Walking with the Medicine: Reflections on Ayahuasca and Sacred Plant Healing

I’ve always believed that true healing isn’t something that happens in a single moment—it’s something we commit to over and over again. For me, the path to that commitment began in 2020, when the pandemic dismantled much of the life I’d worked so hard to build.

I had spent years doing everything “right.” I lost a significant amount of weight. I was preparing to open a group fitness gym. From the outside, it looked like I was thriving. But underneath, I was battling a deep, unshakable depression. I was tired of trying to outrun my pain with productivity or the next big goal. I knew I needed to explore something beyond the frameworks I’d always been taught.

That curiosity—and desperation—led me to begin working with psilocybin. I had a lot of time to reflect, and during those early journeys, I started to see just how much I was carrying that didn’t belong to me: old stories, shame, perfectionism. But even then, I felt there was something more waiting for me to discover.

In 2021, I sat with Ayahuasca for the first time.