Tree of Light Retreats
Ayahuasca Retreats
Preparing to work with Ayahuasca
The journey and connection with Ayahuasca begins with your commitment to come and work with her. It is very common for people to experience all kinds of obstacles, emotions, and conflicts in the months or weeks leading up to making their journey to come and work with the medicine. Having the awareness that energies have already begun to be pushed to the surface for healing, can begin a very empowering process of learning to slow down and see how your shadows can play a dominating role in your life.
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Putting energy and intention into your preparation for working with Ayahuasca can greatly impact your experience during the retreat, and will also give you tools that will already begin to assist your integration process. When we make commitments and take the space to truly offer ourselves up to the process of healing, there is great potential for life-changing transformation to manifest.
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We often receive messages from participants leading up to a retreat that they are having powerful dreams. Sometimes they see the face of a shaman, or hear singing, or hear a voice delivering a message. This at times can feel scary to experience. The wise spirit of this medicine as already began her work. Even if you aren't experiencing dreams, we encourage people to begin opening up their lines of communication with her through prayer, intentions, and in mediation. Developing a trusting relationship with Ayahuasca is a big piece to this sometimes very challenging puzzle. Many of us carry deep wounds around trust, so if you can begin to cultivate this relationship leading up to your actual experience, this can help start to open the doors to your healing journey.
It is beautiful and powerful for us to witness how Ayahuasca works uniquely with each of her patients. This is a sacred relationship and your experiences will differ from the person sitting next to you. In addition, your experiences often times will also differ greatly from ceremony to ceremony, and this isn't always dependent on the quantity of the dose. This benevolent spirit has a deep wisdom and way of methodically cleaning. Knowing when to push and knowing when to back off, but always holding us in great love, even when we may not consciously be able to connect to it.
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- Daily Practice -
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It is highly recommended that leading up to the retreat you find a daily practice that allows you to connect with yourself. We all have different practices that resonate deeply for us. That help us to slow down our minds and drop into our hearts. Find what works for you and really commit to making it happen. This can be journaling, meditating, singing, dancing, drawing, breath work. Most people don't have the time or space to properly process their emotions, so they get shoved down deep inside of us, as we develop coping mechanisms to keep functioning on a day to day basis. Having a daily practice gives you the space to allow things to come to the surface for processing.
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- Setting Intentions -
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We all have our stories in this lifetime and our reasons for feeling the call to the medicine. We have all faced hard times, some more than others, but everyone has experienced traumas to some degree. Setting intentions before stepping onto this journey can be a very valuable practice. When you face challenging times during ceremonies they can be beautiful reminders of why you chose to have the courage to step onto this path. However, it is important to trust the wisdom of the medicine. Sometimes things will arise in ceremony that you don't feel have anything to do with why you came, but we must trust. Sometimes the best intention can simply be “help me to heal, “help me to open my heart”, “teach me”.
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- Eating Healthy -
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Our bodies are the shells that carry our spirits. Part of loving ourselves is giving these shells healthy foods and nutrients. If you don't already have a healthy diet this can be a beautiful catalyst to make big changes that will hopefully carry on after the retreat. What we feed our bodies greatly impacts the way our energy feels and flows. Also, eating a simple and clean diet without processed sugar or heavily fried food, prepares your body to be in a vibration that helps you to connect more easily with the energy of plant spirits.
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- Moving your body -
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Whether it be taking a walk, practicing yoga, riding a bike, dancing or going for a run, we've all experienced how moving our bodies can really shift our mood and perspective. Many people in this world have become obsessed with exercise from an unhealthy place of worrying about their body image. Move your body because it feels good and out of love for yourself. Listen to your body, some days we have more energy than others. Let the movement you choose be a nurturing practice.
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- Being in nature -
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Ayahuasca is a gift from our Great Mother Earth to help us to heal, to grow, to learn. Ayahuasca has a great potential to bring us back to a remembrance and a wisdom of living in a much more connected and harmonious way with our earth and honoring those that walked before us. Stepping outside of a concrete city and have space to feel the heartbeat of the earth can bring us into this deep connection. Taking time to be in nature nourishes our souls and helps us to find simplicity in the stillness.
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We are available through e-mail and or Skype to answer any questions or concerns that arise in your preparation process. It is important to us that you feel supported as you join us for this journey.
