Microdosing psychedelics is quickly becoming one of the most effective and popular practices for mental health, creativity, and focus. While quality, dosage, and frequency of dosing, and a personalized protocol are great starting points for ensuring satisfactory outcomes, like many other health optimization practices, microdosing also requires a baseline of healthy practices to ensure desired outcomes.
Approach your practice as you would your garden. As you plant a seed, you ensure that it has enough sun, water, and nutrient-rich soil to help it grow. Without these, the seed is unlikely to sprout and if it does, it will likely be small, slow to grow, and difficult to maintain long term. Just as a newly planted seed, the microdose practice offers an opportunity for growth and blossoming. Supportive lifestyle conditions are required to allow the full spectrum of your practice's benefits to emerge.
Here are 5 important tips to help you get the most out of your practice:
Rest
Proper sleep is the most critical aspect of our health. Our daily brain functions cause toxic buildup which is released each night during sleep. Impaired and inadequate sleep cause the brain to not fully recover from the previous day, we experience this as grogginess, irritability, and impaired cognitive functions. A tired brain operates in survival and has a greatly reduced capability to form new positive neural connections. Under such circumstances, your microdosing practice is more likely to put you to sleep in an effort to support recovery rather than helping you improve cognitive and creative functions.
Hydrate
Staying hydrated is the foundation of much of our health. Keeping your body hydrated supports healthy brain functions and neuroplasticity. It also helps improve blood flow and release toxins from the organs allowing your body to balance its neurochemistry.
Clean Diet
Optimal brain functions are directly linked to the nutritional profile of what we eat. Since the benefits of microdosing practice begin in the brain, having a clean and healthy diet that supports optimal brain functions is ideal; healthy fats like avocados and coconut oil, omega-rich foods like salmon and sardines, and raw nuts must be incorporated daily to support healthy brain functions. Processed carbs, sugar, and alcohol consumption severely hinder brain health and are best to avoid.
Meditate
Much of the microdosing practice is rooted in the subtlety of the experience as an invitation to slow down, become mindful, and take notice of our physical sensations, thoughts, and emotions. Positive change requires mindful awareness. Meditative practice offers the ideal container to support this awareness. Meditating as little as 10 minutes a day can greatly improve awareness, mindfulness, and neuroplasticity in the brain.
Journal
Having conscious awareness of our thoughts and processes is an important aspect of microdosing. By taking the time to reflect on our experience, we become aware of our progress and aspects that need our care and attention. Since the experience of microdosing varies greatly from one individual to another, keeping a journal of the dosing time, amount, and other factors like meditation, exercise, diet, supplements, and substance use overtime can become a great asset for personal optimization and exploration.
The results of microdosing practice are greatly improved when combined with lifestyle changes to support optimal brain functions and a balanced neurochemistry. When we approach with intention, mindfulness, and a spirit of reciprocity with willingness to make simple changes towards better health and balance, our results are optimized and improved many folds.
