A week and a half ago I went to Montana for a leadership retreat called the Power of Choice. Before I left I was pretty vague on what I was doing out in Montana, because I only had a vague idea. My mom went a few years ago and really enjoyed it and got a lot out of the program. She thought I could benefit from it as well, and offered to send me. Since development is what I'm interested in the Human Resources realm, I agreed.
It turned out to be a really important experience, as well as very fun and relaxing. We spent a lot of time looking into our pasts to discover what happened in the time between birth and puberty that created set patterns of maladaptive behavior. We discovered these beliefs we created as children, and then analyzed how they affect us as adults. Its surprising to see how my childhood still affects how I behave now. Ultimately, the goal of the program was to create new patters of healthy behavior.
We worked with horses during the program because they are very sensitive to how people interact with them and can act as sort of mirrors to our behaviors. One of the most rewarding round pen exercise was that we had to get the horse to walk, trot, then walk around the pen once, and then come into us. All without touching the horse. I managed to get my horse (Lad) to walk around once, but when it came to making him trot, I was at a lost. The key was to make myself big, and I'm not used to being big and making people do things I want. So actually making myself big was difficult, but with some help I managed to become big and get Lad to trot right around the pen. It was really exhilerating to be able to do something like that.
Currently I'm struggling to actually get myself to move beyond my maladaptive behavior. Hopefully, once I relax more and address problems and I enjoy life to its fullest.
I also got to play with baby wolves.
No comments:
Post a Comment