Dosing for Healthy Folks
Why you don’t need to be depressed to get major benefits of microdosing.
When I talk about microdosing, it’s often in the context of healing with the ultimate goal of living more joyfully. The bulk of psychedelic research is indeed around the beneficial effects it has on treating depression, PTSD, addiction and other forms of ill-health. But what about the benefits they can have on already ‘healthy’ folks?
This isn’t a fresh take, 90’s psychedelic researcher Bob Jesse talked at length about ‘the betterment of well people’, which is such a beautiful concept. We can all find ourselves stuck in our minds, deeply ingrained in our old, worn in habits and one day we wake up and find that we are unhappy with our lives. Somehow we no longer see the magic, the beauty, the awe in life we once did. Honestly, this is something that can just happen overtime as we settle into life and it’s repeating patterns. We can become stuck in our ways, jaded, flat and just a little..meh. We create mental pathways that become etched deeply in our minds, often with a negative bias.
[Negativity bias is the brain’s innate ability to attach more weight to negative things, experiences, feedback, etc, than good. It actually takes more effort to see and attach to positive things. Take this example, you get feedback at work. You and your boss discuss 10 things, 9 of which are positive reviews of your work. Somehow, instead of taking the positive as the takeaway — you will still attach to, obsess over and let the 1 negative outweigh the 9 positives. We remember bad more often than we remember the good.
Now imagine that over a lifetime — especially without our awareness — we to attach to and believe the negative experiences we’ve had and take those as truths about ourselves and our place in the world. It’s these experiences that lead a lot of otherwise healthy people to become hardened, miserable, pessimistic folks. Know anyone like this?]
Given the intense pressures of the global environment, the climate and our constant bombardment of news (generally negative) — now might be a greater time than any to better the well folks. People are sadder, more stressed, more depressed and feeling more helpless than ever before— and rightfully so. There’s so much to feel disheartened about…but, on the flip side, there’s still so much beauty. We just need to be able to see, feel it and connect with the positive.
— and microdosing can help with that.
Recent studies with psilocybin (the active ingredient in magic mushrooms) showed that dosing leads to ‘increases in well-being, happiness, closeness to others, openness and trust.’ Not only that, but by fostering personal growth, creativity, and a deeper sense of well-being, people are learning to love and trust themselves again.
How does it work?
Microdosing enhances neuroplasticity meaning it can help rewire your brain away from a negative bias and into more positive neurological pathways. New neural pathways means it also helps to connect parts of the brain that maybe haven’t been chit-chatting lately, aka you can access a different solutions to old problems. Instead of rehashing the same old looping thought patterns, you’ll have access to creative solutions.
However - this ain’t no magic pill! You have a role to play in changing your mindset. The brain needs direction and you’re the guide. If you want to build more self-love, you’ll need to start talking to yourself like the treasure you are. If you want to trust your intuition, you’ll need to start listening to your intuition and believing that you have the answers. Mindset shifts can be challenging but there are tools out there that can start you in the right direction. It’s one of the keys to what we do at Ritual Folk — grow awareness and teach mindset mastery. The Microdose Mindset Course is packed full of mindset practices alongside how-to utilize microdosing for the greatest neuro-flexibility to get you seeing the beauty before the junk in life. We’re linking a free download direct from the course, so you can Reclaim Your Power and kickstart that mindset reset right now.
Even as a healthy human, we can lack the love, trust and joy that make life worth living. When you have self-compassion, self-love and self-trust, you reflect more of that out into the world. When you see that natural beauty in yourself, you see it in others. When you see the beauty in yourself, you see it in the world. This is the root of a better world — the betterment of well people.
If you’re ready to get into a healthier mindset, we wrote the roadmap. Here are some resources to get started!
—> The Microdose Mindset Online Course
