A Quick and Easy Psychedelic Integration Journal
You want to have a helpful and effective psychedelic integration journaling practice that is also clear and simple enough to use if you are still a little elevated.
We can ask deep questions and ponder powerful insights later, but sometimes we just need to get some thoughts on paper quickly. We often have a lot to say, a lot of new information. We want to balance the polarity between simplicity and structure. Some organization, but not too unwieldy.
So to begin with, all we need to know is:
- What did you see?
- How did you feel?
- What was the message?
Of course you can toy with the three questions, but this is a good place to start. It also loosely follows our awareness map.
Starting here, we can add just a little more structure, by asking the client to orient around time.
Beginning, Middle, End. Simple.
We matrix the above observations against:
- The beginning (onset)
- The middle (peak)
- The End (comedown)
Orienting in Time
Something that I’ve noticed about psychedelic storytelling, is that meaningful-ness often takes precedence over chronology. Quite often, People share their stories in order of impact. The really intense thing that happened gets top billing, followed by the next most intense thing, and so on. Someone who tells you about their painful ego death terror before their ecstatic bliss moment most likely had a very different experience than the person who tells you about it after. Not always, but it’s a pretty good rule of thumb. Chronology is not always the most important part of psychedelic storytelling, especially when someone is fresh off a trip.
Adding some chronology is an excellent way to create some ground, a firm foundation for meaning. A maelstrom of experience can leave us feeling like we’re floating in space, confused and directionless. It can often leave us feeling like we just played a game of 52 pick up, staring at a disorganized pile of cards, wondering where to start. If we’re not going to start at the beginning, and there is no rule saying that we have to, it’s still a really good idea to at least know where the beginning is.
We create a matrix of the areas of awareness and the beginning, middle, and end of the trip. We can have our clients draw out one of their own, or we can just slip them this single sheet and take just a moment to explain it. It’s really intuitive.
Create your own Integration Journal, or download the one below
There is nothing like a little craft project to get your head in the game. Spending a few moments to make your own grid can give your mind a little focus and awareness around some of the experiences you’re likely to have. It can make us aware of how one experience gives way to another, and how time passes in a trip.
If you have some inspiration, you can add whatever you like. I’ve seen people add an intention to the top, and I’ve seen people spread this over several pages. If you think you might need a full page for visions, go with that.
If you need it really easy for you, I’ve created a PDF you can download below.
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