As you probably know at this point, I recently returned from Peru after trying ayahuasca for the first time. If you haven’t read about that experience, a good place to start is right here. I’ve only been back for about 2 weeks now and to be completely honest, it’s been way tougher than I thought it would be. Taking that experience and integrating it back into my normal life has been challenging, and it’s even remotely close to over yet. 

Psychedelic integration is something that I’ve only now started to realize the importance of. It’s a term I’ve heard before and was aware of, but I didn’t really think too much about it. The point of any psychedelic experience in my opinion is to open your mind to new perspectives. I’ve had many psychedelic experiences where I’ve gained valuable insights that have helped me understand both myself and the world in new ways. I’ve then been able to take that new wisdom and change myself or the way I think. This hasn’t always been the case though. If you don’t take the time to reflect on and implement those new insights into your life, it’s easy to go back to old habits. That’s where the integration process comes in.

What is Psychedelic Integration?

Psychedelic integration is the practice of taking the new insights, knowledge, or perspectives you learned from a psychedelic experience and implementing back into your life to enact change. To put it more simply, it’s about taking whatever lessons you learned and applying them in the real world. In a blog post from Mindbloom, they say, “Psychedelic experiences have the potential to open up very dramatic or significant ways of being, ways of viewing others, and how you view yourself. It may bring to light new goals you have, things you want to do, say, or move towards.” Psychedelic integration is about making that actually happen. 

Why is Psychedelic Integration Important?

Psychedelics on their own don’t cause change. They just open you up to new ways of thinking. Integration after the fact is what causes real change, and this part of the process falls back onto you. If you don’t take time and put in work to integrate, change will simply not occur.  The same lesson is probably going to keep coming up in subsequent psychedelic experiences and other parts of your life.

Do I Have to Take Time to Integrate Every Single Psychedelic Experience?

Of course not. I can’t even tell you the number of times I’ve taken psychedelics, got introduced to new ideas or perspectives, and then not had that cause any real change. Sometimes I take them just to have some fucking fun. Life doesn’t have to be so serious all of the time, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

However, if you actually take them with the intention to heal yourself, but then don’t take the time afterwards to integrate, it’s going to be an uphill battle before any real change takes place. 

Do I Have to Take Time to Integrate Every Single Psychedelic Experience?

No, lol.

Jokes aside, that’s not actually always the case. It really depends on the types of changes you need to integrate. Big changes will require a lot of time and patience. Smaller changes can be much easier and simpler to integrate. For any type of change, allow yourself to make mistakes. You WILL make mistakes. You’re not perfect, nor will you ever be perfect, so treat yourself with grace.

How Do I Actually Go About This?

That, my friends, is a great fucking question. I do not have all of the answers, but I can at least share my thoughts. 

The most important part of the process is to actually commit to doing the work and putting in the effort to integrate. That may sound incredibly obvious, but please don’t overlook this. Before ever taking psychedelics with the intention to heal or change, commit to doing the integration work before you even take the psychedelic of choice.

Integration can happen in the form of physical, spiritual, or emotional changes. As I mentioned before, this isn’t always an easy process. It also always helps to have someone else to talk to during this process. That can include a therapist, friend, mentor… literally anyone that you’re close with and trust. However, I realize that not everyone can be open about their personal psychedelic usage, even with the people they’re close with. If this is you, I recommend looking for online groups or instagram pages that talk about this process, which there are quite a few of. Reddit is also a great place to find online support. The real point is to understand that you’re not in this alone, and there are so many people that understand what you’re going through and want to help.

Please always feel free to reach out to me as well at tripsittingblog@gmail.com. Always happy to help when I can 🙂

My Own Integration Journey

I’ve had a lot of integration journeys, but I’m just going to focus on the one I’m currently going through. As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I just did ayahuasca for the first time. It forced me to go deep within myself in order to uncover buried emotions I wasn’t even aware of. This mainly has to do with a lot of shame, guilt, and pain that I’ve internalized throughout my life, and this has made it hard for me to fully and unconditionally love myself. At least that’s my current hypothesis. For me, this is going to be a long process, and I continue to come to new realizations about the experience every single day. 

I won’t lie, it’s been fucking difficult. This experience has truly shaken me to my core, but it’s something that I realize needed to happen in order for me to grow. For that, I’m incredibly grateful and optimistic about what’s next for me. At the same time, I won’t pretend like I haven’t had days where I feel completely lost and I want everything to just go back to normal. I’ve literally broken down and cried in my shower the past seven mornings in a row because I still have those buried emotions inside of me that need to come out. I’m also not someone who has EVER just broken down and cried like that. Directly after these dope little cry sessions though, I feel fucking amazing. Finally letting out those feelings is an intensely rewarding experience. 

Ayahuasca showed me what pure and authentic self-forgiveness and self-love feels like. It’s a fundamental change in how I view myself and the world. That’s not to say my mind still doesn’t want to go back to how it used to be. Of course it does, because that’s what’s comfortable. In order for this change to stick, I need to put in genuine effort and work, but also be patient. I remind myself every day that I’m worthy of love just the way I am, and I’m going to keep doing that until I no longer need to remind myself in order to believe it. That, in a nutshell, is why integration is important. 

Ayahuasca helped me see the core of my problem in a way that no other psychedelic ever has. Now I’m aware of this pain inside of me that I had no idea existed. Without knowing what’s wrong, it’s hard to fix something, and that process takes time. I can’t wait to come out on the other side and look back and smile with amazement for how far I’ve come. The human experience really is something special.