Does Everybody Need a Spiritual Mentor?

Those whose role it is to come into this world and mentor others range in rank, ability, experience, and knowledge. At the very top, we have the ascended masters or enlightened beings. These include prophets like Jesus Christ, Muhammad, Moses, Buddha and so on. While these are some of the better known ascended masters, there are countless other ones both male and female who’ve come and gone throughout the history of humanity. It’s also worth noting that while enlightened beings used to be few, their number is rapidly growing with the leap in human consciousness we’re seeing all over the world. Today, enlightenment is an experience that is more accessible than ever.

At any given time, there are many mentors in the physical body available to guide others. While not everyone needs a mentor, many of us would benefit from having one. Spiritual mentors are helpful in that they’ve journeyed within and gained experiences and wisdom they’re willing to share with interested takers. Beyond that, they can also share the frequency and energy they’ve accessed in their journey to higher realms as ways of initiation for their students.

How does one find a mentor?

It is said that the teacher comes when the student is ready. A student is considered ready when they begin to feel a yearning for guidance and are willing to take the coaching provided to them. This yearning must be deep and clear. One must also be ready and willing to surrender to a mentor’s coaching, for coaching is useless unless a student is willing to apply it.

Now, here’s a little secret. One must also have to eye of perception to recognize a mentor. This is perhaps the trickiest part. There may already have been mentors who’ve crossed our path, but we’ve failed to recognize them due to our lack of perception. In order to recognize a mentor, one must let go of any idea for what a mentor should look like. A mentor will not always fit the stereotype of the Eastern male Guru with a long beard. The signs that we may have encountered a mentor are that they’ve captured our attention, ignited our inspiration to grow, challenged our pre-existing ideas about ourself and reality, inspired us to look within and at ourselves with a critical eye, and instilled in us the yearning for spiritual connection.

Some mentors come around for only a day or just a conversation. Others may influence and guide us for a few months. Some may be in contact with us for years or even our entire life. Regardless of the type of mentor we attract and the length of time we engage with them, what is of importance is not only the mentor, but our readiness to grow and transform. A true student of life is able to draw awareness from every encounter and every situation. In that sense, all life experiences become one’s learning tool. Those willing to learn and self-correct from every experience of life are the most prolific of students. There is no way that if you ask Creation for a guide, that Creation will ignore your request.

We must also remember that any path we choose and any mentor we put our trust in, must feel right to us. Our number one mentor is our own higher self, our own inner guide. We must trust our gut as it tells us whether a mentor or path is right for us or not. A mentor’s presence and teachings in our life must lift our spirit, open our heart, bring us inspiration and make our heart beat with passion for the journey of self discovery.