One-on-One Mentoring with Jon Young
Jon is currently offering 1-on-1 mentoring exclusively through 8 Shields Core Mentoring. Click here to find out more:
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Mentoring with Jon YoungJon Young shares with you the mentoring model he designed from over 30 years of mentoring experience. A Word On Mentoring Because many people haven’t had direct experience in being mentored, they assume that I will give them all the answers and tell them what to do. This misconception is common because in our current educational system this is what “learning” often shows up as. Instead, what mentoring is to me is the knowing that each person has the answers that they seek inside of themselves. Each individual needs simply to learn to discern their true inner voice from the distracting voices that are present. We all have blocks, fears and ruts that inhibit us from shining brightly and living our purpose. I know from my personal journey that it takes an experienced mentor to help us see what is holding us back and to transform that energy into positive lasting change. I also know that time spent deeply connecting to nature accompanied with mentoring has the profound ability to guide you towards self-discovery and cause fundamental shifts in your view of yourself and your life—even where other things you have tried in the past have fallen short. The model of transformational mentoring that I utilize relies heavily on deep nature connection practices. It is these deep nature connection core routines that have the ability to foster a robust and diverse network of connection with self, nature and others. This network of connection, in turn, is a source of power that will help you—as it has so many for eons in traditional cultures—overcome these obstacles that no other path has done for you before. According to Einstein, “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” As your mentor I can help you shift your perceptual processes and thus your thinking into a new perspective. Are You Ready to Feel More Alive Than You Have Since You Were Two? Would You Like to Bring Your Gifts to Your Community NOW? If you have made it to this page, it is likely that you are already familiar with many of the projects I have been involved with over the past 30 years and the breadth of my experience as a holistic tracker, nature mentor, author and entrepreneur… Calling All Cultural Creatives Now is the time to find your purpose and gifts for the vision of a more vibrant future.
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Cultural Creatives are a small subset of the humans on this earth, but they have the power to change the world. As a cultural creative you may feel invisible as your concerns and dreams for our world are different from that of the dominant societal norms. You may have felt or still feel unheard and/or unseen, and when you really needed a community to support you in your gifts and purpose you weren’t held and acknowledged for all that you have to offer. As a mentor who specializes in deep connection to nature, self, family and community, I am calling out to cultural creatives to offer mentoring and guidance. Through this I hope to empower your gifts to shine. I hope to help the people I mentor express their greatest contributions with no inhibitions. I have successfully worked to help people release the deep sadness and grief that comes from not being fully accepted and heard. What we, as cultural creatives need now is to be welcomed and acknowledged for who we are and what we have to offer. You and I both need to be able to tell our stories and be heard and acknowledged. We need to deeply connect and listen to nature and listen to our intuitive voice with full confidence. And, we need support in knowing how to recognize what is useful from that part of us, and what is ‘noise’ from our minds. Have you read Paul Hawken’s book, Blessed Unrest? It is truly a hopeful work as it chronicles the emergence of hundreds of thousands of cultural creatives the world over from every nation, every race, and every walk of life. Can you imagine what the world would like if all of the Cultural Creatives knew about each other and formed a network of support and understanding? Through the 8 Shields Institute, I am part of such an effort. I have mentored hundreds over the years to work with one another to build networks of trust and community, and to find connection and creative power within self, family and friends. On my own journey I felt very hopeless and disconnected from everyone around me. In the early 1980’s I had lost all hope and was in deep despair about our future. The more I could connect to nature, the more sensitive I became, and the harder it was to watch our people in the world on what seemed to be a crash course with the end of our race. I could not see how to make a difference and nobody around me seemed to value and love nature as deeply as I did. All I could see was the destruction that people were causing. I was so deeply saddened. And more so as I was helpless to do anything about it—I felt like I was letting down my children, and all the children who would come into this world. At a critical moment of desperation I was mentored on how to find my purpose and a vision for the future. Using my deep nature connection experience as a foundation, and with my anthropological research and my mentoring background, I sought out elders who guided and supported me. I found others who shared my values. I researched and sought out other more nature-connected cultures that I gleaned universal truths from. With the help and support of my closest friends and these powerful elders, I dove deeply into myself and overcame fears that kept me from fulfilling my purpose. In 1983 I was entrusted to carry a powerful vision of a regenerative future for many generations to come. This was the emergence of the 8 Shields model that I reference when mentoring. With these tools, I began to utilize what I discovered in my own journey to help people find their purpose and reclaim their truth. As they began to experience deep connection with nature, self, family and community, they also began to stand more confidently in their values. Their gifts began to emerge more fully, and they began to experience fundamental shifts that brought more hope, joy and meaning to their lives. I am really excited for this unique opportunity to offer you my personal one on one mentoring services. I know that if each one of us is living a deeply connected, purposeful and joyous life that we will leave a better world for future generations to enjoy. In my mentoring approach I utilize the 8 Shields Cultural Mentoring Model: tried and true techniques from over 30 years of experience that will help you to…
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Since then, Jon has mentored me, offering insights and consultations into my development as the founding director for Earthroots Field School, and as an individual striving for personal growth, meaningful community relationships & balance. Jon’s influence has led me to incorporate new levels of awareness in my everyday life that ripple out into my community, my family, my school’s nature programs, staff development, and how I show up in the world. I am grateful for Jon’s support, leading me to become a confident community leader in the nature connection movement and a more aware human being.” |
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You probably have a pretty good understanding of my own personal history of how I was mentored from early and how that set me on this journey of deep nature connection mentoring, bringing the type of mentoring I received to as many as I can. And I bet you even know what I mean when I use the term “Coyote Mentoring.” If all of this is true, then I want to talk to YOU. This past year I turned 50, and as I looked ahead to what I wanted to bring into the world in the next phase of my life, I realized that one of the most important things I want to do is to promote the process of culture repair and cultural regeneration. In the past few years I have spent a lot of time on the road traveling to Europe, Africa, Canada and throughout the US, helping people create the foundations for strong and healthy nature programs in their local communities. There are so many wonderfully talented and committed people providing powerful experiences that help people connect deeply to nature and themselves. What is missing, however, has been the connection to each other – a community of people representing all of the 8 Shields and their corresponding gifts and energies. Where are the communities of people who can continue bringing these important experiences of deep nature connection and awareness to the next generations? Where are the elders who ask the questions that keep those kids running out to look at that bird one more time? Where are the aunties and uncles who are there to listen to the stories that the children bring back after a day spent in the woods? Last year I spent time with a culturally intact tribe of Kalahari Bushmen. I was surprised and satisfied to know that the types of strategies and activities that I have been using to mentor people of all ages in deep nature connection were the same ones being used by the Bushmen. And what I realized is that we still have more work to do if we are going to be able to begin to build communities of people who are deeply connected to nature, themselves and EACH OTHER. In my earlier years I had focused solely on acquiring the many survival and primitive living skills that so many of the affiliates in our 8 Shields nature schools network are now teaching with great success, but what I have recently realized, through my interaction with elders from various traditions and my previous associations with Ingwe and Gilbert Walking Bull, and my research and experience with the Bushmen, is that we need more people in this deep nature connection movement who really embody the attributes of deep connection and who are excited to take what they learn into their own communities with the intention of working towards culture repair and cultural regeneration. In order to meet this growing need, I have decided to embark on a six-month journey of one-on-one personal mentoring with a select group of highly motivated and dedicated individuals who want to go to the next level of their own sacred journey. Are you ready to make such a commitment? Are you ready to have your edges pushed to the point of a transformational breakthrough that will reset your body’s entire electrical system? If you are, then I want to work with YOU! I want to spend time mentoring you in the way that I know how, the way that I know works, the way which will take you on a journey that will give you the personal power and inspiration to move forward with your own vision of a renewed culture that works for nature and for people. No matter how it is that you want to contribute to your community, I will help you get there sooner and with greater ability to enact your vision now. During this six-month program, I will mentor you in specific 8 Shields cultural practices that I have gathered and tested over the past 30 years, and that will help you become alive and connected to yourself and others…and remove the energy blocks that keep you from enlightened presence and inspired action. My passion is mentoring people like you to…
Ultimately, I want to help you take a deeply meaningful personal journey so that you can change more lives and do the work that makes you excited to get up in the morning – like me! This is important work and we need people like YOU who want to use their own personal transformational experiences for the good of the community, and who understand and can engage in the practices that actually lead to healthy cultures and happy people. This journey together won’t be free of challenges … However instead of feeling sad and confused about the harm that the people and the other living systems of the earth are sustaining and the lack of value for nature that people may have around you; you will be on your path, shining, sharing your gifts and helping the earth and her people, all at the same time. In fact, shining in your gift and living your purpose are the only way to create true and lasting positive change in this world.
Jon Young is an acknowledged expert on mentoring especially with respect to deep nature connection and culture. Jon was mentored himself by numerous Native Elders from traditional cultures of Europe, Africa and North America; and, Jon also has been mentored by practitioners of music, martial arts, life-coaching, health & well-being, and business. He is an inspirational storyteller who has been invited all over the world to share his vision of a truly regenerative and peaceful world. Jon is an author, and has appeared in numerous documentaries and books. Jon’s current projects through his company the 8 Shields Institute are geared to manifest the vision of humans returning to balance with the natural world and one another. |
