journey with your mind through our Blog
AYAHUASCA FOR ADDICTION: HEALING THE ROOTS
We’ve witnessed the healing capabilities that an Ayahuasca ceremony or retreat here in Costa Rica, can spark in someone who is looking to heal from trauma or addiction, many times over. Drinking Ayahuasca is not a magic pill but by helping us to understand our inner world, she can give us the tools to navigate a more meaningful, peaceful and connected life with addiction.
NOYA RAO: WORKING WITH INTEGRITY WITH AYAHUASCA
You may never have heard of this tree, but it is essential to the work we do with Ayahuasca here on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica and provides a guiding hand in every aspect of our lives. Noya Rao is an Amazonian tree once thought to be extinct and shrouded in lore and mystery. Also known as Palo Volador or the flying tree, due to the legend that it bestows the gift of flying. Indeed, tales exist of whole villages ascending into the atmosphere to become part of a different dimension/reality altogether.
AYAHUASCA FOR ANXIETY: A GENTLE , HONEST LOOK
Ironically, Ayahuasca in itself is a huge cause of anxiety for many people. The journey with these powerful plants can seem daunting and foreboding.
Like going on a scary roller coaster, you’re often afraid beforehand but feel exhilarated and a sense of accomplishment afterwards.
Ayahuasca is a healer of trauma and illuminates the path to closing our trauma loops. It heals the mind and reorganises the neurological pathways allowing for more healthy connections. Sometimes reshuffling and reorganising our thoughts altogether.
AYAHUASCA FOR DEPRESSION: WHAT THE EXPERIENCE CAN OFFER
Ayahuasca works to diagnose issues on an extraordinary level. When the medicine is consumed, it enters your body at a cellular level. Reading your DNA, your memories, your ancestry. It finds the energetic patterns that are out of balance within your system and helps to purge them from the body. It cleanses memories and assists in closing trauma loops living in the nervous system.
PREPARING TO WORK WITH AYAHUASCA
How your experience meeting the spirit of Ayahuasca goes is often hugely dependent on how you prepare. The work you do before the ceremony is the beginning of the relationship and often sets the tone for how things will go.
AYAHUASCA REFLECTS BACK TO US WHAT NEEDS TO BE HEALED
The sacred mirror that Ayahuasca shows us is often the thing that most scares us about working with this medicine. There is an innate resistance/protection in us all to fully see our true selves and not just the persona we believe ourselves to be.
Mama Aya helps us to meet those parts, with love and grace, for when we have greater understanding and compassion for ourselves we can embrace it all and show up in the world in all our flawed yet beautiful completeness.
PLANT MEDICINE INTEGRATION GUIDE | PART 3
Integration Series Part 3.
For us integration means alchemy. When we take those challenging lessons from our experiences and shine a light of truth on them. Having more awareness, love and compassion for ourselves so that we are able to create new outcomes in our life. Truly embodying those learnings in our everyday life.
What does integration mean for you?
WHAT TO EXPECT FROM DRINKING AYAHUASCA FOR THE FIRST TIME
If you're considering drinking Ayahuasca for the first time, here are some useful things to take into consideration to help make it a safe and enjoyable experience.
WHY DO WE HAVE A SCREENING PROCESS BEFORE DRINKING AYAHUASCA?
Screening participants before and ayahuasca ceremony is an essential part of our practice.
WHAT HAPPENS DURING AN AYAHUASCA CEREMONY?
What happens during an ayahuasca ceremony? Knowing the general structure of how a ceremony works goes a long way to creating a sense safety for your first ayahuasca ceremony.
WHO OR WHAT IS AYAHUASCA?
The what is easy, who is Ayahausca is a much harder question to answer. Many refer to her as feminine or mother like whilst others disagree
SHOULD I DRINK AYAHUASCA?
Should I drink Ayahuasca? What do we need to consider when asking this question?
SOWA SOMA AYAHUASCA RETREATS IN COSTA RICA
Sowa Soma was co-created by husband and wife team, Neil and Fiona Kirwan when they moved to the Caribbean coats of Costa Rica in 2021. They wanted to create a safe environment for people to connect with Ayahuasca, with facilitators who fully respect working with Ayahuasca and other healing plants. The foundation of Sowa Soma is built around four pillars - ritual, respect, relationship and reciprocity, and guides all aspects of their work.
NON PSYCHEDELIC PLANTS FOR HEALING
Our connection with nature in the UK may not be on the same level as the tribes of the Amazon, but the plants are ready and waiting with the same vigour and healing power of their rainforest counter parts. And they have so much to say!
RECIPROCITY: WHY GIVING BACK TO AYAHUASCA IS IMPORTANT
Our culture can be extractive in its nature, however working with these plants with integrity requires the act of reciprocity. With my initial teaching in mind, it is clear to me that the western world is not happening to Ayahuasca. Ayahuasca is happening to the western world. It is the spirit here that has the guiding hand.
HOW TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT PLACE TO DRINK AYAHUASCA
A real point of contention that will often raise red flags on both sides for more experienced drinkers is the practice of drinking Ayahuasca in your own home Vs drinking in a group with a curandero/facilitator/shaman at a retreat centre.
WHAT IS IT LIKE TO DRINK AYAHUASCA?
After many journeys to the darkness, the abyss, the void I decided to write an article about my experience, What started out as an article turned into a poem, twisting and turning, moving and flowing.