Having a good mentor is a means to accelerate faster in gaining mastery on attaining inner or outer skills than one can attain mastery through self-study and life experience. I have always believed that the best way to excel at something was to find the person best at doing whatever I wanted to accomplish next and then apprentice with that person. This is how I became a good horse shoer and blacksmith, as well as how I attained success in other areas of my life. I have also learned from those who are not good at some life skills and I have determined that I do not want to engage in their behavior or lack of inner discipline and striving. Following is a list of my most influential mentors in becoming whole through life experience, learning, and transformational healing.
Jeanne Lund
My mom taught me that with determination and grit, there is nothing a woman cannot do. I remember watching her drive large equipment during haying season, or walking miles through the snow to find and doctor sick baby calves, and her ability to fix anything. She was not very patient with me, so she was not a very good teacher. Yet, I watched her tackle adversity every day and use her ingenuity and resilience to figure out how to fix problems that could be life or death for animals or humans in rural Montana. On the other hand, observing her struggle with her inner world of unresolved trauma also taught me that I did not want to be like her in that regard.
So, she mentored me on how to achieve whatever I wanted in a man’s world (she could outwork anybody on the ranch) and observing her and how she avoided her pain served to mentor me to not do as she did. Instead, I chose to feel my pain and seek healing. I am aware of the great gift that my mom gave me in my witnessing her struggles because my desire to be different lifted me to strive to follow a different path from her internal struggles while I adopted her “can do attitude” for outer life.
Your mentors may not always appear to be the obvious inspiration. I encourage you to see beyond the obvious and acknowledge who is mentoring you right now, whether they know it or not.
Elizabeth Clare Prophet
During my time knowing Elizabeth Clare Prophet I learned about the inner striving necessary to fulfill my reason for being and became aware of an outer path that matched my inner path towards wholeness. I observed her grace, tenacity, her brilliance and her embodying love in her role as leader of a Church. Also, I sat through many hours listening to her teach about the mystical traditions of many of the world’s religions. Based on my many years of college education, she was the best teacher I have ever encountered. In addition to my observations of her and learning from her teaching, I was also blessed to love and know her personally. Without her love and support I may not be alive today. She was the first one to see me as a diamond in the rough and to champion my development in being whole on the path to oneness with God.
Whether you are in school, at church or your community space, there is always a person who you can learn from and be mentored by. Who is mentoring you and where are they teaching you from?
Melisa Pearce
Being able to live in the present is oftentimes determined by whether we have unfinished business or unresolved emotional issues from the past. These places in our consciousness where we store unprocessed pain, fear, doubt or feelings of unworthiness often settle in just outside our awareness. Melisa Pearce has been a psychotherapist, master coach, Gestaltist, and author for many years. I found her lifework of combining horses and healing when I visited the neighbors’ ranch. After experiencing the transformational healing of Equine Gestalt Coaching, I decided to go to the horse’s mouth so to speak and to learn directly from Melisa. I learned how to be an Equine Gestalt Coachhand her program provided me with a safe place to move through deep, transformational healing with Melisa and horses. Melisa is also a very gifted teacher and models living in the present and whole-heartedly. I am aware that it was Melisa’s love, and her gift of understanding horses and Gestalt that opened the way for me to love more freely, whole and be more connected to my divine self today.
A mentor loves you. It’s a mentor kind of love, and that is very unconditional. Who is your mentor and have you been able to fully accept their love of you?
Tricia Brouk
To fulfill our reason for being or self-mastery in any life endeavor takes loving discipline, a willingness to go all in regardless of the result, and a willingness to embody self excellence. My dream is to take stages like Brene’ Brown and enhance my public speaking skills so my heart’s desire put me in contact on Facebook with Tricia Brouk, who is an international award-winning director, public speaking expert and coach, producer and author. I have taken her online classes and now am engaged in learning from her in person to upscale my speaking skills. In my mentoring container with her, I am learning that to give a talk that has the potential to change lives and maybe even save a life, my inner self-discipline and awareness needs to increase. In sharing words with others about transformational healing it matters who I am inside as much or more as what I say. Observing and learning from Tricia, I now know that I have much room for growth and I am finding my pathway there. Even though she is my mentor, she cannot do the daily inner work for me that I must do if I want to succeed in my goal of using words to inspire others to find their paths to transformational healing.
An exceptional mentor allows you the space to grow into who you are meant to be, by pushing you lovingly. They see in you more than you currently can, so you have the space to receive and expand.
How are you expanding? And how is your mentor allowing for this?