Exercise No. 9

Now that you had a few days to practise and think about what we've done so far, how do you feel?
Remember you can always leave me comments and I will get back to you.
Are you using your affirmations? And are you feeling different?
Change is a working progress and knowing what the outcome is going to be is vital. So never ever loose sight of the bigger picture, no matter how tough it gets.
The final step to change is to CELEBRATE.
Celebrate what you have already achieved and celebrate what you are going to achieve in the future.
Remember you get more of what you focus on, learn from your mistakes and celebrate your achievements.

Exercise No.8

Affirmations are a great way of changing your thought patterns. Saying things like:

- I'm very relaxed when ever I ride my horse
- I am successful
- I always remember my dressage test
- I can jump a clear round

Saying affirmations in your mind will help you to change your thoughts and focus on what it is you want to achieve.
Write down your own affirmations and practise them daily.

Exercise No. 7

In order to change you have to do something different.
Einstein's definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome.
Most people find it difficult to change because they are so used to be doing things their way that it has become an automatic, unconscious response and lets face it; it's comfortable. And who wants to be uncomfortable?!
If you for example have a habit of hanging on to your horses mouth, in order to improve your riding you first have to do something different like changing the position of your hands by carrying them higher or lower. By changing your hand position you are already re-programing your mind, bringing a unconscious behaviour into the conscious and therefore being able to focus on it easier.
When we are doing something automatically, we don't think about it, which means we are unaware of what we do. By changing it becomes unfamiliar and we now have to focus on what we do because we are not used to doing it this way.
Tomorrow we talk more in detail how to change fear into confidence.

Expersice N0.6

Every time we learn a new skill we form a new neurological connection in our brain. That means that nerve cells who are activated and working together to perform the new learned skill, stick together and connect so that we can remember that skill and perform it over and over again. Just as we form connections when we learn skills, we also form neurological connections around thought patterns and beliefs.
Whenever we have thoughts our brain produces bio chemical reactions. The brain then releases chemical signals that are transmitted to the body where they act as messengers of the thoughts. Every thought produces a chemical that is matched by a feeling and as a result you now feel the way you think!
When you feel a certain way chemicals travel back to the brain, making sure you think matching thoughts.
So now you not only feel the way you think, you also think the way you feel.(acknowledge the book as reverence)
If you are more interested in the science behind thoughts and feelings I can recommend the book ‘Evolve your Brain’ by Dr. Joe Dispenza D.C.
This shows why it is so important to focus on 'what we want to achieve'.
I'll write more about how we can make changes next time.

Exersice No. 5

Now its time to become aware of the chatter in your mind and start to listen to it more closely. What is it you are telling yourself?
Your brain only picks up the key words in your chatter. Just like Google it focuses on the keyword not the whole sentence. If you type into google:" I don't want to hear anything more about Paris Hilton" what is it coming up with? That's right, 10 pages full of news on Paris Hilton.
So start focusing on your key thoughts. If you tell yourself :"I don't want to fall off." your key word is 'fall off'. "I'm not going to forget my dressage test again" keywords are 'forget' and 'dressage test'. So be aware of your thoughts and whenever you catch yourself focusing on what you DON'T want, turn it around into something you DO WANT. Creating a clear picture of what it is you DO WANT also helps you to feel that way.
So your homework is to pay more attention to what's going on in your thoughts.

Exersice No.4

Did you find your lesson and could you see the learning?
Congratulations, that's a big step.
Now be grateful for the lesson.
Remember you always have a choice how you look at things and this will give you the opportunity to see things differently. Instead of focusing on the bad things, start to look for the good things.
By doing so consistently you train your mind to be positive.
Remember you feel what you think and you think how you feel.
Tomorrow we talk about how to re-program your mind.
Have fun.

Exersice No 3

So to recap on what we have done so far: You have written down what it is that you want to change about yourself and you have found the origin when that behaviour, fear or belief started. Now it's time to find the lesson and the learning in what happened.
If you have experienced something you don't like chances are you feel like a victim. A victim thinks things like:"why did this happen to me? What have I done to deserve this? Everyone is giving me a hard time. It's everyone else's fault."
If this is you, I'm afraid to tell you that you are stuck in a rut of negative thoughts, behaviours and ultimately negative outcomes. The only way to get out of this is to find your learning and that will change your thinking.
Now I know it's tricky to see something good when you don't feel good.
Let's start by accepting that there IS something good in your bad experience.
For example your learning could be that you can trust yourself more, that you have learned to sit up and listen to your instructor more or that you have to change the way you feed your horse.
Finding your learning gets you out of being a victim and empowers you to move forwards.
This is the most important step, so take your time and commit yourself to this.

Exercise No.2

Well how did you go, do you have written down what it is you want to change about yourself?
O.K. then lets get started.
Lets think for a moment about the 'old' you and the area about your riding you want to change. Lets just say its getting over anxiety at competitions.
Go back and think about when it all started. What was the very first thing that happened that you can remember being associated with anxiety at competitions. What was the trigger?
Was it a comment someone made to you about competitions being hard? Or was it maybe the pressure you felt of having to do well? And if it was the pressure did you put this on yourself or did someone else put it on you.Take your time to identify when it all started and document it down.
Talk to you tomorrow.
Cheers Tanja

Exercise No.1

Since most of the readers following this blog are horse riders lets stick to a horsey theme. If you are not horsey you can just adapt the exercises to any other area in your life.
The first step to change is you need to identify what it is you want to change. So in riding terms this could be letting go of fear when it comes to certain things like jumping, competition or trail riding. It could also be a choice to become more positive or more determined to follow your goals.
So the first step is to sit down and to take a long, hard look at yourself. What is it you want to change? Take a pen and paper and start to write it down.
This is your homework for day one, enjoy the self discovery and I'll see you back tomorrow.
Cheers Tanja

Quote of the day

Hi everyone, I'm very happy to hear that there are some people reading my blog and they seem to enjoy it.
Thank you.
I'm currently reading a fascinating book "Evolve your brain" by Joe Dispenza what it tells us is that changing our life is as simple as changing our mind. It talks about our brain cells forming neurological connections with each other which leads us to behave and response in ways that are congruent with our external world and the experiences we have collected. In order to change our life and get a different result we need to force our brain to gather new information and form new connections, which isn't that hard to do.
I thought we could run through some of these concepts over the next few weeks and discover together how how easily it can be done. I invite you to come on a little journey with me and please feel free to ask questions and make comments at any time.
If you have trouble commenting on the blog you can send me e-mails on tanja@equestriansuccessmindset.com
Talk to you tomorrow.
Cheers Tanja

Quote of the day

I have been wondering, is anybody out there actually reading my blog?????????
If you are, please let me know. I invite you to ad some comments, ideas, suggestions and questions you might have. ANYTHING.
This blog allows me to write down my thoughts and I invite you to do the same.
Have a fantastic day
Cheers
Tanja

Quote of the day

"As long as a person doesn't admit he's defeated,he is not defeated-he's just a little behind, and isn't through fighting."
Darrell Royal, football coach

Quote of the day

" Thought is the original source of all wealth, all success, all material gain, all great discoveries and inventions, and of all achievement."
-Claude M. Bristol, Author

Quote of the day

"The key to successful time management is doing the most important task first, and giving it your full concentration to the exclusion of everything else."
- Alex MacKenzie

Quote of the day

"Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody's going to know whether you did it or not."
- Oprah Winfrey