Stuck in Autopilot? Here’s how psychedelics may help

Today you woke up and put on your identity. Mother, student, employee, brother, etc., donned, and then you proceeded about your day: brush your teeth, make your bed, get dressed, make coffee. Check your phone and start work, talk to friends and coworkers. Throughout all these actions, your brain was years away, replaying the “should-haves” of the past and spinning thoughts into the future until they stir up anxious uncertainty. You are your identity, encapsulated in yourself and individual experience. True connectedness is impossible when you live across the past and future, a life on autopilot ruled by ego. Perhaps, a psychedelic experience could improve your life.

Psilocybin is the psychoactive alkaloid in hallucinogenic mushrooms. Using a carefully regulated dose, here is how it could help you feel more connected and at peace with yourself and life.

1. Increasing emotional awareness 

Psilocybin increases positive emotional awareness. It pulls you from the distractions of past and future to connect you to directly with the present moment. This breaks patterns of negative, rigid, patterns of self-criticism, doubt, and judgement and increases openness of emotions. You are able to assess thoughts and emotions, becoming truly aware of existence, and your place in it, at that moment. Psilocybin also enhances experiences of positive emotions and decreases reactivity in the part of the brain that processes fear. One study conducted with healthy volunteers showed increased emotional and brain plasticity even a month after administering psilocybin.

 2. Decentering the self 

The identities each of us have are helpful to create organization and structure and help us cope with life. However, these identities can trap us in habitual, default modes of thoughts and actions. We walk through life in autopilot, experiencing ourselves as detached and isolated from our surroundings. This separation condenses the marvellously strange and emotive world into our structured life, one we attempt to control at all cost. This state is associated with depression, anxiety, and addiction. Psychedelics, and deep meditation, reset the default mode network to “decenter” ourselves. This allows reformation of habits and stuck thoughts as the mind is loosened, and emotions unlocked. Temporary relaxing of the excessive self-focus allows us to organize thoughts and emotions, and expand our notion of self and integrate it with our surroundings. In addition, opening these pathways shifts perspective for creative projects that stalled due to stagnancy. Often, feelings of intense connectedness and love arise, as these well-worn habit pathways are transcended to experience an unbiased reality.

 3. Improving prosocial behavior  

Prosocial behaviors help us integrate with other people. Traits such as empathy, compassion, cognitive flexibility, creativity, openness, altruism, and cooperation are many times uncommon as society has shifted out of community and small-tribe living. These prosocial behaviors are necessary for overcoming all large and small threats to the planet and truly connecting with people and life. Profound awe of life reported after many psychedelic experiences fosters a deep connection with the world. From this awe stems gratitude, empathy, and sense of belonging. Such experiences have shifted people’s mindset and enabled them to move through the world with renewed wonder, creativity, and passion.  

 Is this for you?  

Click here to check our Mind Reset Mushroom Retreat. Psychedelics may be able to improve your life and help you feel reconnected with yourself and environment. If this interests you, or you have any questions, please contact us! We would love to talk further, and help you find the right path to living the healthiest version of you.