There are many reasons why people take psychedelics. 

For me personally, my recreational use of magic mushrooms intrigued me so much that eventually my un-guided curiosity turned into a more focused passion. I was intrigued to learn about using them for healing, deep self-exploration and consciousness expansion.

Having both experiences under my belt - unguided recreational use and focused therapeutic use - there is one main distinction between a haphazard psychedelic experience, and one that's meant to be healing. 

That one single thing is Setting A Clear INTENTION.

I don’t personally recommend anyone using psychedelics alone and unguided. However, if you do decide to trip on your own I highly recommend spending time setting your intention before your journey as it is a powerful tool to help create a meaningful and transformational experience.

That being said, even if you go into a trip without intention, you may still end up having a therapeutic experience. 

However, setting an intention in the weeks, days (or in some cases, hours) before your trip could drastically impact what happens. It can also help make sense of more difficult or confusing moments either during, or in the days, weeks and even months following your trip.

I am currently in the process of writing a 6-week preparation course for my upcoming 5-Day Ayahuasca Retreat in Baja Mexico in January 2022. Coaching my clients around setting their intentions is an entire week of that 6-week preparation course!

I wanted to share with you in this blog post some of my best practices for setting intentions as it has been such a foundational piece for me in using these medicine journeys to create clear and focused changes in my life. 

Some of my personal transformational experiences when going into ceremony with specific intentions have included outcomes such as:

• Healing various addictions
• Shifting from being stuck and frustrated in a situation to gaining total freedom and having clarity of the situation overnight
• Manifesting money and soulmate relationships! 

Setting your intentions  obviously starts BEFORE you trip. 

I’m going to share with you a process that’s a bit in-depth but very holistic. And as you will read, I highly recommend getting down to a very focused, single intention by going through this process.

There is a simple reason for this when you think about it energetically. If you go into an 8-hour ceremony with a list of 10 things you want to discover, heal, or accomplish, you are likely going to come out confused and scattered because your energy will be split between 10 things you are trying to “figure out”. 

Whereas if you go in with a single, focused curiosity, question, or desire - ALL of your energy will be focused on one thing versus 10 and you will get much more clarity and insight on your desired intention. In short - keep it simple. Don’t try to solve all of the problems in your life while trying to understand the meaning of the Universe in one night. (This may actually happen anyway because there is pure magic and infinite potential in The Universe!) 

Practically speaking, keeping it simple and clear will give you a great chance at getting a simple and clear message from your journey!

1. Begin With An In-Depth Journaling Session

Before your ceremony, give yourself some time and space in a quiet environment to journal your answers to the following questions as you begin to explore your intention/s:

• What is the most alive thing for you (in the present), both energetically and emotionally? Here are some prompts to help: 

• Is it a feeling of “stuckness”? 
• Is it a mental or emotional pattern that keeps repeating? 
• Are you trying to improve your abilities to manifest X, Y, or Z? 
• Do you want to know more about yourself and your life’s purpose? 
• Is it a romantic relationship that's falling apart? 
• Do you have a major life decision to make? 
• Are you trying to understand certain self-sabotaging behaviors? 
• Are you struggling with something like depression, anxiety, or an addiction?

Consider all of what is up for you and then decide what is truly most important to you at this moment in time. Focusing on the present moment, and using your intuition based on what you wrote down will guide you in the way your Soul wants you to go - so be honest with yourself and use your body and intuition to help lead this process.

• What do I want to get from this experience? How do I feel now versus how I hope to feel after the experience?

• Why am I even doing this? (This helps you dig deeper into the reasons you are deciding to go deep into your subconscious to find these answers. Sometimes you will realize that you actually have deeper insight than you are allowing yourself to see in this process of writing pre-ceremony).

• What do I really want to work on and/or discover? 

• Am I truly ready to integrate the “answer” or changes that I desire? What might that look like?

• What's holding me back? What pieces of myself or my life need some love or improvement? What do I actually want to cultivate in my life so that I am more joyful, at peace, and fulfilled? 

2. Keeping a Dream &/or Meditation Journal Leading Up To The Ceremony

Another suggestion I offer my clients is to begin keeping a dream journal and/or a meditation journal in advance of your journey. I believe that the medicine begins working on us / with us FAR before the actual trip, so keeping a journal and writing about your dreams and/or insights and visions in times of meditation and silence will be very insightful to get guidance from your Higher Self in this process.

3. Talk To Someone About Your Intentions

Another thing you can do to help ground and focus your intention is to share it with a coach, friend, partner, etc. beforehand. Sometimes our “deepest, darkest secrets” are what keep us stuck. Don’t let shame or self-judgement keep you from setting the intention that's most true to you at this moment in your life. Obviously, you don’t HAVE to share your intention with anyone, but intending to share your intention with someone can push you beyond your comfort zone and that can reveal some really deep truths about your “shadow” and what is wanting to be healed.

 4. Setting Your Single Focused Intention

Once you've reflected, contemplated, journaled, and talked to someone about your process - now it’s time to set your intention.

• Keep it simple. One word or a phrase will do. Your intention might be as simple as a single word such as “trust” or “relax” or “presence”. A sentence might be phrased “I want to know how to heal my addiction to alcohol”
• Keeping it simple and focused will make it a mantra to help you have easy access to it during your ceremony
• Your intention should ideally be a simple idea that you can return to throughout your trip; you don't want to forget what it is and feel discouraged, and you also want to stay out of the mind too much because the most healing happens when you can let go of the mind and allow the experience to unfold while you are inside of the journey
• Understand the difference between an "intention" and an "expectation"
• Intentions are tied to a desire to live your life in a certain way in the present moment and in the future. I would also add that they are not necessarily attached to a certain outcome, but rather a spectrum of possibilities. 

So intentions are meant to be desires without an attached outcome, whereas an expectation will keep you too focused on getting a specific result. 

Simply put, we often don’t know what the best results are for us - that’s why we turn to things like plant medicine and diving deep into our subconscious for answers. 

Don’t get focused on having an expectation. Be open to the possibilities while keeping your intention in mind and observing all of the moving parts and how they relate to your intention.  

I would love to help you with this process, and a single chat with the two of us could be instrumental in helping you get the most out of your journey.

I am currently accepting new clients, and would love to explore working together… even just for one session.

Click here to learn more about working with me — I’ve made it affordable and accessible. 

I’m here to help you.

All My Love,

Hollis