My first experience with Magic Mushrooms was in 2003 when I was 19 years old. That was the beginning of my Soul Purpose life, as it was the day I began to remember who I really was - a Soul in a human body who came here with a mission to learn, grow, and experience life to the absolute fullest.

The perspective shifts I had, while on this short adventure with my girlfriends - lost somewhere in the beautiful forest near Corvallis, Oregon - triggered my authentic memories of happiness, freedom, and joy. At the time I was an emotional mess inside but this reprieve from that struggle was an experience that would never leave me.

Seven years went by after this initial experience. 2010 followed the darkest years of my life, which included living with deep depression, anxiety, and addiction, a visit to rehab, feeling trapped in shitty jobs, continually failing in relationships, and dealing with lethargy and vision loss (which was 100% stress-related). I was on the verge of giving up. 

I never tried to kill myself, but I didn’t really care about living either. 

I was living in Portland, Oregon at the time and one day I was sitting in my room looking at the line-up of prescription drugs I was taking. An antidepressant, antianxiety, a pill for sleeping, and honestly I don’t even remember what else. What I did know is that something happened that day which can only be described as an act of God/Goddess/Divine Intervention, or whatever you want to call it. 

In that moment  in my room, I had a super clear and rational thought that induced a bolt of excitement inside of me. That thought was “what if I could just eat mushrooms everyday, I wonder if I could teach myself to be happy again?”

I called a friend, bought a big bag of mushrooms, ground them into a powder in my kitchen, and put them into capsules. 

I hadn’t heard of microdosing, I don’t even know if it was a thing back then. But when that thought came in, it was super rational and resonated deeply. 

I had on occasion taken mushrooms recreationally - usually while drinking (not medicinally) but I always loved the “trip” as we used to call it in the party scene. But I still had judgement about it, because at the time it was a “drug”. There was about 25% of me that doubted this “brilliant idea” of mine to take small doses of this happy-inducing plant, but the other 75% of me was 100% on board because nothing could be worse than taking handfuls of synthetic prescription pills and still feel depressed and anxious everyday.

This was around the time I started to hear about using psychedelics for healing, specifically Ayahuasca. My upstairs neighbor had told me about the ceremonies he was doing with Ayahuasca which ignited my interest. Maybe that’s why it finally occurred to me that mushrooms could be used for much more than just a night of partying. Either way, the idea of using this specific plant to actually heal my battle with depression and anxiety seemed like a no-brainer. So, I went for it.

To make a long story short, that was the beginning of my journey with healing my own deep wounds with plant medicine - which I now refer to as Ancestral Medicines. I put down all of my prescription drugs once I began microdosing mushrooms, and I have never been prescribed another antidepressant since. That first experience I had with microdosing opened up the world for me, and in today’s post I want to share with you my 5 Top Reasons To Microdose with Psilocybin.

As a disclaimer - despite my unguided experiment back in the day, knowing what I know now and especially with the widely researched topic of using plant medicine for therapeutic purposes, I want to state clearly that I do not promote the use of recreational or illegal drugs. 

I do, however, absolutely promote using medicinal plants for healing when done under the guidance of an experienced professional.

So for those of you who are willing to do your research, and are interested in experiencing the deeply profound healing effects of these magical medicinal plants - here are my Top 5 Reasons To Microdose.

1. FOCUS & ENERGY - About an hour or two after ingesting the microdose, you will often notice an increase in focus and energy. This will usually be a subtle shift and most of you won’t even notice it until you are deeply engaged with an activity. One client recently told me, “I read through an entire chapter of the book I was reading and I felt more present and engaged than ever before, and I kept reading because it felt like I was fully living the adventure with the girl in the story”. 
2. INDUCES NATURAL HAPPINESS & CAN ALSO HELP WITH WEANING OFF OF ANTIDEPRESSANTS - My story is a testament to the remembrance of your natural state of authentic happiness and joy.  Many of you will find that it helps with weaning off — and staying off — antidepressants. Microdosing can absolutely help lessen the side effects of withdrawal (which no western doctors will ever tell you about) - and will likely mitigate depression once fully off the medications. 
3. INCREASES EMPATHY & COMPASSION - Almost all of my clients and friends who I have conversations with about microdosing, speak to the mushrooms ability to increase understanding of your emotional processes. We all know the world could use more empathy and compassion, right?!
4. INCREASED CAPACITY TO UNDERSTAND ONESELF - Mushrooms help support you in going into a space of deep introspection. Not only does it help you look inside - but it helps you to take an HONEST look inside. As one client who regularly microdoses puts it, “the mushrooms just help me cut out anything that isn’t serving me in the present moment, so I can just enjoy being.”
5. DEEP PRESENCE & GRATITUDE - Mushrooms remind you to “stop and smell the roses” as the popular metaphor goes. They make you feel deeply connected to the moment and deeply grateful for simply BEING. A close friend recently described her experience to me saying, “it makes me feel more ‘go with the flow’ and less like I’m taking life so seriously cause I’m usually so analytical and rigid in my thinking.”

If you would like to know more the specifics of microdosing or learn more about what microdosing can do for you, you can contact me HERE.

Much Love, Now & Always,

Hollis