Cowgirls vs. Cancer, A Healing Experience with Horses

2012's Cowgirls vs Cancer Retreat- so many amazing cowgirls! Photo By: Larry Stanley

How do you live in your essence? 

A common VivaMyYoga pondering that was on the top of my mind yesterday as I met Drea Bowen, a magical (yet very real) horse & human healer.

Drea and I connected over coffee (tea, actually) to colloborate our efforts in healing with horses for  the upcoming Cowgirls vs. Cancer retreat. For those of you who don't know, a lot of what I spend my time (summers especially) doing out here in Montana is helping to put on Cowgirl Yoga retreats, the only place in the world where Yeehaw intersects with Namaste. Last year the CY founder, Margaret BurnsVap, put me in charge of planning the Cowgirls vs. Cancer retreat.

This retreat has become a combined effort of so many wonderful souls and I relish the opportunity to put my passions into gear, helping to make Cowgirls vs. Cancer a truly memorable, remarkable, and healing experience for all involved. Think fire ceremonies, lots of healing meditation, and the foundation that is at the basis of all Cowgirl Yoga retreats- healing with horses, yoga, and nature under Big Sky country. All while kicking cancer's a@s!

So many beautiful people have entered my life because of this heartfelt and meaningful work. Drea is now one of them. Rarely in my life do I get the opportunity to meet other like minded souls who are passionate about understanding horses and their immense power and healing potential.

What makes working with horses so particularly enriching you may ask? 

Horses allow humans the opportunity to move from our thinking brain into our limbic brain, providing an overall somatic experience. Basically it gets us into feeling rather than being in our heads. We're social beings and most people of us just want to get noticed, and be accepted for who we are.

Wild Wisdom Natural Grace

Horses do this. If your actions and appearance are not congruent with what is lying under the surface, then horses will pick up on this incongruence and they won't let you get away with it. They will become anxious, like you are, by not living in your true essence.

So basically if you pretend to be calm and zen while approaching a horse, while underneath you are scared to death and faking false bravado, horses will pick up on this and it won't sit well with them. A metaphor for life. You can't find harmony in your life when you are pretending to be something you are not. 

'Horses are a safe place to try on your authenticity. You can compare where you feel this authenticity with the horses, to where you feel it in your life.' ~Drea Bowen

I often find myself around my (mom's) horses when I am feeling the most emotion in life. They don't expect me to be anything else than whatever it is I am experiencing at that moment. When I am sad or angry and crying, they are OK with that, and I can sense their relief and support at my willing to be vulnerable. When I am happy and elated, they are OK with that too and most often are happy to join in with me on the bliss.

With my boy, Bridger.

Horses still have such a wild nature about them. They are amazingly connected to an ancient, primitive wisdom. And because they are accesible to us, we get to experience it through their offerings. We are taught healthy boundaries and that what you resist, persists! Horses don't judge you or have expectations of you, they just want you to be real with them and to treat them with respect for the tuned in individuals that they are. If you've ever looked deeply into a horses eye, you know exactly what I am talking about!

One of the most important takeaways from my time with Drea was to open up to what it is you are feeling while you are around horses.  Most people are terrified of being vulnerable. Society has taught us that if we're not constantly in left-brain mode, achieving and being successful (WINNING!), then we won't make it. We'll be kicked out of the tribe, we'll be left alone, and we won't survive. It's become a basic instinct!

But the desire to feel belonging in this disconnected way means a whole heck of a lot of people running around with extremely high levels of anxiety, depression, sadness, and confusion. They're lost. And who's to blame them?

What needs to happen is a return to our soul essences. It takes being vulnerable, and being willing to acknowledge your feelings as opposed to your thoughts. Horses provide an excellent platform for this. They are willing to accept & acknowledge the subtle shifts you make in being heard and understood. All it takes is baby steps. Once someone realizes that they aren't going to be shunned for being themselves, for being human and vulnerable, then they can start to take these lessons out of the arena and into life. (sound like stepping onto your yoga mat, anyone?)

As Drea says, 'when you're aware, you're halfway there.' Horses get people into their bodies whether they like it or not. They allow you to start watching yourself from the inside out (moving from your soul's essence) and recognize what it is that you feel, your heart's desires.

Horses have always been an essential element of my life. Always will be. I am grateful for the sacred space of possibility that these majestic mammals hold for us. They allow us to move into whatever is happening within, and to know that it is OK. We can then begin to start exploring what it is life means to us in our own unique way and take it off of the saddle and into life. Taking the reins of your own being!

Photo By: Larry Stanley

For more info the retreat, scholarship nominations for fellow breast cancer survivors, and our fundraising efforts, just check out the Cowgirl's vs Cancer site. And to find out more about Drea's amazing efforts in working with horses for 'your heart, your spirit, and your lymbic brain', find her at Horses Heal Hearts and on her fb page.

If you've never spent much time around horses, or if the experience has been lying dormant within you, I encourage you to try it for yourself! And send lots of love and healing light our way as we gear up to an incredible weekend of healing, horses, empowering women, not merely surviving but thriving, and kicking cancer's a@s!!!

Yeehaw & Namaste y'all.