Top 5 Creative Ayahuasca Integration Rituals
Energy medicine, in its many forms, seeks balance of the mind/body/spirit. An Ayahuasca ceremony can be an extraordinary tool on your path, especially if you enter into the integration period with intention. Any action can become a powerful ritual if you do it with specific energy, humility, and genuine openness to receive teachings in all moments—big or small. Here are a few creative rituals to bring into your post-ceremony integration practice.
1.Body or Energy Work – Reiki, massage, and acupuncture are all great avenues to integrating back into your body. Every Ayahuasca experience is different, but many can be intense for the body. Consciously reconnecting with, and caring for, your body is always helpful after working with Ayahuasca. Before your ceremony experience, schedule a body work appointment during your integration time. It’s better to take care of these logistics before ceremony, so you can minimize any potential stress when integrating. The first three days after ceremony is the most powerful time to receive body work. Take time just before your appointment to meditate, connect with your higher self, and set a gentle healing intention. During the appointment, turn your attention to the different parts of your body and give them each heartfelt thanks for what they do for you. Give double thanks to the parts that give you trouble.
2.Floating – Sensory deprivation tanks, or float tanks, offer a wide range of experiences, all rooted in the quieting of most sensory information coming into your brain. It’s a relaxing reset for the body and mind. After an Ayahuasca experience, you may feel extra sensitive to outside stimuli. Floating gives your body a highly nourishing form of rest by shutting out all sound and light. Even the daily stimuli of room air on your skin is quieted within a float tank’s space. It is good to note that for some people, sensory deprivation can become its own psychedelic experience, bringing on visions and a re-heightened sensitivity to the energetic realms. This, too, can be useful in your integration if you want to go deeper into lessons.
3.Letters from the Universe – Write letters to other people. They may be people you know, or you may feel called to address people you don’t actually know. Write your letters without the intention of sending them (you can always change your mind later), so you can really let the words flow freely. Set up your writing space, meditate for a few minutes to ground and center yourself, and then start writing to the first person who comes to mind. If you have a specific message for them, write it down. If you don’t know what to say, just start writing—even pure nonsense. Sometimes the highest messages are able to slip through our conscious minds when we let nonsense flow onto the page. You may communicate something surprising to yourself, or you may find the Universe allowing its messages to flow through you.
4.Process Painting – Creating art of any form is a potent way to integrate your ceremony experiences into your daily life. We often make art with an end-goal in mind for what we want to express. Process Painting is all about the journey and not at all about the destination. It is a way of painting where you communicate feelings and intuitions, and your approach to the artwork can shift moment to moment. You may start with painting lines, then random strokes with your non-dominant hand, followed by smearing with a towel—whatever calls to you. You may wander into adding collage elements, or cut the painting surface, or drop a handful of nearby dirt onto the composition. During your Ayahuasca integration, let art be an action, not just a thing. You will be surprised what happens when you fully give yourself to the process.
5.Sleep under the stars – Stay connected to the cosmos by sleeping outside. Starbathing in your sleep after an Ayahuasca ceremony can kick up the integration work in your dreams and restful states. This is particularly powerful if you’re sleeping in a natural environment, away from the sounds and lights of a populated place. If you just can’t get outside under the sky, try sleeping under an open window.
Some traditions say a medicine ceremony is just the beginning of the experience, and that the real work happens in integration. Moving mindfully through integration can help you better bring the deep work of ceremony into your daily life.
Thank you for reading.
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