Right present, the field of psychedelic integration is expanding, and for good cause. Integration is a crucial step in the process of facilitating the long-lasting personal and habitual changes that psychedelic therapy can bring about.
Whether or whether they involve psychedelics, transformational experiences are impossible without the intense effort that comes after. For long-term growth and development to occur, integration is an essential, crucial, and significant component.
Psychedelic Integration: What Is It?
Psychedelic integration is the process of incorporating newfound knowledge, feelings, or perspectives from your experience into aspects of your life that you wish to improve. In general, integration is defined as “assembling components to form a whole.” Through their stated treatment goals, clients seek a sense of “wholeness,” which psychedelic integration assists in achieving.
Intentions can be things like owning up to your mistakes, being honest with yourself, or reaching out to the aspects of yourself that you may have previously ignored. The solid, independent, peaceful foundations upon which the remainder of your life can be constructed are created by this wholeness, by this ownership of every aspect of who you are.
Psychedelic experiences have the power to reveal profoundly different or dramatic perspectives on who you are, how you see the world, and how you see yourself. It can reveal new objectives you have for yourself, things you wish to say, accomplish, or pursue.
Integration is the process that makes your intentions a reality once you have these experiences. It gives your insights a concrete form.
An illustration of the integration procedure and the associated work For instance, you might have gained significant insight into the need of looking after your physical and mental well-being during your psychedelic experience. Putting this into practice would be the relevant integration work around this understanding; you may try modifying your food, getting more exercise, or rearranging your sleep schedule.
You’re applying the lessons that were discussed. You are transforming the awareness of bodily well-being into the actuality of altered behavior.
Everybody’s psychedelic experience is unique, and this also applies to how they integrate it into their life. Some people might center it around a more general, specific “theme,” such relationships, careers, honesty, communication, or health.
Tasks can occasionally be simple and straightforward, like “call your parents and tell them you love them.” Certain integration activities, such “I need to speak my authentic truth and say how I feel,” may occasionally be more ambiguous or lack a set date.
These are all legitimate integration exercises, and the precise integration work that follows will depend on your individual situation, your goals for the session, and your ideal self and future self.
Psychedelic Integration Types
Even though every person’s integration is unique, there are a few common integration categories that frequently come up; these are frequently connected to common aspects of our own personal expression, health, and energy levels.
Somatic or physical integration
There are instances when the integration process is really physical. Maybe it has to do with taking better care of your body, making time for relaxation and letting go of some built-up tension, or spending more time in nature. It places a lot of emphasis on your body and your feelings and sensations.
The following is how the integration effort for this is embodied:
- Going for a stroll outside
- Using your body through yoga or exercise
- Taking charge of your well-being, whether it be mental or physical
- Spiritual-psychological integration
In other situations, the integration process could center on your perceptions of the world, other people, and yourself, as well as the connections among them. This section of the psychedelic experience can yield many extremely significant and vital themes, many of which will require focused integration effort to fully digest and integrate into your being.
Your relationship—or lack thereof—with religion and spirituality; your relationship with your own mortality; and your metaphysical relationship with existence. Psychedelic experiences can reveal these themes in a variety of ways, and it will require some integration effort to completely understand and integrate them.
Another way to integrate your psycho-spiritual side is to look into the future:
Which personality type do you aspire to be?
Now, what sort of person are you?
Which kind of partnerships are you looking for?
Which kind of job are you interested in?
The psychedelic experience can trigger reflections of this kind, and answering them further is the process of integration. After you have an answer, you may start moving quickly to make them a reality.
Integration of emotions
Processing the emotions and feelings that surface in your life is referred to as emotional integration. Be really present with these feelings even when there are moments when you don’t want to experience them. Alternatively, they might remain within you, awaiting processing and eventual release.
For instance:
Grief: Since losing a loved one, partner, or family member is often a traumatic experience at the moment, it’s possible that you weren’t prepared to deal with it.
Forgiveness: You must forgive people who, for whatever reason, may have wronged you or even yourself.
Choosing to intentionally concentrate on the positive aspects of your life and yourself rather than just the challenges is known as gratitude work.
Your general affect and well-being depend on your ability to control, process, and regulate your emotions. Psychedelic experiences have the potential to accelerate recognition by offering insights on the need for more work in this area. In actuality, the integration process is the emotional labor you do for yourself and your future.
How much time does it take to integrate psychedelics?
The answer to this, like to most other general inquiries about the psychedelic experience, depends on the individual, their goals, and their particular circumstances.
There are certain tasks or integration activities that can be completed rapidly. For instance, making contact with an old friend or registering for a gym membership are frequently simple tasks. Integration of those teachings, assuming they come up, is therefore not too challenging.
But the psychedelic experience can also reveal far larger concepts, some of which may require much longer times to properly assimilate. There may not even be an integration’s “end point” in certain cases. Because you and the world around you are constantly changing, integration can take a lifetime to complete.
“I want to be a better friend or family member,” “I want to change the work that I do,” or even “I want to speak truthfully” are a few instances of extended or lifetime integration. For example, “speaking truthfully” is one of these themes that never ends; your job as an integrator is only to do your best to live up to and achieve this standard. Certain things take weeks, months, or even years to completely materialize, such as switching careers to discover a job you genuinely love.
The integration of psychedelic experiences can occur in a matter of minutes or years. It all relies on the lessons and revelations that surface, the amount of follow-up work you are willing to perform on them, the experience’s overall nature, and the subject matter that came up.
Why is the Integration of Psychedelics Important?
Since it is the action that gives the insights real-world context, psychedelic integration is a crucial component of the psychedelic experience. Work is what transforms an understanding from a conceptual to an actual state.
Without integration, the psychedelic experience is only potential. The event may reveal new aspects of who you are and may bring to light significant emotions or life lessons, but it is merely revealing these things to you. It’s similar to marking a possible location on your life’s map. This is a possible location for you. Who you could become is this.
The act of truly shifting from one’s current location toward a new, desired destination is known as integration. You get from where and who you are now to where and who you could be by walking one foot at a time.
It is amazing to have a healing and beautiful psychedelic experience, and everyone should be able to have these important experiences at some point in their lives. However, the majority of people come to work because they wish to make a big, enduring difference. In that situation, the discussion needs to include integration work.
You cannot bring about the kind of long-lasting change you seek if you do not show up for the integration work, which begins only after the psychedelic experience finishes.
Not only is psychedelic integration work significant, it is a crucial element in the life-changing effects that some people experience from psychedelic treatment and medicine.