Activity 1.2.9 Ask a Mentor

Purpose

To discover inner wisdom

Materials

A blank white wall

Time

30 mins

Method

This activity involves individual participants in seeking advice from an imagined mentor. The outcome is to have participants discover their own wisdom to solve a problem.

1. Ask participants to decide on a person that they would like to have as a mentor or who they consider to be a valuable human being in history, e.g., Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
2. Next, have participants sit in front of a blank wall (preferably white) and imagine their famous person or mentor is sitting in front of them.
3. Silently, participants can ask their mentor for help with a problem. They then imagine what the mentor would tell them.
4. Ask participants to continue imagining the conversation with their mentor for about five minutes.
5. At the end of this exercise, ask if everyone received good advice from their mentor.
6. Discuss the following:
   • How did participants feel about talking to an imaginary person?
   • Did they acknowledge that the sound advice they received was actually their own intellect talking?
   • Could they now believe themselves to be a good mentor for themselves and for others?