Invitation is vulnerable, allowing. It can be rejected, and it should be any time it feels like a No won't be respected. Your invitation is only true and trustworthy when there is no desperation behind it.
The Wisdom of Wildness : Healing the Trauma of Domestication - Ren Hurst.
We are into the 6th principle of Ren Hurst's book, and this one is a principle the majority of us find so difficult. STOP TOUCHING your animal without an invitation.
We get quite upset, angry or afraid if our animal jumps on us, up at us, barges in to us, demands attention by nudging, pushing or just being in our space without an invitation; so why should they accept us doing that to them?
Offer a space and invite the animal in to your space. Don't invade theirs. This is the principle from a physical perspective. Sounds simple in the head, not so easy to do, because our human society has such a struggle with respecting boundaries regarding animals.
Ren Hurst quotes the example of when a new puppy is bought home. The first thing everybody wants to do is pick it up and cuddle it. Then it grows up into a big dog and you tell it off for wanting to get up on your lap. Picking it up as a puppy was when you taught the dog that being next to your body was okay, was normal, felt good. The emotions it felt at that point from its new humans was happiness, joy, and safety. It will then try and get those feelings from you again in the way you taught it. Just think about it for a while. Makes sense doesn't it?
Horses are the same. We humans constantly invade their space and get upset if they don't want to be near us. Some horses will actually run away because the feeling of desperation for external acknowledgement from another being, horse or any other animal, is so strong, they don't want to be in the same space as that feeling.
The beauty of working with this principle is that the more space you create, the more often you invite from a place of peace, with a feeling of accepting a No if it is given, the more your animal will be happy to share space with you.
But, lets take this one step further. Think about it like this. You cannot create a space of invitation for another if you haven't got the space inside you to do that.
What does that mean. In simple terms, if you are full of expectation, need, desire, rather than empty space, you cannot create a space of invitation. If you are full of thoughts about the responses you got in the past to an ask for something, you cannot create a space of invitation. If you are full of worries about what others may think about you sitting and waiting for your animal to say Yes, you cannot create a space of invitation. Empty your mind. Let go of all expectations regarding your meeting today. And just create a space and see what happens. Magic happens!
Going even deeper into this principle means also looking inward. Create a space of invitation for yourself. "Who am I?" is a question never answered, because we are always too busy playing roles as as a being experiencing living as a human. But we can still create a space for ourselves, for our spirit if you will? Just empty your mind of who you think you should be, stop playing the role you are playing at for just a moment, create an empty space, invite in and allow whatever comes into your your heart, from your soul, from your spirit.
The space of invitation is where trust is created with another being. The space of invitation is where trust in ourselves is also created.
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