Exploring Freedom that you and your pets might not even know is possible opens all kinds of doorways into a happier, healthier life!

Exploring freedom is something that I have been thinking about all week. I know that I always want to generate more healthy freedom in my life, and in the life of my beautiful animals. Sometimes ways to do this are simple and obvious, but sometimes it can be tricky, hard to see, and hard to find, even when the opportunities are right in front of us, almost staring us in the eye.

A few months ago, I let the old mare, Star (may she rest in peace) out of the small paddock beside our house, into the big paddock. She was an ex-racing mare, and had spent her whole life in stables, or small yards. She had never enjoyed a whole big paddock.

And when I put her out there, she found all that space, all this new freedom, really uncomfortable- she walked the fence trying to get back into a smaller space for a couple of weeks. It was really uncomfortable for her to experience more freedom. Exploring freedom, especially new freedoms that you (or your pets) may never have enjoyed before, is often quite challenging, even fearful at first.

It’s possible that there are all sorts of opportunities right in front of you (and for your pets too) for exploring freedom that you simply can’t even see because they are outside of your spectrum of what you think are possibilities. I know that there have been more than a few timescin my life when I suddenly saw new possibilities that had always been there, but that I just didn;t have the capacity to recognise.

When we talk about exploring freedom, it’s important to go gently, and make sure that what you are considering trying out or stretching into is a true, healthy freedom. For example, if you have a young dog without a strong recall, letting them off lead may not be a sensible freedom (unless it’s in an enclosed area).

If you are exploring freedom, stretching out into new experiences, things that you’ve never tried before, or things that are new to your pet, it’s super-important to go slow and easy, with plenty of pauses for rest, regulation, and habituation. Your nervous systems will need to adapt to this newness. No matter how beneficial new freedoms may be, we all need time and space to get used to the idea of this expansion, newness, and increased space.

Practical tips for exploring freedom with your pets (and for yourself)

Freedom can be defined ‘as the power to do what you want to do: the ability to move or act freely’ or ‘the state of not having or being affected by something unpleasant, painful, or unwanted’ or ‘the right to use something or go somewhere without being controlled’.

I think it’s important as a first step, to make sure that whatever new freedoms you are going to explore with yourself, or with your pets are healthy, ecological, and that you calibrate or titrate how much you explore and stretch into them at first. You must consider safety in all dimensions – physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and energetic.

Then take some time to brainstorm how you’d like to explore freedom. Make sure that you do this in ways that are enjoyable as possible. This helps transcend the challenging nature of truly reaching into new freedoms. I recommend starting small, and building on your explorations step by step.

Stay as present as you can, body-aware, sensitive to your needs, and your capacity. If you feel like you;ve had enough for now, then withdraw back into your comfort zones and assimilate what you’ve experienced. If working with your animals, this is very important, because if you push them too far, they may become afraid, rather than resilient. Little by little is the key, with a sensitive eye to not exceeding capacity.

I suggest starting exploring freedom by gently stretching out into more of the areas you are already familiar with. Exploring beyond comfort zones, but within activities or places that are known. Then you can start considering leaping out into whole new territories of freedom!

You might explore freedom emotionally, physically, mentally, spiritually, and energetically – and a good place to start is by being intensely curious about where you may have unconscious restrictions on your freedom. The more you are curious about this, the more you’ll naturally start to catch glimpses of your blind spots.

Here’s a link to a video where I talk about this topic live…

Enjoy this? Here’s a link to last week’s blog.

Here’s a pic of me helping a dog with a sore neck – less pain = more freedom!