ON OUR MINDS
Check out our latest blog posts about relationships and leadership. For updates straight to your inbox, subscribe to the newsletter.
DEAR SALLY
Find out how our wisest mare, Sally, responds to your human questions and conundrums. She’s a bay mare with a lot of heart, a wise mind and the courage to keep boundaries clear and her herd stable. She’s got great leadership and generously offers horse solutions to human problems.
ON OUR MINDS
Check out our latest blog posts about relationships and leadership. For updates straight to your inbox, subscribe to the newsletter.
OUR BLOG
Vole, C’est Moi: What I’ve Learned from Working Alone
The prairie vole has become invaluable to certain scientists because the prairie vole appears to fall in love. It’s the only rodent that does. It’s one of about 5% all known species (per Smithsonian) that does. The prairie vole. And [...]
Making Something out of Nothing: The Creative at Work and at Home
Our offices are pretty dull. Tasks are assigned and tasks are done. We clock in, we clock out. Most of the time, we are repeating actions that have been deemed productive in the past. Rarely are we contributing anything [...]
Nature Has No Due Dates: Lessons from the Frontline of Foaling Season
Walk through any populated urban area and look past the concrete, see beyond the electronics, listen through the automotive noise. There, you’ll find nature: dirt and trees, birds and rodents, plants and water. As mammals that think and talk [...]
Mindfulness Schmindfulness: Reality Is a Pain
Mindful eating. Mindful drinking. Mindful working. Mindful napping. Mindful this, and mindful that. Mindful purchasing of mindfulness-branded goods and services. If you’ve been to a grocery store, a mall, a school, the internet, anywhere, in the past year or [...]
The Animals are Honest
I grew up in the Detroit area and you have to look a few generations back to find any rural folks. My uncle Lenny and I are the only members of the extended family with an interest in farm/ranch life [...]
Mindfulness in the Minefield: Reclaiming Calm in the Office
You’re at your desk and the phone rings. The hairs stand up on back of your neck when the number flashes on the phone’s face: it’s your boss’ admin and you do not have anything scheduled with your boss. [...]
Corporate Grief: When the Workplace Breaks Your Heart
When I transitioned from my private practice as a therapist to leadership consulting in the corporate sector, I figured the psychic heaviness of my role would lift some. I knew that people’s work lives were ridden with relationship conflicts, [...]
Corporate Corral: Conferencing in Captivity
I just got off a weekly conference call with members of the Circle Up team. The call often runs well over an hour but, today, we wrapped in 45 minutes. And I’m a little sad. I miss my team. [...]
Relational Inflammation: The Value of Rest and Space
Relationships are like high contact sports. We bump into each other and sometimes knock each other down. It’s nearly impossible to have a human relationship with any kind of authenticity and not hit points of conflict and upset. You’ll [...]
Mindful of the Shadow: Do You Fight or Invite Your Dark Side?
Eric Killough shares the down and dirty truth about meditation and how slowing down our thoughts allows us to come face to face with primitive parts of ourselves. Is it our inner sociopath wanting to run our lives or [...]
My Guru is a Bay Mare
I met Sally when she was a youngster, just a slight filly fresh off the trailer. I had recently purchased my lovely horse, Rosie, and was knee deep in our love affair when Sally arrived at the barn where I [...]
We’re Just Shy
Our teachers come to us in all forms. Sometimes, the animals in our lives carry the most powerful lessons, insisting that we search for and find a common language of trust, honesty, and love. Tai Little, who helps Circle [...]
I Never Go Camping
A good friend of mine has extended to me an open invitation to go hiking and camping with him in Yosemite basically every weekend over the past month. I said no thanks every weekend. Every weekend, I wanted to [...]
Are You a Thought Addict?
A week ago, I hitched my wagon to the Circle Up Wagon Train. Me, a dozen or so strangers, and a months’ long conversation about personal leadership. What could possibly go wrong? Our first assignment, as I understood it, was [...]
Our Relational Blind Spot: Getting to Know Each Other
They shake your hand and say they're so glad you've joined the team. You have an impressive title, a shiny new badge to enter the building, and the passwords you need to start your first tasks. Now what? Well, [...]
The Grandiosity Trap: Why We Choose the Impossible
We're inspired to choose the road less traveled and we think it's what will make us heroic and extraordinary. But have you ever noticed how much trouble we get into along the way? One of my favorite things to [...]
Human Whispering: The Art of Shutting Up
I spend a lot of time with horses and dogs, and my family will insist I acknowledge here, I’ve also become a crazy cat lady in the last couple years. I love this life with animals because they help [...]
A Lone Wolf Answers Back: Healing Ourselves Back into Community
Through the dark valley, the call is heard. Two ears stand up and listen intently as the howl echoes, and the notes bend and change. There is a pause. A choice. A barely noticeable but critically important moment. A dilemma [...]
The Power of Moving Our Feet
How often have you heard people complain about being stuck, wanting to make a change but finding it impossible? What about the friend in analysis paralysiswho walks around a decision for years and never makes it? A mentor of [...]
Lead Yourself, Love Yourself, and Others Will Follow: A Crash Course in Personal Leadership
Buzzwords are like old sweaters. They're familiar and comfortable but eventually the yarn gets frayed and their shape falls apart. We have perhaps saturated the concept of leadership beyond recognition. It used to be sweater and now it's a tattered blanket. Leadership used [...]
The Art of Redirection: Badass Boundaries With a Touch of Love
There’s a sweet and simple time in baby and toddler development when redirection is just about a foolproof discipline strategy. Baby is teething on your cell phone as it starts ringing and you need to answer it. You grab it [...]
Border Collie Leadership: Learning the Power of Scope
I love the unique perspectives about relationships, leadership, and culture that animals have to offer us. As humans, we can get quite stuck in our heads, thinking and staring at our own stories, identities, and egos. The animal lessons are [...]
Delayed Leadership: Are You Asleep at the Wheel?
When we talk about leadership, our clients often think we are referring to how we manage others or build teams. So, they are shocked and confused, and even a little grumpy with us, when we take the leadership puzzle, shake [...]
They Are Not Unicorns
Come down to earth! Get your head out of your ass! Get your head out of the clouds! Stop mooning around! Pay attention. Get to work on time. Time and tide that wait for no man willingly Pause for [...]
Convergence
I can feel the wanting in the bones of my toes, this mammal itch to move, to walk where the sea water laps, where the lines meander and shimmer, glorious— and then invisible. And so I walk. There, at [...]
OUR BLOG
Vole, C’est Moi: What I’ve Learned from Working Alone
The prairie vole has become invaluable to certain scientists because the prairie vole appears to fall in love. It’s the only rodent that does. It’s one of about 5% all known species (per Smithsonian) that does. The prairie vole. And [...]
Making Something out of Nothing: The Creative at Work and at Home
Our offices are pretty dull. Tasks are assigned and tasks are done. We clock in, we clock out. Most of the time, we are repeating actions that have been deemed productive in the past. Rarely are we contributing anything [...]
Nature Has No Due Dates: Lessons from the Frontline of Foaling Season
Walk through any populated urban area and look past the concrete, see beyond the electronics, listen through the automotive noise. There, you’ll find nature: dirt and trees, birds and rodents, plants and water. As mammals that think and talk [...]
Mindfulness Schmindfulness: Reality Is a Pain
Mindful eating. Mindful drinking. Mindful working. Mindful napping. Mindful this, and mindful that. Mindful purchasing of mindfulness-branded goods and services. If you’ve been to a grocery store, a mall, a school, the internet, anywhere, in the past year or [...]
The Animals are Honest
I grew up in the Detroit area and you have to look a few generations back to find any rural folks. My uncle Lenny and I are the only members of the extended family with an interest in farm/ranch life [...]
Mindfulness in the Minefield: Reclaiming Calm in the Office
You’re at your desk and the phone rings. The hairs stand up on back of your neck when the number flashes on the phone’s face: it’s your boss’ admin and you do not have anything scheduled with your boss. [...]
Corporate Grief: When the Workplace Breaks Your Heart
When I transitioned from my private practice as a therapist to leadership consulting in the corporate sector, I figured the psychic heaviness of my role would lift some. I knew that people’s work lives were ridden with relationship conflicts, [...]
Corporate Corral: Conferencing in Captivity
I just got off a weekly conference call with members of the Circle Up team. The call often runs well over an hour but, today, we wrapped in 45 minutes. And I’m a little sad. I miss my team. [...]
Relational Inflammation: The Value of Rest and Space
Relationships are like high contact sports. We bump into each other and sometimes knock each other down. It’s nearly impossible to have a human relationship with any kind of authenticity and not hit points of conflict and upset. You’ll [...]
Mindful of the Shadow: Do You Fight or Invite Your Dark Side?
Eric Killough shares the down and dirty truth about meditation and how slowing down our thoughts allows us to come face to face with primitive parts of ourselves. Is it our inner sociopath wanting to run our lives or [...]
My Guru is a Bay Mare
I met Sally when she was a youngster, just a slight filly fresh off the trailer. I had recently purchased my lovely horse, Rosie, and was knee deep in our love affair when Sally arrived at the barn where I [...]
We’re Just Shy
Our teachers come to us in all forms. Sometimes, the animals in our lives carry the most powerful lessons, insisting that we search for and find a common language of trust, honesty, and love. Tai Little, who helps Circle [...]
I Never Go Camping
A good friend of mine has extended to me an open invitation to go hiking and camping with him in Yosemite basically every weekend over the past month. I said no thanks every weekend. Every weekend, I wanted to [...]
Are You a Thought Addict?
A week ago, I hitched my wagon to the Circle Up Wagon Train. Me, a dozen or so strangers, and a months’ long conversation about personal leadership. What could possibly go wrong? Our first assignment, as I understood it, was [...]
Our Relational Blind Spot: Getting to Know Each Other
They shake your hand and say they're so glad you've joined the team. You have an impressive title, a shiny new badge to enter the building, and the passwords you need to start your first tasks. Now what? Well, [...]
The Grandiosity Trap: Why We Choose the Impossible
We're inspired to choose the road less traveled and we think it's what will make us heroic and extraordinary. But have you ever noticed how much trouble we get into along the way? One of my favorite things to [...]
Human Whispering: The Art of Shutting Up
I spend a lot of time with horses and dogs, and my family will insist I acknowledge here, I’ve also become a crazy cat lady in the last couple years. I love this life with animals because they help [...]
A Lone Wolf Answers Back: Healing Ourselves Back into Community
Through the dark valley, the call is heard. Two ears stand up and listen intently as the howl echoes, and the notes bend and change. There is a pause. A choice. A barely noticeable but critically important moment. A dilemma [...]
The Power of Moving Our Feet
How often have you heard people complain about being stuck, wanting to make a change but finding it impossible? What about the friend in analysis paralysiswho walks around a decision for years and never makes it? A mentor of [...]
Lead Yourself, Love Yourself, and Others Will Follow: A Crash Course in Personal Leadership
Buzzwords are like old sweaters. They're familiar and comfortable but eventually the yarn gets frayed and their shape falls apart. We have perhaps saturated the concept of leadership beyond recognition. It used to be sweater and now it's a tattered blanket. Leadership used [...]
The Art of Redirection: Badass Boundaries With a Touch of Love
There’s a sweet and simple time in baby and toddler development when redirection is just about a foolproof discipline strategy. Baby is teething on your cell phone as it starts ringing and you need to answer it. You grab it [...]
Border Collie Leadership: Learning the Power of Scope
I love the unique perspectives about relationships, leadership, and culture that animals have to offer us. As humans, we can get quite stuck in our heads, thinking and staring at our own stories, identities, and egos. The animal lessons are [...]
Delayed Leadership: Are You Asleep at the Wheel?
When we talk about leadership, our clients often think we are referring to how we manage others or build teams. So, they are shocked and confused, and even a little grumpy with us, when we take the leadership puzzle, shake [...]
They Are Not Unicorns
Come down to earth! Get your head out of your ass! Get your head out of the clouds! Stop mooning around! Pay attention. Get to work on time. Time and tide that wait for no man willingly Pause for [...]
Convergence
I can feel the wanting in the bones of my toes, this mammal itch to move, to walk where the sea water laps, where the lines meander and shimmer, glorious— and then invisible. And so I walk. There, at [...]