Three Steps to Improve Your Next Psychedelic Journey
Psychedelic experiences bring on a variety of emotions. We can find ways to help alleviate these emotions by understanding our bodies and why these emotions happen.
“Trust, Let Go, and Be Open” is a phrase used by Roland Griffith, a neuroscientist and Professor at John Hopkins University and is leading their research on psychedelic therapy. These are words to live by for both psychedelic experiences and life in general. As we break down this motto and how it can benefit us, we can help set intentions for our trips, bring peace and alleviate some of the uncomfortable feelings that come with our experiences.
TRUST
Before having a psychedelic experience, it’s incredibly important to set intentions. This can be done in a variety of ways. Set and setting plays a huge role in trusting the experience and process. You can properly set the environment by doing some cleaning around your home, having activities to do during your experience out and ready, and making sure you eat and meditate before taking on the experience.
Meditation isn’t required but definitely an added bonus when one is setting the intentions of the experience. I personally like to take a moment to practice breathwork and think about what I want out of this experience.
When I was first having my experiences, I would disregard set and setting and not trust the process. This would bring on failed expectations, a fighting of the process and an overall bad trip. Trusting the process and set and setting will be your best friend.
LET GO
To is easier said than done to “let go” because we are entering an altered mindset that heightens our emotions and that can be nerve racking (which is completely normal). It took multiple attempts for me to learn how to let go before I could fully understand why it’s so important to.
Stress, anxiety, and sadness can really put a damper on our psychedelic experiences and this can put our sympathetic nervous system in high gear. Our sympathetic nervous system kicks on in times of stress or anxiety and is essentially the ‘fight or flight’ mode. It also makes our heart rate increase and sends signals to our brain to produce cortisol which is our stress hormone. Our parasympathetic nervous system is what reminds our body we are not in danger and brings our body back to base when we experience these emotions.
Letting go is a verbal mantra that is so simple and a great reminder that we are having a beautiful experience and to go with the flow. Let go of those emotions if they become overwhelming and breath. Ways to let go and bring our minds and body back can involve washing our hands or running them in some water, eating a starburst or piece of sweet candy, or grounding ourselves by going through our 5 senses.
BE OPEN
Psychedelics are beautiful life changing experiences when used properly and with set intention. Every experience is going to be different and it's a gentle reminder that they are tools. Your body and mind are the true teachers and whatever comes up in our experiences was meant to happen. B
e open and accepting because in the end, we are all human and learning. Be gentle with yourself and let the experience take you where you’re meant to go. John Lennon’s quote is perfect for this; “Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream”.
Whether you are an experienced psychonaut or just starting your journey; Trust, Let Go, and Be Open. Doing this can enhance your experiences and what you get out of them.
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