The MSC Approach

THE VALUE OF A REAL CONNECTION

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More people than ever are becoming connected through social media, smart phones, apps, and many other forms of technology which has lead us silently and swiftly to embrace the age of instant gratification. When we want something, we want it now. We are losing the ability to wait for a delay in the fulfilment of our desires. Feelings of satisfaction are increasingly time sensitive and dependant on being able to almost instantly access a reward for what we are seeking.

Without our devices, most of us feel cut off, disconnected from our friends and what is going on in the rest of our world.? When we connect through a phone or computer, many aspects that go with a face to face communication are lost. The emotional exchange that happens when we experience each others? facial expressions and body language is missing. Matched expressions of emotion are known to have a calming effect on our minds and bodies.

?The depth of connection with people and animals isn?t really possible using this kind of virtual contact. I sometimes reflect back to the days before mobile phones and wonder how I managed to find people and places with just an address and a landline number. If I needed to call someone, I would have to scout around for the old fashioned telephone kiosk, now a museum piece, praying I had the right change. Unless the other person was within reach of the receiver, my call would go unanswered. It was so much harder to keep in touch even fifteen years ago. A certain amount of sideways thinking and resourcefulness was needed to accomplish what often felt like a mission.

Successful communication with horses happens when we are able to bridge the invisible gap between our body language and their emotions in order to positively influence behaviour. We live in an age of rapid exchange of information but ?talking? to your horse is usually far from instant, it requires much time and effort before a rewarding connection is acknowledged by both parties. It is so much easier to join up electronically with friends and discuss where our relationship is at and how we are going to improve it than actually going out and working on it in physically. Technology can rob us of the will to make tangible, consistent endeavours towards building a true connection with animals, but conversely, our need to do so has never been greater. Our desire to achieve a meaningful bond is historically stronger than ever. Although the advantages of instant messaging, social sharing etc are huge, they can?t fill the gap in our hearts that long to connect in a more inwardly satisfying way.

When we interact with a horse there is a direct communication through body language and unexpressed emotion. In other words, horses pick up on our thoughts and feelings whether or not they are expressed or visible. They are definitely affected by our mental state; we can?t fake it.? Reactions, in the form of feedback, take place without disguise, and with complete authenticity. Unlike a horse, we can say one thing but mean another and manipulate our facial expression to mask what we are really thinking.

Since horses are large and imposing animals, we are likely to notice their behaviour, and in doing so, we have the ideal opportunity to look at our own. Communicating face to face allows us to open ourselves to empathic understanding. Without the possibility of shared feelings, a true connection is nothing more than fantasy. For most of us, the idea of being fully accepted, warts and all, is only a dream. Perhaps one of the reasons so many of us have pets.? Horses, and other animals, simply don?t judge us, not ever; even when we do things we think will result in judgment being made against us. In an animal?s presence, we can feel our most whole. Spending time with our horses includes being with ourselves in ways that are impossible when we are plugged in to one of the many forms of electromagnetic wizardry.

Source: http://mscnaturally.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-value-of-real-connection-more.html

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