"Be strong, you never know who you are inspiring"

 I did a little research and tried to find who was the first to say it but I couldn't find an answer, it seems to be one of those famous motivational quotes where origins are lost to us. I was just surprised that with nearly 5 years of blogging behind me, last autumn was the first time that I'd heard of this saying - and I'm a BIG fan of inspirational/motivational sayings! 💞

But anyway, "be strong, you never know who you are inspiring" casts quite a wide inspirational net. The higher and more public you are in social media, the broader your potential ability to inspire is. Many people are watching you, and sometimes very carefully - whether you want them to or not. So it's about tone you create, because the small things can make a big difference. Recently I've been told that my blog posts about different riding exercises have been really helpful and that people have even gone back to them to re-read them when struggling with something and this makes me feel SO good! So we all need to be aware of the power to inspire in every single blog post and social media post. By honouring that you honour those who find you motivating. 

Which is why is resilience (or toughness, or the Finnish sisu or whatever you want to call it) is so critical to succeeding with our horses. Resilience is the ability to bounce back, it’s the ability to adapt to stress and adversity which life is always full of. Losing my grandmother in November was not that much of a shock, she'd been gently going downhill for the last 3 years and she hadn't remembered who I was for the last 2 years (because of dementia) but it still hurt me down to my soul. I spent 3 days in bed doing absolutely nothing after which I managed to bounce back to my normal routine, even if I didn't feel like myself yet. But I did mange to get back on my horses and start training again and getting ready for next season! 

If life has you feeling stressed or sad or worried, let this blog post serve as a reminder that YOU have a beautifully tough resilience inside of you that you can tap in to at any time. Please don't ever forget to take time for yourself to do the things you need to do to maintain your balance - mine is to throw myself into reading books and riding my horses and nothing else for a week so that I can come back to my normal state.  So remember to be strong and carry on through life knowing that you have the capacity to be strong which other people can see, admire and be inspired by! 🌸