One of my favorite quotes, from my Hypnosis Instructor Ali Campbell, "We are not afraid of what we think we are afraid of, we are afraid of what we think!" is powerful. You can't just rush through reading it. Especially with fear around horses.
I thought I was a afraid of a horse rearing and falling over on top of me. I believed that. When a horse would lift it head, I would get off, FAST. After hearing Ali, and really sitting with it, I realized he is 100% right. I was not afraid of a horse falling on me. I was afraid of my thoughts of a horse falling on me. It only happened once in reality. I have ridden thousands of hours. I have jumped hundreds of jumps. I was afraid of my thoughts, not the horses. The horses brought me joy.
Take a moment and really think about your fear and the thoughts about your fear. Then look at your thoughts versus reality, in this moment. To make it simple in my example, fear of rearing was my fear. But reality, it was my thoughts about "what if" the horse reared that I was afraid of. The horse wasn't even rearing. Heck, I could be sitting on the couch and think about the rearing and get sweaty palms. That is a fear of my thoughts, not a fear of the horse rearing.
The great news is that now we have awareness. Once we are aware, we can take action to resolve.
Here are three things that can help us overcome the fear of our thoughts. For me, this feels a lot less scary now that I know I am just afraid of my thoughts.
- Journaling exercises. Put pen to paper. Write how you want to feel, what you want to be thinking about, the thoughts about wonderful rides.
- Mindfulness. This is one of my favorites. If we are keeping our thoughts in the present moment, unless we are in the middle of some disaster, we can dissolve the fear. Stay present, in this moment. It is all we really have.
- Visualization techniques for positive riding experiences. Put all your senses into visualizing your best rides. What are you seeing? What are you feeling? What are you hearing? What are you smelling? Describe your best ride in all the detail you can put into it.
I talk about my feelings around this quote in my latest podcast which you can watch on Rumble here:
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