Psychedelic Experiences Return Us to the Now
Psychedelic experiences can bring forward many deep and heavy emotions. Processing these emotions can help ensure that your “life-changing” psychedelic experiences are actually changing your life.
Alan Watts said, “The meaning of life is to just be alive. It is so plain and so simple and so obvious. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic, as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves.” If we read this every morning, and remembered it throughout the day, it would be so easy to live our lives peacefully; but, life catches up, and it is very easy to get intertwined in the little things.
Psychedelics help us see this. Life is meant to be lived and celebrated. I see a huge change in the people around me after partaking in a psychedelic experience.
It is easy to get caught up in everyday stresses. This stress can put a damper on our physical and mental health, and just add another thing to stress about. What are some ways we can reconnect with ourselves and our true intentions?
To start, I suggest reading ‘The Power of Now’ by Ekhart Tolle. This book breaks down how important it is to understand our feelings and how they relate to the now. “Realize deeply that the present moment is all you have. Make the ‘NOW’ your primary focus,” says Tolle.
If we take this quote and apply it to our psychedelic experiences, a lot of our happiness comes from the now. These therapeutic experiences can help ground us in the ‘now.’ It can affect people in the smallest ways. While guiding a friend on their first psychedelic journey, I saw them fall in love with their body (boosting their self esteem), seeing nature as an extension of themselves and laughing so hard they cried. After having such a powerful experience, I saw how psychedelics ground us to the current moment, help us appreciate life, and shrink the anxiety of our everyday stress. The ‘Power of Now’ is a great reminder that meditation, grounding practices, and gratitude are necessities.
Maya Angelou reminds us, “If you don't like something, change it.” Something that has been a huge coping mechanism for going through difficult times is to ask myself; why am I anxious/sad/overwhelmed? Do I have control to change this at this exact moment? If I do, I will do what I need to correct it. If not, I remind myself that I can create different times and opportunities to resolve the feeling. When I do this, I can ground myself in the moment and feel out my emotions and how they are affecting me. But I am also creating a plan of action to help alleviate the uncomfortable feeling. Creating coping strategies that bring attention to our emotions and the way they are affecting us is important when properly processing them to live fully in the moment.
If left unacknowledged, our emotions can cause burnout and keep us from our true intentions on this journey. Our psychedelic journeys can promote healthy lifestyles and reground us, if used correctly. This is the biggest reason psychedelics help with addiction, PTSD, anxiety and depression. Living in the Now and changing what we can change help build meaning in how and why we live the way we do. Go ahead: fully experience your next journey and reground to the true meaning of life.
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