All posts by Sarah Berrisford

Reiki for Horse Riding: Increasing Confidence

I have recently received many enquiries from people asking if there are ways to increase their confidence whilst riding. Simple ways that they can use at home everyday.

sarah pancho bb

I’d like to share with you an extract from my book ‘Reiki in the Saddle’, the following exercise can be used by anyone – you don’t actually need to practice Reiki for this to work. It is also useful for improving other areas of our riding, so please do give it a try.

Riding with confidence is something a lot of people find hard. There are always situations that may challenge us, but being brave isn’t being without fear, being brave is learning to recognise the fear, accept the fear and master your fear.

Visualisation is an important tool not only in horse riding but also in life. Visualising how you will react to a situation will begin to train your body and mind how you wish it to react, putting you in control.

1) Find somewhere quiet to sit where you won’t be disturbed.
2) Make yourself comfortable
3) Close your eyes and take three deep breaths, in and out; feel the oxygen filling your lungs, and feel your body relax further as you breathe out.
4) Let your mind become clear, if any images come into your mind just gently usher them away.
5) Practice just relaxing and keeping your mind clear for a few minutes.
6) Visualise yourself grooming your horse, putting his tack on, leading him to the mounting area. Now see yourself getting on your horse and riding.
7) See yourself walking around on your horse, perhaps doing some circles and changes of rein. Be aware of how your body feels; see yourself relaxed and happy, riding with confidence.
8) Now proceed to working trot; ride some 20m circles, perhaps a figure of 8 and any other school movement you wish; see yourself relaxed and happy, riding with confidence.
9) Proceed to canter; again ride some 20m circles and change the rein. See yourself relaxed and happy, riding with confidence.

Don’t worry if you find it hard to visualise at first; this will become easier with practice. Once you feel confident using this exercise you can tailor make it to fit the area where you need more confidence; for example, if you have worries regarding going into canter, you can visualise the canter transition and riding in canter over and over again, in all places in the arena. Or you may have worries regarding mounting your horse; if this is so you can visualise yourself mounting over and over again.

If your horse is spooky, bucks or naps you can visualise how you will cope with the situation; sitting up and keeping calm.

Begin to use visualisation in your everyday life; where thought goes energy flows.

I hope you enjoy working with the above exercise, if you have any questions please feel free to contact to me

Love, Light & Warm Wishes
Sarah Berrisford
www.epona-equine-reiki.co.uk

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The Right Time

A question often asked of me is: When is the right time? This relates to lots of aspects – When is the right time to start practising Reiki as a profession? When is the right time to meditate? When is the right time to start competing my horse? When is the right time to move on to the next chapter or level?

Unfortunately this is a question for the person asking, not the teacher. It is a question that you can ask as many times as you would like to – and usually the answer doesn’t appear in Big Red Ink infront of you – never say never though!

Inside of us everyone knows the right time, however, we put things off, we make excuses, we’ll promise to make time to sort things out or put more effort in, and then the time will be right for us to make a change or better ourselves.

We all need to remember that: we can’t make time, we can only choose to use the time we have wisely.

So my answer is this: if you are thinking of doing something new, making a change for the better and you’re asking or thinking, when is the right time?…

Then it is time to Go For It! The simple fact that you are thinking about it, shows that your subconscious is hinting at you!

The aspect of making a change may seem scary, but hey, fear is an illusion – fear is the monster that lives in the cupboard and becomes scarier and scarier, until one day, you open the cupboard door and realise there’s nothing there!

The right time is now!

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Sarah Berrisford Reiki Master Teacher, author or the popular books ‘The Handbook of Equine Reiki’ & ‘The Complete Guide to Animal Reiki’. Sarah is based on the Lincolnshire/ Cambridgeshire border, where she teaches Reiki, Equine Reiki Courses and Distant Learning Equine Reiki Courses.

www.epona-equine-reiki.co.uk

 

Equine Reiki in pictures

I would like to share with you all some pictures of the lovely Pancho receiving Reiki from one of my students Brenda

At the start of the treatment, Brenda connects to Pancho with one hand on the wither and the other on the chest connecting through the heart.

Brenda moves on to let Reiki flow through the back and loins, as she does this Pancho closes his eyes and lowers his neck slightly
 
 
 
Pancho shows he is enjoying the treatment; chewing and licking his lips 
 
 
 
 
As Brenda moves on to send Reiki to the hind quarters, Pancho responds by lowering his head further, keeping his eyes closed as he softly goes to sleep. 
 
 
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Below is a poem that Pancho inspired me to write after one of our Equine Reiki sessions…
 
To be seen
 
As I meet your gaze and you look into my eyes,
You look deep into my soul,
The feeling of another being seeing my inner self,
Connecting through as one.
No outer appearances are perceived,
Just purely loved,
To feel so special from ‘just’ a look,
You know who I am,
What I am,
Why I am.
You see the purpose and perfectness of the human soul,
You bring those qualities to the surface, just though being.
To be seen by you, is to truly see myself.
 
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If you would like to read more about Equine or Animal Reiki, why not take a look at Sarah’s books ‘The Complete Guide to Animal Reiki’ and ‘The Handbook of Equine Reiki’. Both are available through this link https://reiki-evolution.co.uk/reiki-manuals.htm and through Amazon  http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&search-alias=books-uk&field-author=Sarah%20Berrisford
 
Visit Sarah’s website www.epona-equine-reiki.co.uk for more information regarding courses.

Pride in Being

A few years ago, someone named me as egotistical because I so much enjoyed and took pride in the way my horse showed himself off. At the time I was taken aback, as having a major ego issue hadn’t been something I had identified myself with. The person told me all the ‘right’ things about how the ego ‘worked’ and I began to feel guilt that I should take so much enjoyment at he joyous ‘here I am’ being of my equine pal.

On arriving home, it was time for contemplation… Should I be feeling this? Am I a bad person? What do people think of me? The list goes on…

As I sat and pondered, I decided to meditate, I visualized myself with my horse, staying completely passive as he showed himself off. Something wasn’t right, the horse began to look limp and lose his ‘x-factor’.

And that is when it clicked; horses love to be admired, all animals love to be admired, I’m not talking about just saying words of “he’s nice” or “she’s going well”, I mean the energy we emit when we see something beautiful, the energy that is transmitted as our breath is taken away, when a tear comes to our eye, when our body tingles with pure love at the sight and feel of true beauty.

I realised that is not egotistical to admire the union between myself and my horse, it is something that should be loved and enjoyed. It wasn’t egotistical, because I wasn’t comparing, thinking ‘we’re so much better than others’. I was enjoying the moment and conscious of the enjoyment my horse and I were having, it was just us, there and then, nothing else existed; only that beautiful connection.

This brought more questions to my attention… animals respond, develop and mature to the slightest feeling of love and admiration; so what it going on with people??!! We are constantly judging ourselves; weight, looks, graying hairs, wrinkles – when we should be following in the footsteps of our animal friends, admiring ourselves, loving ourselves, loving every imperfection which makes us who we are.

What do you see when you look in the mirror?

I have a task for you, go and look in the mirror, look deep into your eyes and smile, see yourself smiling back at you, look at each part of your body, look deep and smile, allow your whole body to smile. Feel that energy coming from your body, transmitting to everything around you. Smile and the world smiles back!

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Sarah Berrisford teaches Reiki and Equine Reiki courses through Reiki Evolution at Epona Equine Reiki Centre inSouth Lincolnshire.

www.epona-equine-reiki.co.uk

Forgiving

We all have the ability to forgive; however, many people hold grudges or find it very hard to forgive others and themselves. In some circumstances this is quite understandable, but, no matter what the circumstances, one must remember that if you haven’t forgiven someone it isn’t them that suffers but you.

 It is you that the anger tears away at and tries to pull apart. The person who has done wrong to you doesn’t have to live with the same feelings and hatred that you are holding, close to your chest and in your energy system.

The point of being unforgiving is valid in our lives so that we do not repeatedly become hurt by others, however, by forgiving someone, you don’t have to invite them back into your lives and have conversation and tea! The forgiveness I am talking about is letting go of the wrongs that have occurred to you and accepting what life has given you. Sometimes we can be so obsessed with what has been taken away that we dwell on what has been stolen from us instead of focusing on what has been given to us and the happiness that it has bought.

If we are consumed with unforgiving thoughts and actions it will be very hard to put ourselves in the mind set that is needed for Reiki. A calm, relaxed attitude, living in the now.

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Passage taken from ‘The Handbook of Equine Reiki’ by Sarah Berrisford, Epona Equine Reiki Centre.

www.epona-equine-reiki.co.uk

The Power of Nature

Before Reiki came into my life, I used to connect to nature to help heal, for example, I noticed that the powerfulness of a thunderstorm could be felt through the body and this energy could be ‘harnessed’ to help heal myself and others.

I noticed that sitting and clearing your mind by the roots of a tree allowed the body to become at one with the energy of the earth.

I found that whatever the weather, you could tune into the power of nature to help with healing qualities – the power of the sun, the force of the wind, the ability to wash away negativity and pain with the rain.

This is a practice which I still intuitively use in my Reiki sessions and I would like to share with you a meditation to connect with whichever source you would like to, for example, the earth, the sea, the moon, the sun and any other weather elements.

1)      Sit or stand quietly. Allow your mind to become still.

2)      Become aware of your body, on each exhale let any tension gently release.

3)      Become aware of your surroundings, listen to the sounds around you, whilst still keeping your mind clear, so for example, if you are listening to a thunderstorm, just listen – try to allow any thoughts which label the thunderstorm to disperse. Just listen, be there in that moment, so that your senses and body are truly feeling what nature is giving.

4)      Allow your body to connect with the elements of nature, feeling the power right through your body, feel as it invigorates your energy, passing through your body, you are sharing energy with everything around you.

5)      Be still and allow the powerful healing qualities of the earth bring your body to a higher level, whilst in return your body shares and strengthens the wonderful earth energy. You are at one sharing with your soul and nature.

I hope you enjoy the above meditation. By practising connecting to earth and the elements of nature we can help improve our sense of oneness as well as feeling the energy of the earth.


Sarah Berrisford is one of the team of Reiki Evolution teachers, she offers Reiki and Equine Reiki at Epona Equine Reiki Centre in Lincolnshire. Course participants gain confidence, clarity and self development.

Sarah’s popular book ‘The handbook of Equine Reiki’ is available to order through www.reiki-evolution.co.uk and amazon.

Visit Sarah’s website www.epona-equine-reiki.co.uk