The Helper's Mentoring Society is dedicated to helping the modern, everyday person become more fully developed through the practice of traditional ceremonies and teachings. We offer online courses, literature, retreats, gatherings, and more to make this mission a reality. For more information about us, click here, or get started on a Free Course on Gratitude by signing up here.

Canupa: The Sacred Pipe

The Sacred Pipe is known as the Canupa in the Lakota language.  The Canupa is an essential tool of connection.  Of all the tools, it is the one which develops the deepest awareness.  It creates an amplified connection with the intelligence that is commonly known as intuition.  According to legend, the Canupa came to people a long ago in a time of great need.  It was brought to the people to show how to live in right relation with the earth and all of creation.

The Lakota stories of how the Canupa came to the people hold important lessons and...

The Helper's Mentoring Society is dedicated to helping the modern, everyday person become more fully developed through the practice of traditional ceremonies and teachings. We offer online courses, literature, retreats, gatherings, and more to make this mission a reality. For more information about us, click here, or get started on a Free Course on Gratitude by signing up here.

The Native American Sweat Lodge: An Introduction

The Native American Sweat lodge is one of the most profound healing and transformative indigenous ceremonies that I know. At the age of 16 I attended my first traditionally run Sweat Lodge and personally experienced the power and beauty of this ceremony. I’ve repeatedly witnessed this transformative and restorative power of the sweat lodge for over 23 years.

Sweat Lodges Around the World

There are many forms of the sweat therapy found across the world, from the European sauna to the Japanese Sento. Understanding of how sweating in a...

The ceremony of the Vision Quest is one of the most universal and ancient means to find spiritual guidance and purpose. A Vision Quest can provide deep understanding to people, helping them to understand their role in life.

Vision Quest of the Past

Vision Quest is one of the original ceremonial techniques, practiced by all people of every culture. In many ancient cultures these types of ceremonies were part of a person’s learning journey in life. The Vision Quest is often used as a Rite of Passage, marking the transition between childhood and full acceptance into society as an adult. A person’s first Vision Quest is typically done during their transformative teenage years. It is when a child’s mind begins to understand complex abstract concepts that this ceremony is the most applicable – and needed. Through a Vision Quest, a young person develops a healthy relationship with this newly forming power of the creative mind. A Vision Quest helps the teenager to...

People who took walks among trees saw a 20% increase in memory-functions compared to people who took walks in a city

               What did you do yesterday? This isn’t a trick question, take a moment to think about it. You probably woke up in your own bed and made breakfast in your kitchen, or, if you were really in a rush, picked it up on your drive to work. Maybe a few had some time to exercise, and many of us didn’t. Maybe you picked up your kids or walked your dog, maybe you just watched TV. You may have read a book or finished a crossword puzzle. If we took a survey of 100 people, they would have accomplished thousands of different activities. What’s the one thing that 99 out of 100 people were missing in their lives yesterday?

A connection to nature.

               We know you may have heard this before, perhaps...

For the last article in our “With a Purpose” series, we’re tackling one of the most fundamental and entirely overlooked aspects of our mental and physical well-being. If you’ve been following along with this article series, you know that the focus of all our articles has been on how to add small changes and intentions to our daily routine to help us become healthier, happier people. Writing, walking, and reflection can all be done with specific intentions and can have profound impacts on our lives. But as fundamental and simple as these activities are, there are some of us who won’t be able to relate to at least one of the above. There is one thing even more universal, something every single one of us do every single day of our lives, and that most of us never think twice about. That thing is eating.

               Now, we know that many of us have given at least some thought to our...

Let me know if any of these scenes sound familiar: blaring alarm clock, dragging your body out of bed, shuffling to the shower with slumped shoulders, casting a forlorn glance back to your bed, begrudgingly working to your kitchen for breakfast. For many of us, this is the beginning of many (if not every) day of our lives. But why? Every day is another to experience a life filled with the most beautiful and wondrous things we’ve ever known. We get to experience everything from the wondrous power of the natural world to the small simple pleasures of our daily lives, to the smile of a stranger and the songs of birds. Oddly enough, we human beings find it very easy to take these things for granted. That’s why this week we’re continuing our With a Purpose series to talk about developing a gratitude practice.

First of all, a gratitude practice is so much more than simply saying "thank you" more often. People with a strong sense of gratitude have been shown to have a...

               Last week we talked about how Walking with Purpose can be a great way to get in touch with yourself and the world around you, while getting some fantastic health benefits at the same time. We hope you’ve had the opportunity to get out for a walk at least once since then. If not, go now! Unless, of course, you’re one of our brothers or sisters who doesn’t have the opportunity to get out and walk today. Maybe you’re trapped in by the weather, maybe you’re feeling ill. Sometimes taking a walk just isn’t a feasible option. So what can you do to stay in touch when getting out and about just isn’t an option? Today, instead of going outward into the world with a walk, we invite you to practice connecting inwardly with writing.

               The physical, mental, and psychological health benefits...

              With so many wonderful new technologies and means of transportation, I feel the simple of value of walking is often overlooked. At the tap of a button and for just a few dollars we can summon a car from a stranger to come take us wherever we need to go! That’s not to mention buses, driving our own cars, trains, or even bikes. So much of our culture depends on getting where we need to be now, why bother walking anywhere?

               First we can break down the scientific benefits of walking. Human beings evolved for thousands of years to be a hunting and gathering people. Evolution resulted in many of our physical structures developing to benefit our walking and running, because for much of our history human beings had to travel long distances to find food, shelter, and hospitable conditions. Our leg bones are elongated, our spines are curved, and our leg...

Language is not something we often give much thought to, but when we think about the critical role it plays in our lives, this is a bit surprising. Every interaction we have with one another relies on some form of communication or another, and often this communication takes the form of language. If you’ve ever attended one of our courses, you’ve probably been introduced to some of our reference material which is in the Lakota Sioux language.  It isn’t often we are introduced to new languages, so when we host events and courses one of the most common questions I am asked is about the native tongue for so many of the teachings we draw from. It certainly is a fascinating topic, though it’s struggling to endure into modern times and thus I thought it’d be good to spur on any interest in it that I can.

The Lakota language which I was taught in is actually one of three dialects of the Sioux language, along with the Nakota and the Dakota. Today, the...