“Let tenderness pour from your eyes, the way sun gazes warmly on earth” Hafiz, on Daily Calm on the Calm meditation app

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I don’t think that I can repeat this enough, at least to myself. Be gentle. When I heard the quote above, “Let tenderness pour from your eyes, the way sun gazes warmly on earth,” I could instantly feel my eyes softening. This morning, I was not being gentle on myself. There is so much I would like to do, and so many things to get done. I berate myself constantly for not doing enough. And yet, I must prioritise my sleep because without that, everything else starts to fall apart for me. My health suffers, my temper is shorter, and I put myself at risk physically both whilst driving and at work. It may not be popular with friends and family who live on a slightly different timing to me, but for Philip and me, early nights and early mornings work for us.

By prioritising sleep, though, I have less time to get things done. I find it really hard to accept that the to-do list will never be finished. Indeed, if I ever get close to ticking most things off my list, I simply add more to it! I grew up with the phrase, “Don’t leave until tomorrow what you can do today.” I now realise that I cannot get everything done today, but I still give myself an unreasonably long list of tasks to complete every day.

So today, I’m going to try not only to be gentle with the horses that I treat, and the owners I work with, which is something I try to achieve every day. I will focus on being gentle on myself. I know that in the moments that I achieve that, I will, in turn, be gentle with my son. And that means the world to me, and to him.

What can you do today to be gentle on yourself? Who in your world will benefit from that?

Keep an eye out for my next book, “Harmonious Horsemanship: How to use the Ridden Horse Ethogram to Optimise Potential, Partnership, and Performance”. This ground-breaking book is co-authored with Dr Sue Dyson, and will be available summer 2023. Sign up at www.harmonioushorsemanship.co.uk to be kept up to date with new information as it comes available. Watch a FREE 30-minute documentary on the Ridden Horse Ethogram here.

Here’s a FREE 30-minute presentation by Sue Palmer on how to be confident that your horse is comfortable.

Other books by Sue Palmer M.Sc. MCSP:

‘Horse Massage for Horse Owners’

‘Understanding Horse Performance: Brain, Pain or Training?’

© Sue Palmer, The Horse Physio, 2022