Welcome to Trippy Monday’s, where I go over 3 things that caught my attention from this past week. Enjoy!

(1) I spent this past weekend in Vegas on a family vacation with my mom, stepdad, brother, step-brother, and step-sister. Overall, I actually had a great time. I never know what to expect during my interactions with my family since I started to heal myself, but I try my best to keep myself grounded and not let any of their insecurities or issues get in the way of having a good time. There are still some issues that people in my family need to address, and I have no idea if they will ever address them. Seeing these old patterns from my childhood continue to play out is still kind of crazy to me. The wildest part is that some of them can see how unhealthy these patterns are, yet are still too scared to try to change them – their decisions are based on fear. It’s just so opposite from my mindset of wanting to face my shit head-on and solve it constantly. 

I always feel like when I write about my family, there is a lot of negativity. I’m not trying to blame them for anything or put them down, but they really do have a lot of unhealthy patterns that clearly cause them a lot of internal suffering, so it makes me sad to see them unable to find the courage to do anything about it. However, they are all very loving people who care deeply about me and the other family members. 

I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again; you can only truly love others to the same level that you truly love yourself. My journey of healing has really come down to that – self-love. Now that I understand what that really means, I can see how my family – and most people I know – have no true understanding of that concept, so their version of love is a bit different than mine. I’m open to being wrong here too, but unfortunately, I don’t think I am. I love all of them for who they are, but that doesn’t mean I always like or want to be around them. This was a super fun weekend and I’m glad we spent this time together. I look forward to the next time we all get together, but I’m also not counting down those days. It’ll happen when it happens.

(2) This technically hasn’t happened yet, but holy shit am I excited for the Psychedelic Science conference in Denver this week. I started TripSitting a little over a year ago just as a blog. It wasn’t until I launched the podcast in October that I really started to connect with people across the industry. I’ve connected with so many outstanding individuals in what feels like such a short time, but I haven’t met any of them in person yet. Actually, that’s a lie, I’ve met one: Dennis Walker from Mycopreneur when he was randomly visiting Chicago back in January; I fucking love that man. Either way, I can’t wait to finally meet the friends I’ve made through this platform over the past 8 months, and I can’t wait to meet and network with new people too.

If you’re going to be there, let me know!

(3) There’s this little nature path right by my house that I walk along quite regularly. Once I reach the path, I typically make a right and start walking on the mile-long loop. If I go left at the beginning of the path, it’s just a short walk out to a different street, so I’ve never gone that way because I knew what was there… or so I thought.

I decided to go left this week for no particular reason. While I was correct in knowing that it would very quickly lead me out to the street, I didn’t know there would be an amazing little stream perfectly secluded and shaded by trees. The little stream flowed through rocks that I could easily sit on and listen to the beautiful sound of flowing water. I sat there and meditated for about 10 minutes before I got up and walked back to my house. I can’t believe I never knew that was there, but I’m so happy I decided to explore beyond this stupid limit I put on myself because I “thought” I knew what to expect. 

This was also a good reminder to myself that it really is the little things in life that can you the most amount of joy.