Let’s start with a question. What if the best thing ever happened to you today? How would you feel? How would you celebrate? When you think of positive outcomes and experiences, it can make a profound shift in your mental wellbeing. This is also true when it comes to negative thought patterns. So, how can we work with our brains to overcome limiting beliefs? How can our body help reassure our nervous system that we’re safe? Our brains are wonderful – however, the brain can either limit us or provide a database for us to take in more information from our bodies about how we can feel safer and perform better.
Limiting beliefs don’t only hold us back, they hold our horses back too! Good or bad, the light we shine on our horses and ourselves as we go about our riding journey often effects performance. Limiting beliefs are often times distorted. Limiting beliefs can manifest in many ways. Perhaps it was a bad fall that really knocked your confidence, or a toxic relationship with a previous trainer or mentor who spent more time tearing you down than building you up. The reason situations like this stick with us is that in our minds, the origination of the belief held a lot of weight. Therefore, we might think it’s the truth. Limiting beliefs can happen as you remember specific memories from your childhood, or it can start as an adult after a significant experience. Some beliefs we have are subconscious, almost like chatter in the room while you’re trying to focus on an important project. It’s important to bring these limiting beliefs to the surface so we can address them, fact check them, and challenge them.
Becoming aware of your negative thought patterns is the first step. Awareness is power! Let’s take the example of “I can’t control my horse.” If it’s true that you can’t control your horse, lacking the physical and mental resources to handle this situation can interact with many aspects from personal confidence, to balance, to the experience level of the horse you ride. The trouble comes when we embrace the reasons behind our limiting beliefs. For example, if you’re lacking the physical ability to balance and respond to your horse in a way that makes sense to him and you accept it as a truth that won’t change, you’ll stay stuck. If you’re working through fear and simply label yourself as anxious instead of addressing your fears in a healthy way with a trainer who supports you as you work through your fear, you can also stay stuck. Negative self talk stemming from snide and unhelpful remarks from trainers, parents or friends can also get you stuck if you believe them. The key is if there’s a belief that holds you back, you need to look past it in order to change it. As you break the challenge down into steps that don’t force you out of your comfort zone, you can progress with less fear and measurable achievements. Nobody can properly learn when they’re overfaced and panicking.
Limiting beliefs are also notorious for tricking us into thinking in a pessimistic light. For instance, telling yourself “I’m not confident enough to ride this horse” over and over again is likely to reaffirm it in your brain and make the belief stronger. As for physical challenges, if you’re struggling with balance at posting trot and continuously drill the posting trot without making changes in how you’re approaching the challenge, it’s true that practicing will help. However, you could also work on exercises to build your stability in the saddle instead of struggling with this pain point until you eventually “get it.” Continuous unsuccessful attempts are a breeding ground for limiting beliefs.
Working with your body instead of fighting against it allows you to move past your challenges in better harmony. Many limiting beliefs can actually be changed through furthering the level of “feel” you have with your horse. Let’s take the example of trouble with the canter. Many riders tend to perch too far forward in the canter. It’s a big movement and many riders struggle to stay connected through their seat bones and maintain a long leg while their horse canters. We could canter around the arena over and over, or we could choose to work on suppleness of the hip flexors and psoas muscle, which will give a rider more tools and better feel of the canter, thus an ability to perform it in better harmony. Tension in the hips and back can inhibit our ability to feel safe and in control, so this rings true not only for riders who struggle physically with the canter. This is also a way to build confidence and help reduce anxiety around a specific movement pattern. Forcing and drilling often increases a rider’s feeling of limitation and activates the nervous system in a negative way. Instead, we need to expand on our body’s natural ability find balance. Once our bodies can affirm to our brains that we’re safe, the limiting beliefs we have often disappear.
As you can see, riding related confidence issues are often tied to our physical ability. If you felt 100% secure and connected in the saddle, it’s doubtful you’d struggle as much with your confidence. As you start exploring helpful patterns of movement which move you along towards your riding goals, your body will help reassure your mind that you’ve got this.
Empowering beliefs mean you need to have the capacity to welcome new possibilities. If you feel stuck in your riding, keep learning and improving. Explore new ways to address your challenges. Become aware of your limiting beliefs so you can start working on them. As soon as you commit to change, you become open to growth. Remember – it takes awareness to be able to change! Do you have limited beliefs around your riding? If so, I’m interested in hearing them. Feel free to click the “contact me” link and send me a message if you’d like. As always, thanks for reading, and make your next ride a partnership based, harmonious, and happy one. Take care.
–Kimberly