply and ride with a relaxed sense of purpose. I have carried that box from the barn to the rest of my life. My yoga workout has become an opportunity to disconnect from whatever crisis is at hand. My meditation efforts – well, we’re not quite there yet. But I now have a box, one that is blissfully filled with nothing but the occasional visual of me, soaring above the clouds on my horse.