Sorry for the late notice - I will post the new date soon.

Integration: Before You Tell Everyone. - A Note on Sharing Your Experience Most of us can relate to wanting to tell everyone when something profound happens to us. And that impulse is normal. The experience cracked something open - and for many, especially with psychedelics, you can feel more alive, clearer, and more like yourself. So of course you want to share that. Maybe you want the people around you to feel what you felt. Maybe you want them to understand you better. Or maybe you are just overflowing with feelings. All of that is real and valid. AND - not every share will land the way you hope. The medicine you received is still working. What you're integrating is personal, who you share it with and how you share it are important considerations. Who to Share It With Ultimately, deciding whom to share your experience with is your decision; however, consider these tips: Ask yourself, "Does this person have the capacity to hold what I'm about to share?" That doesn't mean they need to have done a journey themselves. It means: Are they curious enough without being dismissive? Safe without being enabling? Can they be with you without making it about them, their fears, or their opinions about psychedelics? Some people in your life will rise to meet you there. Others, even people you love deeply, simply won't have the container for it. That is not a judgment on them. It just is. What to Share The early days after a journey are a time when meaning is still forming. What felt like a clear insight yesterday might deepen, shift, or reveal itself differently next week. Sharing too much, too soon - especially with people who aren't resourced to receive it - can actually flatten the experience or introduce doubt where there was clarity. Sharing the feeling tone more than the content, at least at first, can be helpful as you more fully integrate the experience. Upsides of Sharing With the Right People When you share with someone who can truly receive it, it amplifies. It can help you make meaning. It can deepen your relationship. It an even open a door for someone who's been quietly curious. It can be witnessed, and witnessing accelerates integration.

The Medicine You Make With Your Own Voice After a journey, your nervous system is doing important work - integrating, reorganizing, and settling into new patterns. What you do in the days and weeks that follow matters enormously. I want to share a simple tool to help you connect with your nervous system: humming. A sustained, low-pitched hum helps give your vagus nerve a workout. The vagus nerve runs through your larynx and pharynx - directly in the path of vocal vibration. Because of this, humming creates a vibration that stimulates your vagus nerve and can increase your vagal tone - the health and responsiveness of the nerve itself. A well-toned vagus nerve is foundational to nervous system resilience: better stress recovery, more emotional flexibility, improved digestion, and deeper sleep. Your vagus nerve acts like your body's built-in brake pedal for stress. Humming is one of the most direct ways to press it. One study found a 15-fold increase in nasal nitric oxide from humming compared to exhaling quietly. Nitric oxide is involved in everything from brain and immune function to blood flow to the lungs. It also protects your body by neutralizing airborne pathogens, and has been shown to reduce blood pressure. The more you hum, the more you flood your system with this quietly powerful molecule. Research revealed that humming generates the lowest stress index compared to physical activity, emotional stress, and sleep. Yes - lower than sleep. The heart rate variability (HRV) data backs this up - heart rate decreases and heart rate variability increases, both markers of better health and nervous system regulation. Studies also suggest that the vibration produced by humming deactivates parts of the brain, particularly the amygdala, which is associated with depression and fight-or-flight response. After a journey, you may be processing old material that's moving through. You want the alarm system a little quieter while the deeper integration does its work.

Hope you can join us this Wednesday, 4/22 at 6 pm PST! Join Zoom Meeting https://us06web.zoom.us/j/3648065492?pwd=APZhhw2iFM2O8a4BGEvza1iPStGqNr.1&omn=88429940564 Meeting ID: 364 806 5492 Passcode: 042494 The Body Knows First After a retreat, a psychedelic journey, or a profound experience, the mind seeks answers - it wants to sort the experience into something coherent: a lesson, a breakthrough, or a story it can tell. And that impulse makes sense. The mind is a meaning-making machine. It’s doing its job.But here’s what’s also true: your body received everything that happened, too. And it’s working on its own timeline.The body doesn’t translate experience into language the way the mind does. It speaks in sensation: a heaviness in the chest, a warmth that spreads through the belly, a tightness in the throat that comes out of nowhere, a sudden exhaustion, an unexpected lightness. These aren’t random. They’re not symptoms to manage or signs that something is wrong. They’re integration happening. Why the Body Often Knows Before the Mind Does During a ceremony or a deep retreat experience, the nervous system is doing something profound. It’s processing material: emotional, somatic, sometimes even ancestral - that doesn’t always come with a clear narrative attached. Some of what moves through you doesn’t have words yet. Some of it may never need words.When you come home and the mind starts grasping - what did it mean, what do I do now, why do I feel so strange - often what’s actually happening is that the body is still metabolizing the experience, and the mind hasn’t caught up yet.This is completely normal. And it’s not a problem to solve.The invitation is to learn to read the body as a compass during integration - not to decode it or force it to speak in concepts, but to simply stay in relationship with what’s there. What Somatic Integration Actually Looks Like It doesn’t always look like anything dramatic. In fact, it’s often quiet:- Waking up with a feeling you can’t name- A pull toward solitude, or an unexpected hunger for connection- Crying without knowing why - and the tears feeling right somehow- A recurring ache or tightness in the same place- Unusual fatigue, or unusual energy- A desire to move, to be in nature, to be held. These are the body’s way of processing. When you notice them and turn toward them - with curiosity instead of judgment, you’re doing integration work, even if it doesn’t feel productive or intentional.

Sleep is more than just rest. It is a time for repair and integration. During sleep, your system: *Processes emotional experiences *Consolidates memory and learning *Regulates your nervous system *Clears metabolic waste from the brain *Repairs tissues (including fascia) If you're doing deep work - retreats, somatic practices, trauma healing, even big life changes - sleep is a place where the work can land and integrate. Without it, you may notice: *Emotional reactivity *Brain fog or forgetfulness *Increased anxiety or sensitivity *Feeling "stuck" despite doing the work Integration isn't complete without sleep - restful, restorative sleep. Sleep issues can be varied, but they're often about a nervous system that doesn't feel safe enough to let go. Some common root causes: 1. Nervous system dysregulation: Fight/flight = racing thoughts, restless body. Freeze/shutdown = exhaustion but can't fall asleep 2. Unprocessed emotional activation: Your body still "digesting" the day (or your life) 3. Cortisol rhythm activation: Wired at night, tired in the morning. 4. Hormonal fluctuations: This is a big one - and often overlooked or dismissed. 5. Light Exposure mismatch: Too much artificial light at night, not enough natural light in the morning 6. Blood sugar instability: Night wakings (especially around 2-4 am) 7. Overstimulation before sleep: Screens, intense conversations, late work Better sleep starts when you wake up. Your nervous system and circadian rhythm need clear signals. Try this simple morning routine: 1. Get natural light in your eyes within 30-60 minutes of waking 2. Step outside (even 2-5 minutes helps) 3. Gentle movement (walking, bouncing, fascia work) 4. Hydrate before caffeine *preferably warm water This will help regulate cortisol, melatonin, energy and mood throughout the day Morning light tells your body when night will come. A Simple Night Routine: *60-90 minutes before bed: dim lights, reduce stimulation, reduce or stop screen time