What is Use the Whole Buffalo?

Use the Whole Buffalo offers grounded teachings, daily practices, book resources, and guidance for meeting hard moments with steadiness across 22 pages.

Reflective Practices | Use the Whole Buffalo

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REFLECTIVE PRACTICES

Longer practices for when you have a few minutes.

The quick practices are for the middle of a hard day. These are for when you can sit a little longer with one teaching. One reflection for each of Buffalo's friends.

FROG · MY BREATH IS TIGHT OR I CAN'T FIND WORDS

Breathe With the Fear

5–7 minutes

When fear tightens the throat and the world gets loud, you don't have to argue it away. You can keep the breath company while the fear moves through.

1Sit or stand where you are. Let your shoulders drop.
2Breathe in slowly through the nose for four counts. Don't try to feel better.
3Breathe out longer than the in, soft through the mouth. Let it sigh if it wants to.
4After three breaths, ask: what's the story my throat is holding? Don't answer it. Just notice it.
5Three more breaths. Let the fear be there. Let the ground be there too.
6Before you move, place one hand on your chest. Say it plain: I'm still here.

CLOSING

The fear may not leave. You don't need it to. You breathed with it instead of against it, and the field is still here.

Spend time with Frog

TREE · I FEEL SCATTERED, NUMB, OR LIKE RUNNING

Stop Long Enough to Feel the Ground

5–10 minutes

When the mind wants to run, the first teaching is to stop before you've figured anything out. The ground is still there, even when the mind insists nowhere is safe.

1Stand, or sit, or let your back find a wall or a chair. Stop.
2Feel your feet on whatever is under them. Floor, pavement, grass, carpet.
3Notice the weight that's already being held for you. You haven't fallen.
4Let your breath be ordinary. No special breathing.
5Ask: where does my mind want me to run to? Name the imagined safer place.
6Stay one more minute. Let that place be a thought, not a refuge.
7When you move, move from the feet first, not the story.

CLOSING

You don't have to solve the field to stand in it. The ground was here the whole time.

Spend time with Tree

EAGLE · I CAN'T STOP BELIEVING ONE PAINFUL STORY

Let One Story Be a Cloud

7–10 minutes

When one sticky story has swallowed the sky, the way out isn't to fight it. It's to look up, get quiet, and remember how much sky there actually is.

1Name the story. Say it plain, out loud or on paper: "The story I keep running is…"
2Notice where you feel it. Throat, chest, jaw, hands.
3Look up. Literally. At the ceiling, the sky, the trees, anything wider than a screen.
4Let your eyes rest on something far away for thirty seconds.
5Ask: is this one cloud, or is it the whole sky?
6If it's a cloud, let it be a cloud. You don't have to chase it or fix it.
7Say it plain: this is a weather, not a verdict.

CLOSING

The story can stay. It doesn't get the whole sky anymore.

Spend time with Eagle

BUFFALO · I FEEL STUCK, FROZEN, OR ALONE

Take One True Step

5–10 minutes

When you're frozen or alone in it, you don't need the whole path. You need one honest step, and one person to let in.

1Sit quietly for one minute. Don't plan. Just arrive.
2Ask: what's one honest step I could take in the next ten minutes?
3Not the whole repair. Not the whole boundary. One. A text. A walk. A glass of water. A message asking for help.
4Say it out loud: "The one step is…"
5Take it before you finish thinking about it. Small counts. Imperfect counts.
6After you take it, notice: the field's still hard, and you moved in it.
7Ask: who's one person I could let in on this? You don't have to be alone with it.

CLOSING

Buffalo Mind isn't fearless. It's willing to move with the fear and stay near the herd.

Spend time with Buffalo

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