Today I want to share my own experiences with iboga. It’s a personal journey, and it’s important to have an open mind and not judge or overthink other’s experiences. This plant has been integral in my healing, but it may not be for you. This is my journey.

After battling for sobriety for years, I knew it truly was the time for freedom. Time for it to stop. I spent 17 years as a functional drug addict; I led a double life, and no one knows the full extent of my experiences. It was when I came to iboga that everything was laid out before me. Iboga is a small shrub tree native to Western Africa, and the root and bark have been used for hundreds of years in rituals and healing.

Everything I was doing before iboga was helping, but it just wasn’t enough. COVID only aggravated my addictive habits, and I knew it was time. I went to a retreat to experience the use of the root. Staying and going through the ceremonies was life-changing for me.

The ceremonies began with fireside talks which were just as helpful as the use of the iboga itself. There was music and sleep masks to help you shut out the world. It was tough, both physically and mentally. I had extreme nausea and vomiting. It helped me release a lot of my emotions, even after I was able to put aside what would normally be a huge burden to me.

I always felt safe. These are only my experiences, but for me, it has been essential. I have been sober for 2 years, and the reset from the iboga has been invaluable in my healing.

In today’s episode I want to talk about meditation, what it has done for me, as well as how it can help you connect your emotions, awareness, and actions. I want to guide you all through my meditation process and hopefully allow you to discover a new daily routine.

Today’s world is noisy and full of distractions. With constant distractions, it is easy to become lazy and complacent, ignoring the gifts around you. The act of meditation, stillness, and silence is more needed now than ever. A mind is a strong tool, and tapping into peace and silence at any time is invaluable.

Anything can be meditative. Chores like dishwashing, gardening and cleaning can become meditation by using focus and presence. There are many gifts in this life, and being able to come to the silence and stillness whenever you need to is one of them.

When it comes to my meditation practice, I sit on the floor and start to engage my breath, taking full breaths, without exerting or straining. Envisioning my breath filling my body and then being expelled begins to help clear the racing thoughts. Meditation isn’t a race. This is your space. If you have to be somewhere, set a timer.

Later in the episode, I would like you to follow along with me as I guide you through a meditation. Find somewhere where you can be comfortable; somewhere that is quiet and that you won’t be disturbed. This will only be a short meditation, but I hope that it can demonstrate the benefits of this practice.

Today, let’s talk about the effects and benefits of juicing fruits and vegetables. I’ll get into how I do it, along with how you too can get started with juicing.

Juicing complements a lot of my other daily practices for health such as breathwork, yoga, and meditation. It’s a part of my ideal day. Making orange juice with a manual press isn’t just good for you—it’s also a fun therapeutic practice that’s easy to take with you just about anywhere.

The first juicer I got was a gift from my brother. At the time, I knew very little about healthy practices. I came across a juice recipe that included beets, ginger, lemon, and a clove of garlic. Not knowing what a garlic clove was, I put in an entire bulb. Needless to say, I was sweating out garlic all night and spent a long time stuck in the bathroom.

It takes time to become proficient at juicing your own fruits and vegetables. That said, it is a deeply rewarding practice. I always loved eating fresh, raw produce as a kid. As I grew older, I strayed away from it. I now truly understand what’s good for me and the impact I can have on my own life through thoughts and actions.

Juicing is my secret weapon for energy and focus. It’s taking in a surge of nutrition from nature. I highly recommend the bag-and-blender method for juicing. Using it, I can make a few litres of juice in 20 minutes or less, and there’s not a lot of preparation or set up. This method works well with celery, carrots, cucumber, apples, grapes, and fresh herbs. Juicing creates easily absorbed nutrition, which is basically human rocket fuel.