Spiritual Preparation

Let’s Prepare

Ayahuasca works on all levels and dimensions, including mind, body, and spirit. To receive the highest communion in your ceremonies, we recommend you prepare yourself mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. The following guidelines cover practices to cultivate intention, mindfulness, and will. Recognizing that our mental, emotional, energetic, and spiritual bodies are intertwined, these following psychological and physical components are equally important to consider.

Psychological & Spiritual Preparation

Intention & Purpose

Intention defines the experience you will have with ayahuasca. Working with the sacrament is a relationship. She hears and feels your intention of why you have come to her and what you hope to learn, heal, or gain from the experience. It is crucial to have a clear and powerful intention worked out well in advance to your ceremony.

Related to intention, purpose is the “Why?” of what we do. Purpose brings meaning to our lives, and each of us must face this question of why we are alive on Earth today. What is your work to do in this life? What is your purpose? This is an essential question to bring into the ceremony with ayahuasca.

Practices for Intention and Purpose

Meditate on your intention and purpose. Create an intentional space and time to work on this. You may contemplate these questions as you sit, walk, drive, or lay in bed.
Writing is a great tool for clarifying and receiving knowledge from your higher self or guides. With pen and paper, simply write out your question and allow your hand to write out what comes to you without judgment or resistance. Trust yourself.
Talk to loved ones, and especially your teachers or elders if possible, about your intention and purpose. Sometimes we need to speak in order to see what we already know.
Spend time in nature. Nature brings us back to our essential self and brings us the space for our deeper truth to rise.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness, or the unification of your mind and body, is essential for working with ayahuasca. The key words here are “working with.” Ayahuasca invites us to the spaces where you can resolve deep traumas, but you must enter those spaces, feel the repressed emotions, experience the lost parts of self, and go through the journey of wholeness. Mindfulness is the quality of awareness necessary to enter all experiences with the full presence needed to integrate all aspects of the soul.

Practices for Mindfulness

Mindfulness Meditation: As you sit, lay, walk, or drive, simply scan your body with your mind’s eye and observe your breath. Observe your sensations, feelings, and thoughts from moment to moment. Allow yourself to relax and simply watch the experience of being. The goal here is to allow yourself to be without interfering or reacting.
Embodied practices like yoga or dance are great forms of mindfulness. Ayahuasca is a very physical experience that requires awareness throughout the body, so these embodied practices are very helpful.