Ayahuasca is a powerful plant-based medicine that has been used for centuries by indigenous people in the Amazon for spiritual and healing purposes. It has recently gained popularity as a tool for personal growth and self-discovery. The interconnection between psychedelics and finding purpose in life as a human being on this Earth is a path worth exploring.
As a business coach who specializes in working with psychedelic and spiritual entrepreneurs, I’ve been able to help people grow their businesses while doing the work they love and leaving behind the soul-crushing rat race.
My personal journey has led me to understand the importance of finding fulfillment in my work and helping others do the same. I felt inspired to share my story of what my life’s journey was like with ayahuasca and how it has impacted my life.
Let me start with a bit of my background. I’ve been on my psychedelic path since I was 14, and I’m now in my 40s. I delved deeply into working with sacred plants and psychedelic medicines in an intentional, ceremonial manner.
I’m a daily meditator and a long-time member of a Buddhist Sangha. My college studies in psychology and my original desire to become a therapist reflect my lifelong pursuit of a healing and therapeutic path.
Throughout my journey, I have explored various transformative courses and programs. I’ve attended several leadership and mindset trainings, women’s circles, and I’ve worked with coaches for a very long time (all the list of my trainings and teachers here). All of these areas inspired me and I wanted to learn more.
My Search for Meaning and Purpose
I recently reflected on a journal entry from my 20’s, and if you’re anything like I was, you found yourself questioning everything. Let’s see which thoughts resonate with you:
- Am I really in the right career?
- Why do I feel like I’m slaving away just to barely survive?
- Do I even like what I’m doing?
- Is this all I’m here for?
- Am I meant for something greater?
Feeling stuck in the daily grind of life, especially with a job you’re not happy with, can eat your soul away. I assumed I felt dissatisfied with the way things were because I had a very deep connection to my spiritual self and my higher self.
I’m also Sagittarius Leo moon, Capricorn rising, and as a Sagittarius, I just knew there was something more to life than doing something I hated just to make sure I could eat until I die.
I believed there had to be more purpose and meaning to this game that we’re playing called life. And so, I started to explore what it meant to have purpose and meaning.
At a very young age, before I ever touched psychedelics, I remember I used to lay in the grass, look up at the sky, and ponder about so many things I didn’t understand about life. I wanted to know what the purpose of all of it was, and I wasn’t getting answers from my family.
I had parents that worked jobs they seemed to be neutral about. There wasn’t much complaining, but there was also a lack of joy and no true sense of fulfillment. It all seemed to be for survival or simply getting by.
Rejecting the Rat Race
As I got older, I noticed the same was happening in my life. I began to question the purpose of my career. While I enjoyed certain aspects of my job, I never felt fulfillment or a sense of making a real impact or difference in the world.
Despite receiving bonuses, praise, and a good salary, I felt like another replaceable cog in the wheel rather than feeling like I was engaged in something meaningful.
I grew tired of being one of the hundreds or thousands of employees in large companies, all working to make someone else’s vision come true. I worked tirelessly for money in spaces where the people above me didn’t even know my name.
The goal was to work harder, get a promotion, and earn more money. I realized that chasing these promotions would not bring me the fulfillment I needed.
My Calling to Entrepreneurship
I knew early on in life that I wanted to be an entrepreneur. I was not comfortable with being confined to a traditional 9-5 schedule, having to adhere to someone else’s rules, and only being able to take time off when it was approved.
The lack of space to express myself creatively in my work also left me feeling empty. I’ve had experiences working in both corporate and startup environments, and while working with tech companies felt a bit more fun and cool, I still felt unfulfilled.
As my curiosity for defining meaning and purpose grew, I began working with mainly ayahuasca and psilocybin. I used other non-psychoactive plant medicines as well, along with energetics of flower essences and tinctures, and I started getting more messages about what I was meant to do.
Letting Go of Fears and False Security
By the time I got really deep into these plant medicines, I had started my own business and began to phase out working for others. But of course, there was a part of me that was scared of letting go of a conventional job.
I was fearful of losing the “security” of someone paying me because I lacked confidence in myself. But let’s be real; nothing is ever secure. Whether you’re in the best or the worst of all economies, there’s no guaranteed security, and yet, those doubtful thoughts persisted. This is what they sounded like:
- How will I pay rent if I leave my job?
- How will I ever make my own money?
- Am I going to earn enough to survive?
- What if I fail… or what if I succeed and get too big?
- What if I lose friends along the way?
- What kind of judgments will people make about me?
This is where my journey with ayahuasca really began taking shape. I was getting the same messages over and over as I dove deeper into myself with the help of plants like ayahuasca. While dancing in the jungles, being on many master plant dietas and on my medicinal journey, I found a place of silence, inquiry, and time alone to connect with myself.
Exploring the Intersection of Psychedelics, Sacred Medicines and Business
At first, I started as a business coach. It felt safe, and I was helping people start and grow their businesses. But then I noticed my spiritual self showing up in my business coaching, and I knew I was being called to share more of my spirituality with my clients. However, I wasn’t being called to share my psychedelic self (yet).
While working with ayahuasca, I received a lot of visions of my future, some of which have come true. I also worked with clients who were using ayahuasca and found it interesting that they received similar messages regarding their businesses or lives.
To me, my business is not separate from my life; it is just an extension of who I am and my soul coming through in my daily work. I see business as integrated and do not separate it from my personal life, except for not working on weekends and some Fridays.
How a Past Client Found Her Clarity
I had a client many years ago who was actually someone I had known for a few years before she became a client. She was on a very traditional career path as a nurse in western medicine, but she was also very deep into plant medicine and spirituality. She went and studied some alternative forms of medicine and forms of healing, and over time a dissonance began to grow.
She enjoyed what she did with western medicine, but she also felt called to approach it from a progressive “alternative.” I put “alternative” in quotes because I don’t believe that it’s an alternative anymore; people are starting to notice that alternatives really work.
She had already sensed that there was a different way to heal people using plant medicine and energy healing, which are not as recognized in traditional western institutions. She had doubts about her ability to explore this new path, but despite it, she finally decided to work with me, and the results were remarkable.
Recently, I saw a post from her on social media, and she had been featured in a TV show or something similar. She started her business in my mastermind program, and after working with me for about a year, her opportunities began to take off.
Initially, she was stuck in fear and disbelief about whether she could really do it, but she knew that if she didn’t try, it would continue to eat at her.
The beauty of her journey is that she kept her regular job while also pursuing her passion and her job started to shift as well. This is a common occurrence that I have seen with many of my business coaching clients; when they start to follow their soul’s path and pursue their passions, their job or career starts to align with it.
How Plant Medicines Can Help Us Evolve Spiritually
The information received through psychedelics like ayahuasca or psilocybin mushrooms is similar to what we already have within us. This is my belief. We just may not be able to access it easily.
Not all of us are fully connected to ourselves, but through these experiences, we can tap into the part of ourselves that holds our truth, our true desires and passions, and what we are being pulled or called to do. It’s like the growth of a plant; we are constantly expanding and evolving.
If we stay in a job that provides security but doesn’t allow for growth, it can lead to depression, stress, anxiety, illnesses, and health issues. It can be a wake-up call for people to question their current path and realign with their true purpose.
My journey was similar to what I described before in that I was already following my passion for business coaching. Adding psychedelics and sacred plant medicines to my work helped to clarify and strengthen my vision.
From Vision to Reality: The Transformative Power of Ayahuasca
I had an incredible vision during my first ayahuasca ceremony in Peru, where I saw myself dancing in nature and helping people with their businesses. The vision was joyful and playful. It felt more like a hobby than a job. It was a reminder that if money was not an issue, what would I choose to do with my time?
I often ask my clients, if money didn’t matter, but they had to do something, what would they choose to do? That’s the question that reveals one’s true passion and purpose.
The vision I had during my ayahuasca ceremony showed me that I was meant to work with people who were already on a medical path, and help them with their businesses, while also incorporating psychedelics and sacred plant medicines into the work.
I felt a sense of excitement, joy, fun, and abundance in my body, and I wondered what would happen if I gave that path a chance.
I also read a book that I highly recommend called “The Surrender Experiment” by Michael Singer, which really resonated with me. The book is about his deep spiritual awakening and how he decided to let go of his fears and let life unfold before him.
He grew a multi-million dollar business by surrendering and focusing on his goal to meditate all the time instead of obsessing over trying to create a multi-million dollar business.
A part of me feels like I would be at peace with a life dedicated to meditation, but I have always felt that I am meant to be a leader and make a positive impact on the world and the lives of others. While a life of meditation would be fulfilling, I believe that I am here to be a messenger and a bridge builder.
Embracing the Unknown: How Ayahuasca Taught Me to Surrender and Trust
After experiencing a vision with ayahuasca, I decided to try the “surrender experiment” while still maintaining some form of work and income for security. I had a plan in place to ensure that I could transition into this new way of being without completely giving up my current streams of income.
I decided to approach my new vision as a fun project rather than focusing on making money. I believe that when you’re too focused on making money, it negatively affects your energy and leads to feelings of neediness and attachment.
Instead, I suggest approaching your new business or ideas with curiosity, as if it were a nonprofit and not for the purpose of making money. By doing this, you can take the weight off and have fun with it while still being responsible and paying your bills.
When I started going into my surrender experiment, I started to see where the struggling businesses of my friends were going wrong and what it was that they needed. I’ve always had a talent for this. I started helping people I knew out of curiosity, to see what it would feel like to actually bring that vision to reality.
I believe that when you show up for the universe, the universe will show up for you, and as a result, other opportunities began to present themselves to me. As I showed up, the path started to materialize, and I started moving forward from there.
I started to get random clients and requests for help out of the blue. I was asked to host live workshops for groups of people at the request of friends. As a result, I started getting clients from the workshops I hosted.
As I began to work with others, I found that there were many people on a similar spiritual path as mine, involving psychedelics and sacred plant medicines, who wanted to come into their purpose and start a new business. I had never consciously intended to help these people, but it became clear that there was a need for business coaches who could integrate psychedelics into their work.
How Ayahuasca Led me to My Purpose
In 2019, I publicly shared my approach because I figured there had to be at least 30-40 people on the planet who wanted the same kind of help that I had been seeking, which is a coach that understands how to integrate psychedelics into their business, as it can provide valuable answers and insights.
I believe that psychedelics and sacred plant medicines can help us shift the way we do work and business on Earth. The Psychedelics, Sacred Medicines and Purpose summits I host focus on conscious business practices, becoming spiritual leaders, and being Earth warriors, while also achieving financial success, fulfillment, and freedom.
It wasn’t until 2021 that I realized I had fully manifested the vision I had in an ayahuasca ceremony and now work with clients who are on a similar spiritual path, who I had always dreamed of working with.
Not everyone I work with uses psychedelics, but most do. Even those who don’t are open to spirituality and come to me looking to make a shift in their lives toward something with more meaning, purpose, and fulfillment. My role is not just to find their purpose but to guide them in an embodied, experiential, action-oriented process to bring their purpose to reality.
How Ayahuasca Helped Me Re-align
I believe that business comes from the heart, not the head. The only way to truly know your purpose is to take action and feel it in your body. This way, you can also know when something does not align with your purpose.
I once worked with a CEO of a company for a year as a private client. He was great, but he didn’t understand or practice meditation, and it was challenging to get him to even try it. Through this experience, I realized that coaching CEO’s of $20 million companies was not my passion, even though this particular client was great to work with.
This contrast helped me to understand that in order to align with my purpose, I needed to work with clients who at least understand and appreciate concepts like meditation. This is how psychedelics and plant medicines can help in discovering and making real the true passion living within you.
This is the beauty of how plant medicines and psychedelics can actually help you open up to what’s truly living inside you and then make it real.
Embodying Purpose, Abundance, and Taking Action
Plant medicines can have a large impact on our lives, not only in terms of healing but also in shaping our daily habits and our feelings about work and how we use our time.
We spend so much of our lives working and making money, and while making a living is necessary, these medicines can help us awaken our minds to the next level of expansion, wherever that might take us.
It’s through taking small actions and being curious that we can embody our purpose and start manifesting it in reality. It’s not about sitting and thinking. It’s about being embodied in it and taking action.
I invite you to explore the messages and themes that come through your psychedelic experiences, especially if they’ve appeared to you more than once. Be discerning and ask yourself if it’s coming from your mind or your soul. Get curious and take small steps to see what shifts are occurring. Pay attention to the synchronicities and alignments that come your way, as they are the golden nuggets on your path. The universe will guide you as you stay aligned.
I am always discussing this topic further in the future, so be sure to tune in to my weekly Medicine For These Times psychedelic podcast episodes.
Remember, you carry your own unique medicine and YOUR medicine is needed in these times.
Don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions!
