Microdosing And The Middle Way: Tools To Find Inner Balance In Times Of Disconnection

This is a guest blog by Federico Conde. He shares with our community three tools to find inner balance as we collectively navigate the current times of disconnection – from nature and from self.

Federico is a licensed Holistic Naturophathic Therapist based in Argentina. In addition to guiding people on their microdosing journeys, he utilizes other techniques such as detoxing, conscious nutrition, adaptogenic supplementation and therapeutic counseling. With his services named Curando con la raiz (Healing from the root) he offers a holistic approach to healing.

We are at a pivotal moment in this hectic planetary transition. Our disconnection with natural rhythms is reflected in our levels of anxiety and stress. It seems that humanity is forgetting the very sense of “self-regulation”.  Our immune deficiencies not only reveal our nutritional deficiencies, but also the decimation of our parasympathetic circuit; the part of our nervous system that is in charge of ‘rest, digest and recovery’. We are actually intoxicated by the other part of our nervous system in charge of ‘fight or flight’, leading to excess cortisol and adrenaline. This explains why we feel anxious, burnt out and emotionally undernourished. More than ever, it is necessary to stop, turn off the screens and rest.

We need to take a quantum leap and abdicate this fight and flight response. Freeing ourselves from this automatic reaction of the sympathetic circuit is an invitation to remember that life is something much simpler than all the complexity of prevailing mental programs and cultural patterns.

Three Tools To Finding Inner Balance

To assist us in this trance of collective amnesia, Pacha Mama, or Mother Nature, offers us countless adaptogenic and entheogenic “reminder” medicines. Presented intelligently in very low quantities or microdoses, these medicines can offer us greater doses of our inner child. We need to find a balance and complementarity between the “Apollonian” way of life with the “Dionysian” way of life. We must find the right balance between pleasure, work and our physical, emotional and mental needs. Therefore, it is vitally important that microdosing is used in combination with a practice of meditation, contemplation, journaling, art, creative relaxation, dance or a form of spiritual practice that allows us to activate proactive areas of our right side of the brain.

Healing From Within: Adaptogenic Foods

Regarding the issue of nutrition, we can include probiotic and fermented foods, which help strengthen our immune system, and promote the production of GABA, a neurotransmitter associated with good spirits. An alkalizing diet, rich in raw food enzymes, chlorophyll and whole foods containing niacin (B3) and the amino acid tryptophan will also help.  These favor the production of serotonin, which plays a vital role in counteracting the action of cortisol in the “rajasic” way of life that we lead. Other recommendations will be adaptogenic foods such as: mucuna pruriens, maca, turmeric, mushrooms such as lion’s mane, chaga, reishi, and cordiceps.

Another great ally of serotonin is raw cacao in the form of a drink/brew, to which we can add the aforementioned adaptogens. The cacoa bean is also considered “nootropic” due to its potential to promote concentration and physical-psychic vitality. There are two special compounds (anandamine and pheniletilamine) in cacao that provide a great feeling of joy and heart opening.  Cacao is also a fermented food, offering friendly bacteria to our gut.

Bach flowers may also help us, as well as the consumption of magnesium in the form of chloride or chelate. Excess cortisol and adrenaline are highly acidifying and demineralizing. Some traditional herbs in microdose form (tinctures) are also highly recommended to aid in detoxification, relaxation, deworming, and immunostimulation.

Detox: The First Step Towards Healing And Growth

Just as important as eating right is detoxifying when necessary. There are many tools and medicines that help in this process. Sweat lodge, hydrocolonics, liver cleansing and kambo, just to name a few.

Facing and managing our deepest fears and daily worries, as well as releasing traumas and wounds from the past, is the first step, in order to train ourselves in the presence of now. Psychotherapy, journaling, as well as word circles, are of great help to learn to communicate what we feel and solve problems from an unprejudiced perspective.

Microdosing: Making The Ordinary Significant

There are days of microdosing where the clear understanding of the dual nature in the human experience is presented. You can come to feel a deep interconnectivity between all beings and things. There can even be a type of hidden appreciation and perception of what we call “chaos.” You can observe a landscape in the wild, and suddenly, you forget your separation, your neurosis, you breathe and you relax. It is not necessary to wait for these special days to experience “unity of consciousness.”

Each day, including the “no dose” days, can become the most extraordinary day of your life. It will depend on the type of attitude that is cultivated within you. We can experience an extraordinary life, within an ordinary life. Raising, sowing, harvesting, cooking, harmonizing the most disorderly room in the house (if possible, in the best Mari Kondo style), can become true internal experiences. We can find peace in each action, since there will be a kind of attention and deep coherence.

It will depend on the attunement and intention, learn the art of dosage according to our individual, work and social context. Not everyone will need this tool (I didn’t need them for long). Some will just need to reconnect with nature, meditate, pray, do psychotherapy, learn to breathe consciously or do some bodily activity. For this reason, it is also necessary to use or combine these tools with the microdosing process, for the construction of new habits and behavior patterns.