A Guidebook and Journal
Growing up in New England until I was 16 years old led me to see life through a Western lens. Finishing high school in France was my first jolt out of this preconceived way of knowing. From there, I lived and studied in Latin America as an undergraduate and graduate. I remained in the Andes for the next 20 years, immersed in a world of magic surrealism and indigenous ways of knowing—one beyond linear thinking of time and space. From there, the next 20 years on the Indian subcontinent were both a practice as well as a lived experience in Eastern wisdom and traditions. Immersion in the Tibetan refugee community profoundly affected my mindfulness practice: walking in the world grounded in deeper wisdom and more loving-kindness. Immersion in these distinct traditions eventually led me to the world of plant medicine…of the psychoactive kind. During COVID, I had a profoundly beautiful high-dose journey. This brought me to microdosing and becoming certified as a microdose coach. Microdosing can be thought of as an ayurvedic or homeopathic supplement.
It is a micro dose, usually a psychoactive fungi or plant medicine, such as psilocybin, that enhances well-being without hallucinations or impacting your ability to carry on normal daily activities. In both the high and micro doses, the plant, or in the case of psilocybin, fungi, was a powerful ally to access mindfulness. As a mindfulness author, I was encouraged to create a mindfulness journal to accompany my previous book. After months of contemplation, it only seemed authentic to offer a journal based on my own current lived experience: mindful microdosing. Thus, Mindful Microdosing: A Guidebook and Journal was born.
The journal highlights how the world of microdosing naturally aligns with mindfulness, as both cultivate a greater spaciousness of mind and expansiveness of heart for healing and well-being. Approaching microdosing with mindfulness and inviting microdosing to support more mindfulness lies at the center of the book. It invites readers of all ages, backgrounds, interests, and current lived experiences to consider the possibility of microdosing.
Doing so mindfully helps you reap the benefits of mindfulness, which includes greater ease, positivity, mindful awareness, tolerance, focus, and connection to your own ground of well-being. All of these benefits enhance overall well-being. When microdosing or using any psychedelic medicine, it is highly advised to bring an intention to mind. In the Western mind, an intention is often specific and goal-orientated. In the Eastern concept, intention brings us to the Sanskrit word Sankalpa, which is heart-centered.
The excerpt I’ve selected from the book introduces the concept of Sankalpa and suggests how one’s intention can come from this deeper understanding. The idea of intention underscores all of Mindful Microdosing.
The concept of intention is best described and used herein as a Sankalpa, a Sanskrit word that implies seeking the highest truth.
A Sankalpa turns the heart inward. It is not driven by the ego to determine an aim or measurable goal. A Sankalpa bubbles up from deeply listening to your most heartfelt desire. Invite in this deep listening. Nourish a calm abiding for your Sankalpa to become clear. Breathe in its living message calling from within. Embrace its calling with deep trust. Though it may take a few days or even weeks, once your Sankalpa takes form, it is expressed as a short, affirmative statement.
The following are a few examples. I thrive in good health. I am present in all I do. Mental clarity guides my day. Joy abides in me. Ease flows through my pores and in all I do. I embody a loving presence.
Once you have your Sankalpa, and you may have more than one, hold your Sankalpa fervently and actively in your heart and mind. You can silently repeat it three times with the open invitation to repeat it to yourself, like a mantra, throughout your waking hours and in your dreams. Another all-important aspect of a Sankalpa is to believe that it, in fact, will manifest: that the force of the energy behind your Sankalpa has been firmly planted in the firmament, and its unfolding revelations will come into being. When mindfully microdosing, a magical alchemy between you, your Sankalpa, and the mushrooms are ever possible. What actually gets revealed is left up to an abiding trust that your heartfelt desire has been embraced.
Believe it will come into manifestation in all its perfection. Unlike a packet of flower seeds, for example, daisies, which you would plant in the garden with the specific intention to grow and bloom, a sankalpa’s alchemy mimics the biology of the mushroom. The spore’s nature is to instantaneously project outward, traveling in the air in all directions. Once it lands, mycelium forms and begins to grow its networks underground. These networks also expand in all directions, nourishing an astonishing array of life.
Some give rise to plant life that reveals itself above the surface, before your very eyes—including the daisies in the garden. This unseen, interwoven web, started from spores, is actively creating and mutually supporting gifts of abundant life in all its forms. Your Sankalpa can do the same. So let its energy be received and taken like the mushroom spore into open space and then take root in unseen ways, revealing bountiful gifts that enhance your life, nourish wholeness and well-being, and grow greater interconnectedness to all life. In this way, your Sankalpa becomes your guiding intention. I invite you to look at these unfolding revelations as a magical garden, one that you have started from a deep sense of your own heartfelt desire.
During your journey, you will most likely notice benefits as well as face some challenges. Some things will take root right away, while others decay and wilt away. Perhaps some challenges, such as health, relationships, or work-related issues, like weeds, lessen and may even start to be overtaken by daisies. However, some challenges may initially seem amplified, though your clarity in understanding them may deepen. Just like after a summer’s rain, more weeds may come to the surface, but the soft, moist soil makes their removal almost effortless. Your garden’s growth is not a linear, step-by-step process. It is an ever-changing phenomenon of coming into being, ripening, and dispersing into other ways of being. This nature of impermanence can be held in awe and wonder. Likewise, revel in the way your unique journey will unfold. Hold the benefits like blossoming gifts in wonder while letting go of others with grace. All transforms into the beauty that is your life. Let your intention be the alchemy or magic, if you will, between you and the mushrooms in your journey ahead. Be sure to place your intention, written in a short sentence, into the Preparation section of the journal.
The intention may change as the journey proceeds, so feel free to edit or rewrite any new intentions. You may want to write them in the spores scattered throughout the journal. In this way, your intentions are gentle whispers from your heart and reminders of the magical alchemy of their manifestation. As part of their inherent intelligence, spores grow thread-like branches, called hyphae, in all directions; this is illustrated in the growing mycelial network found throughout the journal section of the book.
You may want to add guiding messages and insights or fill out each growing network with colors, words, or other creative inspirations. How they express themselves is part of the mystery of infinite possibilities and can find expression in the journal. Whatever you decide, the invitation is to co-create your own unique mindful microdosing journal in a way that is meaningful to you.
by Lauren Alderfer
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