Rediscovering Connection with Shelley Doyle
Welcome to Rediscovering Connection, a Podcast where you'll hear from innovative leaders, researchers, community builders, and facilitators, on the frontier of connection.
Through soulful conversations, we explore new ways to connect, on-and-offline, to support our social and digital wellbeing.
I hope this podcast inspires you to rediscover connection in your own life!
Learn more about my work:
Website http://thecommuniverse.com
Subscribe to my Podcast https://youtube.com/@thecommuniverse
Rediscovering Connection with Shelley Doyle
#29 - Christina Marz - Coaching and Healing with Horses
Christina Marz is a holistic psychologist living in Ecuador. Originally from Bavaria in Germany, Christina promotes the connection to horses for emotional healing and personal development. We talk about fighting imposter syndrome to launch an international school, why AI copy has no sparkle, and how horses read human intentions and feed our intuition.
This episode is ideal for coaches, therapists and horse lovers.
About Christina Marz:
Inspired by her own childhood experience Christina Marz has created an international school for Horse Guided Empowerment® and shares her ideas as a speaker, author and mentor.
Find Christina Marz on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marzmethod/
Website https://christinamarz.com/
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/marzmethod
YouTube https://www.youtube.com/c/ChristinaMarzRing/featured
---
---
I hope our conversation inspires you to rediscover connection in your personal or professional life.
Subscribe now and let the magic unfold.
Love & sparkles,
✨Shelley
About Your Host
Hi, I'm Shelley Doyle, a Social Wealth Strategist and Connection Coach. I empower remote and nomadic founders and leaders who crave deeper connections to activate their social wealth, so they can feel trusted, supported, and truly connected—both online and offline—no matter where they are.
Discover More.
I combine cutting-edge research on social wealth, social wellbeing and social capital with two decades in corporate communications to deliver mind-shifting talks, workshops, and programs around the world.
Find me at TheCommuniverse.com and on LinkedIn.
Global Workshop Tour "Beyond Screens" begins September 2024.
To hear when new episodes drop, subscribe to my weekly newsletter, or check out recent episodes.
And sometimes as a therapist or as a coach, it's not so easy for us to detect that in a client. You know what is your? What do you really want? Do you just say that, or do you really want that? And the horses, no, they can read our intention. There's a study about that where horses were tested with carrots. You know, every horse is addicted to carrots and they had different test groups, test participants, and one of the groups was told to pretend to feed the carrot but never do that. And the horses knew right away.
Speaker 2:They just left wow, yeah, you read your mind. Yes, they do, they do. Hello and welcome to Rediscovering Connection. I'm Shelley and today I'm here with Christina Mars. I can't say I've had anyone on my podcast thus far who uses animals to reconnect with themselves, with their clients, with each other, so I'm delighted to invite Christina here with me today.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for this invitation. I'm thrilled to be here and I need to bring you up to speed because horses well, animals in general, but horses can do so much for us in everything related to connection and communication, so let's have fun together. This will be so eye-opening for you.
Speaker 2:Amazing. Well, let's kind of start. So I imagine that, bearing in mind the work that you do, you come from a family that was quite horsey. You probably got into horses from an early age. Is there any truth? Truth in that, well?
Speaker 1:I did come to horses from a very early age on, but not because my family offered them to me and had horses, but because my family pushed me to find a place where I could experience authentic connection and calmness and belonging. My home was quite difficult. It was a lot of depression, a lot of social anxiety and my neighbor had horses. So we lived in a tiny village in the Bavarian countryside in Germany and our neighbor had a herd of horses outside in a pasture and that was my happy place, my calm place, my, my connection place, and that's how it started, at like age six or seven maybe wow, so it was in your back garden, if you like, but you really chose it yourself and was an instant connection for you.
Speaker 2:Did you find it kind of feel comfortable in the presence of horses from an early age?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I did, and you know that is a question that we ask each other in the horse world. You know, usually it's girls, horse girls and we kind of. We are obsessed with horses and we all have this obsession from a very early age on and we are discussing and trying to find out, like, what is it, how did we get there? And we usually have all these personal stories. But I don't know what it is that. You know infiltrates, you know this bug. Because I did feel comfortable around horses right away.
Speaker 1:I had just been on a pony once with my grandfather, but observing them and sitting with them, just sitting on the fence and observing them, was so powerful and so important for me that I never, never, ever questioned if you know that would be safe or if I knew anything about them. It was just I had to be around the horses and it's. I don't know if that was because I was so needy, because I needed that emotional unit, because horses seek harmony and seek that connection, and maybe they reached out and kind of like, adopted me. I don't know, that is possible. But yeah, it was really calming and helpful for me from from the first moment on and you're now living quite far away from your roots.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes. So why don't you tell us about that kind of transition and then how this connection with horses has kind of come side by side, that transition, right?
Speaker 1:So the connection with horses really was a company for my entire life when I was in university. I kind of, you know, put it aside a little bit, but it never left me. I just was not in contact as much with horses.
Speaker 1:And then 25 years ago I came to Ecuador, in South America, on vacation and we went horseback riding and we visited Hacienda up in the mountains in the Andes, and there were wild horses. There were so many horses and I'm like, oh my god, this is my place, like I belong here, I have to be here, and we have the same climate almost all year round. It's, you know, the equator, that's why it's called Ecuador, and the climate only depends on the location in the country. So there is high mountains and there is coastal regions, but within that region the temperature kind of stays the same, so the horses can be outside all year round in the pasture and it was just fascinating for me. So I did actually come back two years later and decided to live here and I've been here ever since and now I have my own herd.
Speaker 2:So, uh, I'm super happy, my childhood dream kind of manifested here beautiful, and just what you said there that you, you got to that place and you thought I have to be here, I belong here like that actually gave me tingles, because I just think, gosh, how blessed you are to have felt that, to have been there and felt this is where I need to be. And I, personally, I think I'm chasing. I'm chasing that I want to find my, find my place, that I need to be right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, come to Ecuador you know there, there is a lot about connection here and a a lot of people who I mean it's not the primary destination for expats, but there is quite a few expats here all over the country of connection when we come here and the sense of disconnection when we go and, um, I've I've read a little bit about it once that there are. Maybe you know more about this. So there are like these connection points on earth where you can actually measure the energy that a place holds. And Ecuador is like a fusion, a melting pot, and then Germany is all flat in that regard.
Speaker 2:I've I've heard a little bit about ley lines. I wonder if that has anything to do with those.
Speaker 1:Maybe I don't know a lot about it really, but, um, you know, it just made sense when somebody mentioned that that there is like energetic centers all over the world that have to do with connection and and Ecuador is like a, you know, an important one, or like this reason.
Speaker 2:This is really curious because I know the ones in the UK, like there's one at Glastonbury that's on the ley line and also St David's in Wales that's on the ley line.
Speaker 2:So I'd be curious to maybe look into that yeah, yeah, interesting, and you were talking a little bit before about, um, the community there where you are, because we were talking about how close connections is. It is really important to our health and happiness. I'm also feeling feeling as though you're part of a community, that if you were just to disappear for a few days or a week, it's like who's gonna notice? Who's gonna notice this? And do you wanna speak a little bit to that, about the community that you're in?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I think that community here had a huge influence also on my, on my path, because I am I'm an introvert and I did not really believe in, you know, what I could accomplish or like choose a mission in life or something like that, and I never felt I would belong except with the horses really. And I never felt I would belong except with the horses really. And then here in Ecuador, I didn't live in an expat community in the beginning and as a German, white, caucasian, blonde woman with blue eyes, I stick out right. So there's just no way to to blend in. I'm taller than everybody and I completely look totally different than everybody else and and I think that helped me to also find what else is unique about me and to be, to be bolder about. Well, you know, I'm so different anyway. So so, you know, let me just, let me just be a little more different in all aspects of life and and I believe that inspired me to start, you know, for example, working with horses and offering coaching and therapies with horses, when it was not really a thing but everybody accepted it, nobody questioned it for me because, oh, you know, you probably know better, or probably it's a thing in Germany. I'm because, oh, you know, you probably know better or probably it's a thing in Germany. I'm like oh, you have no idea, but but yeah, thank you for having me Right. So it's like a prejudice, a racial prejudice, but in a positive sense. For me, right, I never have to present a CV or a certificate or you know anything. People just assume that I know right, because I'm German and in Germany. In the contrary, you need a certificate for everything.
Speaker 1:I teach healing and coaching with horses and my friends from Germany asked me like so who gave you the permission? I'm like I did, because it's my method, like I wrote, wrote it, I developed it and and I have a worldwide and international school. Right now I have students in over 30 countries and they're like but you're not a school. Like, yes, I am, yes, I am a school. I mean, I don't know what, what you want a school to be, but I have external accreditation and students and the process and the and the manual and the curriculum. Like, what else do you want? But? Um, but my, my, like college friends, high school friends, they, to the day, question that.
Speaker 2:So I think there is a huge, it has a huge part of being here and being so different that pushed me, that kind of allowed me, you know, brought me to myself, giving me permission and I and I do feel that, having moved several times around the world myself, I feel like in each move, I am leaning further and further into my authentic self, and it's like I went back to the UK last summer and I did wonder will I be able to be this like most authentic version of me whilst hanging out with my old friends? Right, yes, because I think when we stay in one town and we're um, we're constantly with people who knew who we were.
Speaker 1:We were, evolution is able to be as rapid as it can be when we move yeah, yeah, and and like being believing in, in yourself, I mean for every everyone who's like coaching or doing therapy or developing their own methods. They know that the imposter syndrome is our best friend, right? It's our constant companion. And I think it's easier it was. It was definitely easy for me to overcome that, or to just not even consider it for the longest time, because everybody here had such a different situation upbringing, background, everything that there was really nothing to compare to. So, you know, I just did my thing and then some people were interested in it and then like, all right, then let's do this. So that's how it. That's how it started.
Speaker 1:When I gave my first course, I was just finding, trying to find colleagues. I wanted to share what I had seen and experienced with the horses and my clients. I wanted to share that with somebody. And, and you know, just on a a this is so amazing, who else wants to hear this basis? And I thought I would do it once. And then you know, like 28 courses later, um, it's, uh, it's, it became a thing and um it, yeah, I never anticipated that.
Speaker 2:And you have a family in Ecuador now. Yes, you have three kids. I have three kids.
Speaker 1:Yes, I'm divorced from my German husband but he lives close by. I have a new partner and then my mom came here and that was, you know, in a sense of connection, that was such a game changer, not not only in a positive way, because, uh, you know, my family is really my, my, my kids, um, are really connected. We are, um, we are very close. We share a lot of things and my mother is, you know, she knows me as the old me and I know her as the old her, which is still her. So, so it has been really difficult for me to to adapt to her being here and accepting that she is not going to change and that for her it's, it's really hard to see to meet me where I am now, because I have grown so much like I'm not, I'm not the same person and, uh, and that is quite difficult for her. So, yeah, we are, are having, you know, our challenges make us stronger.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, right, yeah, but you know this whole topic about connections and how do they form and what influences them apart from your character, your nationality or your upbringing or something. The surroundings have such a big role in it. And I think the main, like it, boils down to the most important aspect of do you want to change it like? Do you have an innate desire of connecting, learning to connect, feeling connected or not? And if you don't, then really you know, not even the environment, not even a herd of horses, will get you there.
Speaker 2:So you have to want to change your style?
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, and then, if you want it, a herd of horses or a couple of horses can be an amazing catalyst because they show you your patterns.
Speaker 1:There's a couple of of traits, of behavioral um specialties that horses have that make them such an important partner in these kind of interactions. So one of them is that horses want to live in a herd. They are naturally made to do this and they in the wild they live in very big bands, like 200 horses scattered over huge terrain. So it's not that they all like stick together, they are really scattered and that has brought them to develop a special form of communication which is like an emotional telepathy. So it's not only body language, they're not observing each other all the time. They send out emotional messages and that creates an emotional unit for the herd and that creates an emotional unit for the herd. So if everybody is in harmony and they're just grazing and there is no threat, then you can feel that within the herd. And that is based on the heart rhythm. Do you know anything about heart math? Have you heard about that before?
Speaker 1:I've heard of it and I haven't delved into it very much heard of it and I haven't delved into it very much, yeah, so so the heart math institute analyzes that, our heart rhythm, and it's not if it's fast or slow, it's about the space between each heartbeat. It's called heart rate variability, no hrv. So depending on your emotions, your, your HRV is different. It has a very singular pattern and that translates into an electromagnetic field that can be measured. So if you are stressed or anxious, or fearful or passionate or friendly and calm and curious, all that has a different field. And if you are in somebody else's field, you can feel this too, and we have all experienced it.
Speaker 1:So, for example, if you go to a doctor's office and immediately you feel like, oh god, you know, everything here is so dreadful, kind of. Or you walk into a hospital or into a church and you're like, oh, so serene and calm and welcoming. Right, it's because the people who are there feel that way, because of the interaction, they create this field. And then you walk into that field. So horses have a gigantic heart. Really. That's five times bigger than ours. Their field is stronger than ours. So if you come just next to one horse, you will like you have to adapt. Your heart is like I'm gonna do the same, right, because their field is so strong. And then we work with several horses at a time, so that could be two, five, ten, a hundred, right? So if you're in that field, you benefit from that field, energy and horses in.
Speaker 1:Well, you know you have to make a distinction between adequate living conditions and non-adequate. So a horse that is in a small box all day with no companions and no room to move, would not have this effect on you, right? But a horse that is in harmony with their herd, is calm, is curious they are naturally curious and is connected. It's always thinking about where are the others, what are they doing, how is everybody feeling for their survival, for their safety? And then you feel that way too.
Speaker 1:So that gives us a foundation, a ground layer on which, you know, you plant a seed of teaching, coaching, healing, therapeutic conversations, whatever it is, and it just, you know, it just blooms because people are calm, connected, curious, they have this, you know, connection to their emotions, and that makes it so powerful, right and um. And then there's another part, which is about intention, so um, and I think that is when we talk about today's connections and conversations. You know, with this chat, gpt and other ais, and you know all this virtual environment. Does it happen to you that you read a text and you know that is written by ai?
Speaker 2:not yet. I haven't. I haven't received a text by ai yet. No, have you no?
Speaker 1:yes, so sometimes you read something and it doesn't, it doesn't transmit the sparkle, right, so it it is just like I don't know there's no intention in it, because it's a generic AI created, or you know just. You know just write something kind of text and I think that we can, like, we can, feel everybody's intention if we are one-on-one. Right, if you meet somebody, you know, you know this is, this is going to be my bestie or weird person, but you can also sense it in on zoom and you can sense it even in other interactions. So sometimes, um, I have, I sometimes have people who were victims to fraud. Right, I'm a psychotherapist, I deal with trauma and you know difficult moments in life. So sometimes I have people who have been victims to fraud and all of them will say I knew it before, like I had this weird feeling and then I thought you know what, what is going on with you? You just don't want to spend the money, or or you know you're not comfortable with technology or whatever it is, but everybody had this feeling.
Speaker 1:This sense of the intention is not what it's that to be, and I think it is something that we can really, um, we can build this, we can learn to trust it, and I believe that that is one of the one of the most important traits for, you know, these next years or decades to come, when everything you know not even a video. You watch a video and it's like is that real or is it ai? Is that person even real? Is this a chat bot? Is this written by ai? Um, you know you can't be sure, but then you can, because you can feel it and the horses teach us that. So you can practice this trait, this ability, with the horses, because they are masters in reading our intention. Okay so, now I talk a lot.
Speaker 2:Beautiful, beautiful and I know. Speaking to Amy Lea Tamburini on an earlier podcast, we spoke a lot about managing difficult conversations and her top point was before you go into that difficult conversation, have the intention to communicate from the heart, and if you do that, then you will be able to communicate what you need to say with the best possible outcome, because you are going into the heart first yeah, yeah, that's like the, the foundation of heart math, that our emotions influence everything that we're doing.
Speaker 1:And it's also I mean you find that in in placebo effects or in manifestations, or in so many parts of life where what you believe in is gonna happen, what you focus on will grow.
Speaker 1:So if the will is there, it will happen yes, and with the horses, that is something that they will teach you in the blink of an eye, and sometimes, as a therapist or as a coach, it's not so easy for us to detect that in a client. You know what is your. What do you really want? Do you just say that or do you really want that? And the horses, no, they can read our intention. There's a study about that where horses were tested with carrots. You know, every horse is addicted to carrots and um, and they had different test groups, test participants, and one of the groups was told to pretend to feed the carrot but never do that. And the horses knew right away. They just left.
Speaker 2:Wow, yeah, you read your mind. Yes, they do, they do, they do. Yeah, I have. So I have a couple of close friends who are into horses and I, I recall one of them. Um, their partner would frequently like drop by the stables on the way, but she could tell if he was in a not great mood.
Speaker 1:By the way, the horse would react when he arrived, yes, yeah, and and then after a while you can, you can become one with the horse that you're riding or engaging with because you are part of their emotional, you know field and unit, and they send you these messages. Like you'll get messages like telepathic mind reading. It's, it's unbelievable, it's really. It's so fascinating for me. And then when we are in a session and I have the horses that I know and and I'm working with the client there, the horses feed me with information, like I will suddenly know things that I wouldn't know otherwise. Like your intuition just opens so much and increases and gives you all these different tools.
Speaker 1:And people can, in these sessions, learn to analyze themselves or to get to know themselves better, based on the feedback of the horses, because sometimes, sometimes we don't believe it right. So you have this gut feeling and then you think you're just like making it up or right, or it was just a coincidence and you had nothing to do with it. Like, yeah, you know they said I manifested this, but you know it was just a coincidence and you had nothing to do with it. Like, yeah, you know they said I manifested this, but you know it was just a coincidence. But then, with the horses, when you are focusing on something specific that is right there and it's tangible. You know it's a 500 kilo animal that will come or leave or look at you or lay down or do something, and then after a while you're like this really cannot be a coincidence. There has to be something that I'm doing actively to create these reactions around me.
Speaker 2:So in person, you will host individual clients and corporates to come and experience this for, like team building, yeah. And then you have clients around the world that you then teach this method so they then can host corporate teams and individuals to benefit.
Speaker 1:So my main focus now is um, scaling the certification program. So I have a program where people coaches, therapists, horse lovers, riders can learn how to use this method to work with clients one-on-one or in group settings and I do see clients eventually here on my farm, but I also have a team who does that. So I'm like focusing on the on the teaching part, to have more people get access to this. And you know it's like money wise or business wise, it's not really the smartest decision to have 35 countries because of time zones and you know all those different little things. But um, but for me it's something that kind of you know it sparks my joy. I love this when somebody writes from Egypt or from Brazil or from Easter Island or you know all these exotic locations. I love meeting them and meeting their horses. So I just opened it for everybody and um, and now I have to deal with the logistics right, right.
Speaker 1:It sounds like you're having enormous impact in this way yeah, yes, I think so, yes, yeah and yeah, and everybody it's. You know, when I started, I told you about my first course right when I was like this is amazing. I just want somebody to work with me in a team because I cannot have everybody who's interested this and helping others and and training teams with horses and um, yeah, it is that is a huge satisfaction for me.
Speaker 1:It really is. I love that. Yes, and also, you know, there's a, there's a second part in that, um, and maybe that is it's at least as important as the people part, because horses love this work too, and, and by spreading it and by creating awareness for it, horses have a better life, they are more respected, they are treated in a different, more empathetic way, they are getting a voice. So, um, it boils down to it's not a sports object. You don't need a whip to convince the horse that you're a boss and that they have to do what you want them to do, but you can ask them and you can listen to them. And when they say today is not a good day, I don't want to go out today, then you better go with that. Because that's also something where our intuition comes in.
Speaker 1:Every rider, every rider, has had an accident at some point in their life. I guarantee that. And almost every rider will say, and you know what, that day I didn't want to go out, or that day I almost didn't ride, but then trainer the program, the, whatever, the other people. So I, you know, didn't dare to step back to change my plan and boom, that's when it happened. So listening to that and and building that intuition is even a safety measure for the sports part, for the equestrian life. And, um, yeah, I, just I, you know, my mission is that every horse person, every rider has heard about this knows that this at least exists. You know, if they don't want to go into it, fine, but but they should know that this exists. And it's not about having, you know, stronger hands and better whips, it's about your mindset and regulating your emotions. That will bring your equestrian game to a different level and then it will also teach you beautiful, making me want to like go out and hang out with the horse I got you.
Speaker 2:As we are wrapping up this conversation, I wonder if there's anything that you that you've really learned through your connection with horses that you would just love to leave some listeners with today.
Speaker 1:There are so many things. There are so many things. I think probably the most important one that everybody can use, even if they don't have a horse in their backyard, is to to look into any way, any technique to regulate emotions and to believe what an immense impact that has on everything. And you know some people are into manifesting some, you know, from boyfriends to money, to dream homes, whatever. And it all comes down to the feeling. If you identify the feeling that you have, once you achieve whatever it is you want and concentrate on that, it will happen, like it's almost impossible for it not to manifest in your life. But it comes down to that feeling, to that emotion, and and giving an importance to that and regulating it and cleansing it every once in a while. And, you know, focusing on on what you want, not what you want, not what you're dreading.
Speaker 2:Yes, positive intentions, positive mindset. Love it, christina. It's been such a pleasure to connect with you here. Thank you for coming on, thank you for being an amazing guest and for opening our eyes and ears to a very different way to rediscover connection in our lives. Thank you, yes, thank you so much for having me.
