Lion Heart

Human beings carry the wisdom of both predator and prey. True empowerment depends on finding a balance between the two. Cultivating the strength of your “inner lion” without letting it run amok is tricky. If you don’t have enough lion, people will walk all over you, and you’ll lack the conviction and focus to follow your dreams.

You’ll lose the sensitivity that nurtures relationships and creativity if you have too much lion.

 

When we work with horses, predatory aggression becomes a colossal waste of energy because a horse isn’t giving full attention to a lesson when feeling threatened; he’s figuring out how to escape. Horses easily outsmart doctors with fancy new cowboy boots, physicists with advanced degrees, and trainers with thirty years of experience. Those who rely on fear and intimidation will spend much time confronting the increasingly inventive evasion techniques their horses will devise. This dynamic creates the adversarial relationship many riders consider normal.

 

When we develop the wisdom of predator and prey, the lion transforms from aggressor to protector, from the murderer of sensitivity to its champion, helping us access the courage to feel and the willingness to act.

 

The horse with the heart of a lion neither suppresses emotion nor becomes paralyzed by it. She uses her keen prey-animal instincts to sense aggression underneath the toothy smile of a colleague. She employs her agile, non-predatory mind to evade trouble without engaging in a carnivorous battle to the death. She holds her ground without ordering everyone else around.

 

Bringing our predatory nature back into balance is the challenge of a lifetime. Luckily, we have living, breathing horses to help us reawaken the wisdom of prey while demanding that we own our inner lion and put it to good use. Way of the Horse