Plants of power healing ceremony

 It’s completely normal to feel a bit stirred up. Being “stirred up” can look a lot of different ways: It could be heightened emotionality, or feeling really raw or very open. Some people describe an afterglow in the day and week after a psilocybin experience, which can be a very positive feeling, but not everyone reacts in the same way. What’s more, once the afterglow wears off, people can then begin to feel this stirred up sensation and fear that they’re worse off than before. But that’s not often the case, and rather, it’s all part of the psychedelic process that’s still unraveling. This will pass. 

Heightened emotionality after a psychedelic experience can even be beneficial. Just because something is stirred up isn’t necessarily bad. People may be experiencing things that they were shut down to. The stirring up is what allows the dust to settle into a new way of being that may be much better for the person than the way things were before. But the stirring up is part of the process. It’s not an unwanted negative side effect. This feeling can even resemble a sort of “hypo-mania” for some that can be just the push they need to start making changes in their lives. It can be a potent therapeutic tool. For example, you may realize you’ve really got to join a gym a start working out; or reach out to friends and invest in meaningful social relationships. If you’re a little manic for a couple of weeks, that can really help you actually take that step of going and joining the gym, or actually picking up the phone and calling your sister, going to have dinner with your grandmother, whatever it is, you start walking in that routine.

Dealing with those post-psychedelic-experience emotions can be hard, especially if you had some profound realizations during your journey or saw how much work you really need to do for personal growth, healing, and integration. But, it’s the work that gives life meaning. The purpose of life isn’t just to be happy, but it’s to find meaning, to participate in something that’s unfolding that maybe is the evolutions of consciousness.

**Excerpt From Your Psilocybin Mushroom Companion, by Michelle Janikian