Microdosing can be wonderful, and life changing, but unless you commit to making other adjustments in your life, oftentimes it alone is not a cure. Sometimes it can prompt us into a healthier lifestyle, and it doesn’t hurt to also make a commitment to some of these practices to get the most out of your medicine and also optimize your health.
- Logging your dose and results
This is how you can tell what’s working and what’s not; it will be different for everyone, and charting what’s occurring is the easiest way to make adjustments to find what works best. Keep track of the amount taken, method (if it varies), and anything else you noticed or think played into the experience. Would you change anything next time?
2. Getting outside
Most people are low or even deficient in vitamin D, which helps us regulate our body’s bone health and immunity, and low levels can cause depression and anxiety.
Aim for: 20 minutes per day, three times a week, this lowers cortisol (the stress hormone) levels.
A five hour span of time spent in nature per month, can create a sense of calm, gets us out of our daily stress routines
And a 3 day span per year(activate brain alpha waves).
(They call this the 20-5-3 rule *reconnectwithnature.org)
3. Learn about + Utilize CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy)
This can help in recognizing negative thought patterns people with depression and anxiety often fall into. It causes you to examine your thoughts, and gives you the chance to change them.
These are the 10 common thought patterns, summarized.
1-All or nothing thinking (putting things into only 2 categories, good/bad, black/white, right/wrong etc.).
2-Overgeneralization (trying to predict the future based on known aspects or the past).
3-Mental filter (focusing only on the negative).
4-Discounting the positives (no amount of success is ever enough, you turn positives into negatives).
5-Jumping to conclusions (assumes the worst instead of letting things play out).
6-Magnification/Minimization (distortions of reality to fit our biases).
7-Emotional reasoning (emotions are not thoughts, and thoughts are not emotions).
8-Should statements (views based on judgements, of how things should be and not as they are).
9-Labeling (simplifies reality by assigning a label to a more complex situation/person).
10-Personalization and blame (assigns a cause to everything).
When you start to notice that you’re falling into one, you can push back and question it. Examine your thoughts for accuracy. If one of these distortions is at play, you can fight back with reality, eventually changing your pattern of thinking!
(from “Feeling Good, the new mood therapy by David D. Burns)
4. Yoga or other light exercise/stretching (Tai Chi)
The practice of “Mindfulness” is a tenant of yoga, along with gentle body movement, which has numerous health benefits. Being mindful, or being able to be in the moment, can pair perfectly with microdosing as it builds gratitude and decreases outside stress.
Yoga has physical benefits of course, as well. I recommend commiting to 2-5 times a week.
yogawithadriene on youtube is a great channel to follow along at home, if you’re not into doing it locally.
5. Vagus Nerve Regulation
Engaging the parasympathetic nervous system can help to regulate stress levels on the mind and body. A few basic ways to help (will be writing an separate post on this eventually)
-Singing, humming, or speaking
-Engaging both sides of the body in a repetitive activity- like walking, twiddling your thumbs, movement back and forth with arms or legs. ]
-You can massage your vagus nerves, probably the easiest way to do this is in the ears. Gently pulling, rubbing, and massaging the various parts of the ears does this. (I’ve done this to my partner too and they only said it felt good but likely didn’t know of the other benefits!)
-Deep breathing. (See breathwork suggestion).
-Muscle relaxation. Start with a small part of your body, tense the muscle group for several seconds, and then release. Work from one part of the body to the next.
6. Journalling/Writing/Making Art
Those with various medical conditions or anxiety, who journal for 15 minutes, 3 days a week can have less negative feelings after one month of this practice.
(From webmd.com)
In my experience, it can help get feelings or experiences out of our brain so we stop ruminating on them. I had a therapist suggest writing a letter to the doctors who I had felt had wronged me, and the practice of doing that was immediately and long term, helpful, even though I never sent them.
Starting a “gratitude” writing practice, where you pick one thing a day (big or small) that you are grateful for, and name / elaborate on it, can also be an easy prompt with alot of rewards.
7. Prioritizing sleep
Getting consistent good sleep is very important, and should be a focus. Some basics: Avoid caffeine after a decided time period (noon if you’re sensitive, for me its not after 4PM), avoid exposure to blue light (TVs, computers, cell phones *Personally I have a “nighttime mode” for my phone after 10PM) for a hour or longer prior to sleep, leading to bedtime things like light exercise, a bath can help to relax the body), a planned upon “bedtime” and “wake up time” to try to stick to, or adding in a helpful supplement like Amanita muscaria, melotonin, passionflower, blue lotus flower, or Magnesium could also be helpful.
There is also CBTI- cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia! Video version
8. Breathwork
The exercise of consciously controlling your breathing, to calm the mind and body (dailyom.com)
Can regulate your heartrate, nervous system to get out of a “fight or flight” response our environments tend to put us into with stressors.
9. Gardening
The microbes in soils can get into your bloodstream and act as a natural anti-depressant for up to a month! A specific bacterium, Mycobacterium vaccae, activates serotonin receptors similar to how an antidepressant does.
a(https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/66840)
10. Meditation
Can help to achieve a clear and calm mental state, put us in the moment, and adopt a helpful mantra. Health benefits include a lowered heart rate, less cortisol (stress hormone), and can improve health outcomes and quality of life.
11. Commitment to healthy / clean eating
Eliminating as many processed foods as possible is a great way to start. Deciding to cook meals with fresh veggies and whole food ingredients can be delicious, as well as beneficial. There are serotonin receptors in the gut, and the gut-brain connection is an area that is not well understood, yet can matter so much in our day to day lives and for our long term health.
Hydration is also very important!
12. Sound healing
The activity within our bodies generates electromagnetic fields, which react to other electromagnetic inputs like music or sounds. Our bodies can be in harmony or in dissonance from these sounds. Using specific sounds waves can reset our alignment within the body’s electromagnetic fields and restore a sense of harmony.
(www.Prevention.com)
13. Floating (in a sensory-deprivation tank)
Floating in an Epsom salt tub without other stimuli can put you in a meditative-like state, which can release cortisol (stress hormone) and improve circulation.
(webmd.com)
14. Saunas
Can improve heart health, longevity, ease joint and muscle pains, and release toxins through sweat, as well as be very relaxing.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5941775 for more info.
15. Adding in other supplements as needed
I’ve mentioned a few already that can be helpful, but here’s a list of several I have in my toolkit that I use and as briefly as possible, what for.
Vitamin D- mood, bone health
Magnesium Glycinate- relaxation, sleep
Amanita Muscaria- sleep, anxiety, nerve pain
Passionflower- relaxation, sleep
Lemonbalm- relaxation, sleep
Blue Lotus Flower- relaxation, anxiety, sleep, sedating
Mucuna pruriens- mood boost
THC- mood, anti-inflammitory
CBN- sleep, relaxing
CBD- anti-inflammitory, relaxing
Lion’s Mane- brain vitamin, cognition
Reishi- immunity
Cordyceps- energy
Ghost Pipe- anxiety, calming
Niacinamide/B3- uptake, energy
B12- energy
Cacao- mood, uptake, duration of psilocybin experience
Melatonin- sleep
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