Psychedelic Integration In A World Of Diet Culture

We often focus on set and setting when preparing for a plant medicine journey, but we often forget about the environment from which we come from and return to after the psychedelic experience. 

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Set refers to the person's mindset and emotional state, and setting refers to the environment that holds the individual through the journey. 

Another layer that we need to consider is the overall societal context that a person comes from and returns to. This is called the “matrix”, coined by Betty Eisner. The matrix impacts how someone prepares and integrates a plant medicine experience. 

If we are curious about incorporating plant medicine for eating disorder recovery, we need to be cognizant of the fact that many of us live in diet culture, where messaging around food and body are pervasive and insidious - and returning to this after a journey can be challenging.

Psychedelics bring us closer to our inner cues and authentic truth, so it can be confronting when the greater environment doesn't align with the person we are becoming.

It can also be challenging to face the beliefs that we inherited from the larger collective growing up (from family, communities, institutions etc) - and facing the possibility of these letting these beliefs go. This can bring up grief, gratitude, excitement and fear. 

In this void of letting go of old beliefs, we stand open. The opportunity to carve an aligned path and connect new and radiant dots awaits. 

This path gets carved in the journey and in the integration phase. Many people return to the place from which they came before journey - and for many of us that means re-meeting diet culture.

Psychedelics can help us become more aware of diet culture, and how deeply rooted and hidden it is. 

When become more and more aware of the hidden beliefs perpetuated by diet culture that equates our weight to our worth, we can stand up against it and stand up for our unshakeable worth that is not Dependent on our external appearance. 

The sensitivity that we feel after a plant medicine ceremony means that the rules and rigidity set by diet culture can be rough on our senses. 

As such, it is particularly important in integration to surround ourselves with people who are also committed to stepping out of diet culture - and creating a new vision of how to be a human in a body in the world. 

Integration requires support, patience, and resources to become clear on what we value and care about as a way to anchor in what we find meaningful and worth standing for.

In the face of diet culture, it is vital more than ever for us to center around our personal values (rather than diet culture's priorities), to listen to our inner cues (aka develop interoception rather than following diet culture's external rules), and to keep returning to our inherent worthiness.

For people who support folks in integration, remember that this is a delicate re-meaning making moment amidst the pervasiveness of diet culture.

This work requires lots of holding and co-regulating, the cultivation of sustainable tools, and practice as people develop trust and courage to align with the authentic expression of who they are truly meant to be.

Photo by Benjamin Wong on Unsplash