Seek Opportunity in Obstacles with Kathy and the Horse Spirits

On the path of discovering our true essence and sharing our gifts, we often come across scenarios that can be perceived in multiple ways – two of which are either a challenge or opportunity. The way in which we percieve this scenario has an impact on the path forward. Like a horse on a trail, what would we do if we came across a boulder in the path?

Through the transmission below taken directly from my book, Horse Spirits Speak: On Love, Presence, and Harmony in a Chaotic World, I invite you, if you haven’t already, to wake up from the story that life is a struggle and begin to see each obstacle as a possibility of great insight along the path.

When we know our mission, when we really feel it in our whole body and heart, when we hold the vision of how to make it happen without being attached too much to the details or the how, when we put all of our heart, energy, time, money into it, why does life or the universe still send hurdles on our path?

We want to have a bit of fun with you. You have a beautiful question, and it’s outlined so well, yet you are contradicting yourself within the question. You have said you have gone upon your path without being attached to the details or how it unfolds. If you were truly unattached to how the details of it unfolded, then what in the world would make you perceive that anything that came upon your path would be an obstacle or a hurdle that you must struggle and fight?

For example, if I, as a horse, were to go down to the woods and onto the trail, and I said, “Okay, I am on my journey and I am going to follow this path wherever it goes because it is going to bring me into this big, beautiful, bright future” and I came across a boulder or a fallen tree, then I would find a way around it that would cause me the least amount of energy loss. I would get back onto the path knowing that navigating my way around the obstacle is part of the journey – that this was a little bit of a detour in the route – the left or right side. But I don’t hold a judgment or perception that a tree that is down on the trail should cause me angst and agony. Yes, it might it be a bit of a struggle to get over, or maybe I will have to go a little bit further around, but it is not as if I see that it has been put there to make me struggle. It is just part of the journey to the final destination. So I go over it, or I go around it, and I continue on the journey.

With this perspective, one must embrace whatever they learn as they went over or around the obstacle as part of the journey.

Your question reveals an attachment to the journey looking a particular way. You have an ideal about how it should look, and it doesn’t always look the way that you want it to look. When you start to see any experience as not looking the way you want it to, you are creating a bigger hole for yourself because you have gone into that left-brain sphere. In this place of consciousness, you conclude that things are supposed to be a particular way, which is not how it currently appears in your reality. The perspective continues by concluding that because it is not your desired way, that there is a hurdle, here’s another hurdle, here’s another hurdle, which means at some level, you believe that your road has to be tough, that it has to be arduous, that it has to break you down, that you have to prove yourself, that you are not good enough, that you are not worthy enough. The journey is filled with resistance, proving yourself, and struggle.

You know in your higher self, the spiritual aspect of your being, that this picture or idea you hold that life is a struggle is not valid. You intuitively know that life is not meant to be this way and there is nothing in the universe, God, spirit, etc. that is against you. We want you to wake up from this story. We invite you to shift your consciousness and perception of the current circumstances so you can also change your experience.

Like a horse on the trail, I would not take the journey so personal. The journey is what it is. If, like a horse in the physical world, I came upon a log, and I moved around it, and then I came upon another log, and I moved around it, I would not start to think that the “Creator” put those logs there to bring me agony or struggle, to make it hard for me – that my path is supposed to look different than what it is. Instead, I would continue to go forward, and I would find my way over and around the logs. I would not make them more than what they are: logs on the journey.
Each time I move around a log and what you see as an obstacle, I would learn more about the territory that I am traveling, which side is better, what tactic worked better, what didn’t work – and then I would go on…until I encounter the next log to go over. You may think that a horse lives a simpler life. You are correct. We do live simpler lives for the most part. We don’t internalize and make so much meaning out of things as many humans do.

We love your question. We want to lift you over and around the logs in your life that you perceive as obstacles. However, you must do this yourself, and this is the key: Do not make things more difficult than they have to be. Don’t make the unfolding of your life wrong because you have come to a log in the path. Instead, develop your ability to work within your herd – your human herd – so that the logs that you see as obstacles become moments of learning and deepening. Stop to see that they are not hurdles. Rename them. Have some fun with them. See them as creative opportunities. You do not need to be so attached to where you are going. Because it is not about getting to the end – it’s about every step along the way.

If I, as a horse, was going down a path with many logs across it, but I just wanted to get to the end of that trail, then I might try stepping over those logs. I might cut myself on a sharp branch or stumble on the rocky terrain. Each time that happened, I would get more tired, I would become bruised, I would grow weary because I would be pushing and rushing and not traveling along the journey in a centered and present manner. Instead, my focus was all about getting to the end. Maybe at the end, there is a nice flake of alfalfa or something for me. And then I have more desire to move down that trail all the faster. But then I get out of my body, my grounding, my center, and I get out of my wisdom. I get out of my attunement to the environment that I move through. Times like this are where I hurt myself, where I tire my body and being, where my rider becomes frustrated with me because I am not with her on the journey; I am unsafe and less reliable.

You must learn not to hurry along so much. Take one step at a time. Walk carefully so that you don’t cut yourself on downed logs. Delicately go ¬along the path, finding your way, learning each time you move around or over something. Be curious about why things are showing up and how you may have created the reality before you. Then your learning becomes so great that you have all of the foundations you need to build your dream and arrive at the place that you truly desire. But if you rush, you will continue to encounter those logs, and you will only be able to see them as obstacles in your way.

These obstacles are opportunities for insights and new ways of being in the world. They are not hurdles. They are gifts. They are gifts to you on your journey as you collect the wisdom that you need to serve at the level that you genuinely wish to serve. Your ability to see this is going to shift what happens for you, but as long as you continue to try to move swiftly over the so-called hurdles, you are going to be doing more damage than good.

Each time you slow down and take everything in, you develop strength in body and mind and stamina and endurance. And each time, the obstacles become easier because you know and better understand the lay of the land in which you travel.

Do you see that even in this answer, we have guided you over several logs with different ways of looking at the same thing? We hope that now you understand what we are offering. We want you to be easy on yourself. It does no good to make things harder than they need to be or are. We do not understand why humans on earth self-abuse so much. Be gentle with yourself. Walk with us. See these hurdles as your stepping-stones. Change your perspective, and you change the entire energy you create around each of the situations. You will find more flow and ease and excitement about your learning and progress. Remember that we are with you on this journey. And you can best serve us if you go along with us and see each obstacle as an opportunity.”

I invite you to explore…
New Ways to Grow and Expand!