Perhaps more than any psychedelic, 5-MeO-DMT can elicit profound existential questions, confusion, and excitement about the nature of reality, the universe, and your own identity. This is completely normal! It can be very tempting to seek explanations and translate your experience into language and concepts.
Notice the impulse of your conceptual, linguistic mind to try to define and interpret a non-dual experience through dualistic terms. There’s no need to force the process. You will gradually come to understand how this experience impacted you as you reintegrate into the world. Rather than rush this process, see if you can gently hold the paradoxes you’ve encountered. Try to stay connected with the more subtle, less cognitive ways of knowing and being you experienced, particularly around your embodied awareness and the quality of your attention.
The thinking mind is just one lens–albeit usually the predominant one–amongst several ways of interpreting and experiencing our lives. You will not “figure out” a 5-MeO experience simply by thinking about it. The integration process is most effective when you are able to slow things down and bring a deeper semantic awareness to your life.
Friction Between Left & Right Brain
The model of ‘left’ vs ‘right’ brain is useful in understanding one of the key aspects of integrating your 5-MeO experience. The left brain represents our analytical, linear and discursive mind, and the ‘right’ our more emotional, somatic, intuitive and creative self.
During the peak of the Full Release 5-MeO experience, your left brain is largely offline, while your right brain, and the neurobiology of our body mediates the experience in real time. This can produce a profound shift in how it feels to inhabit your body and your sense of self. You may release trauma from the body, access deeply held wisdom, or viscerally experience your inherent connection to God in the universe– all without being cognitively aware of it happening in a moment or remembering it.
Another common impact is a greater connection and alignment with your body, and therefore a deepened relationship with the present moment. Again, this may be more of a felt sense rather than a cognitive “aha” or insight.
When your left brain comes back online after your experience, it attempts to get back to its ‘regularly scheduled programming’, attempting to re-establish the same thinking and behavioural patterns as before. However, due to significant shifts in your right brain and body, there can be an incongruence between your thinking patterns and how you actually feel in the moment. For instance, your thoughts may tell you to be anxious in certain situations, but your body no longer resonates with that anxiety.
Essentially, you become more aware of the disconnect between your stories and mental patterns, and your actual experience of life. This is because you’ve deepened your connection with your body and the present moment. You have accessed a deeper truth and sense of knowing that supersedes the mind’s conditioning and patterns.
At first, this can cause a sense of friction and some confusion as you begin integrating your experience. Rest assured, this newfound awareness is a profound gift from which lasting transformation is built upon.
By establishing regular practices that help you stay grounded, embodied, and present, you can maintain this awareness and connectedness. You can foster emotional and psychological resilience, and create the foundations for the transformation you are seeking in your life, whether large or small.
What Now?
Whatever the nature of your experience with us — whether it was blissful or challenging, confusing or enlightening —the days and weeks immediately afterwards are critical for integrating the value and insights from your journey. Psychedelic experiences are only useful when you build practices and behaviour changes to nurture the awareness and insights that come from them. You have just made a massive investment in your personal well-being. Now is the time to nurture that investment and watch it grow.
It’s important to remember that while there are a number of common challenges and opportunities with psychedelic integration, everyone’s experience will be uniquely their own.. There is no one “correct” path, no “normal” way it’s supposed to go. First and foremost, pay attention to what’s coming up for you, and approach your integration accordingly. Don’t compare yourself to anyone else. We’re all on our own journeys and come into these experiences with different backgrounds and circumstances.
There is no single, “right” way to integrate a transformative psychedelic experience. Believing there is is just a subtle trick of the ego-mind trying to make sense of something that cannot be grokked by the mind alone.
Perhaps you have initiated a connection with your body that you’d like to continue nurturing, or you have realized that certain relationships no longer serve your well-being, or that there are certain aspects of your life that you’re eager to explore further. Each of these scenarios may require a different approach.
While the exact steps might be different, there are certain core aspects of integration that are universally beneficial. This guide includes some of the common questions, supportive practices, and a framework to help guide your integration process effectively.
Sensitivity—Taking Off the Armour
It is common to feel especially sensitive coming out of your experience–both emotionally–and more generally in terms of your sense of attunement in the nervous system and with your surroundings. This is true of many psychedelics and especially with 5-MeO-DMT. This is to be expected, and may be pleasurable, uncomfortable, or some combination of the two. This will gradually abate over time. In the meantime, this sensitivity is a gift that can help you attune to what aspects of your life are nurturing and those that are not. We encourage you to stay present to and aware of your environment and inner life. You might be feeling raw and inclined to cry more, in which case, cry! Your emotional and psychological defenses may have been ‘reset,’ which can be incredibly helpful for long-term wellbeing.
You may find your ego-mind resisting this sensitivity and trying to pull you away from this experience, as if there is something wrong. Do your best to remain in mindful awareness and create space for emotions and sensitivity to arise as they may. Pay attention to signals and messages in your surroundings.
Your life is constantly speaking to you, it’s just a matter of listening.
If you’re finding yourself stuck in energetic or emotional loops, the most effective thing you can do is get into your body. Movement, dance, breathwork, sounding, or any other somatic practice will serve you far more than trying to think your way through it. These experiences are rarely resolved by intellect—they move when the body moves. That said, if you’re finding that your sensitivity is lasting for long stretches or seriously disrupting your life, it might be time to connect with a coach or therapist for deeper support. You’re also always welcome to reach out to one of us if you just need a check-in or a bit of guidance to help recalibrate.
Consider Incorporating:
Gentle Movement:
Practices like yoga, stretching, and slow walks in nature to help ground and integrate heightened emotional or energetic states.
Mindfulness and Breathwork:
Regularly pause to practice deep, slow breathing, observing your internal sensations and feelings without judgment.
Quiet Time:
Carve out intentional periods of quiet and solitude, allowing your nervous system the space and calm it needs to recalibrate.
Creative Expression:
Channel your sensitivity through journaling, drawing, music, or other forms of creative exploration to help process emotions in a supportive way.
Boundaries and Environment:
Notice environments or relationships that feel overstimulating or draining. Practice setting gentle yet firm boundaries to protect and honour your newfound openness and vulnerability.
Rest and Nourishment:
Prioritize ample rest and nourishing foods to support your nervous system during this sensitive period.
Consider Reducing:
Caffeine, Stimulants, Alcohol:
One surefire way to hinder your newfound sensitivity and awareness is by ingesting these substances which put the nervous system out of balance.
Screen Time:
Limiting exposure to screens, especially social media and the news, can help reduce overstimulation and encourage a calmer, clearer state of mind.
Intense Social Situations:
Consider temporarily avoiding crowded or emotionally charged environments, which may amplify your sensitivity and create unnecessary stress.
Heavy or Negative Media:
Reducing exposure to disturbing or overly intense movies, TV shows, or other forms of media can help maintain emotional balance.
Overly Demanding Tasks:
When possible, minimize complex or strenuous tasks during periods of heightened sensitivity. Allow yourself space to process without added pressure.
Chaotic Environments:
Aim to spend time in peaceful, uncluttered spaces, limiting exposure to loud noises or overwhelming sensory stimuli.
Neuroplasticity & Habit Change
The heightened sensitivity you’re likely experiencing can also be understood as a natural sign of the increased neuroplasticity that often follows these experiences. Neuroplasticity refers to the brain’s enhanced capacity during this period to form new connections, break old patterns, and reorganize neural networks.
This is a great opportunity for behaviour and habit change. If you set out on this journey with something in mind you wanted to address, or a change in identity that is more aligned with your values, then now is the time to work towards that. This doesn’t mean you need to launch head-first into intense cognitive behaviour change, although you might find that forms of ‘therapy’ like CBT or Internal Family Systems have much greater efficacy during the integration phase. Even small changes practiced consistently over time will lead to beneficial changes. Somatic (bodily) awareness and mindful attention are the foundation of the integration practices you undertake.
When you feel ready, it can be helpful to revisit some of your prep work or journal entries and reflect on what you originally intended to focus on. In some cases, the experience may have opened up new insights or revealed areas you weren’t aware of before—so take time to notice what’s actually present for you now. What matters most is identifying where you feel the opportunity to shift—whether in your orientation, thought patterns, or behaviours—in a way that creates real leverage in your life. Keep it simple. This isn’t about trying to change everything at once. Focus on what matters most and let that be enough for now.
Your destiny is unwritten. What would you like to do?
Suggested Practices to Support Neuroplasticity & Lasting Change:
Daily Reflection:
Spend a 10-20 minutes each morning or evening reflecting on your intentions and the insights gained during your experience and/or that day. Writing these down in a dedicated integration journal can further anchor these shifts.
Micro-Habits:
Identify one or two small, achievable habits aligned with your intentions. For example, a brief daily meditation or breathwork, a short walk outdoors, or consistent journaling each day. Small habits practiced regularly will compound over time into meaningful transformation.
Focused pattern work:
involves identifying the thought, belief, or behaviour patterns that are getting in the way of the life you want to live. Start by defining the pattern—what story you tell yourself and the outcome it tends to create. Then clarify the story and outcome you’d like to replace it with. From there, the real work is daily: bringing awareness to this pattern in real time so you can catch it as it arises and slowly chip away at it over time..
Mindfulness & Embodiment Practices:
Engage in regular somatic or mindfulness exercises such as breathwork, yoga, Qigong, and meditation. These can reinforce your newfound sensitivity, enhance your embodied awareness, and help integrate shifts at a deeper, nervous-system level.
Revisiting Intention
Revisiting your intentions can also be very fruitful at this stage. You might see old thoughts and issues in an entirely new light. Some old ‘problems’ may seem to have dropped off entirely or lost their charge. Others may still be present but seen in a new light, or with new potential solutions to explore. Or you may feel renewed enthusiasm for positive elements in your life, whether it be relationships, or creative pursuits.
Your body and nervous system may have undergone a profound ‘reset,’ but the person you came into the experience as, in terms of identity, responsibilities, etc. is still very much there. It’s like your ego was paused for your journey, and is now back online and saying “what did I miss?”. This can be a challenging aspect of integration, as old aspects of ourselves no longer feel aligned with our present-moment, embodied experience.
Change and realignment are possible, but remember to treat your ego, identity and relationships with gentleness and patience. They’ve been with you a long time, doing their very best to keep you safe, and they don’t need to change overnight.
Emerging from an experience like this can bring fresh clarity, along with new questions and intentions for how we wish to live, relate, and move forward. This is a powerful moment to reflect on what you’re ready to release, and what you feel called to nurture or move toward.
Establishing a Practice
If you had a difficult time engaging with the preparation practices and meditations (or even if you did find them engaging), you will probably have a different experience and capacity for revisiting them during integration. What may have felt like an ‘idea’ that was hard to attain—like mindfulness, open awareness, or embodiment—may now have a very real and accessible reference point in your lived experience. This is a gift; use it!
If you had an experience of non-dual awareness in your session, you may find that you are able to reconjure this, or something close to it, relatively easily and intuitively in meditation or breathwork. Explore this territory if you called to do so. It can be pleasurable and rewarding in its own right, and also sometimes unsettling. If it helps to establish a constructive breathwork and/or meditation practice (which over time may again require more discipline to maintain), now is a great time to harness that opportunity.
You may also find that both breathwork and meditation become a kind of lever or valve for that openness that is connected to sensitivity and neuroplasticity. That is advantageous as well as something to watch out for if you find that you are becoming overly sensitive and ungrounded. Non-ordinary states on their own are not necessarily inherently liberating if you can’t integrate them into everyday life. The goal of this work is to find more peace in your day to day experience so that you can enjoy your life more fully and bring more peace and joy to those around you. This requires the work of integrative practices, reflective exercises and engagement with your body in order to be of benefit.
Getting Support
As much as this may have seemed like a very personal journey up to this point, you may have become more aware of just how connected we all are—to each other, to the earth and all of phenomenal reality. As you’re going through integration, no matter how much personal or introspective work you do, there are no real substitutes for healthy relational support.
This might look like reconnecting with loved ones or exploring key relationships in your life in a new light. Some of that might come easily, but for others this might be the biggest integration challenge you face.
Consider at this point whether getting additional experienced support from a third party might also be beneficial. This could be in the form of therapy, coaching, or facilitated group-work with others who have been through similar experiences. Enfold has coaches, therapists, and other resources if you’re interested.
Transformative work is sustained through connection—it cannot thrive in isolation. That’s why we host free monthly community calls for all of our alumni. These gatherings are a chance to reconnect with a vibrant network of people who are waking up to the full spectrum of Life and walking this path together. We’d love to see you there.
We also wholeheartedly encourage you to seek out other spaces where you feel a sense of belonging—whether that’s a spiritual community, a group of people who share a passion or practice, or simply a circle of friends you can trust. Community isn’t one-size-fits-all, but it is essential.
Remember:
Your experience has opened you to new ways of knowing that go beyond words, thoughts, and familiar concepts. Give yourself permission to rest comfortably in the mystery rather than trying to fully grasp or immediately articulate what you’ve encountered. The wisdom you’ve touched doesn’t need immediate translation or explanation, it’s enough simply to trust that your experience has deep value, even if it resists description. Let this knowing gently guide your next steps.
“Do slow things. Do things slowly.”
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