Horses… Equine Therapy is becoming more popular in Columbus, Ohio
Following a Dream for a Grassroots movement toward personal and community growth and healing…
Opening Your heart and minds through inter-species communications.
For many years, I had a dream to move somewhere where there was land, open sky, green grass and a change of seasons. My husband and I looked up and down the east coast from Florida to Maine, and then considered going westward to our old stomping grounds near Denver. So we were very surprised when we discovered a nice little farm right outside of Columbus, Ohio that called to our hearts. This farm was very close to where I attended the Ohio State University, and only a few hours away from where we were born. As soon as we situated ourselves, and with horses already on the land, I started to realize how happy I felt in their presence. Whether with one horse at a time or walking within the herd, my heart began to open and I felt great. My appreciate for nature and all that it has been teaching me here on the farm is constantly bringing me more depth and growth on so many different levels.
So here I am, enjoying the early morning light pouring in and feeling at home with the tractor out in the fields and the gorgeous maple and walnut trees outside my windows. I am excited to spend part of this Sunday focusing on creating my new Integrative Equine Therapy Business that is being developed one step at a time. For the last 6 months, I have been researching Equine Therapy and have been thrilled to see that there has been some great success with these programs in the Columbus area. I have found that that there are programs lent towards personal discovery, mental and behavior issues, job skills, social team building, sensory impairment, terminal illness and so much more. Most of them are non-profit and based on utilizing the community resources for the betterment of individuals and groups. My hope is to add this farm to the list of successful businesses interested in making their homes, stables and communities a place where we can contribute and make this world a better place to live. My hope is to bring meaning into a world where so much is Unknown and Unexperienced.
With this new Equine Therapy Program, my dream is to create a grassroots program where local people get involved and use their talents to produce an experiential approach to health and wellbeing. We will hold an intention to learn about ourselves through interactions with our equine friends, the horses here on the property and with those that visit. My vision may be a little different than others. While I admire what is already in existence, I’d like to take a more holistic apporach. From a bodyworker perspective, I find that dialoguing with horses in a therapeutic setting can have a dramatic effect on how we feel in our bodies, as well as emotionally, in our thinking…hearts, and with our spirituality. So this program will be a Holistic model meant to enhance all those aspects of our lives for who participate. Included, we will offer integrative services such as education, bodywork, acupuncture, energy healing, psychotherapy, meditation, women’s groups, corporate leadership programs, 1:1 therapy work as we grow. These modalities will be part of the program to strengthen and educate people about the connection between humans and our equine friends. Indeed, with mutuality with animals and nature, we learn to live more consciously in harmony and unity.
In the last couple months, I have been studying with a very wonderful and insightful woman named Jackie Stevenson, the founder and CEO of “Spirit of Leadership LLC” about how to lead companies and individuals to coach and educate equine participants in individual and group dynamics”. It has been an enlightening experience and I am highly anticipating my future in sharing her work along with my other skills in the near future. I remember the first day I went there and she asked us to go out into the field and spend time with the herd. I thought to myself after standing there for an hour, “what the heck am I doing standing out here with these horses”. But then the land and the trees began to swallow me up and I felt myself grounding down and opening to so much more than my usual daily life. Ever since that first day, I have looked forward to the next class. My relationship with each horse and the group is awakening me to so many new possibilities and intimacies. I feel met in a comprehensive way. In the meantime, I have been questioning and implementing some of Jackie’s ideas and techniques into my already strong foundation in the field of Healing Education. For sure, the herd is based on inclusivity. However, in order for people to come together in an order that work, a learning process takes place. It often takes patience and observation to find out how to fit in and make something work successfully.
I am thrilled to be part of the Cleveland Community, and furthering the process of bringing something similar to the Columbus, Ohio area. Our equine friends, and also all other aspects of nature and inhabitants on this planet have something to offer. We live on a planet where mutual compassion and understanding can help us to find confidence and thrive in a land that is meant to be heaven. Earth is our home, and we all have each other.
I am planting seeds wherever I go with my ideas and enthusiasm. I am reaching out and asking for help and participation for whoever has a gift or a challenge that they would like to offer.
If this sounds good to you, give me a call upon this invitation, and let me know your interests and how you might want to participate.
Warmly,
Sharon Hartnett LMT
740 966-5153
Craniosacral Therapist
Structural Integration Therapist
Hakomi Practitioner
Former Faculty at the Barbara Brennan School of Healing
Over the last few decades, Dr. Barbara Brennan has seen her healing techniques and teachings spread across the globe, touching the lives of many students, clients, and people who have attended her school and/or studied her books, “Hands of Light” and Light Emerging”.
Her four year program at the Barbara Brennan School of Healing” has continued to provide a sanctuary for people from all aspects of life in which to learn about healing and how their personal healership can support positive change in the world.There is no other setting quite like this school that can offer such a profound sense of community, bent in service to the Higher Purpose of Life. BBSH is a unique container of intentional movement toward the evolution of the human Spirit.
As a graduate of the school, I’d like to share some of my insights into the many benefits of attending this school:
A little bit about the school from a graduate’s perspective: The school is based on a four year curriculum, planned out to promote self awareness and energy transformation. In the most simple terms, the first year is very gentle and explorative in a nurturing sense. It is an opportunity to gain better understanding of Self, and how our Human Energy Field operates. As one approaches the second a year, a different template of energy is held to deepen into our whole sense of Self by further exploring our dualistic beliefs, wounding, defense systems and how we create conflict and resolve issues in our relationships. In my opinion, this year often opens us up to aspects of self where we dared not look in a long time. However, as we learn to listen to our Higher Selves, we gain insights from our darkness, and the light begins to shine brighter and brighter revealing our true natures. The third year takes us on another turn. This year challenges us to examine our relationship with God. Often authority issues are revealed and our limited thinking is dropped to open us to be more closely aligned with the Divine Mind. One learns to restructure chakras, to hold the 5th level of the energy field and so much more. Finally, when one enters the fourth and last year, the students take the time to write a research project and present a Case Study. This last year pulls the work together through working with the intention of Hara and rediscovering the Core Star connection we each have to the Divine.
To enter this portal of deep transformation and change, one has to be very committed. One has to learn to trust that by letting go of our old paradigms, that new wisdom and light will lead the way through our darkest trials. Students learn to recognize their strategies and defenses that no longer serve. With all pretenses dropping away, we have learned to become transparent and reconnected to the Whole. Even after graduation, we continue to question and explore in the dance of the Light , opening our hearts and our minds.
Most people who graduate, take the work they have learned from Barbara Brennan, her teachers and community out into their regular daily lives. But something integral to our way of Being has shifted. As we continue to use the skills, we weave our insights and essence into everything around us. We wake up to Source in everything we see with fresh eyes. Blocks that once held us frozen still dissolve easily, and the passage of life is easier to transverse.
I am not going to say that going the Barbara Brennan School of Healing is an easy journey. But it is a journey worth taking. The curriculum and support that show up at the school will help to heal your deepest wound. It will help you to navigate through life with more ease and grace. It will loosen your ties to the past and free you up to live more fully with Presence in the Moment.
Dr. Barbara Brennan dedicated her life to teaching and sharing her work. The Template of study and experience will dramatically change how you view life no matter how you look at it. If you are wanting to discover your True Essence, this is the place to start. If you want to look toward doing healing work with others out in the world, this school will give you the tools and Presence. Open up to your deepest longing and allow this community to support you in rediscovering your potential and True Self. Your beliefs are not you. You are so much more than you ever imagined yourself to be.
In your life, are you the type of person who walks around feeling joy and happiness?
If joy is elusive to your life, then you might want to consider another possibility on how you are living. We are not born to suffer. It is only something that we choose.
Self-Discovery
Perhaps that sounds farfetched to some people. And I am not saying that it appears easy to change one’s perspective about life and joy. However, I do believe that there is an inherent joy in everything if we take each moment and change our thinking to one of appreciation and gratitude. The mind is often a tricky thing. The thoughts that say, “That person hurt me” or “I don’t belong” are suggestive of the point that we are in a place of “they” against “me”. That is only a mindset. It is only in bringing our mindfulness to our hearts that we become more heart coherent. It is in our hearts that we come together in healthy relationship.
Have you ever noticed that when you are “loving” or “in love” that the world looks and feels like a different place? Does that make you wonder? Life is funny in that we often fall in love with a person, situation or an object. That “other” thing seems to help us to open up to a new reality that is expanded beyond the “me”. Falling in love is often fun, eye opening and can take your breath away. It feels so good. Yet, to push the edge a little further, have you also noticed that the sense of happiness also begins to dissolve at some point in the relationship? What made you smile and had your heart pound eventually turned sour or even painful? Love is a door opener, but when that aura drops away, it closes that door only to give you an opportunity to self-discover that new form of love for yourself.
The reality of life is that love is joy. However, when we begin to believe that is something other than ourselves, life decides to teach us a deeper truth. No matter what the circumstances are of the situation, when there is an “up” with infatuation, there will be a “down”. Nothing can remain on a pedestal forever. That is the way of duality. But we don’t have to choose “duality” anymore. It’s up to us to make this world a better place and that begins with self-responsibility to self-love.
When I work with people as clients, my most important intention is to listen well to what is here in the moment, and to be in service to awakening the abiding intelligence inside each person. I have faith that there is joy and love in each heart, and all that client needs is to remember. Sometimes when a person is depressed, there can be chemical deficiencies or habitually negative thinking that can be difficult to shift. If a client has been depressed for a long time and it is deep, it may take a whole team of physician, bodyworker or healer to help turn him/her around. However, I trust that if a person truly wants to change, it can happen. If he/she does not, that can be explored too and the quality of self-discovery hold as much value.
As a Massage Therapist, Healer, and Bodyworker, I have found that much of our suffering is only a condition that is chosen out of adaptation to our environment. The good news is that each of us is empowered to change and move more into a state of unconditional love. I know that there are beings who have been depressed a long time, and they believe nothing will ever help, but that is only the isolation speaking, not the joy that is buried somewhere deep Within.
How is joy self-rediscovered? When a person doesn’t see a way out in his/her own mind, help is needed. Usually people who are unhappy or depressed feel isolated and alone. But the truth is we are not alone unless we want that to be. So to find joy:
1. Find a healing team to work with you. (Physician, Psychotherapist, Healer, Minister, Bodyworker etc…) You need to remember that you are not alone. A good team will help you to rediscover your own value.
2. Make a commitment to yourself to see life as a fresh experience every moment. Before looking outward, bring mindfulness to your heart center. Live there and experience life.
3. When pain arises Within or you feel imbalanced or hurt, continue to stay focused on “Choosing love first” and put your hands on your heart. Linda Tellington-Jones recently said to do a circle and one quarter to initiate more movement there and I believe that helps. Allow the skin to move in a clockwise fashion.
4. Move more into Nature. When we are indoors, we tend to fall more into manmade living and limited thinking. We forget the wonders of life that are being revealed every second. Walk, sing, dance amongst the trees. This may sound a little out of the box for some, but there is something freeing about reconnecting with the beauty and intelligence that nature give us.
5. Bring more awareness not only to your thinking, but to the mind body & spirit connection. Often our thinking sets us apart. However, when we center on our whole body experience, new truths and awareness may arise that will change thinking. Cellular memory speak to us to help us to heal.
It is in unity that there is no conflict. When there is no conflict, we are in harmony and life flows easier. The Sacred Heart is the place where the physical and spiritual meet and the flame of love burns brightly in each of us. If you do not feel that, perhaps it is time to unload the baggage of your mind and choose another course. Be patient with yourself as we each have our own unique blueprint of life. That is the gift of our differentiation.
Know that We each are empowered. When we stop blaming and realize that, we contribute to the awakening of ourselves and all things on this planet. It that is true joy.
Warmly,
Sharon Hartnett LMT
Call: (614) 372-6598
Bodywork that listens to the mind body & spirit connection~
At Lighten Up Therapies, my hope is to find a way to engage the entire “Beingness” of my clients. I truly believe that my role is to be an educator and a questioner in the process of awakening into wholeness and comprehensive health. Your session is about having your needs met and in allowing healing and movement to take place to support your Wellbeing. This is often best served through exploration into the mind body & spirit connection
Mind Body & Spirt
Mind Body & Spirt
Massage can be an experience where you just come into relax. Some clients have a difficult time quieting down with their work and busy schedules. The best thing for them to do is close their eyes and enjoy. Massage can increase circulation, lymph flow, relax muscles, lengthen the connective tissues and balance the body’s systems.
are other benefits to Massage Work too. Massage is a field that has grown wide and deep. There is Medical Massage, Swedish Massage, Thai Stretching, Lymphatic Massage, along with many other specialty areas. Massage Therapists often get pulled into a certain direction depending on their love for the work and their own proclivity towards the various modalities of healing. To be a Massage Therapist in most states, one has to take Continuing Education before renewing their licenses. This is good news to our clients because it keeps us on top of all the new developments and expertise out in the field. Education helps us to keep doors open so that we can introduce new techniques, understand medical issues, and be aware of the ethics involved in being a bodyworker. With this said, I have taken the path of exploring the Mind Body & Spirit Connection with myself as a practitioner and with my clients in order to enhance quality of life. This does not mean that I see myself as a psychotherapist because I do not. Education is more my focus. However, I do have a lot of experience working with clients who bring up physical, emotional and spiritual issues. I don’t give advise, but I do follow my client’s own body intelligence and support them in finding their own truth for the most part. I trust that we each have a connection to our own Source, and my job is to support self-discovery and deeper contact at the client’s request. My training at the Barbara Brennan School of Healing and the Hakomi Institute have taught me to allow the organic process of bringing awareness into the present moment so that the mind can still enough to bring forth more spaciousness and opportunity to step outside of tension and conflict on many levels. Touch is one of the best ways to do this, especially once trust is established and the sensations of the body are changing the brain’s perception of history to the present moment. When we feel safe and at ease in our bodies, it is easier to address other issues that arise. A professional Massage Therapist will ask you what you need to feel comfortable and to build a confidential and trusting environment for you to relax and touch into the calm waters of your “Being”.
I find that it is helpful to listen to my client’s wishes when they visit. I usually take an additional 15 minutes for intake on the first session so that I can hear their history and understand their concerns. I like to know what has been helpful in the past and what they didn’t like. It’s important to respect a client’s feelings and to engage where he/she feels comfortable. Once this happens, the mind, body & spiritual issues naturally begin to unfold and open into a place of more light and clarity. So when the intake is complete, I invite the session to be about what is happening in the moment. What this does is to allow the mind to take in a new awareness, even when the brain is thinking about all the different things that it does. By Witnessing, Experiencing and being Curious during a session, the light inside becomes more transparent and it’s easier to feel healthier and to make better decisions about life and how one wants to use their energy. The massage is helpful in bringing more attention to the cellular awareness and discovering the tensions and the role they play in your life. I like to think that our issues have a positive role in helpful us to see things that we may avoid in order to help us resolve past issues whether physical or otherwise. This type of bodywork is meant to Awaken the mind body & spirit Experience. It aligns clients with a more holistic approach to life.
Either way… a massage to relax and fall asleep or a bodywork session to awaken and enliven the senses, Massage can be very beneficial to you and your evolving Spirit. Our Spirits are living in these human bodies… transformational tools for our hearts, psyches and physical health. Be proactive in your Self-Care and your quality of life can be much better. Whatever is happening in life can be eased by feeling good with yourself.
When stressed and feeling in pain, it is not easy to experience life as a miracle.
However, when we acknowledge our present and touch into our hearts, we melt into that glimmer of the Divine Spark. Sometimes we feel it inside, touching our tissues with awareness, Other times we are reminded by observing others or nature or something that shimmers with light. We may feel it when we are touched with listening and compassion.
The body is a physical vehicle that reminds us of the creation of the human spirit and the physical manifestation of life. The more we move toward integration and in free motion, our lives feel healthier.
When we feel healthy and good in our bodies, we tend to feel more in touch with joy and peace. It is easier to feel deeply into the miracle in which we live.
Taking care of oneself through touch, good nutrition, healthy expression of the creative force – allows us to gather insight into the light within.
Touch helps us to remember~
When you are feeling disconnected, imbalanced, stressed or just off your mark, consider offering yourself the gift of transformative Craniosacral Therapy Touch. Let Go and allow your inner wisdom to heal and to reconnect to the wonder of life. The human body is a sacred miracle given to us and blessed.
Learn more about Upledger Craniosacral Therapy, at: www.upledger.com
