{"id":1534,"date":"2020-04-13T22:36:24","date_gmt":"2020-04-13T20:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.equoia.org\/?p=1534"},"modified":"2020-04-16T07:50:24","modified_gmt":"2020-04-16T05:50:24","slug":"about-patience-and-doing-what-is-needed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.equoia.org\/en\/2020\/04\/13\/about-patience-and-doing-what-is-needed\/","title":{"rendered":"Have Patience and Do What Is Needed"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this exceptional time, people often appeal to us to have PATIENCE<\/strong>. Working with horses and my concept of Connective Clarity has taught me two kinds of patience<\/strong>: ‘patience out of hoping’<\/em> and ‘patience out of knowing’<\/em>. That distinction goes hand in hand with the difference between ‘What do I want<\/em>?’ and ‘What is needed<\/em>?’.<\/p>\n

Patience out of hoping<\/strong> creates a dependency on external elements and encourages passivity. “I hope I won’t get sick”; “I hope this will be over soon”.<\/em><\/p>\n\"\"\n

I experienced the counter-productivity of this kind of patience when our giant gelding Monte was first with us. We adopted him when he was four years old. Until then, he had been living in a nature reserve with a few other horses and some cows. Monte was not used to having contact with people, and during those first weeks, he was difficult to approach. At times his behaviour was dangerous; he threatened to kick and bite. In my first attempts to approach him, I tended to be cautious. Out of that caution, I became rather passive and hoped that one day I could approach him.<\/p>\n

That did not work. I noticed that Monte became more insecure, and so did I. To establish contact with this insecure giant took clarity, thoroughness and small steps. I stopped trying<\/em> to approach him; I started to approach him in (literal) small steps \u2013 as big as I dared to take. Out of this thoroughness and the small steps, I knew<\/em> that one day I would be able to approach him. And that day came sooner than I had expected.<\/p>\n

What led to this switch? I turned ‘patience out of hoping’ into ‘patience out of knowing’<\/strong>; from thoroughness in the ‘here and now’ which led me towards taking action<\/strong>. That is what I did with my fear of approaching Monte, and that is how I deal with coronavirus:<\/p>\n