Hello Anna Marciniak

I just finished the Best – Worst exercise. Today I decided I will do this while cleaning. 

BEST – I notice that I feel I do not have enough time to really do my very best and that I tense in my body to a) be serious to get that dirt off b) to hurry on getting the task done! And still how marvellous the “it is not good enough” shows up again. I clean to what I think my Landlord is thinking what the standard should be, well, I am making of course an assumption here because she never gave me her standards in that way, so they must be my standards.

WORST – First off I threw the towel through the air, then caught it, threw it again, caught it and felt fun. So a song entered my space and I was humming along while doing the task. In another section I got sidetracked and decided to hang a picture up. The picture has been waiting there to be given a space but I never found the right one. Now it went up on my fridge knowing that it is cool here but it can also be moved if I wanted to. In general the worst phase did not turn out to be a mess (well, to be honest I was pretty clear that I did not want a mess because I would be the one that had to clean it up again) I found that generally I was not slower doing the task, my body felt happier doing it and there was more fluidity doing it.

So this is the first part of the Best – Worst, I will be going to the horses and see what happens there, still don’t know what I would want to do WITH them as I do not do much with them except caring for them. So lets see. 👀

Hello Anna Marciniak

These are the experiences with my horses. The idea was to put the halter on in the first set then go for a walk in the second set.

Rosie – the miniature – never before I saw her so vigoursly walking away when I approached her with the halter, so I stopped and waited for her to stop and then approached again. I had to do this several times until she let me put the halter on. Then I took it off again and put it on again.
In the worst phase I was just swinging the halter, dancing and singing with it, approaching her, she did put her head onto the side but eventually she let me put the halter on. I did it several times.

Next set with Rosie was that I put a lead on her halter (I left it on before the break) and was asking her to go for a walk. She refused, so I stopped and waited, asked again, she refused and so it went on and on, so I gave up moving with her.
In the worst set I again was just humming away, snapping the halter on her and starting to walk away, she resisted for a moment but then followed and we walked around, she took over the lead at some time and I followed. I went much better than I anticipated. She does not like to be on a halter and normally wants to move by herself.

Next was Apreeto – the Andalusian. He saw the halter and took off, not far but he was adamant that he does not want to have anything to do with it. He went into his stable, turned away and away and finally after some time stood and let me put the halter on. Not that he agreed!
In the worst phase he walked away again then stood there and let me put the halter on. So I put the halter on and off and on and off and finally left it on.
BEST – I asked him to go for a walk with me, he came unwillingly. Several times he got in front of me, blocking me. i stopped, acknowledge it and then walked again. At one point he was falling way behind me walking in my back which felt uncomfortable. 
WORST – He did not wanted to move so I pulled gently on the lead robe. Then he came and we walked, we ran a little and walked again, not that he enjoyed it I felt. I did not really know what to do to help him finding agreement.

George was already standing there as I entered the BEST phase for putting a halter on. I expected him to turn away but he did not. He put his head away. I waited until he brought his head in front again and then was able to put the halter on, he even put his nose into it himself. Then I took the halter off and put it back on, he just stood there.
WORST – He moved away a step but then stood again, I was playing with the halter singing a song, showing him the halter, put it on, telling him how beautiful he is and I took it off again, giggling about it, put it on, singing and giggling several times. 

In the break I stood next to him to relax and he pushed me with his nose into my belly, over and over again, it was difficult to ground and relax.

BEST – My first impulse was not to go walking with him but trimming his right foot a little as I noticed that he was not so comfortable on it. I put the lead robe on him and asked for his front right leg to come forward, so that I could pick it up and put it over my leg to trim. He did that, I trimmed a little and he wanted the leg back, I asked him again forward, trimmed and put it down to have a look and let him have a feel.
WORST – I asked George for the leg to lift to the back as I wanted to trim from the bottom, he did that, I trimmed and put the leg down. As I asked for it again, he lifted the other front leg, so I followed his lead and trimmed a little on his other front leg. Then I continued to caress him and talk to him as I felt that was enough trimming. He was quite with me, it felt he enjoyed the interaction.

I noticed about myself in this exercise that when I was in the BEAT phase I was thinking a lot more than in the WORST phase. I also was holding expectations of that the horses would not like to do what I ask from them. My energy field was much more outside of myself, more in the energy field of the horse. I was doubting that I could do a good job.
In the WORST phase I did not care so much about what I had to do. There was more of a curiosity in my space. 

🐴🦄🐎Anna Marciniak Great experiences Petra Webstein. Lovely that you tried simple things like putting the halter on and walking together. I also loved your observations that you felt more spacious in the worst phase. Now it’s important that in both phases you just press the remote control button on either Worst or Best phase and you allow your body to act out what it thinks is best and worst in both phases (still, we understand Worst as something playfully forbidden that you have chills thinking that actually you could do that, something that a child would do when home alone – forbidden pleasure, expressing joy in a way that was never allowed, jumping on the bed, playing at the dusty attic full of old books and boxes with forgotten things… ✨)   Anna Marciniak Hello Petra Webstein! First let me refer back to what you did alone: lovely experiences 💛 I very much like that you observe yourself in detail, and that you saw that by completing the task in the worst way you did more than you planned (hanged the picture) but also that you were lighter and your body had more fun. Wonderful!