Soul Nourishment: How Psychedelics Can Support Eating Disorder Recovery

Sacred plant medicines and psychedelics can support the healing of eating disorders and disordered eating by nourishing the soul.

Eating disorders are not about the food. Underneath the disordered eating behaviours is a greater struggle to nourish oneself - not just with food - but with the primary nourishment of love and connection.

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The roots of an eating disorder very often lie in attachment wounding, whereby there was a malnourishment of attuned connection.

Without love and connection, the soul becomes hungry.

When one is afraid to receive, allow or take in love and connection, the soul starves.

So how can we develop courage and a sense of deservingness to heal the wound of connection in order to fully drink it in?

Sacred plant medicines go beyond the eating disorder related symptoms and dive deep into the root causes, bringing up whatever is restricting the intake of love and connection.

In a psychedelic journey, we can face the rules and restrictions we have placed around love, the protective armour we have built up to keep intimacy at bay, the young parts of ourselves that hold the burdens related to our early attachment wounding, and undigested feelings related to abandonment, shame, not enoughness, confusion, and even terror.

This challenging but necessary material arises during a plant medicine ceremony as a way to make space for love to metabolize.

As the ruminative mind (which is often the hindrance to our healing - indeed, we are oftentimes our biggest block in our transformation) slows down under the influence of a psychedelic, the wisdom of the body can emerge.

The innate intelligence of the plant medicine is in direct communication with the innate intelligence of the body.

The body’s organic orientation towards healing means that anything that is stuck, stagnant or holding us back will come up to be processed and released.

This material is not easy to face and can be uncomfortable, hence why good preparation (with a focus on preparing the nervous system), a safe environment and an attuned and loving facilitator/guide/friend are all needed.

These elements are key so we that we feel safe enough to soften the defenses, process the fear, open up to vulnerability, and ultimately to be nourished in and by love.

This is love that our deepest authentic self knows we deserve.

These experiences with plant medicines, when supported with integration practices, can carve new pathways of relating with oneself and with others, establishing intrapersonal, interpersonal, and transpersonal relationships that are aligned, attuned and deeply accepting of our authentic expression.

Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash