“I am so stressed, I am stressed all the time!” Miguel lamented.
“Can you tell me more about what that means?” I ask. “Would you say you’re anxious or fearful about something?”
“I don’t know,” he says shaking his head, “I’m just really stressed!”
Miguel is typical in that he uses the word “stress” as a place holder for what he’s feeling – because he doesn’t have the language to apply to what he’s actually feeling.
I’m still sick as I write this – well maybe more high than sick since I took a WHOLE gummy to sleep. But now, I have a little energy and strength to focus and sit up. Until the sleep kicks-in. Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself. Last week I hopped on a plane to Holland to attend a 3-day psychedelic science conference.
Whew! This month-long course has been a loooong time coming – because when I moved to Portugal from Florida about 18-months ago, I never thought it was going to take me this long to pick up where I left off in the states! So much bureaucratic red tape and just the stuff it takes to get settled!
I know what it’s like to feel anxious – back in the day, I lived with anxiety for decades. Crippling anxiety actually, and it was particularly overwhelming in social settings, where I would perceive everyone around me as superior, telling myself that I was unworthy to be there and out of place.
Over the past decade, my emotions work has been centered on curating environments where immersive experiences flourish – all within the comforting bounds of trust and safety.
Whether it’s online courses, personal sessions or retreats, it’s vital to create spaces where people interested in the use of psychedelic plant medicine for healing and spiritual transformation can feel at ease.
I often get letters from folks sharing their experiences and asking questions. This correspondence can offer spectacular insights and musings that answer questions that many others have on their mind. So I’m sharing this one with you today…
Over the past decade, my emotions work has been centered on curating environments where immersive experiences flourish – all within the comforting bounds of trust and safety.
Whether it’s online courses, personal sessions or retreats, it’s vital to create spaces where people interested in the use of psychedelic plant medicine for healing and spiritual transformation can feel at ease.
Take a pill and feel better! As Westerners that’s what we’ve been conditioned to do. No muss, no fuss! Just take the pill and be done with it! Of course, as we know for these “mood managing”medications, the trade-off is side effects. The side effect reported to me most frequently is the narrowing of the whole emotional spectrum.
“Oh no, microdosing psilocybin won’t do a thing for me!” he exclaimed, in total disbelief during our initial discovery session. He went on to tell me he was wrestling with grief and depression from his partner dying a couple of years ago and trauma from an abusive childhood. “I need something stronger to knock all that out!” he declared.
In our take-a-pill-and-feel-better culture, people just want relief by taking that pill – or a whole bunch of them. Of course, if that was an approach that worked, we wouldn’t have an epidemic of anxiety, depression and despair in our Western world.
Did you see? Last month the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and state police nabbed a 23-year old man. Well, I really want to call him a kid but of course I’m a woman of a certain age – so everybody seems pretty young these days to moi (that is eu in Portuguese, where I’m now living;) Anyway, the cops and DEA in Connecticut arrested 23-year-old Weston Soule for growing whopping amounts of magic mushrooms in his house.