My sympathetic nervous system has been on high alert after a really difficult first week back on the job in 2024. I have two of three team leaders (direct reports) on 12 months parental leave and despite extensive forward planning am only now finalizing recruitment and onboarding for their replacements. My immediate boss resigned before Christmas and my first week back was his last week, I was sad to see him go. I am finalizing a trial for a 4 day compressed work week which I am keen to have approved as it provides a significantly better work-life balance, but it still is not yet officially signed off. My third team leader is likely to being shift to another opportunity in the organization. With a new CEO on board and pending an organizational restructure it looks like my departmental portfolio will change and possibly the directorate my department sits in may also change. This all left me feeling highly activated, but there was nothing I could channel my activated ‘fight or flight’ response into!

Of course I knew all most of this change was in the pipeline, but after two delightful, slow and easy-going weeks of annual leave I was left feeling blindsided and dysregulated the entire week. I just couldn’t get myself onto an even keel. My focus and energy were scattered and my connection to myself and others felt fractured. This is not how I like to interact with life! Today, after a long walk, prayer, meditation and yoga and I spent an hour in mindfulness and silence grooming my beautiful mare Sophie under the shade of a big old tree on a lovely summer morning. At the end of this session I was feeling calmer, more connected, centred, grounded, grateful and peaceful even though nothing shifted externally.

My personal experiences with horses continue to align with research which proves that simply being in the presence of horses can regulate the human sympathetic nervous system and every time I experience the power of equine informed awareness I am left humbled and awed.