When My Heart Began to Heal

What Horses, Reiki and Slowing Down Taught Me

There are moments in life that quietly change everything.

This week, I sat in a cardiologist's office waiting for the results of my yearly echocardiogram.

For two years, that appointment had filled me with uncertainty.

Following COVID, combined with years of stress and burnout, my heart simply wasn't functioning the way it should. I remember hearing words I never expected to hear about my own heart. It felt frightening, and if I'm honest, I wondered if life would ever feel normal again.

This year, the news was different.

My cardiologist smiled and told me my heart was now functioning within a healthy range.

Even more incredibly, my heart had returned to a normal size.

I cried.

Not because the journey had been easy.

But because it reminded me that healing can happen.

Sometimes slowly.

Sometimes quietly.

One gentle step at a time.

Healing Didn't Look Like I Expected

When people hear the word healing, they often imagine something dramatic.

My healing looked different.

It looked like sitting quietly in a paddock while horses grazed nearby.

It looked like placing my hands over my heart during a Reiki session.

It looked like choosing rest instead of pushing harder.

It looked like journaling, breathing deeply, walking through wildflowers and allowing myself permission to simply be.

Alongside the medical care and advice I received, these practices became an important part of my own healing journey.

I can't explain every change that happened inside my body.

But I can tell you what changed inside my heart.

Not just the physical one...

The emotional one too.

The Wisdom of Horses

Horses never asked me to pretend I was okay.

They didn't expect me to be productive.

They didn't care how much work I had waiting or how many emails I hadn't answered.

They simply invited me into the present moment.

Some days they stood beside me.

Some days they walked away.

Some days they rested their head against me, reminding me that connection doesn't always need words.

Being with them taught me to breathe again.

To soften.

To listen.

To trust my body instead of constantly fighting against it.

Reiki Taught Me to Receive

For years I was very good at giving.

Giving my time.

Giving my energy.

Looking after everyone else.

Reiki gently taught me something I had forgotten.

Receiving is healing too.

Every session became permission to pause.

Permission to be still.

Permission to let my nervous system remember what peace feels like.

My Heart Needed More Than Medicine

Medicine and medical care were an important part of my journey, and I remain deeply grateful for them.

But I also realised my heart needed something else.

It needed less rushing.

Less pressure.

More nature.

More creativity.

More stillness.

More moments where I wasn't trying to become someone else...

Just learning to come home to myself.

The Wildflower Method Was Born Here

Looking back now, I realise this is where The Wildflower Method truly began.

Not in a business plan.

Not in a journal.

But in the quiet moments when I chose healing over hustling.

When I chose connection over perfection.

When I realised creativity, nature, horses and gentle practices weren't distractions from life...

They were helping me reconnect with it.

If You're Carrying More Than Your Heart Was Meant To

Maybe your heart isn't tired because it's weak.

Maybe it's tired because it's been carrying too much for too long.

If that's you, I hope this encourages you to find your own gentle path back to yourself.

It might be journaling.

It might be walking among the trees.

It might be sitting beside a horse.

It might simply be taking one deep breath today.

Healing doesn't always arrive all at once.

Sometimes it blooms quietly, like a wildflower after the rain.

And when it does...

It reminds us that hope has been growing beneath the surface all along.

A Gentle Invitation

If you're longing to slow down, reconnect with yourself, and explore the gentle practices that have become such an important part of my own journey, I'd love to welcome you into The Wildflower Method.

Together we'll discover the healing power of creativity, mindfulness, nature and the quiet wisdom of horses—one gentle step, one journal page, and one wildflower at a time.

Because sometimes the most beautiful healing begins the moment we stop trying to rush it... and simply allow ourselves to bloom.