Horse, all there is is horse

Sit comfortably and close your eyes. Breathe. Now breathe a little deeper. Knowing that Julia loves animals, I offer her to bring an animal into the vision of her mind. "Choose your favorite animal", I ask. "One that you really can feel love towards".

Breathing deeply as the image appears and becomes clearer.” Start with the head, and notice every detail of the animal. See the eyes, the fur, and the ears...keep going and really get to know this animal. Then follow the rest of the body. See every bit of the animal. Once the image is clear, once you can feel as if it is right there in front of you, keep it within the mind, maybe between the eyebrows, around the third eye."
Some silence, and time for deepening the image. Really allowing the image to fill up the whole concentration of the mind and all of its space. Dropping into this image, so that all that there exists is this animal. In Julia's case it's horse. As the mind drifts away, we return to horse. And again horse. Seeing it clearly, a sense of love and joy may appear.

Another thought might come in, and we return to horse, just horse. With practice we learn to tap into this deeper experience of concentration and content. Over time the image becomes more and more familiar associated with a good feeling, with calmness and relaxation. The image of the animal makes it easier to return to this state of clam and focus. We learn that just by bringing horse to mind, the signals of centeredness, focus, love ease etc. will be “attached” to the image. The mind will obey and release faster. When a distraction happens in life, we just drop into horse. Now every time the mind is agitated, all we need to do is close the eyes for a moment and return to horse. A sense of allowing, letting horse be, without interruptions.