A Mindful Approach to Dementia & Psychedelics: Our Shared Journey Series - Mini-Retreat Dose for A ME Day!

Last Tuesday, I was walking by the pool to go home when I bumped into my coffee-buddy friend whose husband has early-onset Alzheimer’s. She looked so relaxed, her face glowing! She had arranged for her husband to have care for extended hours. She told me she was having “A ME Day!” After morning yoga, she had just come from a massage al fresco. She was off for a dip in the thermal pool and then out to lunch with a friend.

It takes a lot to arrange a total ME Day when you are a caregiver. I wanted a ME Day too! I put things in place to arrange one for myself. Rather than outer activities, I arranged to have a more interior focus for the day. Sometimes I will do what is called a museum dose with psilocybin. It is neither a microdose, where you are below the threshold of hallucinating and can go about your daily life as usual, nor is it a macrodose with full-on hallucinations and several hours of a journey. I like to call it a mini-retreat dose.

Today was not one of those days, but I will note that these mini-retreat doses have been very helpful to me as an individual and as a caregiver. They give me the opportunity to venture into territory that is deeper than the tasks of daily life, oftentimes with sublime visuals but not necessarily hallucinations—an interior experience that touches on deeper truths.

I always start with an intention. Then, I have about one to two hours of deep contemplation that reveals an embodied knowing. This deep connection to the ground of my own well-being is the core of my mini-retreats. These experiences, about three to four times this past year (even though I keep saying once a month would be ideal), have been deeply nourishing.

An added benefit is that I do not have to go anywhere. My single most difficult thing in caregiving is the current inability to leave my husband for more than 24 hours. Many opportunities that require overnights or long-distance travel are no longer a consideration. Recharging or simply letting go of stress on your own is healthy and important for caregivers. Yet, it is not always practical. So, in a curious way, with earth medicine such as magic mushrooms coming into my life, these mini-retreats feel precious and even sacred.

There is a lot of information about high-dose experiences with magic mushrooms. In Mexico, indigenous healers conducting retreats can be found coast-to-coast every week of the year. Here in San Miguel de Allende, there are also plenty of these opportunities. Much of the information about high doses focuses on the transformative power of healing. And yes, this is true.

But there is another side that is less discussed—the difficult journeys or unsafe experiences. There is much more to say on this, but for now, what I want to emphasize is that as wonderful as these high-dose journeys can be, we oftentimes overlook the gentler approach that can reap its own benefits. This mini-retreat dose can be a gentler way to experience some of the benefits of a high-dose journey but within a safer, easier confine.

As part of my ME Day, I did not plan to have a mini-retreat dose. As a certified microdosing coach, I have had enough experience to understand different strains of mushrooms, their potencies, and even their signature personalities. You do not need to be certified to gain this understanding, but for me, it helped. I also want to emphasize that anything I do, I do with respect and reverence.

Different earth medicines hold their own special signature personalities, too. Mushrooms, for me, manifest a sense of blooming, just like their spores—a sense that anything is possible, that my own energy is here to express itself in its fullness. Mushrooms have deep-rooted connections, observed as the wood-wide web. The potential for interweaving, ever-growing connections is something that I sense in an ever-growing way too. Upon reflection, though subtle, I feel a stronger connection to this land where I currently am and the unbroken indigenous healing ways that include the use of mushrooms.

I seek out very gentle strains and only through sources I respect. Just like Tibetan monks who spend 24 hours a day in prayer for a month (I have actually witnessed this) with the Tibetan medicine precious pills at the altar, the energy that goes into what is ingested does make a difference. In this case, I did not have a choice, and the only variety I was able to get locally is not a gentle one.

To compensate for the strength of these mushrooms, I have been microdosing at a level below what I normally do. Over the last month or so since we have been in Mexico, when I wake up at 4:30 or 5:00, I often microdose just before my meditation. This has brought a beautiful embodiment to my meditations—a sublime interweaving of a non-dual state. It is as if the meditations enhance the earth medicine. It could be the other way around, but more importantly, there is a peaceful yet potent fluid synergy between the two.

Today, I decided to dose at the higher end of what is usually considered a microdose and far below my usual mini-retreat dose amount. I wanted to respect the potency this particular strain expresses. I curated the day to stay at home but outside all day—in the sun of the garden or the shade of the patio. No interruptions. As the sun rose mid-morning, I listened to a special playlist, put on headphones, and lay suspended in a hammock as I gently swayed to the healing effects felt throughout my body, mind, and soul. This morning enveloped me in a deep, nourishing connection that continues to embody me as I write.

I am having a perfect ME DAY!

- Lauren Alderfer, PhD.