LEARN FROM MANY SOURCES, AND TAKE THE BEST FROM THEM ALL
I love to teach, and I love to learn. Today I learned from my horsemanship teacher that some things work on certain horses and you must take a different approach for each individual. The proof is in the pudding as the saying goes, and you will find out from the horse which way works best.
I teach my music students this way. Everyone is an individual, and it is my responsibility to figure out how they learn and to modify my teaching to suit each student’s needs.
I feel the same about bodywork. I have learned several different modalities because one may work better for that particular horse. I have to be flexible enough to notice, and change which bodywork modality I use if the horse is not responding to what I initially started with.
I did not take that approach in my horsemanship, which I realized today. I had been mentally married to particular schools of horsemanship, and not been open minded. I think I wanted some guru from on high to proclaim « this IS the way! » Likely I wanted this to be the case because I am not as confident in my horsemanship skills as I am in my music teaching and bodywork skills.
My teacher has worked with so many horses that she has had to adjust her approach for some. The light went on with me, as I realized I had been doing this for years in other areas.
I wonder if it’s human nature to become fixated upon a particular method, and become dogmatic about it. People do this with all kinds of things. They get mentally married to a particular group, ideology, or belief system, and that is THE ONLY RIGHT way. We see this in politics, religion, and many other areas.
I’m excited for myself that though I have been rigid about some things, ultimately my desire to learn overcomes that and I am open to new information. It’s a very freeing feeling!