Cultivate Your Wisdom as an Integration Professional. Join 13k+ subscribers to Red Things on Tuesday. Every week, you'll get a small, curated collection of music, tips, and psychedelic insight on how to move through this ever evolving psychedelic space.
Bad Trips, Catharsis, and Breathwork
Bad Trips, Catharsis, and BreathworkI've got to be honest. I don't think that catharsis is the pinnacle of the psychedelic journey. People seem very attached to their emotional releases; they love rolling around on the floor wailing. I think this has diminishing returns. I think it's part of the zeitgeist. People are told that they've been repressing their emotions for too long (which is probably true), and that the path to healing lies in feeling their emotions (which is partly true). What we don't discuss is the idea that feeling our emotions is a skill. It's a capacity. It's like weight lifting. We can't lift the heaviest weights our first day at the gym. We've got to build up to it. And it requires skill, mindfulness, and safe methodology. If you haven't lifted weights before, you're not going to know how to lift weights. If you're not used to feeling your feelings, you're not going to know how to feel your feelings. Not only will you not know how to navigate, but you also won't know how to modulate or regulate your emotions. You might allow yourself to spiral past the point of usefulness, which could lead to nervous system dysregulation or a torrent of unhelpful thoughts. It could lead to lasting upset or confusion. Going with the flow is one thing; getting smashed by the waves is another. I'll admit, It's hard to know which is which. It's an understanding that comes only with experience, and we're bound to get it wrong a lot. But you deserve to have some agency in your practice. Some choice. But to even have a chance of getting it right, we need access to our resources. Resources like:
We all have these abilities. We do all of these things every day. We might be better or worse at some of them, but they are in our wheelhouse. For example, we have bills to pay. That's an uncomfortable truth, but somehow we make it work. But sometimes, maybe on a journey, we get hit with a torrent of difficult, intense, and confusing information all at once, and we lose our connection to these skill sets. Then we're at the whims of our energetic swirls and our mental twists. Which, as we know, is not always a great place to be. That is why good preparation and integration include practices and skill-building. We might want to learn:
These tools bring us back into the present, they resource us. They show us we can engage with our difficulties from a grounded place, with an open mind, an open heart, and some agency. We learn that we can feel our emotions without biting off more than we can chew. We can lean in and lean out as it seems appropriate. We can learn to understand and even respect our own boundaries. Imagine how much deeper and more fruitful our work will become if we learn to find the balance in our relationships with our medicines. And it all starts with a breath. A small boy climbed into bed with me at 2 am last night, claiming a bad dream. I slid over, and he climbed in. He went right back to sleep. I didn't. I don't know about you, but 2 am is one of my mind's favorite times to chew on my problems. My mind thinks it's a lovely time to ruminate, judge, and play out worst-case scenarios. 2am is a veritable playground. Of course, I indulged. I don't know if it was for five minutes or a half hour. Time moves differently. But eventually, I realized I had tools. "I should follow my breath," I thought, grateful for the miracle of mindfulness. I started my breathwork, and sleep overtook me shortly thereafter. And I wasn't even high. It took me all that time to get myself together, and I was sober! Exhausted, but sober. I need to train, and train hard, if I'm going to have any chance of keeping my mind together during a ceremony. I had a teacher who said once, If you treat it like a hobby, you're going to get hobby results. Learning how to breathe is one of the best places to start if you want real results. I can help you with this if you join the golden road or you get some 1:1 time with me, but it's not important that you do it with me; it's just important that you do it. Breathe. Breathing SongsSteady the breath to steady the mind (Sorry No Prodigy) ❤️ Training Weekend in San FranciscoNovember 6th to 8th in the Mission Evoke the innate wisdom of your client with curiosity and presence. Skillfully move past blocks that stall your client's integration.Discover the unparalleled impact of mindful inquiry and deep listening in your Psychedelic Integration Coaching. You’ll learn coaching techniques designed to awaken your clients’ inner resourcefulness. You’ll be able to practice them in our community container so that you can see how they work in real-time. Join me for a transformative weekend, where we delve into the essence of Psychedelic Integration Coaching— asking good questions. Inquiry is a practice that goes beyond mere discussions of microdosing protocols, or educational sessions on molecules and dosages. Move beyond just lecturing your clients. Move beyond reactionary advice-giving; embrace the true art of coaching. It’s time to recognize that your true value as a coach comes from your ability to be deeply present for your , to take your seat as a compassionate companion on the path in the truest way possible. Fractal Inquiry allows you to meet your client as your authentic self, which ultimately maximizes the you can offer them. OfferingsWinter Coaching TrainingIn January, our six-month Coaching Training begins.This intensive program covers everything you need to know to skillfully guide a client from preparation through integration. We work with mindfulness, somatics, and deep inquiry to help clients prepare for psychedelic experiences by understanding their intentions, working with the habitual patterns that keep them stuck, and lovingly confronting their shadow parts. You'll learn how to support integration, helping clients make meaning from their intense experiences and bring what they learn into daily life. We cover client intake, scope of practice, ceremony, ethical space holding, and varieties of spiritual support. Alongside the coaching work, we cover building a practice, developing your offers, and having responsible conversations with potential clients. Students learn active listening, the art of powerful questions, and practices for grounding, support and emotional regualtion. You'll feel confident in your ability to make good, ethical choices in your sessions and develop a way of working that creates lasting change and is truly integrative. There is a free info session about the training on Thursday, October 1st at 3pm Eastern. Register Here: Here is the landing page for the training: https://tamintegration.com/psychedelic-coach-training/ Integration CirclesOpen Circles on the 1st and 3rd Mondays of the month. They will be at 3pm Eastern, Noon Pacific. Women's Circles, every Thursday at 9pm Eastern, 6pm Pacific You can join here: https://sqr.co/tamcircle/ ~ The Golden Road - Mentorship, Peer Support, Supervision, and Skill Building for Serious Psychonauts and Healing ProfessionalsThe Golden Road has evolved into a wonderful group of practitioners. We meet every Thursday at noon eastern. There is also a large archive (over 200 hours) of psychedelic education and past talks. The wonderful people who show up share not only their journeys, but the journeys of those they steward. It's become a place of learning, support, accountability, and peer review. Folks are learning some things from me, but they are also learning from each other. We all face unique challenges as we work in this space, and it's great to have a place where we can bring them for non-judgmental feedback and reflection. You're invited. Click here to join Golden Road is a group of coaches and guides that are growing their practices and coming together in the spirit of personal and professional peer support. You also get some teaching and Q&A with yours truly. The main group meeting is Thursdays at noon Eastern. Here's the link to that. DisclaimerNothing in this email should be considered medical or legal advice. We're not suggesting that you break any laws or do anything dangerous. This email is offered as education and entertainment in the spirit of harm reduction. Consult medical and legal professionals if you have questions. Sometimes, there are affiliate links in this email. It helps support this project. Thank you! |
Tam Integration
Cultivate Your Wisdom as an Integration Professional. Join 13k+ subscribers to Red Things on Tuesday. Every week, you'll get a small, curated collection of music, tips, and psychedelic insight on how to move through this ever evolving psychedelic space.
Insight is not excellence; excellence requires practice I was at a lovely, spiritual, daylong event over the weekend. It included a ritual designed for breakthrough and transformation. We broke into small groups, and it was clear this was the first time our group leader had ever led this practice. He was sincere and devoted, but he had to read the steps off of a printout, and stumbled more than once. I had to suspend my cynicism. But you know what? It worked. I felt something, I was moved. As...
Coming Down Gently. Sometimes we think our journey will last forever. And sometimes we think that's awesome, and sometimes we think that's terrible. I've been in both states. I've had the thought, "I'm stuck like this now. I'm going to be this confused and scared forever." I've also had the thought, "This is bliss, I want to be here forever." It's never been the case. They've always ended. I come out a little different each time, but still, they've never been eternal. I've had experiences...
Building a mind that is bigger, funnier, and sexier Here's one of my favorite litmus tests. “A quicker intelligence test, which also indicates the trajectory of your development, is this: If the world seems to be getting bigger and funnier all the time, your intelligence is steadily increasing. If the world seems to be getting smaller and nastier all the time, your stupidity is steadily increasing.” - Robert Anton Wilson, The Illuminati Papers “The only sensible goal, then, is to try to build...