What psychedelic*s taught me
I’m writing this today from my friend’s house in upstate New York, after a glorious 9 hours of undisturbed sleep (F*CK YES!)—no alarm, and feeling more rested than I have in a longgg time.
As I type this while looking out the window, watching the fall colors change and the trees shed their leaves, I’m reminded of something that’s been on my mind: the importance of honoring the SEASONS in our lives and businesses, which I talk about with my friend Jereshia Hawk on a recent podcast episode here.
Nature has this incredible way of knowing when to release, when to slow down, when to make space for what’s next. And I’ve been pretty awful at it, as a daughter of a widowed immigrant who grew up with a scarcity mentality who was told the more I work, the more worthy I am as a human.
💗Knowing this weakness of mine, I have been on a powerful journey of healing, which you might have read about here and here.
A big part of that learning of what to let go of, what narratives serve and don’t serve me, and how I want to live as a version of my most expanded, loving self has been through my journey with psychedelics, which I talk about openly here.
✨One of the most profound lessons I’ve experienced through it all is that the most beautiful transformations don’t come from controlling and grasping with a closed fist—they come from surrendering, from trusting the process, and from letting go of the need to constantly push.
Recently, I’ve been diving into a book that speaks to this journey of surrendering into trust so powerfully—Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés. It’s been a part of my journey to lean more into my feminine and reconnect with the instinctual, wild part of myself that knows how to trust, rather than always control and take action.
Estés weaves together myths, stories, and Jungian psychology to show how we, as women, have become disconnected from our intuition, from our natural rhythms, and from the wild, untamed parts of ourselves that are our greatest strength.
The book has been a powerful reminder that as women, we’ve been taught to put everyone’s needs before our own, to overwork in service of others, and prove ourselves in a world that measures worth by how much we do. But Estés reminds us that true power—true transformation—comes when we reconnect with our inner Wild Woman.
🦄The part of us that listens to our intuition, that honors the cycles of life, and that knows when to let go and surrender.
This theme of surrender and trust is something I’ve been reflecting on deeply in this current season of my life. Two years ago, after having open abdominal surgery to remove a fibroid from my uterus the size of a baby’s head, I found myself in the familiar cycle of pushing through to achieve my first “6 figure launch”, ignoring my body asking for rest and delivering back to back webinars to 1000+ people while wearing bandages. Read about that here.
This led me to a total mental and physical burnout, and that’s when I started to recognize how deeply ingrained the narratives of control, productivity, and constant achievement were 😭—and how disconnected I had become from my intuition.
I didn’t totally learn my lesson though, as earlier this year I caught myself doing the same thing.
Just a few weeks before my wedding back in May, I was planning to rush the launch my new website and branding with a self-imposed deadline, convinced that I had to do it all—now. But my neighbor, noticing the anxious look on my face, said something that stopped me in my tracks: “Maybe you should just stop putting so much pressure and urgency on this and enjoy your wedding, this once-in-a-lifetime moment you won’t get back again.”
👀And she was right. I realized that I had been letting old stories dictate how I ran my business, how I measured success, and how I valued myself. And I was missing out on the moments that truly mattered in my usual urgent rush of getting everything done quickly.
As I type this while watching the trees let go of their leaves, I’m reminded that everything in life has seasons. We are not meant to be in a constant state of productivity, always doing, always proving. There are times for growth, yes—but there are also times for rest, for reflection, for letting go. And it’s in those times that we often find the deepest healing and the most profound transformation.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that our intuition is one of the most sacred gifts we have. It’s that quiet voice inside that knows what we need, even when the world is shouting at us to keep going. It’s the part of us that can sense what feels right, what feels aligned, what we truly need to thrive—not just survive. 💖And my journey with psychedelics has taught me that sometimes, the most powerful lesson we are here to learn isn’t something that can be rationalized or described with words-it has to be felt. Intuition is like that, too.
Estés talks about how society has taught us to disconnect from our intuition, to ignore it in favor of external success. But intuition is sacred. It’s what allows us to make the best decisions, not because they’re logical or expected, but because they’re true for us.
When we slow down and listen, we reconnect with this gift. We make decisions that are grounded in our authentic needs, not in fear, expectation, or external validation. And when we live from this place, we connect more deeply with everything around us—our relationships, our work, our experiences. Life feels richer, fuller, more meaningful because we’re moving in alignment with our true selves, not someone else’s version of success.
After my surgery two years ago, and now, as I’ve embraced a slower pace, I’ve come to see how this constant drive to achieve was KILLING the most beautiful parts of me. My generosity. My openness to the unknown that’s unraveling before me. My creativity. My joy. My ability to truly connect with the people and experiences that matter. And as I’ve leaned into a slower, more intentional rhythm, I’ve felt a deeper connection to life—a richness I hadn’t realized I was missing.
💕And it’s what allowed me to build an incredibly diverse community of small business owners (thank you for reading this btw), and create safe spaces for all lived experiences to come into our PR program and transform their message and feel confident, sometimes for the first time ever, to promote themselves and their businesses without fear of judgment.
I’m sharing this with you because I think we all have moments where we feel disconnected from that inner voice. Where we’ve been told that our worth is tied to how much we can produce or be of service to others, and we forget that sometimes, the most powerful thing we can do is listen and honor the seasonality of business and respect the ebbs and flows of life.
So as I welcome a Q4 without a crazy busy launch and lean into a slower pace of business that makes me show up more fully for my community in my PR program and pour fully into my people (I am going to bring a Good Morning America/Today Show/Kelly and Ryan TV presenter and primetime journalist to meet and coach our PR members, which I am so excited about!), here’s what I want to ask you: What is your intuition telling you right now? What season are you in, and are you giving yourself permission to honor it fully?
If your body, your soul, is asking you to rest, to slow down, to stop proving—👂🏼listen to that. That voice inside knows what you need far better than the world around you ever could.
Whatever season you’re in right now—whether it’s one of rest, reflection, creation, or transition—I want to remind you that it’s valid. And your intuition will always guide you to what’s right for you. 🙏Trust it. Listen to it. And let it lead you toward the fullness of life that’s waiting for you.
With you on this journey,
Gloria