"Horsing Around"

A fellow yogi was tossed from a horse that spooked recently and, although I am sure one day he will look back at the incident and laugh, today is not the day as laughter is painful with broken ribs! However, in my attempt to cheer him up, this theme is for Rich and is based on the expression, "Get back on the horse that bucked (threw) you"!

From Urbandictionary.com, "get back on the horse" has two definitions:

"Def. 1 (verb) To attempt the same challenging action after failure. Apparently derived from an old adage: "You have to get back on the horse that threw you."

"Def. 2 (verb) To get back into a habit. Traditionally this would refer to a good habit, but sarcastically might refer to a bad habit or addiction. Possible confusion with the phrase "on the sauce"."

I tried to look up just how old the expression is or who it is originally associated with but the only answer I could find was that it must have originated from "a very clumsy cowboy"! But the expression to "get back on the horse" does offer up an interesting dilemma; should you really get back on?

When I used to horseback ride, I remember a couple of falls quite clearly...a horse refused a jump and I ended up on the other side (still holding the reins!) and I recall seeing black for a few seconds one time after landing on my back.

"A horse which stops dead just before a jump and thus propels its rider into a graceful arc provides a splendid excuse for general merriment." ~Duke of Endinburgh

I got back on because I thought the challenging horse added to the fun of the ride. However, horses are very sensitive animals.  If someone experiences a traumatizing or scary fall and gets back on, they will most likely tense up in a similar situation. Their feet will brace heavily into the stirrups, they will sit forward in preparation and their hands clench the reins.  The horse can feel this; he senses the fear and now he's on alert, as well.  A dog can sense when its walker tightens the hand on the leash...they sense the fear and will have a subsequent reaction.  So, let's take this concept out of the stable and back onto the yoga mat of life!

Simply put, your energy effects everyone around you.

Imagine you are walking down a street and you are about to pass a stranger. How does that encounter look and feel in your mind's eye when you are mad? Scared? Sad? Happy? Thrilled?

"Besides unbalanced Earth energies (geopathic stress) and electromagnetic smog, the negativity of Humanity’s mass consciousness is one of the greatest sources of unbalanced energy that we are exposed to every day.  Other people’s fear, anger, pain, grief, etc, can drain us or induce resonance to those emotions in our own systems.  It’s important to be aware of this process and find ways to keep from absorbing these energies.  One way is to use our minds to make ourselves less like an absorbing sponge and more like a window screen, allowing things to simply flow through us instead of needing periodic “wringing out” to stay energetically healthy." http://mesacreativearts.com/html/sensing_energy.html

So, about getting back up on the horse...literally, maybe it's a good idea, maybe it isn't.  In practicing ahimsa (non-violence), we all have to make our own decisions in each circumstance.  There's another horse expression, "fall off seven times, get up eight."  We don't need to be on a horse for us to fall down; life offers us plenty of opportunities to end up on the ground. It's how you choose to react to those falls and what you allow to happen to your energy that seems to truly matter.

"Life is neither a gift nor a punishment. It is just a phenomenon that you need to learn to ride."  Sadghuru

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