Deep mentoring
Vertical rather than horizontal
Deeper rather than higher
What is Deep Mentoring?
The resulting changes to the psyche are permanent. While there may be some temporary regression,the deep changes ensure that they are seen through.
Typically these changes manifest as:
- More open to feedback from others
- Less defensive and less invested in being right
- Operational intelligence increasing as defensive routines fall away
- Deeper discernment and sharper discrimination
- More connected to an intuitive flow of insights
- Increased empathy and connection with others
- Operating out of a sense of purpose rather than personal volition
- More comprehensive from simple to complex, static to dynamic
- Increased time horizon – more visionary insights
- Evolving worldview moving from ego-centric to socio-centric to world-centric
- Lightness of being
“Your visions will become clear
When you look into your heart.
Who looks outside, dreams.
Who looks within, awakens.”Carl Jung
Vertical rather than horizontal
Most learning, training and development is horizontal and geared only towards expanding a person’s current way of meaning making.
By contrast, vertical development is learning to see the world through new eyes.
A new world appears when:
- We see through self-limiting stories
- Blind spots are illuminated
- We are no longer stuck in old hurts
- Feedback ceases to be a personal affront
Our awareness expands through vertical development. We change our interpretations of experience, and transform and deepen our views of reality.
“If you want to make people think differently, take them to a place they’ve never been before.”
Ernest Hemingway
Deeper rather than higher
Vertical development usually assumes going up, getting higher. Vertical ascent positively points to having a longer time horizon, being able to see further and having a greater overview.
Like the myth of Icarus flying too close to the sun, getting higher risks inflation and hubris, being above it all, and cut off from others.
Going deeper uncovers the essential self, the ground of being. In the depths of our being we connect with the core, the essence of what it means to be human.
Through that deep connection, empathy and caring for humanity arises spontaneously.
To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour.
William Blake