What To Expect When Microdosing For Eating Disorder Recovery
What might you expect when microdosing for eating disorder recovery?
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Experiencing hunger, bigger emotions, tiredness, more spontaneity and openness, and a desire to create may be some of many things you might encounter.
With the help of psychedelics, the repetitive inner chatter softens into the background, and in that newfound space, we have more access to the wisdom of the body through sensations and the embodied experience.
When that innate wisdom gets to speak and guide, we have the opportunity to explore hidden or new aspects of ourselves that we might not have had access to before.
This new information that microdosing with psychedelics can help us access can sometimes be uncomfortable to receive and integrate.
Indeed, anything that is new or unfamiliar can be edgy because it’s unknown! This is normal to experience and as such, having support for the microdosing journey as well as other complementary practices, like mediation, time in nature, support from others, movement or art, to titrate and sustainably smooth out the gradual process of unlearning, relearning, rewiring, and transforming are suggested.
When you start microdosing, it is common to encounter these themes (in your own unique way of course):
Increased Hunger Cues
Microdosing softens the chatter of the mind, giving us more access to the body and its cues and signals. If you’ve previously ignored subtle or obvious hunger cues, they become easier to hear and harder to ignore. If you feel hungrier, do your best to listen and respond to your body’s needs and eat. You might also have a clearer sense on what you truly desire to eat (not what diet culture tells you is appropriate or acceptable).
You might also have more access to what feelings or thoughts come up with more spaciousness and compassion when you allow yourself to eat. Notice what it’s like to hold yourself with more open-hearted presence as you eat. Does eating with compassion affect your digestive system in any way?
Feeling the feels
Microdosing increases our emotional and energetic sensitivities. If there have been suppressed emotions, they have easier access to come up to be felt because the habitual gating of emotions loosens up. We may also have greater connection to our emotions in our day to day.
With the veil thinner, it is important on the days that you microdose that you engage in soul-nourishing activities that allow for self-reflection and feeling, such as journaling, spending time in nature, engaging in creative activities, or breathwork. It is also suggested to not have too much stimulation on the days that you microdose (ie. try to avoid traffic, stressful deadlines, over-crowded places) as the nervous system is already a lot more sensitive and the sensory system is heightened.
Feeling Tired
If we have been chronically and habitually moving from one thing to the next, doing, doing (hello diet culture), microdosing may reveal the depth of our tiredness. Rather than pushing through it, allow yourself to yield and rest. Notice what thoughts and feelings come up when you give yourself permission to slow down with compassion and curiosity.
You might want to sleep, lie on the Earth, cuddle up with a pet, do yoga Nidra, or listen to soothing music whilst you cozy up in next made of pillows and blankets.
More spontaneity and openness
Be prepared to ditch your plans and to-do lists. You might become aware of what is truly inspiring you, lighting you up, or where your soul wants to be placing attention. Rather than doing what you should be doing, you might want to have open-ended space to explore what feels good, following those subtle cues of your heart.
This may bring up all kinds of feels for the eating disorder. If you notice anxiety arise in these more open-ended moments, make direct contact with the raw sensation - just as sensation. Then ask that part that is feeling the anxiety, what it may need to feel safe as you explore in this more open-ended way.
Be open to spending more time journalling, dancing, meditating, creating art, listening to music, singing, or being in nature. Notice what it’s like to let go of expectations and agendas and surrender to the flow.
Desire to create
Mircrodosing offers us a chance to place a subtle pause on the habitual ruts of thinking, feeling and doing. Leaving the familiar shores of the known and entering the river of the unknown, we have an opportunity to create something new. Rather than following the repetitive rules set out by the eating disorder mindset, use the days that you microdose to create something new.
Creativity comes in many forms, including art-making, envisioning the future, creating a new belief, or responding to a situation differently. Heck, even choosing to eat at a different time, or cooking with a new ingredient is creativity in the making. Healing is itself a creative process as it requires us to do think, feel, believe differently in order to access greater levels of healing.
What have you noticed when you microdose? I’m curious to know what has come up for you when you have microdosed for your eating disorder recovery!
Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash