Maintaining a healthy, balanced, and nutritious diet is a vital self-care practice. After a psychedelic experience, your body and mind will be sensitive to nutrients entering your system. Listen to your body’s needs. Be aware of how different foods and drinks affect your thoughts, mood, and energy.
After a psychedelic experience, you may find that your body will gravitate less toward tobacco, alcohol, processed food, and other substances that either dull or overly excite the senses.
If you typically eat out often, you may enjoy taking the time to cook for yourself. The cooking process can help you ground and feel more connected with your food and its origins: Mother Earth, water, plants, and animals. Cooking can be highly grounding and especially beneficial if you have a tendency to overthink; using your hands in a manner that serves and nourishes you is a great way to get out of your head and into the present moment. It can be even more fulfilling to cook for others.
You can make eating a sacred activity. You can learn to be aware of how food shows up on your table and acknowledge all the beings involved in that process. You can appreciate how food fuels your body and mind and allows you to live another day.
We like Thich Nhat Hanh’s “Five Contemplations Before Eating”:
1. This food is a gift of the earth, the sky, numerous living beings, and much hard and loving work.
2. May we eat with mindfulness and gratitude to be worthy to receive this food.
3. May we recognize and transform unwholesome mental formations, especially our greed, and learn to eat with moderation.
4. May we keep our compassion alive by eating in such a way that reduces the suffering of living beings, stops contributing to climate change, and heals and preserves this precious planet.
5. We accept this food so that we may nurture our brotherhood and sisterhood, build our Sangha, and realize our ideal of serving all living beings.
Like your psychedelic experiences, the set and setting for your meals are just as important as the food itself. Mindful eating allows you to gain control of your eating habits and to feel fuller, not only physically but mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
Praying and blessing your food before eating deepens your sense of gratitude. When you give thanks for all the hands, energies, and beings that worked together to bring food to your table, you realize how abundant and fortunate you are.
Aim to always eat in a peaceful and relaxing environment. Where are you eating? Are you eating at a clean table, or are you eating on a bed or cluttered couch while you watch television? Are you listening to music while you eat? Are you distracted, or are you fully present? Removing devices from your body and table while you eat allows you to give your full attention to the food. Eating in natural settings can also be a refreshing change.
