Why Do Some People Get Ayahuasca Retreat Depression?

An article about Ayahuasca retreat depression and the Ayahuasca retreat changes that must happen in order to keep the elevated consciousness and higher consciousness that an Ayahuasca retreat brings!

by Christine Breese, founder of University of Metaphysical Sciences, Gaia Sagrada Ayahuasca Retreat Center & Free Retreats 4 All

Handling The Ayahuasca Retreat Depression Crash – Why & How

When you take a psychedelic medicine like Ayahuasca or any other, you are getting a sneak peek at what your consciousness can do. It could be thought of as a cheater’s look at what it takes to earn what you get with meditation.

Not that a sneak peek is bad or anything like that. In fact a sneak peek is great! It serves as the carrot dangling in front of you to keep you on the path to deepening your consciousness. It encourages you to make the Ayahuasca retreat changes that must be made. Once you realize you don’t get to keep that state of being without earning it, and you make the inner adjustments it takes to keep it, then you get to experience it for real, not just temporarily. You have to earn it to really keep it. There really isn’t any other way around this.

Often what happens is people have a truly elevated experience of themselves, relief from suffering finally, and joy and love like they have never known possible in an Ayahuasca ceremony, or an Ayahuasca retreat or any kind of psychedelic experience (sometimes it’s hell too, we address that in other posts). They realize themselves as a pretty cool person finally, everyone else is pretty cool too, and in fact the world is their playground. It’s a whole new perspective of self, others, and the world. Much is released and a new perspective is experienced.

They are elated for a few days, weeks, maybe even months, and then suddenly BAM! The cold hard truth comes crashing in and they get depressed, anxious, frustrated, or even angry that they weren’t able to hold on to that state of being. Then Ayahuasca retreat depression sets in.

Ayahuasca Retreat Depression

The reason one can’t hold onto the Ayahuasca retreat changes is because all the old ways come back in to be addressed. Sometimes they will even come back with a vengeance. Oh no you don’t! You’re not allowed to feel this good, no way! The old self ways die hard, if you want to know the truth.

Going into a whole new way of being, for most versions of the human condition, is not comfortable. The old self will fight like a crab at high tide trying to keep the self in a familiar zone, even if it’s not a happy zone. At least it’s familiar, and has coping mechanisms that are known. Nothing is feeling like it can’t be at least tolerated from this space that has been tolerated for a lifetime already in this way.

The questions come racing in:

• What happened?
• What gives?
• Was it even real?
• Did someone screw me up?
• This isn’t how it’s supposed to be, not fair!

Thing is, people who have the Ayahuasca retreat depression crash after the ceremony or retreat, they didn’t earn it. Again, this is not shaming or a bad thing, just a reality check so one can handle this part of the process. This is only to help you know what is going on when the crash comes.

They got to taste it for a “moment” but the elevated consciousness won’t stay unless one earns it. Don’t worry, this isn’t a bad thing but it is a realization that should be had before one even takes a medicine like Ayahuasca or any other. It is something to be expected.

Now comes the inner homework! Gotta do it to hold on to the elevated consciousness and higher consciousness you gained during the retreat!

If one does their inner work after the retreat, faces all the things within oneself that needs to change, refrains from blaming others and leaves victim mode and enters handle it mode, then this crash after the “high” of the Ayahuasca journey doesn’t happen quite as drastically. If one realizes this is going to push one to do the inner work, then this is being faced realistically and logically, actually.

How To Keep Higher Consciousness State After Ayahuasca Retreat Depression?

First, just know that it’s going to be work. This is the time you must earn the elevated consciousness. The Ayahuasca integration process brings the higher consciousness and healing you were looking for. After the retreat or ceremony, that is when the real work begins. It’s easy to be zen when you’re with other people who are in a spiritual awakening state, treating each other with respect, and your environment is supportive and caring at a retreat or ceremony.

THEN you have to go back and do the work. That’s when the real work of an Ayahuasca ceremony begins, when you return home to the situations and environment that brings you down. This is when you have to face what is not “elevated consciousness” within oneself. This is Ayahuasca integration.

1. ENJOY the elation for a little while that happens after an Ayahuasca ceremony or retreat, that’s good to experience! However, know that there is going to be some adjustment needed if you want to keep it. MEMORIZE these new patterns you might have. Notice how these patterns feel in your body, mind and emotions.

2. Work on the programming that is now showing itself very clearly that you don’t want to keep. This is where the inner work is really at. You’re dealing with bad programming, for the most part, in the present moment, rather than the past experiences. You got the bad programming from those bad experiences of the past. Those are coping mechanisms created at a time when you didn’t have the tools (especially as a child) or support to handle what was happening.

Now you’re older and you have more tools at your disposal to heal from those experiences. It’s about leaving the past behind you where it belongs, without keeping the garbage programming that was a result of those experiences. You created those because you knew less about yourself, life and the world than you do now. (Repeating alarm in your smart phone app store is the best way to work with these programs, look for our other post on “repeating alarm, best tool for changing old programming.”)

3. Make peace with the past. One of the biggest parts of dealing with the Ayahuasca retreat depression that comes afterwards for some people is learning how to leave the past behind. Let it end now. Stop torturing yourself with it and reliving it. Those were nightmares that came and they went. Learn how to end the nightmares and start a new dream. It’s time to learn how to not give them your attention anymore. Look for what those experiences gave you and take the wisdom and leave the rest behind.

Did those experiences give you compassion? Make you a caring person? Make you tough and able to handle anything and everything? Did those experiences burn off some crappy karma you had from a lifetime when you misused your power? Challenge you to have unconditional love for a truly intolerable person and see their injuries rather than their flaws? Look deeper. What did those experiences give you?

There is a gift in every single one of those experiences that has made you the more masterful person you are becoming now. This is how you make the Ayahuasca retreat changes that you wanted to make. Take the gifts from the past and become masterful with them.

And just so you know, the wounded healer is THE most powerful healer on the planet. That may well be YOU! Take the title and take your power back from those past experiences now.

4. Even if you made mistakes, let yourself be free of guilt now. Learn from mistakes and just let it be now. Life is going to give you more chances to do it right, so when those opportunities and temptations to do it wrong come up again, just do it right. You know what to do and not to do. You really do. You have enough life experience now to know what not to do.

Some mistakes, there is not a snowball’s chance in hell that you would make those mistakes again, so forgive yourself and move on from the mistakes of the past. Don’t fear that you will make that mistake again someday. It’s a sealed deal on some of those kinds of experiences.

If you DO make the same mistake again, then once again pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and look for the next opportunity that life the guru is going to bring you to do it right. Try again and again and again until you get this right. Life will not give up on you getting this right.

So just pay attention. Be on the lookout for your next challenge to do it right, forgive yourself if you miss the mark or only get it half right, and keep LEARNING! That is what making the Ayahuasca retreat changes is all about. Mistakes are for learning and you’re supposed to make mistakes in this “school” so just keep trying. You’ll get it, sooner or later, unless you’re really not paying attention.

If you’re on this path with medicines though, you’re paying attention to what you have to learn and change.

5. Change or add to your environment. If your environment does not support the difference in you, then you have to change it. There are no two ways about this. Don’t do anything drastic right after an Ayahuasca ceremony or Ayahuasca retreat. Take your time to truly assess the situation, and look at what doesn’t support you in your environment anymore.

Does your job need to change? Is the money worth it for what you have to sacrifice for that job? Maybe a downgrade in lifestyle that costs less money but gives you more time to do the things you love, gives you more happiness, is worth its weight in gold! Does your location need to change? What doesn’t work for you anymore and takes you down into the holes?

Really assess your environment and see if it works for you anymore. Then when you have truly figured out how to go about these changes in a balanced way, take action. The Ayahuasca retreat depression will lift, when you start to take action. These are the Ayahuasca retreat changes.

Also, it may not be a drastic change to your environment that is needed. Maybe you simply have to just ADD things that will support your changes. Maybe you need to add creativity classes, taking up a new hobby, doing yoga and meditation, exploring higher consciousness books and videos, whatever. Maybe you just have to ADD more supportive things to your environment and it will be fine.

6. Change or deepen your relationships. This is one of the biggest things that people realize in Ayahuasca and other medicine journeys. The people they give their time and attention to are draining them, not healthy for them, putting them down, or causing them harm. Even if those people don’t mean to and are actually loved ones, they may be doing more damage than good.

It’s really important that one doesn’t give as much time and attention to people who are not healthy for them. This is true especially if those people are draining them, putting them down, or worse, encourage them to continue bad and unhealthy habits like drinking, drug addictions, etc.

On the other hand, some people realize they have to be more available to people who are trying to give them love. It’s time to deepen their healthy relationships, and be more receptive to the love they are trying to give to them. Ayahuasca retreat changes can and do happen, and they will change a person’s life if they are made. Opening to love is one of the hugest realizations people have when it comes to making the Ayahuasca retreat changes.

Something has to change, one way or another, so truly assess each person in your life. If being around that person is truly healthy for you, or you need to be more available for love, deepen the relationship. Release fear of intimacy and love. Start connecting with people in a way you never have before. If that person drains you and isn’t healthy for you, you may have to love that person from a distance and spend less time with him or her.

Also, is there a person in your past you have to forgive for hurting you and move on? The forgiveness is for you, not the other person so much. If both of you can heal, great. If only you can heal from that infraction, it’s your responsibility to do it for your own happiness.

7. Are there habits to break? This is one of the biggest culprits that cause Ayahuasca retreat depression, returning to unhealthy ways of being. Look closely at how you eat, think, act and what you do that may be unhealthy for your body, mind and emotions. Be diligent about where you put your energy, time and attention. Are there physical habits to break? Mental or emotional habits to break? Do you have to do things that support your health and well being on all those levels? Sometimes people have huge consciousness shifts simply by cutting out sugar and junk food! Sometimes focusing on the present moment instead of the past or future is the habit to break. What is it that has become habitual that may need to be shifted?

8. Use your creative intelligence to find the other things you need to change. We just gave you some pointers on how to deal with the “after elevation crash” (or the Ayahuasca retreat depression). This happens for some people when they have a lot of inner work to do which the medicines triggered. They must be acted on because your new self will not be able to coexist with the old self and the old ways of handling things anymore. The Ayahuasca retreat changes beg to be made. If you don’t act on those changes, you will feel like it was all for nothing. The old programming and ways of doing things have to go if you want to hold onto the elevated consciousness. Higher consciousness is not free, so to speak. Letting go of the old ways has to be sacrificed.

Some things are pretty individual and unique. You’ll have to look at your life, take stock, and make changes that may be very unique and individual to you. Only you can know what those things are. Don’t worry, the answers are within. The medicines showed you that. All you have to do is learn how to sit quiet in the silence of the heart and receive all those directions! They will come!

Don’t forget to ask for some guidance from within if you feel clueless how to change things and be a happier person. Promise! Those directions will come, even though it may be just one small step at a time. Trust it!

Conclusion – Ayahuasca Retreat After Effects

Hopefully this helps with how to handle the “after elevation crash” that sometimes comes after you’ve been suffering for a long time and then experience a momentary bliss and release from the troubles of the past or learned anxiety about the future. These are some hints on how to do the Ayahuasca retreat changes that come after the Ayahuasca retreat or ceremony. This is the real integration, the work to earn the elevated consciousness you just had a sneak peek at!

Ayahuasca retreat depression does not have to be how this goes for you. If you don’t have deep issues to heal, Ayahuasca depression isn’t going to be with you. If it is, and you need a therapist to help you with this, use that tool. If self improvement books, videos, or methods help you do the inner work, use them. If you need to change your diet and thinking or emotional habits, do it. There are a lot of tools and solutions, they are all there for you to make the Ayahuasca retreat changes your soul is begging you to do.

May your changes become permanent and solidified with these tips! You got this! <3