When we have days where everything flows, and everything feels in sync, it is easier to stay centered, responding, instead of reacting to what comes up. Did you know that your heart is partly responsible for this? More specifically, it is what HeartMath researchers call heart coherence, which is where our heart, mind, and other systems are aligned.
Heart coherence is a state we all aim to reach and maintain, but it can feel difficult to know where to begin. After all, there is often advice to connect with your heart or return to your heart- without a roadmap on how to reach the destination.
The good news is there are many ways that can help you connect with your heart center and discover its incredible intelligence. We are grateful to work with experts on Heart Technology, which inform many of our workshops and practices at our Ayllu Medicina plant medicine retreats, especially on our Medicine of the Heart retreats.
Here are some things to know about Heart Intelligence to help you get started.
Your Heart Has Its Own Nervous System
Your heart is more than a biological function that pumps blood around the body. Did you know your heart is also classified as a functional brain? Researchers have discovered that the heart has 40,000 sensory neurones. These can sense, feel, learn, and remember.
Many ancient civilizations, such as the Egyptians, focused on the heart as the center of emotions, intelligence, and thoughts. Now science is catching up, discovering the heart’s intelligence through research. Connecting to your heart intelligence allows you to connect with your true essence, acting from this space to reach your highest potential.
Your Body’s Most Powerful Electromagnetic Field
The heart is the most powerful electromagnetic field in the human body, producing a field that spans around several feet outside of you. Researchers found that the electric field is 60 times greater in amplitude than electric activity in the brain.
Connecting to this field allows you to connect with others on a deeper level, connect with the Earth, tune into your own knowing, and influence your own body in a positive way, down to the cellular level to support your functioning.
Your Heart’s Intelligence Guides You
Have you ever got a feeling about someone, or a situation, which turns out to be correct? This was probably your heart talking. Another example is that many retreat participants speak about feeling a call to come to retreat, without their mind being able to give a specific intention as to why.
It is the call of your heart – communicating your inner knowing.
Discoveries around heart intelligence help explain intuition, empathy, and other skills that humans have, such as clairvoyance. It is important to align your emotions and mind with the heart to tap into your own guidance. Your heart is constantly communicating with the brain, and sends signals to help guide our lives – the key is to be in coherence to tune into these signs.
Emotions Impact Your Rhythm
Research has found that your emotional state impacts your heart’s rhythm, with positive emotions bringing balance and a steady pace. It has also been found that the feelings that often come from the heart- such as gratitude, love, and compassion, stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system, also known as the ‘rest and digest’. When you activate this system, you promote well-being in the body and conserve energy.
In contrast, emotions such as fear, jealousy, and anger, which we do not usually associate with the heart, can cause irregular heart rhythms and disorder. These emotions and rhythms can increase the risk of a variety of health problems, which is why connecting to your heart and its natural state of emotion can help enhance your well-being physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Learning how to reach states of appreciation and forgiveness allows you to move back into a space of well-being.
There Are Practices to Help You Gain Coherence
Learning about heart intelligence is the first step. The next step is connecting to your own heart’s intelligence and discovering the many benefits it will bring to your life. Heart coherence offers benefits such as:
More self-awareness
Reduced stress levels
Increased energy
Creativity
Clarity of thought
Better sleep
There are many physiological, psychological, and spiritual benefits of working with your heart’s intelligence. It is common to experience conflict between the heart and the mind. What should you do when your mind says one thing, and your heart the other?
Connecting to these heart intelligence practices helps enhance coherence and find peace between systems. Then you can live in a flow state, with systems working together. This allows you to listen and act from your heart with clarity, confidence, and awareness.
You can train the heart to develop new habits and find coherence. There are many different practices that can help you begin. A great place to start is to bring attention to your heart space, and even place your hands there for a physical connection.
You can also think about someone or something that brings you feelings of gratitude, joy, or love, then slowly expand this feeling throughout your body.
To go deeper into the teachings of the heart, join us at one of our Ayllu Medicina plant medicine retreats in Ecuador. Our Medicine of the Heart Retreat and Journey to the Heart Retreat specifically focus on Heart Intelligence, with daily Heart Technology workshops, the sacred master plants of Ayahuasca and San Pedro, and other ancient healing practices.
The next chance to join us is in June 2024 for our Journey to the Heart Retreat, which you can learn more about here.
Discover Heart Intelligence and Find Alignment
There is so much to learn about your heart and its intelligence. Learning how to connect to this space and live from it brings harmony, presence, well-being, and other healing benefits. Most importantly, it allows you to find alignment within, allowing all systems to work together, freeing energy and space to connect with your true essence.
The heart is formed and beats long before the brain is formed. It then remains in constant communication with your brain throughout life. It is time to listen to this communication once more and remember the incredible intelligence and power that comes from centering back into the heart space.
Join Ayllu Medicina in June 2024 for our Journey to the Heart Retreat to learn more. There will be daily Heart Technology workshops, plant medicine ceremonies, sweat lodges, meditations, daily yoga classes, and other healing practices to help you find alignment.
We would love for you to join us around the heart center of our fire, on the beautiful coast of Ecuador. If you have any questions, please contact us! Our team will be happy to discuss our retreats and offerings in more detail.
Do you feel connected to your menstrual cycle? In many societies, rites of passage through menstruation to menopause and invaluable knowledge about the power of our wombs has been forgotten. It is time to remember this knowledge.
Our cyclical nature has been painted as a burden, as something to hide, as something we are victims of and should try to forget about. When actually, connecting with your moon cycle (menstrual cycle) brings empowerment and understanding of your true nature.
So, where do you begin?
Ayllu Medicina’s guide, Hwaneetah, has been studying womb technology for over 20 years, sharing through 1:1 sessions, on retreats, and during a recent interview with Breathe and Flow (you can watch the full video at the end of this article!). She is currently writing her first book about womb technology and the feminine principle.
We give thanks for Hwaneetah’s invaluable knowledge and want to share five ways to connect to your cycle once more.
1. Understand Your Four Seasons
The Earth goes through four seasons each year, which are essential for all life to continue and thrive. Did you know that women also experience these seasons, every month?
As Hwaneetah explains in detail, Winter is when you are menstruating, which is when you are at your lowest energy point. Spring comes next, which is when you begin to open again and your energy begins to rise. Then you are in Summer, which is when you can reach 100% of your energy capacity, before Autumn, which is the week before your period.
Each season is 7 days of the 28-day cycle, so for example, Winter is seven days even if you only bleed for several days. A good place to begin this cycle synching is to download our Ayllu Medicina Moon Clock, so you can begin to track your seasons.
If you do not have a period for another reason, you can sync your cycle with the moon, by picking a moon phase for your Winter time each month. You can learn more about how to live cyclically during menopause, the seasons, and male dynamics by watching Hwaneetah’s full womb wisdom interview at the end of this post.
2. Recap and Rest
As Hwaneetah says, red is the color to signal stop for many reasons, from traffic lights to if we cut ourselves and see blood. So, why isn’t this applied to our menstruation time? Women bleed for days during their winter time, however, often it is expected that they carry on as if they are at their 100% capacity.
A good place to begin to connect with your cycle is to honor your winter time by taking a break. This may be by taking a few days rest, or being mindful to go slower these days. You will begin to see the difference it makes during your month when you work with the process of purification, which happens during your menstruation.
The process of purification leads to renewal. So along with resting during your winter time, you can also take the time to recap your month. Reflect on everything that has happened during the past 28 days, so you can start your Spring time renewed and with clear intentions on what you want to focus on during the cycle ahead.
3. Connect With the 13:28 Frequency
The Gregorian calendar was invented in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII. As Hwaneetah discusses, this calendar only takes into account solar cycles, not lunar cycles. This makes women a ‘glitch’, with the design making it impossible to measure basic cycles of time for anyone.
The frequency of 13:28 was the old way we measured time. This frequency is present throughout the universe and in our bodies including:
Moon cycles of 28 days, happening 13 times a year
Our 13 menstrual cycles of the year, on average every 28 days
The 13 main joints of our bodies and in each hand and foot around 14 bones
Turtles who reach old age often have 13 divisions and 28 subdivisions
You can learn more about how we measured this frequency by watching Hwaneetah’s interview with Breathe and Flow. You can also learn more by visiting the Harmonic Factor’s website and downloading the lunar cycle calendar. This website gives a wealth of information about how to work with this 13:28 calendar, which equates to 364 days, with the 365th day being the ‘day out of time’.
4. Have a 1:1 Moon Session
You can also have a 1:1 online Moon Session with Hwaneetah to begin to connect with your cycle on a deeper level. These sessions help you activate the secondary functions of the womb and help you find healing. The sessions include:
Detoxing and balancing of the energetic field with sacred geometry
Deactivating of karmic or codependent cords in the uterus
Closing of lunar cycles and frequency alignment
You can do a moon session if you want to connect with your cycle, are perimenopausal or are in menopause. You can also have sessions to focus on a specific issue such as irregular periods, lack of vitality, fertility problems, cysts, or another specific difficulty.
The sessions last for around 2 hours. You can contact Hwaneetah directly to arrange via WhatsApp (+593-96 725 5701) or by contacting Ayllu Medicina.
5. Attend an Ayllu Medicina Retreat
Attending a retreat is the perfect way to delve deep into your inner world, with the help of the master plant teachers and other ancient healing practices. Ayllu Medicina holds transformational plant medicine retreats throughout the year, including one Women’s Power Yoga and Plant Medicine retreat each year, which focuses on womb function activation and the womb-heart connection.
Our Women’s retreat allows you to discover the magic of women joining together in a supportive environment. There are multiple womb wisdom workshops, practices, ceremonies, sweat lodges, and other activities throughout the week. The daily yoga practices and meditations are also centered around the cyclical nature of women and how to harness the power of this.
Our next Women’s retreat starts on 13th April 2024. We have a couple of spaces available if you would like to join us for this week of empowerment. Our next Women’s Retreat is in June 2025.
Connect With Your Cycle and Find Empowerment
It is time to become empowered by your cyclical nature instead of falling victim to it. The first step is to acknowledge the cyclical nature you experience inside, which is also reflected through the four seasons of the Earth.
More than ever there are ways to reawaken to the power of your moon cycle. However, it is important to connect with experienced guides and sources. Hwaneetah is an expert in womb technology and there are several ways to connect to her wealth of knowledge.
We are excited to announce that Hwaneetah’s first book will be coming out this year, you can sign up to our newsletter for updates on this and other Ayllu Medicina news. We would also love it if you could join us around the fire at one of our Women’s retreats on the beautiful coast of Ecuador. If you have any questions, please feel free to get in touch!
In the meantime, you can watch Hwaneetah’s full interview with Breathe and Flow below, which details these ways to connect to your cycle along with more life-changing information.
On average, humans take around 20,000 breaths a day, with many being automatic. Becoming more mindful of the breath, such as by practicing breathwork can offer many benefits, including for your plant medicine ceremony preparation, experience, and integration. So, how can you combine breathwork and plant medicine?
The origins of breathwork span back to the origins of yoga in India with pranayama, and in more recent decades, different breathwork practices have emerged, with breathwork now being a beneficial practice for people around the world. Plant medicine preparation includes following dieta guidelines and being mindful of what you’re consuming mentally, such as limiting screen time. However, something that is often overlooked, is how you can work with your breath.
Vanessa, our retreat yoga instructor, has over 1500 hours of study, from YTTs to a Pranayama master program and beyond (learn more about her here). So, we sat down with her to discuss the healing benefits of pranayama for plant medicine preparation, ceremony, and integration.
Breathwork and Pranayama: Is There a Difference?
I would describe breathwork in a broad sense. There are many benefits to breathwork, as you can see with Wim Hof and these other techniques. I would say one of the main differences between pranayama and breathwork is that breathwork has general benefits, which are not as specific as pranayama.
For example, breathwork can offer benefits such as increased lung capacity and benefits for general organs. Whereas with pranayama it is the concentration of prana, also known as life force. So, pranayama work is generally a lot more specific.
I have more experience with the specifics of pranayama, so I can say the main difference with pranayama is the whole goal is to reach meditation, which is why we practice it.
What Is Pranayama and Its Benefits?
We break the pranayama breath into five main components, with each component having a different benefit. These are:
General life force, which brings more vibrancy
Illumination, helping with anything you want to let go
Regulating the system, which helps reconnect all your systems
Working the network system, which reconnects all pathways in the body
And then you can elevate the consciousness with pranayama.
So pranayama is another form of healing. You can have a specific objective with your pranayama breathwork, and there is a general script that we follow to help you prepare for the next stage of your yoga practice: meditation.
So, like in a plant medicine ceremony, we start with purification. We first clear out, before working on components such as reconnecting the system. So, you start with breathwork for purification, then you can work on opening up, with active pranayama exercises. You then eventually reach calming and slowing pranayama exercises, in preparation for meditation.
Practising Pranayama for Plant Medicine Preparation
It is important to prepare for a plant medicine ceremony by focusing on your physical body, so you can sit comfortably. Yoga asanas help ensure our body is ready for a plant medicine ceremony, so we can sit in the ceremony space. However, it is also important to prepare emotionally and energetically for a plant medicine ceremony.
We need to think of the body as a whole system, so along with the outer structure; the physical, we also have the interior. If we haven’t worked with pranayama or we don’t understand that we can work on different parts of our internal body consciously, it can be overwhelming.
We can work on parts of the body consciously with the breath and this is similar to what can happen with a master plant such as Ayahuasca. The master plant can start to go through the body and find the areas that need more alignment and areas where you need to let go. So, if you haven’t had any work with breathwork before the ceremony, it can feel overwhelming as you begin to recognize the body has different areas.
A Deep Breath Changes Everything
When we come into a plant medicine ceremony with a bit of pranayama practice, it is not so overwhelming when we navigate the plant medicine. It doesn’t have to be years of breathwork or pranayama practice. It is more about having a conscious awareness of the breath and its ability, which we work on during Ayllu Medicina retreats with our daily yoga classes.
We often say to come back to your breath when navigating difficult parts of a plant medicine ceremony. Sometimes a deep breath can completely change your experience and make it okay. How do we teach kids to start to regulate? How we teach kids to regulate is through the breath. Once we learn we can take a full deep breath into the belly we can begin to fully regulate in everyday life and in a plant medicine ceremony.
Breathwork and Ayahuasca Connection
We do not work on breathwork during ceremonies, but the preparation in our morning yoga classes and workshops helps significantly. We can begin to see how working through the parts of the body helps us find alignment and harmony. In Ayahuasca, we often speak of surrender – just surrender to the experience.
When we have done breathwork exercises, it can make this letting go easier because you have worked your interior body consciously as part of your daily practice.
Breathwork and San Pedro Connection
With San Pedro, the breath work helps with alignment because we are aware and have the ability to navigate the experience as we do with breathwork. However, the nervous system is firing, so it can also be easier to get dysregulated. This is similar to our modern daily lives when we are exposed to stress and conflict, which can lead to deregulation.
Having breathwork techniques helps you consciously calm your nervous system and take control. Over time, this practice can also help raise your nervous system’s resting point.
This means you no longer get triggered, say for example when someone says something in passing. It will take a lot more for you to become deregulated.
This is one of the benefits of breathwork and the sacred master plants such as San Pedro. They are helping us develop skills to navigate daily life from our center, which lasts not only in ceremony but forever in our lives.
When we speak about the connection between plant medicine and pranayama, we do not mean we will be doing both at once, although the mindfulness of the breath is great in ceremony! On our plant medicine retreats in Ecuador they are powerful complementary modalities that support each other.
Breathwork Exercises to Prepare for a Plant Medicine Ceremony
Along with preparing your diet to help clear out the body, and help processing systems, the digestion, and your brain, it is important to start having moments of stillness or quiet time.
If you do not have a pranayama practice or you do not have a teacher, start by working with the abdominal breath, which is one of the most powerful and simple beginner pranayama exercises. This pranayama exercise can help insomnia, chronic stress, and all the autonomic systems in the body.
Pranayama Tips
For this exercise, you can lie on the ground:
Place your hands on your belly.
When you inhale, feel your stomach rise
On the exhale, feel the pause and release.
You can do ten minutes of abdominal breathing every day first thing in the morning or in the evening before bed.
Often we think of simple breathing exercises as not so efficient. However, if this is your capacity it is better to have this consistency, instead of occasionally doing a different pranayama exercise. It is important to have a point in our day to recap through our breath, allowing everything to come back into place to go forward in presence.
We think of yoga as a complicated or long practice. Ancient yogis spoke of as little amount of investment for the most amount of gain. So, if you are practicing fully present and consciously, with the breath too, a 20-minute morning practice means you are good for the whole day. I think it goes back to being present and aware, which ceremony also shows- after all, you can’t multitask in a ceremony.
If you want to go deeper, you can then find teachers or contact Ayllu Medicina and attend one of our retreats.
Breathwork for Plant Medicine Integration
Plant medicine integration is essential because everything is getting moved in a ceremony. Everything is energy and often in plant medicine ceremonies stagnant energy is getting moved, sometimes this includes past generational stagnation that has been passed on.
Pranayama can be an important integration tool to help consciously direct the breath and manage integration. With a pranayama practice, you are taking the energy that is moving and helping release what is no longer serving you. You do not need to consciously do this by going through stories or trauma, it is naturally being released through the purification breathwork exercises.
Pranayama and Plant Medicine: The Long-Term Benefits
You can then work on vitality, once you have made more space with the first pranayama exercises. What the breathwork exercises are doing is healing the internal body. They regulate the autonomic systems, the samskaras- our behavioral patterns. The exercises also help with pranasyedam vashe sarvam, which means releasing the filters over our eyes, to see with clarity.
We can have stories in our minds about how things happen in life. With plant medicine integration these stories often do not serve us anymore and our perspective begins to change. Pranayama can help us gain the full potential of healing with plant medicine experiences.
It makes it not just about the experience of the ceremony. It is also taking the experience and integrating it, moving it fully through the whole self, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
And then, the breathwork also helps you stay clutter-free. We do not need to just have the clear out from the plant medicine ceremony and wait for it to build up again, wait for it to fill. Instead, using breathwork and other practices, we can start to go deeper, continue to grow, and maintain clarity.
Women’s Retreat Breathwork and Yoga
As women, we are brought into this way of defragmenting ourselves. For example, we’ve separated from our cycles, from our feminine part of ourselves, to function in the male-dominated energy, which can serve us at some points. However, more and more we are realizing we are missing out and there are more parts of ourselves to explore.
The beautiful thing about the Ayllu Medicina Women’s Power Plant Medicine and Yoga Retreat is we are coming back to the basis of who we are, coming back to the empowerment of our moons, the fluctuations in our hormones, understanding our cycles, our energy, and learning how to compliment our breathwork and yoga practice for this.
Yoga and Breathwork for Our Cyclical Nature
The strong Ashtanga practice was meant for men, as they have a consistent flow of hormones. As women, we have to realize it is okay to change our practice throughout our month to reflect where we are in our cycles, with our changing energy levels and our moon. This is what I’ve been learning- how to shift the practice, which I will be sharing at the Women’s retreat.
Our moon cycle underlines everything. We do not want to go against the flow of our moon, including with our breathwork. For example, during our moon time, we do not want to do strong, active, cleansing breathwork, as this process is already happening internally within us with our moon. So it is too much to also do this breathwork, similar to how it would be to enter the sweat lodge on our first days of our moon with the heat.
During the Women’s retreat, we will be understanding how the external and internal environments reflect and how to bring both into harmony. This way we can stop being so rigid, instead recognizing fluctuations and allowing flow to happen, which means there’s also more flow in life.
Breathwork at Ayllu Medicina Plant Medicine Retreats in Ecuador
There are many tools that can help with plant medicine preparation, integration, and during the ceremony. Many of these tools are also important for the ceremony of life, which continues after you leave a plant medicine retreat or ceremony.
Learning more about breathwork and becoming conscious of your breath is one of the tools that can help you physically, spiritually, and emotionally. We are fortunate to have Vanessa on our Ayllu Medicina team to learn more about the practice of pranayama.
Get started with your breathwork on the Otra Ola Youtube channel, with this video by Vanessa. You can also visit Vanessa in Ayampe at Otra Ola, with their Prana Health Food Store, surf classes, yoga, Spanish classes, and other events.
During our Ayllu Medicina transformational retreats, there is daily yoga, meditation, and breathwork. During our Women’s retreat, there will also be a focus on the complementary healing modalities of yoga and pranayama. There are several spaces available, so if you feel called to join us reach out!
One of our team will be happy to answer any questions you have or schedule a call. You can learn more about all our Ayllu Medicina retreats here.
So, you’ve attended a plant medicine ceremony or retreat and had a profound experience. What happens now? Plant medicine integration is more than a buzzword; it requires your active participation once the ceremony ends and the ceremony of life begins.
Retreat participants often ask us how to integrate plant medicine ceremonies and their retreat experiences. After all, whether you have attended an Ayahuasca ceremony or a plant medicine retreat in South America, integration doesn’t stop once you leave the sacred space; it continues when you return to your home or continue your travels. Often, you return to everyday life feeling different, even if everything around you seems the same.
So, what can you do to maintain changes and continue to integrate?
One of the most important parts of plant medicine integration is staying clutter-free physically, emotionally, and energetically. Plant medicine ceremonies can help us release what is no longer serving us, so you often leave like a snake that has just shed skin. The good news is that there are a variety of different integration techniques you can use; read this guide to learn more.
When people ask how to integrate an Ayahuasca ceremony or a San Pedro ceremony, they are often surprised that it starts with their physical body!
You need a solid grounding, healthy body, and clutter-free surroundings to embody your experiences. Then, you can begin to weave the lessons into your daily life, noticing changes in your inner and outer world.
Post-Plant Medicine Diet
Usually, people follow a pre-ceremony Ayahuasca dieta or diet for San Pedro preparation to purify their bodies for the sacred medicines. After a retreat or ceremony, it is also important to be mindful of the foods you consume and slowly reintroduce foods back into your diet to see how your body reacts. It is also essential to hydrate well with water!
For example, do not return to your usual caffeine consumption; go slow and maybe consider alternatives such as Green tea or Guayusa, which we share on Ayllu Medicina retreats. You may also find you do not want to introduce certain foods back into your diet after releasing emotional food cravings.
Your dieta will vary depending on where you attend a plant medicine ceremony or retreat. However, in general, be mindful of your consumption of the following for at least a week after a plant medicine ceremony:
Coffee
Red meat and pork
Spices
Dairy
Processed sugars
You know your body best, so tune in to what it needs. Plant dietas are not about deprivation, but caring for your body and simplifying to make space for change. At Ayllu Medicina plant medicine retreats, we provide nourishing plant-based food throughout the week to nourish you and help you integrate a balanced diet. If you are unsure what medications or supplements to reintroduce after a retreat, consult your retreat guides and doctor.
Space and Surroundings
Everything is energy, so a lot of physical clutter can be distracting. Many studies have shown how physical clutter creates stress, disorder, and other negative physical, energetic, and emotional effects. So, consider clearing your space and home when settling back into your everyday life.
A clutter-free inner world needs a clutter-free physical world as a reflection. At Ayllu Medicina, we often describe how plant medicine ceremonies can be like taking off a heavy backpack, often full of things you didn’t know you were carrying but were weighing you down. These can include emotions, impressions, and other energy you have accumulated over the years.
One of the benefits of plant medicine retreats and ceremonies is that they are often the first time you can fully stop, take off the backpack, and unload what is no longer serving you. So, once this happens, do not physically load yourself with more than you need; clear your space to reflect your lighter inner world!
Emotional Plant Medicine Integration
Plant medicine ceremonies can be transformative experiences, often expanding perspectives and giving profound insights into your inner world. It is important to remember that sacred plant masters are medicines, which means a variety of emotions can come up during ceremonies and as you integrate the experiences.
Once you leave the ceremony or retreat container, it is important to continue to care for your mental health. It is natural for different emotions to come up, but do not leave them lingering for later. Instead, use different integration practices to stay clutter-free mentally.
Daily Morning Practice
What do you do when you first wake up? Instead of immediately reaching for your phone or rushing to work, set some time aside for you to ground and be in the present moment. A morning routine looks different for everyone, but including a yoga practice, meditation, and some breathwork can set you up for the rest of your day.
During plant medicine preparation and retreats, you have the chance to slow down and make space for yourself during the morning. During Ayllu Medicina retreats, there is also daily yoga, meditation, and breathwork, so you can learn different techniques and integrate them into your everyday life. Like making the bed each morning, being consistent with a daily practice quickly makes it a habit that will provide many benefits to your life.
Recapping
During Ayllu Medicina retreats, there are sharing circles after plant medicine ceremonies. So, you begin to process your experiences and integrate the lessons. You can continue to do this for all parts of your life after the retreat so you do not go back to saving everything for ‘later.’
Doing a simple recap of your day before you go to bed each night is a great practice, especially for post-retreat integration when you are still adjusting back to your daily life. You will be surprised at how much happens everyday!
Women can also recap their month as part of their cycle during their menstruation time. Menopausal women can also use the New Moon or Full Moon. Men can also do this! Learn more about Sun and Moon dynamics in Hwaneetah’s Womb Technology interview with Breathe and Flow. If you attend one of our plant medicine retreats in Ecuador, you will learn more about this from Hwaneetah, who has been studying womb technology for over 20 years.
Find a Community
It is important to remember you have a community in plant medicine integration, so reach out whenever you need; you are not alone! For example, Ayllu Medicina has retreat groups where we continue to stay in touch and share. After your plant medicine retreat, you can also book a post-retreat integration session with our medicine guides.
No matter where you attend a plant medicine ceremony or retreat, find a supportive community to support your plant medicine integration. This could be loved ones at home, new groups, or your retreat group. Acknowledge that some loved ones are at different stages in their journey and may not be able to relate to your experiences, but they will begin to notice the positive changes within you.
A note on sharing: As we say during our retreats, not everything from your Ayahuasca experience or San Pedro experience is to be shared. Some of the experiences you may not be able to articulate, and some are important to keep for yourself.
Maybe you will begin to share more over time, but it is important not to overshare quickly- go slow, as you are still integrating the experience! A good start is to share the main lessons, or ‘pearls,’ of your experience.
Be Aware of Mental Consumption
When preparing for a plant medicine ceremony, your dieta doesn’t end with food. It is also recommended to start a meditation practice, reduce your social media use, and be mindful of what you are mentally consuming. This is so you make space to go deeper with the plant medicines without having to process the many impressions mental consumption brings.
After you leave a plant medicine retreat, stay clutter-free by consciously consuming. After a break from the constant onslaught of information most people are bombarded with, it can feel overstimulating to log back into social media and read a backlog of WhatsApp messages or emails!
So, go slow and perhaps wait before delving straight back into binge-watching your favorite show or spending long periods of time online. It is okay to normalize and put a movie on; just be mindful of going to extremes.
After all, taking a pause allows you to identify impulsive behaviors in your life, the behaviors that are automatic without any thought, such as checking your social media pages multiple times a day. So, when you leave a plant medicine retreat, you can take charge of what you consume again from a conscious standpoint and put healthy boundaries in place.
Energetic Plant Medicine Integration
Everything has an energetic vibration, and plant medicines can help purify and raise your vibration. After letting go of what is no longer serving you, you want to continue caring for your energy and keep it clutter-free.
Usually, during plant medicine ceremonies such as Ayahuasca, you can experience a huge energy expansion. After expansion, there is contraction as you begin to unify the body, mind, and spirit to what you experienced.
This contraction may show up in changes in energy, mood, or the desire to be alone, which is natural- tune into what you need and continue to protect your energy as you go through integration. At Ayllu Medicina you can also sign up for a Shamanic Cleansing, also known as a Limpia, with Aime, which can help renew your energy. Learn more about this on our offerings page.
Spend time in Nature
Ground your energy in nature. Go for a walk, visit a body of water, sit by a tree, or simply plant your feet on the ground and absorb the benefits! It is important to remember that you can connect to the elements of nature at any time, which can help center your energy and offer purification.
Incense Smudging
In many plant medicine ceremonies, you may notice the use of different incense, including for smudging, which can help remove negative energies. This incense can include sage, copal, cedar, and palo santo. Light some sage or another smudge and cleanse yourself and your space once you return home and whenever you want to shift the energy.
Practice Gratitude
Did you know that practicing gratitude can help you physically, emotionally, and energetically? During plant medicine integration, remember to come back to gratitude- for your experiences, your courage, your loved ones, the elements, and the sacred master plants.
A simple practice is to journal or think about five things you are grateful for each day. This can instantly uplift your energy and help you welcome any discomfort during integration with the trust that you are coming into alignment.
Notice What Isn’t Serving You
Plant medicines such as Ayahuasca and San Pedro can provide deeply healing experiences. However, often, there is work for you to do during plant medicine integration based on the profound lessons the plants can present. This may include learning what is not correspondent anymore, such as a particular habit, behavior, relationship, or place.
Take some time after a plant medicine retreat to reflect on what is no longer in alignment. If it doesn’t feel right anymore, it may be time to let go of something to be able to continue your expansion and growth.
It is also important to consider post-plant medicine retreat recommendations, such as avoiding sexual activity for several days after plant medicine ceremonies, as this is also a huge exchange of energy.
Connect to Music
Music is an integral part of Ayllu Medicina plant medicine ceremonies and retreats. You will have the chance to connect with your own voice and learn some medicine songs. Singing is a powerful way to shift energies, raise vibrations, and stay clutter-free.
After plant medicine retreats, many retreat participants continue to sing and connect with sacred instruments such as the rattle or hand drum. If you need to move energy during plant medicine integration, consider picking up a rattle and singing or listening to some plant medicine music to reconnect with the sacred plant teachers! Check out our medicine guides’ music, Pájaros de Luz, to get started.
Plant Medicine Integration Practices to Stay Clutter-Free
Plant medicine integration goes beyond the Ayahuasca or San Pedro Ceremony. It is about the ongoing work to stay clutter-free and in touch with your true essence. When you can stay clutter-free emotionally, physically, and energetically, it is when you begin to express your true essence, uniting with the whole.
You can attend many ceremonies or plant medicine retreats in South America, but if you do not have the tools to integrate experiences, then you cannot absorb the benefits of these sacred plant teachers. This is why integration is also a verb- it requires active participation to stay clutter-free. Start by using these practices and seek support from your retreat provider if you need extra guidance!
At Ayllu Medicina, we say that your first Ayahuasca ceremony is clearing the garden in your mind, then the second is often refining the garden details. If this is the case, then San Pedro is the water to help all the new seeds bloom, and plant medicine integration is the continued maintenance of the garden so you can continue to stay aligned on your path.
Integrating plant medicine retreats and ceremonies starts before you even enter the sacred space. When researching a plant medicine ceremony or retreat, consider the integration support the guides provide before you make a decision. At Ayllu Medicina, we ensure our participants have the support they need before, during, and after our transformational plant medicine retreats.
Check out our available 23/2024 retreats here. Our 2024/25 plant medicine retreats in Ecuador are due for release soon! If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.
When women feel empowered, they can take charge of their lives with confidence, stepping into their full power. So, where does this empowerment begin? Empowerment starts with an inner journey, which you take in the supportive setting of a women’s plant medicine retreat.
Retreats for women have become increasingly popular in recent years and for a good reason. With experienced guides and the right setting, a women’s retreat can be a healing, transformative, and empowering experience.
So, what actually happens on a women’s retreat to do this? Read on to learn seven reasons why a women’s retreat is empowering.
1. Be Empowered by Your Cycle
As Hwaneetah explains in this womb technology interview with Breathe and Flow, the awareness of the feminine power that is within all of us has been forgotten. Attending the Ayllu Medicine Women’s Power Retreat gives you the opportunity to remember this feminine power once again and claim it, which starts by connecting to your cyclical nature. Instead of falling victim to your nature, you will learn to accompany it and be powered by it.
Many women come to plant medicine retreats and feel that there is something wrong with how they feel during the month, when in fact, it is that they haven’t connected to their cyclical nature. In many societies, a woman’s cycle has been portrayed as a source of disempowerment, whereas it is actually where your empowerment begins.
Hwaneetah has been working with women and womb technology for over twenty years. She will provide wisdom throughout the retreat week to help you not only remember your true nature but become empowered by it. All women benefit from remembering their cyclical nature, whether they are menstruating, perimenopausal, or menopausal.
2. Close Cycles Consciously (“No Clutter Policy”)
Part of a retreat week is to simplify and can be to let go of what is no longer serving you. Maybe this is behavior patterns, repressed emotions, or a particular belief about yourself.
Over the years, you build up memories, impressions, emotions, and behaviors. In many societies, there is a constant onslaught of information, with scarce opportunities to process and release it all. How can you expect to empower yourself without letting go of this heaviness first?
During a women’s retreat week, you will experience a variety of ways to purify, along with learning how to recharge each month as part of your cycle. For example, there will be multiple sweat lodges at Ayllu Medicina’s Women’s Power Plant Medicine Retreat.
A sweat lodge (temazcal) is an ancient medicine and means to purify your mind, body, and spirit. You have the opportunity to reenter the womb of Mother Earth and shed what no longer serves you. There will also be different rituals such as unbinding, breathwork, meditations, daily yoga, and ice baths.
3. The Space for Self-Discovery
In fast-paced societies, it can be challenging to take a breath and pause. When was the last time you truly stopped, without distractions, and spent time with yourself?
True empowerment starts with getting to yourself and your inner world. A Women’s plant medicine retreat provides the tools, time, and container to stop driving on automatic and go inwards.
In a supportive environment with experienced guides, you have the chance to pull the brake and catch up with yourself. The simple but courageous act of taking an intentional pause will allow you to focus on yourself, which is the start of empowerment.
During the Women’s Power Retreat with Ayllu Medicina, you will receive guidance from the sacred plant teachers Ayahuasca and San Pedro. There will also be purifying practices and different ancient wisdom workshops. These will help increase your self-awareness, provide clarity, and allow you to connect to your true essence.
4. Tools to Take With You
One of the main benefits of a plant medicine retreat is that it can equip you with many tools to continue making space and empowering yourself once you leave the retreat container.
At Ayllu Medicina, we often say this is when the true ceremony begins, as you are returning to your environment, and it is up to you to maintain the upgrades in your life and make any changes to stay aligned.
A Women’s Retreat gives the power back to you, making you realize that you have the power to take charge of your life and stay clutter-free. You can make lasting changes with the right tools, such as a daily practice, meditation techniques, and working with your cyclical nature. At our Women’s Power Retreat, there is also support from the Ayllu Medicina team and your new community.
5. Self-Care
In order to care for others, you must care for yourself first. A Women’s Retreat is the opportunity to do this. The entire week is focused on transformative practices and care, from the plant medicine ceremonies and sweat lodges to the nourishing food and daily yoga. You will have time, support, and tools to retreat inwards, which will benefit you and all your relations.
6. Step Out of Your Comfort Zone
It is when you step outside your comfort zone that change can happen. A women’s retreat helps you understand your own nature and reconnect back to Mother Earth, ready to step into the new. With a supportive group around you, you have the space to be seen, heard, and understood. You can reclaim your space, align your body-mind connection, and begin to express your true essence.
Nurturing your voice and expression during a women’s retreat can also be empowering. There will be sharing circles, song circles (no experience required!), and other ways to embrace your feminine nature and the empowerment that comes with it.
7. The Power of Sisterhood
Women are caretakers, which means when we are around other like-minded women, we feel more at ease. Have you had a situation where you feel more at ease because you are with women? This could be as simple as when you hail a taxi and realize it is a female driver or sit next to another female on the bus.
It is because you can reach a different vibration when you are around other women. We reflect on each other, which makes a women’s retreat the perfect space to get to know your inner cycles with the help of your new community. Like-minded mirrors will surround you to help you find alignment and find a new vibration in a nurturing environment.
Some women will be aware of the power of having supportive women in their lives who help to uplift them, keep them accountable, and inspire them. For other women, it may be the first opportunity they have had in a while to form female friendships. Either way, a women-only retreat provides the space and shared intention to transform in community, finding empowerment through supporting each other and forming long-lasting new female friendships.
Learn Why a Women’s Retreat is Empowering With Us
A Women’s Retreat is empowering in many ways, offering you the medicine you need to step into your power. It benefits you in many positive ways, so your feminine nature is no longer an inconvenience or weakness, instead being a source of power. However, not all women’s plant medicine retreats offer the same tools, offerings, or experiences to be empowering. Knowing how to find a plant medicine retreat for you is important.
Ayllu Medicina’s plant medicine retreats in Ecuador honor the sacred master plants and traditions with a supportive container and experienced guides for a transformational week. Our Women’s Power Retreat is led by Hwaneetah, who is also an expert in womb technology and helping you connect to this powerful source. So, join us in April 2024 for a week tailored to help you find empowerment with a supportive group of women.
You can learn more about our Women’s Power Plant Medicine retreat here. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out; we will be happy to answer your questions by phone or email!
