[dropcap background=”yes” color=”#333333″ size=”50px”]T[/dropcap]here is a Zen story about a person  sitting on a horse, galloping wildly through the woods. When suddenly, he finds himself at a crossroads.

“Where are you going?” a stranger calls out to him.

“I don’t know,” he replies, “ask the horse!”

Sometimes, I feel this is our situation – that the horse is our mind galloping aimlessly away, while we do our very best to hold on. But, that’s the nature of the horse, now isn’t it? Unbridled, it wishes only for the freedom of those wide-open fields.

Indeed, where are we going?

Thích Nhất Hạnh describes this as the energy of our habits – an often unrelenting force that leaves us feeling powerless to change.”We are always running,” he offers, “and it has become a habit. We struggle all the time, even during our sleep.”

My goodness, isn’t this the truth? How easily our minds race recklessly off, before we’ve even settled upon our way forward.

If only we might learn to tame our ‘wild horse’ mind…

Of course, the first step is to be mindful of those moments when we’re being swept away. Typically, we’re made away of this when our intense emotions begin to get the better of us. Feelings such as, rage, jealousy and fear – which can either send us flailing off, or begin to open us to the direct experience of awakening.

To do so, we must be willing to be open to our truest human experience – to be fully present in this moment now, without the need for judgement or commentary. To experience this life, without the habit of elaboration – my darlings, this is how we begin to tame that wild horse mind.

I don’t remember who it was that said, if you want to become more mindful – take note of your reactions. Our reactions, though unpleasant at times, can become an invaluable tool for insight.

“Somebody says a mean word to you and then something in you tightens.,” offers Pema Chodron, “Then it starts to spiral into low self-esteem, or blaming them, or anger at them, denigrating yourself. And maybe if you have strong addictions, you just go right for your addiction to cover over the bad feeling that arose when that person said that mean word to you.”

My darlings, it’s precisely in these first few moments of ‘mind racing off’ – that we have the greatest capacity to effect a change. After all, a horse galloping at full speed is much harder to reign in.

Through something as simple as being aware of our reactions, my darlings – we can begin to tame this wild horse mind.

Namaste, and much love today.